It is an odd day when Ed Balls is rebuked for pandering to the religious right. Yet that is exactly what happened this week, after the Secretary for Children, Schools and Families introduced an ‘opt-out’ clause in his new education bill which would allow religious schools to teach what they believe about sexual morality alongside
It is not just the revelations about Gordon Brown’s bullying behaviour towards his staff which mark him out as a failed leader; it is his hypocrisy. It is not just the revelations about Gordon Brown’s bullying behaviour towards his staff which mark him out as a failed leader; it is his hypocrisy. No government in
Who can imagine the appalling strangeness of being ‘linked’ to the assassination of a man whom you have not heard of, in a country you have never visited, for reasons you do not understand? Perhaps Kafka. Who can imagine the appalling strangeness of being ‘linked’ to the assassination of a man whom you have not
This was the week when the Conservatives finally started to get it right. After several false starts, disastrous poster campaigns and tragicomic errors, an agenda is now emerging. Handled properly, it could win David Cameron the majority he so badly needs — and rapidly undo the damage of the Labour years. Mr Cameron said on
First parliament, now the BBC. Steadily, the public is seeing details of the kind of lifestyles that have been funded by the taxpayer for all these years. To the tawdry parliamentarians’ list — duck houses, porn films, Kit Kat bars — we can now add the £638 taxi bills for BBC executives and the £3 which
This magazine salutes Robert Fidler, the Surrey farmer who built a family castle in secret and is now fighting a court order that it should be demolished. Mr Fidler had hoped, ingeniously, to foil local authorities by concealing his building behind a 40-foot enclosure of hay bales. He believed that, thanks to a legal loophole,
Should John Terry be stripped of his captain’s armband for conducting an extramarital affair with a teammate’s girlfriend, getting her pregnant, and then paying for her to have an abortion? Of course not. Should John Terry be stripped of his captain’s armband for conducting an extramarital affair with a teammate’s girlfriend, getting her pregnant, and
The Pope certainly knows how to make an entrance. As he prepares for his visit to Britain, the Holy Father has not sent the usual diplomatic advance party but an Exocet missile aimed at the government — and specifically at Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill. It is a worthy target. The Bill itself is an appalling
Tony Blair’s absence has not made the heart grow any fonder. Tony Blair’s absence has not made the heart grow any fonder. On the not-rare-enough occasions when he returns to our television screens, one feels an instinctive revulsion. Here is the Prime Minister who was as uninterested in economics as he was in the conduct
The Haiti earthquake story has moved from a straightforward human tragedy to one of recrimination over the delay in channelling humanitarian aid. Reports from the ground suggest that so far only a few trucks carrying food and water have managed to reach the victims. It is deeply frustrating to see emergency supplies and equipment held
It is likely that David Cameron regards this week’s stunning Republican victory in Massachusetts with a mixture of excitement and terror. It is likely that David Cameron regards this week’s stunning Republican victory in Massachusetts with a mixture of excitement and terror. It marks an incredible conservative comeback. For the Republicans to take the seat
It is tempting to cheer the European Court of Human Rights’s ruling in the case of Kevin Gillan and Pennie Quinton. They have been awarded £30,000 in compensation on the grounds that the powers used by the police to detain them at a protest outside an arms fair in Docklands six years ago were illiberal.
Perhaps the least fashionable cause in Britain is the welfare of our elderly. At least 35,000 old men and women will die from the cold this winter: a staggering, scandalous figure. We are a rich country, there are many ingenious and inexpensive ways to heat a house, yet every August, when the number of ‘excess
One must almost admire the optimism of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt. Their call to arms — asking Labour members to rise up and topple their leader — is entirely logical. Gordon Brown is easily the Tories’ biggest asset: without saying ‘no more Brown’, their message on the doorsteps would lose much of its impact.
The re-emergence of fascism in Britain is highly inconvenient for our political parties, it is a distraction from the election campaigns they are all so overly keen to begin. They deal with the BNP by ignoring it, by banning MEPs from parliament to make sure no one has to pass Nick Griffin in a corridor.
A Nigerian Islamic fanatic flies to the Netherlands and tries to blow up a plane bound for Detroit in Michigan — and yet there was something grimly inevitable about the fact that it was Britain where police were scrambled and London where the fanatic’s accommodation was searched. A Nigerian Islamic fanatic flies to the Netherlands
There is something deeply unfashionable about British poverty. We worry endlessly about melting glaciers, and wear wristbands to demand an end to hardship in faraway lands. Christmas cards are sold in aid of dogs, birds and children in other countries. But we prefer to avert our eyes from the British poor. They’re looked after by
The Pre-Budget Report was, like the Queen’s Speech that preceded it in November, an almost empty sideshow. The Pre-Budget Report was, like the Queen’s Speech that preceded it in November, an almost empty sideshow. The Chancellor’s threatened assault on bankers’ bonuses and Gordon Brown’s sudden diatribe against high public-sector salaries were feeble attempts to distract
For years, the French have resented the success of the City of London. It has become the Rome of the globalised world, where the best financiers flock to do business, make money and pay tax. When Britain wisely stayed out of the eurozone, the City consolidated its lead as Europe’s only world-league financial centre. The
The concept of a ‘Red Tory’ is not an easy one to grasp. T he concept of a ‘Red Tory’ is not an easy one to grasp. Is it someone who believes in huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ for all, or is it an inversion of a champagne socialist: someone who preaches free markets from beneath