All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Newcomer of the year: Nick Clegg Inquisitor of the year: Michael Conarty Peer of the year: Baroness Thatcher Speech of the year: William Hague Resignation of the year: Tony Blair Minister to Watch: Liam Byrne Marathon Man of the year: Ian Paisley Campaigner of the year: Iain Duncan Smith Parliamentarian of the year: Alex Salmond
George Osborne, The Spectator politician of the year
The Daily Telegraph’s Christopher Hope wanted to know who Gordon Brown has been inviting to dine at Chequers since he became Prime Minister. Not an unreasonable Freedom of Information request you might think – especially to a Prime Minister who pledged a new era of openness and accountability. Well, how’s that working out? Not so
Brown lost over immigration at PMQs, but wasn’t thumped which is a result for him. He is desperate to tease out a Tory split on the EU referendum, and may be making progress. I notice that when Brown embarked on his usual misleading economic boast (incapacity benefit numbers are dropping about as fast as Venice
I guess all the other problems facing the government must be solved as Gordon Brown is now to turn his attention to making sure that premiership teams select more British players. As The Guardian sports section puts it: ‘British players for British clubs.’ Brown is a genuine sports fan and there’s public concern over the
Seeing as Gordon Brown is stonewalling efforts from both MPs and journalists to find out who he has invited to Chequers for dinner, I thought we could help him out by suggesting some suitable guests. I’m thinking Larry Summers for some economics and US politics, Amartya Sen for a bit of development talk and Linda
We’ve just posted a column by Martin Vander Weyer on the significance of the St Pancras Eurostar terminal and why it means that one day we might get a fast, efficient rail service in the country. Read it here.
Gordon Brown has never looked comfortable at PMQs but after a poor first few performances he developed a clever strategy of announcing policy during it, for instance on super casinos. This guaranteed that the main news coming out of PMQs was not how well Brown did but the policy he had unveiled. As Mike Smithson
I love it when Alex Salmond sets a deadline for Scottish independence. First was his “free by ’93” slogan, followed by a lame joke about “nationalist heaven in 97”. Then came his prediction that the “union will not live to see its 300th birthday” (ie 2007 – a deadline shared by Sean Connery). Now he’s
To the extent that the United States Congress has abandoned any pretense of honouring the idea of fiscal restraint, it should be said that earmarks – or pork barrel spending – is a tiny problem when set beside the Pentagon’s budget and future spending commitments on entitlements. Still, earmarks are what folk like to huff
Conservative Home have just conducted an interesting survey of the candidates in the seats that the Tories have a realistic chance of picking up next time round. 70 of the 192 responded and the results suggest a further shift of gravity in the parliamentary party. 94% think that too many powers have already been transferred
David Miliband was the guest of a press gallery lunch today and the Foreign Secretary had prepared the obligatory joke. Inspired by the decision of his French and German counterparts to record a duet, he would make a record with Lord Malloch-Brown. They agreed an Elton John track, he said. He suggested “sorry is the
Daniel Finkelstein cuts to the chase on Comment Central and points out that if the Home Secretary knew about this government foul-up for four moths and kept it secret then surely the Prime Minister must have been told about it? Or, did Jacqui Smith keep Gordon Brown in the dark about something that could have
Blessed are the cheese makers, I mean, changemakers. Good old Brown. As James says, it was a Blairite speech – so much so that he’s resurrected the star of Blair’s 2005 conference speech the “changemakers”. It is one of those strange Blairite neologisms and like Ben Brogan I have no idea what a “new network
The storm that has broken around Jacqui Smith about illegal immigrants working in Whitehall is particularly dangerous for the government as it combines concerns over the loss of control over the borders with fears about security and the government’s reputation for honesty. If they don’t even know the immigration status of the person guarding Gordon
My pal Mike Crowley’s (good!) New Republic piece on Hillary’s tough press operation is drawing lots of attention from the blogosphere. It’s a reminder that the subject hacks and bloggers like best is, well, stories about hacks and bloggers. I daresay it’s doing wonders for TNR’s web traffic today. Which reminds me that this ability
The most surprising headline of the day? Step forward the brave sub-editors at The New York Times who produced this gem: In Interview, Musharraf Defends Rule by Decree Well, fancy that!
