As we celebrate St George’s Day, it is worth asking just what England has done to deserve being landed in such a mess. She certainly did not vote for it. In the last election, the Conservatives won the most English votes. And no one, aside from 24,500 Fifers, has ever crossed a box beside Gordon
If economics is the dismal science, manifesto-writing must rank as a candidate for the most dismal of arts. Too often in recent times it has been a case of writing down the word ‘future’ and then throwing virtuous-sounding words such as ‘fairness’, ‘change’ and ‘all’ into the air and seeing in what order they land.
Many people’s walk to the polling station on 6 May will be spiced up by the prospect of playing a part in Gordon Brown’s removal from 10 Downing Street. Many people’s walk to the polling station on 6 May will be spiced up by the prospect of playing a part in Gordon Brown’s removal from
There is something about Holy Week that seems utterly baffling to those unfamiliar with Christianity. Why would Christians be so proud of the crucifix, the symbol of a defeated, slain Christ? Then there’s the sacrifice of Lent, the solemnity of Good Friday and the joy of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. All are difficult to
A few days ago a young Russian man, Grigori Perelman, was awarded a prize for solving one of mathematics’s most difficult problems. A few days ago a young Russian man, Grigori Perelman, was awarded a prize for solving one of mathematics’s most difficult problems. It was an extraordinary achievement. The Poincaré conjecture (a topological conundrum)
David Cameron is always at his best on budget day. This week his response was mocking. He dismissed as nonsensical the projections and figures which Alistair Darling gave to the House. And rightly so: it was the usual mixture of fairytale economics. But it was in keeping with Gordon Brown’s budgets — creative accounting applied
The brutal assassination of the US government workers Lesley Enriquez and Arthur Redelfs, carried out by gangsters linked to the Juarez drugs cartel last week, is reported to have been a retaliatory exercise following the recent extradition of several Mexican drugs lords to the States. It was another reminder that the US-led ‘war on drugs’
If you want to know about Labour’s election campaign, simply turn on a commercial radio station. If you want to know about Labour’s election campaign, simply turn on a commercial radio station. Soon enough, you will hear an advertisement offering to help you lose weight, buy a car, claim more benefits, deal with door-to-door salesmen
The most distressing news of the week may be the suggestion that the world’s most entertaining love affair — between Nicolas Sarkozy and his First Lady, Carla Bruni — is drawing to a close. The most distressing news of the week may be the suggestion that the world’s most entertaining love affair — between Nicolas
A politician, a cocaine dealer, blackmail, links to organised crime and the mysterious death of a teenage boy: it is hard to think of more potent ingredients for a political scandal. Had it happened in Paris, the story would be all over the English press. But this scandal took place in Glasgow — so the
Michael Foot, who died on Wednesday, aged 96, was a wonderful man. A major politician and an accomplished writer, he stood firmly in the great British tradition of literary radicals. There was something defiantly unmodern and unspun about him, but this was the point of Mr Foot: he was a leader who saw politics as
There is something distinctly Orwellian about Ed Balls’s latest wheeze. There is something distinctly Orwellian about Ed Balls’s latest wheeze. As of this week, parents requesting that their child be sent to a particular school are being informed by text message if their application has been successful. It is amazing how technology gives governments so
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