A former European leader was a guest at a private dinner in London recently. It was a polite and reverential occasion, but conversation grew lighter as Sauternes gave way to port. What, he was asked, is the most effective form of government? Easy, he replied, look at Europe: technocrats know best and they can ignore
Dear commuter, how’s your journey panning out after you were woken by the sound of Ed Balls politicking about fuel duty? The shadow chancellor was a ubiquitous presence on the airwaves earlier (to say nothing of the tabloid press), laying out his opposition to the planned 3.02p fuel duty rise. He was on fine form,
David Cameron is at his best when circumstances force him to be bold, or so the thinking goes. With his government floundering and the wounded media baying for blood, the prime minister has counter-attacked with radical welfare reform plans. Yesterday heard rumours of reduced rent subsidies for the under-25s. Today comes news of proposed cuts
There’s one exception to the sometimes trivial and artificial events of the Cultural Olympiad: Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands at the British Library (until 25 September). Where other shows emphasise London’s separateness, Writing Britain subordinates the capital to the geography, peoples and history of the British Isles as a whole. Writers have recorded Britain’s development
The situation in Egypt remains perilous, as protests mount against the military government which has delayed announcing the result of last weekend’s vote. Preliminary estimates, overseen by a panel of judges, put the Muslim Brotherhood ahead by 900,000 votes. But this is being contested by former Mubarak henchman, Ahmed Shafiq. Election monitors are examining more
Martin McGuiness will meet Her Majesty the Queen and shake her hand in Northern Ireland. This is a seminal moment. It does not change McGuiness’s commitment to a united Ireland, but it is a strong statement from the Republican side that bygones are bygones. It is also a sign, perhaps, that the sacrifices Britain made
Michael Gove’s name is being muttered in parliamentary tea rooms, figuratively at least. The leak of his plans to replace GCSEs with a rigorous exam is opium to many Tories. Gove is well liked on the backbenches and within the party. And he also commands respect, being one of the few ministers who is not
Ed Miliband will give a speech on immigration later today, marking out the territory on which he plans to engage those voters who feel that their communities and livelihoods are under threat from migrant workers. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, prepared the ground for Miliband earlier this week by echoing her husband’s sentiments about
David Cameron got into hot water yesterday when he pronounced Jimmy Carr’s tax avoidance ‘completely wrong’, inviting every nosey-parker to examine Tory donors. But he was a little less clear on the morality of one those donors’, Gary Barlow, arrangements, saying that he would look at the scheme in question. Cameron has done so and
There is a simple rule in Tory politics: do not cross Lord Ashcroft. There is little love between the Conservative leadership and Ashcroft, the man who sustained the Tories through the wilderness years but was left high and dry in 2010 during the furore over his tax affairs. Admiration curdled into contempt, epitomised by Ashcroft’s
Michael Gove has caused a storm this morning, with his proposal to split GCSEs. The Mail has the scoop, but, essentially, this is in a bid to improve standards — Gove plans to replace GSCEs in maths, English and the three sciences, which will be awarded separately rather than as a block, with something similar
There is much excitement on the wires about David Cameron’s attitude to tax avoidance. The PM’s just told ITV news: ‘He’s [Jimmy Carr] taking the money from tickets and as far as I can see, he’s putting all of that into some very dodgy tax avoiding scheme.’ It is ‘completely wrong’, he said. Asked about
And there we were thinking that the G20 would be another insipid talking shop. In fact there was intrigue, animus and even a modicum of progress on the crucial question of the moment: how to cure the Eurozone. In a major shift in policy, Germany has agreed to use European bailout funds to buy Italian
‘I was sceptical [about civil service reform] until I read that unreadable column.’ This was the response of a Westminster type who I spoke to earlier about Francis Maude and Sir Bob Kerslake’s joint article on civil service reform in today’s Telegraph. Having re-read the jargon-ridden piece, I see what he means. Take this passage:
‘Corruption,’ wrote Edward Gibbon in his peerless Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is ‘the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.’ I was reminded of this phrase when thinking about the Eurozone crisis. Commentators present a dichotomy between the discipline of northern Europe and the frivolity of southern Europe, which is characterised by bureaucratic,
Ed Miliband must be livid. He has a sizeable lead in the polls, has taken ground on the economy and watches the government lurch from one self-authored disaster to the next. And then, and then, the trade unions engineer a very public row with the centrist think-tank Progress (which is funded by former Labour donor
This morning’s front pages are devoted to Greece, and the consensus is that the result of yesterday’s election amounts to little more than a stay of execution for Greece and the euro. At the time of writing, markets have responded to the news positively; but, fundamentally, nothing appears to have changed, so expect further turmoil.
Today’s papers carry news that British nuclear submarines are going to be replaced: a strong indication that the government will replace Trident with a like-for-like deterrent in 2016, contrary to the wishes of the Liberal Democrats. Philip Hammond appeared on the Sunday Politics earlier today to answer questions from Andrew Neil on Trident and manpower
‘I think we are at a make or break place in Europe,’ said former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on the Andrew Marr Show. Europe is holding its breath for the results of today’s election, which, should the radical leftists Syriza win, threatens to open a new chapter in the euro’s unhappy history. Germany remains
I heard a wonderful anecdote the other day. A well to-do couple knelt to receive communion. A man knelt next to them. They noticed that he was Enoch Powell. They told a friend after the service that a church which accepted Powell as a communicant was not for them. It is Enoch Powell’s centenary today,
