David cameron

Thursday

Melissa Kite

The return of hunting

When Bill Clinton was asked if he had ever smoked marijuana he uttered the infamous cop-out that he had smoked it but had not inhaled. David Cameron’s position on hunting has been similar. He cannot deny that he once rode to hounds with his friends in the beautiful English countryside where he spends weekends. But he has never said much about the experience other than it was terribly challenging to stay on the horse. Rather than saying ‘I enjoyed it’, he has always been careful to give the impression that hunting was going on around him, so he did it, and he survived to tell the tale. But he didn’t

Tuesday

Melissa Kite

Revealed: David Cameron’s plan to bring back hunting

When Bill Clinton was asked if he had ever smoked marijuana he uttered the infamous cop-out that he had smoked it but had not inhaled. David Cameron’s position on hunting has been similar. He cannot deny that he once rode to hounds with his friends in the beautiful English countryside where he spends weekends. But he has never said much about the experience other than it was terribly challenging to stay on the horse. Rather than saying ‘I enjoyed it’, he has always been careful to give the impression that hunting was going on around him, so he did it, and he survived to tell the tale. But he didn’t

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Calm down: English Votes for English Laws is a very minor modest proposal

Ed Miliband – remember him? – has just told the House of Commons that the government’s proposals for so-called English votes for English laws (EVEL) are a betrayal of everything for which the Conservative party is supposed to stand. Well, that’s certainly one way of putting it. According to Miliband, EVEL is “not true to the great traditions of the Conservative and Unionist party” but since the foremost of those traditions is a keen and ruthless appreciation of the best interests of the Conservative party I suspect Miliband, not for the first time, misunderstands the Tory party. “You’re the Conservative and Unionist party”, Miliband said. “This is neither for Conservatism nor

Saturday

James Forsyth

Which way will Greece vote?

This time tomorrow, we’ll have had the first projections from the Greek referendum. We will have an idea as to whether the country has said Oxi or Nai. At the moment, the polls make the referendum too close to call. Whatever the result, there’ll be no quick deal between Greece and its creditors. But if the Greeks vote Oxi, then the country could be forced out of the Euro by the ECB cutting off assistance to its banks. If that were to happen, then the Eurozone would have to move to integrate very quickly to prevent Portugal, Italy, Spain and even France being pushed towards the Euro exit the next

Friday

Ross Clark

Free movement isn’t an inalienable right. Just look at Calais

The right to free movement of people and goods across the EU is, as we keep being told when the government proposes to trim benefits for Romanians, a fundamental and inalienable principle of the Treaty of Rome. Why then does the European Court of Justice show no interest in the French ferry workers whose strike has led to 30 miles of tailbacks either side of the Channel? There could scarcely be a more brazen example of free movement being thwarted, and yet there seems to be no sign of ferry workers, their union or the French government being taken to court, ordered to let the lorries through or subjected to any

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is Cameron ready for his European opportunity?

Could Greek voters back austerity measures to keep their country in the eurozone this weekend? Today’s papers cover a poll by GPO which put ‘Yes’ on 47.1 per cent and No on 43.2 per cent. This result would see resignations at the top of Syriza, but effectively no Grexit. If Alexis Tsipras’ gamble of saying he’ll resign if the country does indeed vote ‘Yes’ to the cuts demanded by Greece’s creditors pays off, and voters plump for Syriza’s preferred option of ‘No’, then David Cameron will find himself with what James describes in this week’s Spectator as a ‘glorious opportunity to craft a looser form of EU membership’ because the

Thursday

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 2 July 2015

‘The Greek people,’ the Financial Times leading article said on Monday, ‘would be well advised to listen closely to the words of Ms Merkel. The plebiscite will be a vote for the euro or the drachma, no less.’ It is interesting how menacing powerful ‘moderate’ institutions can become when popular feeling challenges them. In the eurozone theology to which the FT subscribes, its statement above cannot be true. It is not possible (see last week’s Notes) for a member state to leave the euro, any more than it is for Wales to renounce sterling. Eurozone membership, once achieved, is a condition of EU membership. So the Greeks cannot vote to