Rupert Murdoch reveals his plans to destroy the Wall Street Journal: News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday he intends to make access to The Wall Street Journal’s Web site free, trading subscription fees for anticipated ad revenue. “We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having one million
Now that the European Court of Auditors has refused to sign off the EU’s accounts for the 13th year in a row citing “errors of legality and regularity”, I have a serious question to put to CoffeeHousers. Can anyone think of a more financially corrupt institution outside of Africa?
Cameron is on rather shaky ground claiming to abolish the council tax cap. His plan for a national annual tax rise, thus freeing councils to go over this limit in a referendum, has an obvious flaw. What council would get a “yes” vote to the referendum question do you want to pay more tax? So
Gordon Brown’s Mansion House speech lacked the rhetorical flourishes of any Tony Blair address on world affairs but it was substantively far more similar than one would have expected. Indeed, there is, judging by David Cameron’s recent Berlin speech, far more difference between Brown and Cameron than Brown and Blair on the question of Britain’s
Political Betting has a must-read post up on why it would be a mistake to write off Gordon Brown. As Mike Smithson points out, Labour’s current performance compares favourably to its rating at the end of the Blair era. While for a governing party being in the mid-30s in the middle of parliament is far
The more that comes out about the Brown-Blair tensions, the more you realise quite how damaging they were to good government. Just take this example from the forthcoming BBC documentary on the Blair years that the Daily Mail reports today, “Left-wing Labour MP Ian Gibson reveals how Mr Balls – now Schools Secretary – told
There is yet another story about Lord Ashcroft’s role with the Tories in the Guardian today. This time the news is that Ashcroft gave David Cameron a ticket to and a flight home from the Rugby World Cup final in Paris. At the risk of coming over all hair-shirt, this strikes me as a mistake.
This Thursday watch the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards on Spectator.co.uk. The awards ceremony from Claridge’s Hotel in London will be broadcast live with the welcome speeches running from 1 to 1:10pm and the awards from 1:50 to 2:30 pm. The awards will be presented by last year’s winner John Reid and hosted by
Gordon Brown’s Mansion House speech tonight will be pored over for hints about the direction of British foreign policy. As Jackie Ashley, a columnist normally sympathetic to the Prime Minister, writes in The Guardian, “Brown’s “vision” for foreign policy remains even more opaque than his domestic vision.” There is no desire in Downing Street for
Jamie Kirchik seems very upset that some unpleasant people give money to Ron Paul’s campaign and, worse, that people who have some time for Paul aren’t demanding that he hand the money back: Today I learned from Dave Weigel that the Paul campaign has no intention of returning the money it has received (and will
Of course, it is too late for Tom Tancredo’s presidential ambitions. And yes, he’s a loon. But still, this advertisement he aired in Iowa repays watching. This sort of thing is terribly unpopular – and vulgar – in Washington, but there are plenty of people who will agree with the guts of what Tancredo has
The Tories will be encouraged by the latest ICM poll which puts them at 43%, up 3 on the last one. Labour are steady at 35% with the Lib Dems on 15%, a drop of 3 points. The poll indicates that the Tories would likely have a small overall majority and is the highest level
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. Tyne Cot Cemetery, Paschendaele, Flanders.
Jonathan Aitken’s return to Tory politics to lead a review on prison reform for Iain Duncan-Smith’s Centre for Social Justice makes me uneasy. As Peter Preston writes in The Observer, “to this day, we still don’t know why the minister we trusted to oversee our defence procurement was in Paris that long-ago weekend to meet the Saudis. We
I had always expected a major Brown backer to start selling shares in our PM. But I would never have guessed it would be Sir Ronald Cohen, who is supposed to be the PM’s chief fundraiser. But you’d hardly notice it: “Adviser to Brown praises Cameron” whispers the Guardian on page 10 (and longer interview
The interview that the head of the Muslim Council of Britain has given to The Daily Telegraph today is phenomenally unhelpful to the cause of community cohesion. Muhammad Abdul Bari throwing around analogies to Germany in the 1930s is only going to polarise the debate. Yet, it is his response to the news that one
The real reasons behind the timing of Lord Drayson’s resignation are beginning to seep out. Writing for Comment is Free, Robert Fox reveals that Drayson had intended to stay until the summer but brought forward his departure because of No 10’s refusal to sign off on a new defence industrial strategy which was designed to
