All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
With an uncanny sense of timing, the latest annual British Social Attitudes Survey suggests that the “conflicts of the future may be between today’s young and their parents’ generation.” And the thinking behind this conclusion? Simple: that, in so many ways, young people have never had it so good as the babyboomers did. From tuition
A repulsive feature of contemporary left-wing thinking is its insistence that clerical fascists should dictate our foreign policy. After the 7/7 attacks on London, Robert Fisk lambasted Tony Blair for saying that radical Islamists were trying to destroy “what we hold dear”. He took Osama bin Laden as a source of moral and political guidance,
By way of an addendum to Fraser’s post, it’s worth reading Melissa Kite’s account of internal Tory strife for the Sunday Telegraph (it doesn’t seem to be in the paper, but is available online here). The piece records what sounds like a tumultuous week for the Tory whips, as they struggled to keep a group
All the attention last week was on the Lib Dem split – but what about the division within the Conservatives? This is the greater threat to the coalition, and while there is not likely to be an earthquake soon, one can discern the outlines of the tectonic plates. Ladbrokes has odds of 5-2 of an
Paul Chambers knows, more than most, the dangers of expressing yourself in 140 characters. His troubles, which you’ve probably read about in the papers, started when he joked on Twitter: “Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”
It seems like only yesterday that conservative pundits were denouncing MPs for “destroying trust” with their fraudulent expense claims and writing books exposing New Labour deceitful spin with such stirring titles as The Rise of Political Lying. How soft those strident voices have become now that a centre-right rather than a centre-left government is doing
The Liberal Democrats are not like the other two parties. The acitvists still have real power and set the policy agenda of the party. This is what makes Richard Grayson’s intervention in The Observer today so important. Grayson is one of the leading activists on the left of the party. After Nick Clegg’s election as
If this morning’s papers are anything to go by, Nick Clegg is in freefall. The man who was the Lib Dems’ biggest electoral asset is now a magnet for all sorts of political digruntlement. Exhibit A: the Ipsos MORI poll (£) in today’s News of the World, where 61 percent of respondents say that they
It’s quite something when the editor of The Spectator concedes that revolting students (if not the rioting ones) have a point. Fraser makes a persuasive point that no government department should have been immune from cuts. The political fallout from the decision to slash university budgets and hike tuition fees will continue long after the
As with so many things, the coalition’s great strength is also its great weakness. On the one hand, it is two parties working together, politicians putting aside their differences to cooperate in the national interest. This is something that, broadly speaking, the electorate likes. On the other, it is a government that nobody voted for.
A long time ago, I worked for CCHQ, David Cameron’s leadership campaign and them back in CCHQ again. We spent months trying to define what Conservatism really is. I don’t think we ever really got a pithy soundbite, because the root of its success is that it evolves to suit the times. Perhaps the best
I was astonished by the Guardian’s story this week about the lack of British African-Caribbean students at Oxbridge colleges. If we weren’t quite so blinded by the Wikileaks blizzard, I’m sure more would have been made of this. Hats off to David Lammy for raising the issue. I suspect this is as much an issue
During the latest bout of America’s interminable health care wars, Fox News decided that its presenters should refer to the “public option” as the “government option” or “government-run health insurance”. Big deal, you may say and you would have a point, but this has people in a tizzy about Fox’s “bias”. As if this had
Can you imagine Gordon Brown holding a meeting with Tony Blair in Downing Street, then agreeing to share a the Prime Ministerial podium with his predecessor and then disappearing to another engagement, leaving Blair to hold court for half an hour? No, I don’t think so. And not just because Brown hated Blair’s guts. Even
I must admit to being surprised that we haven’t heard of more people—both protesters and police—being injured yesterday. The window of my office here in parliament looks out onto the gates of the Commons and Parliament Square and almost every time I looked up yesterday afternoon the rioters seemed to be charging the rather thick
One of the things I heard yesterday when I strolled around the edges of the protests, particularly from older people, was how the coalition’s policies had politicised Britain’s young. “It has really made my children wake up”, said an elderly bystander with a wistful look in his eyes. Student leaders say they now hope to
This is, I’m pretty certain, just the usual sort of publicity-whoring nonsense but, just in case it comes to anything, we’d have a new winner in the Worst, Most Ludicrous Presidential Candidate Ever stakes: Let’s get one thing straight: Donald Trump doesn’t want to run for president. Honestly, he doesn’t. Not interested. But because the
Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson explains why we must remember the lessons of the Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment, and says that the student protesters may have a point. James Forsyth tracks how far our schools have fallen, and reports on a day of gaffes. Peter Hoskin watches
Clearly, this song should top the Irish Christmas charts. The ghosts of Yeats, Kavanagh and all the other lads have nothing on the Rubberbandits. The Plain People of Ireland have a horse outside and they’re going to ride it. Warning: this song contains a considerable amount of huge quantity of profanity. Warning too: if you’re
Tim Montgomerie tried to define his “Mainstream Conservatism” project again this morning. (My first take on it is here and Pete’s astute view is here). Bear in mind that Tim contrasts liberal conservatism with what he calls “authentic conservatism” and that while he insists upon the importance of breadth (good!) his movement is the one
It’s costing more than the government cuts in welfare, more even than the UK’s Irish bail-out, but what exactly is all that money set aside for the 2012 Olympic Games actually being spent on? You might be surprised. In this week’s Spectator, Andrew Gilligan and I disclose, for the first time, all the petty, legally-binding
Yesterday, I blogged that Serbia’s decision not to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony because of Chinese pressure was a shameful stance for the Balkan would-be EU member to take. Many others felt the same. Now, feeling the international pressure, it seems that Serbia’s government has decided that the country’s Ombudsman, Sasa Jankovic, will attend the
It’s not just the students who are waging a political struggle. In yesterday’s Times (£), Tim Montgomerie fired up a debate over the future of the Conservative Party that will no doubt simmer through the rest of this Parliament. For those who can’t delve behind the paywall, the argument was broadly this: that a tension
The revolution may not be televised, but protests certainly are – and the process magnifies the drama. Since last night, the news broadcasts have all had footage of two thugs trying to smash the windows of the Treasury and, in the process, familiarising themselves with the properties of bombproof glass. The attack on Charles and
Tim Montgomerie is on maneuvers again and, as tends to be the case when Tim’s on patrol, it’s worth listening to what he says. At ConservativeHome and in the Times (£) he outlines what he sees as a divide between “Mainstream” and “Liberal” Conservatism. In part this is simply a matter of using the grass-roots
When The Speaker called a division, the Labour side roared a passionate No while the coalition benches delivered a rather muted Aye. I did not see a single Lib Dem open their mouth at this point. Instead, they sat on their benches looking emotionally exhausted. Even those Lib Dems who have been proved right in
The final tally was 323 in favour of lifting the cap on tuition fees from £3,290 to £9,000 a year, with 302 against. The second vote, on raising the basic cap to £6,000, passed with the same majority. Although we don’t know the divisions yet, we can safely say that it’s the biggest rebellion of
Many thanks to Brother Bright for pointing me towards this completely charming British Council film about cricket. It’s narrated by Ralph Richardson and John Arlott and features the 1948 Lords Test – Bradman’s last appearance on the ground. The thing that’s striking is that while everything has changed, the essentials remain much the same. In
The fee vote really comes down to two questions. First, will the fee hike proposed by the coalition government actually create an internal market in higher education? Second, what will be the effect on the public finances? There is good reason to be doubtful. First, the market: the idea, I suppose, is that world-class universities might
It was the Spectator’s Carol Concert last night, in the Fleet St church of St Bride’s – and one of my favourite nights of the year. The choir is amazing: if you’re a sucker for John Rutter-style choral arrangements (which I very much am), then it was heaven. The choir’s first piece was Harold Darke’s
The absurdity and knavery of modern politics has been on full display during the “debate” about university tuition fees. So much so, in fact, that almost no-one emerges from the process with their reputations enhanced. As is customary in such entertainments it helps that there is no issue of principle involved. Hopi Sen put it
A useful guide from Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart: If 11 Liberal Democrat MPs vote against the whip, it will be the largest Lib Dem rebellion so far this Parlaiment. (The current record is 10, on an amendment to the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill in November). If 16 Liberal Democrat MPs vote against
Brace yourselves, CoffeeHousers. Today is the day of the tuition fee vote, along with all the froth and fury that will attend it. The government’s motion will most likely pass through the Commons – yes, even without the support of Simon Hughes – but the wider repercussions are, as yet, uncertain. The main question is
Is, as someone suggested recently, to be either a dumb person’s idea of a clever person or a clever person’s idea of a dumb person. Or both. Perhaps the worst paragraph written this year comes, not surprisingly, from America’s chief metaphor-mangler Thomas Friedman: More than ever, America today reminds me of a working couple where