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
Amid the wreckage of this week’s floods the most depressing comment came from a government scientist who called for a national register of bridges. If we had a register, he argued, the relevant authorities might in future be better able to predict which bridges are likely to go the same way as Workington’s two went
Having been reprimanded by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom for a clutch of on-air errors, this report is just the most recent evidence that the Corporation is now form-filling when it should be programme-making. At times it is as if the viewers are receiving a service that incorporates all that is undesirable: a costly administration unable
It is now 12 years since the Queen was first obliged to enter the Palace of Westminster and deliver a speech studded with the most awful New Labour clichés. Over the years, Her Majesty’s dismay during the state opening of parliament has become steadily more visible — and little wonder. As Labour ekes a fifth
Sympathy for Gordon Brown is not a common emotion in Westminster, but this week only the coldest heart could fail to feel for the Prime Minister. It is mortifying to have misspelt the name of a fallen soldier, even if the mistake was minor. To have his misery played out in front of the national
There is something about ‘compassionate conservatism’ that infuriates the Labour party, as if the very phrase were a deceitful contradiction in terms. The notion sends Gordon Brown into apoplexy. He can handle the Tories talking about economic efficiency or immigration, but he regards concern for the poorest as a subject purely for Labour. And for
It is a shame that Gordon Brown said in parliament that he ‘saved the world’ when he meant to say ‘saved the banks’, because the latter proposition is the more preposterous. It is a shame that Gordon Brown said in parliament that he ‘saved the world’ when he meant to say ‘saved the banks’, because
David Cameron has been a Conservative long enough to know defeat when he sees it. After years of bribing, cajoling and bullying, the European Union has won. It will soon have the powers it asked for when drawing up its constitution five years ago. It has ignored the ‘no’ votes in France and the Netherlands,