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 2 July 2015

Home At least 30 British people were among 38 shot dead at a beach resort at Sousse in Tunisia by Seifeddine Rezgui, aged 23, a Tunisian acting for the Islamic State and said to have been trained in Libya. Soldiers, emergency services and 1,000 police took part in a two-day exercise in London simulating a terrorist attack. A statutory obligation became binding on public bodies, including schools, to prevent people being drawn towards terrorism. Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, said that schools should look out for ‘homophobia’ as a symptom of Islamist jihadism. James Brokenshire, the Immigration Minister, said the National Barrier Asset (lengths of nine-foot fencing) would be deployed

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Isil stands for Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Does David Cameron not realise this?

It is very easy to make David Cameron and the Scottish National Party look ridiculous. But as every soldier and journalist knows, just because a target is easy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hit it. The attempt by supposedly respectable politicians to use trickery and outright lies to rebrand Islamic State as a state that has nothing to with Islam is too good to miss. David Cameron kicked off this week when he shouted at the BBC for calling Islamic State ‘Islamic State’. Yesterday at Prime Minister’s Questions he was at it again. Islamic State should not be called ‘Islamic State’ but ‘Isil’. Meanwhile the SNP rounded up Boris Johnson, Caroline

Ed West Ed West

Polygamy could be the next sexual liberation campaign

Back in the early 1990s when the kind old 17th Duke of Norfolk was special guest at prize-giving night at our school he remarked that in Islam one was allowed up to four wives. ‘What a nightmare,’ he quipped, ‘imagine having four mothers-in-law’ (or something to that effect). I think back at the joke as indicative of a more innocent age; if he had said that now, some little Pavlik Morozov in the assembly would have tweeted his outrage and by the time the Duke left the building he would have been trending on Twitter, forced to step down as governor and the ‘offensive comments’ would be the subject of

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron must not let this crisis go to waste

Few European leaders have been luckier than David Cameron. First he was sent Ed Miliband. Now events in Greece may be about to present him with a solution to the thorniest problem of his second term: how to negotiate a new form of EU membership for Britain that the Tory party can rally behind come the referendum. The Prime Minister’s critics delight in claiming that his European problem is of his own making. Two years ago, he promised a referendum on EU membership before the end of 2017. But he couldn’t have survived without making such a pledge. It was his way of stopping his party arguing about Europe; without

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

You can’t take the Islam out of Islamic State

At last, British politicians have been galvanised into action by the appalling events last weekend in the Tunisian resort of Sousse, in which 38 people were murdered by an Islamist terrorist. Yes, yes, about time, you might be muttering to yourself — but credit where it’s due, please. They may be a little late to the party but at least they have arrived. A convocation of 120 of our MPs, including Boris Johnson, have demanded strong and forthright action. They have written to the BBC demanding that it stop using the term ‘Islamic State’ to describe the organisation responsible for the attack, because it might upset that seemingly diminishing, if

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

What happens next with Heathrow?

Now that the Davies Commission has made its recommendation, the ball is back in the government’s court. The biggest immediate challenge the government has to face is David Cameron’s 2009 remark that ‘the third runway at Heathrow is not going ahead, no ifs, no buts.’ As James noted at PMQs today, the Prime Minister’s body language did not suggest he is particularly favourable towards Heathrow. But now the Airport Commission report has been received by the government, the buck has been passed to the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. While Cameron said in the Commons that a decision will be made ‘by the end of the year’, McLoughlin said it would be

Steerpike Steerpike

The Spectator summer party, in pictures

With a Tory majority to celebrate, the Cabinet turned out in full force for this year’s Spectator summer party. As David Cameron and George Osborne caught up with their old head of strategy Steve Hilton, Sajid Javid and Michael Fallon enjoyed the British heatwave. Harriet Harman was there on behalf of Labour, with the departing deputy leader sharing a tender moment with Boris Johnson in the garden. Johnson meanwhile was on fighting form over the Heathrow expansion recommendations. However, he also found time to say some kind words about his brother Jo Johnson’s plan to change the current university grade system to put a stop to students who ‘coast within the 2:1 band‘.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: David Cameron gives the impression he isn’t sold on a third runway at Heathrow

Harriet Harman began at PMQs by asking about the situation in Tunisia. The mood of the House was appropriately sombre as this issue was discussed and there was much agreement between her and Cameron. But then she turned to the Davies’s report and its recommendation that a third runway should be built at Heathrow, and party politics was resumed. Harman announced that Labour was now backing a third runway, and challenged Cameron to do the same. He dodged, hiding behind the threat of judicial review. Harman then cracked a series of good jokes at his expense, chastising him for ‘being bullied by Boris’ out of doing the right thing for the

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory summer party auctions a photo of the Cabinet – for £200,000

Despite the government planning £12bn worth of welfare cuts, it’s still a case of no expense spared when it comes to Tory parties. Last night the Conservative Party Summer Party was held at the Hurlingham. The lavish bash saw the Tories celebrate their return to government with their rich donors, who in turn volunteered hundreds of thousands of pounds for a number of lots, including a copy of the EdStone: Although the event was supposed to be private, Mr S’s colleague Fraser Nelson was on hand to report back on the lavish bash. He writes about the do in his diary in the forthcoming issue of The Spectator: ‘Mind you, nothing much embarrasses the Conservatives nowadays. They

Tuesday

Emma Hartley

We haven’t had a pan-European war for 70 years. Why is that?

The EU referendum makes me suspect that the grownups don’t know what they’re doing. I can see how we got to this point but it seems absurd that something so fundamental should be up – not just  for debate but possibly even – for reversal. It is doubly absurd because David Cameron has said that he will be campaigning – as you would expect of a conservative – for the status quo. So why are you doing this? I mouth at the television, wishing heartily that he would fight his internal party battles on his own time. Bewilderment is, it seems to me, one of the main forces behind this referendum. Some

Steerpike Steerpike

Charlotte Church to be reunited with David Cameron at this year’s Tory conference

In 2012 Charlotte Church met with David Cameron at the Conservative Party Conference as part of a Hacked Off fringe event. Although the meeting appeared to be civil at the time, the classical singer turned anti-austerity activist later said he came across as ‘gross and really misogynistic’: ‘He was so dismissive to what I had to say. It just really irked me that whole situation.’ Now three years on, Steerpike understands that the pair will have the chance for a reunion at this year’s Tory conference, which is to be held in Manchester in October. Church announced during a debate over the weekend that she is set to appear there as

Jonathan Foreman

Aid is no substitute for defence, and Michael Fallon knows it

It’s been obvious for a while that the Prime Minister is exasperated by the way American and other allied officials – including President Obama himself – keep expressing concern about Britain’s rapidly shrinking defence capabilities and the prospect of yet more defence cuts. David Cameron also dislikes being reminded that he lectured other Nato leaders about meeting the alliance’s minimum of spending 2 per cent GDP on defence, when by any honest calculation the UK is not going to meet that target. He hasn’t responded directly to the multiple warnings from Washington. This is presumably because overtly contradicting the President, the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence of the United States could

Monday

James Forsyth

Cameron wants the UK to be more ‘intolerant of intolerance’

The minute’s silence before David Cameron’s statement to the House gave proceedings in the Commons this afternoon a particularly sombre air. When Cameron spoke at the despatch box, he announced a national minute’s silence at noon on Friday to remember those killed in Tunisia. He also said that there was, as yet, no evidence that Friday’s attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait were coordinated. He did, however, confirm that an emergency exercise drill on how to deal with a terrorist attack will take place in London in the next few days. In terms of action overseas, Cameron reiterated that if there was an imminent threat to UK national security he