In County Wexford on the South East coast of Ireland for the wedding of Number Ten strategist and Beatles fanatic, Steve Morris, to his beautiful bride, Tara Hopkins – complete with video congratulations beamed to the reception from Tony Blair, perhaps the last such message he will send while Prime Minister. I was also impressed
There is plenty of baffled commentary in this morning’s newspapers about the strange US-style transition arrangements between the Blair and Brown regimes – see for instance this leader in the Guardian. There is also still more on who will do what in Gordon’s court, who’s in, who’s out. But the definitive piece remains Fraser’s one on
Further to what James posted on John McDonnell, I have always thought that Gordon wanted a leftwing candidate to run. It provides him with the illusion of a contest and enables him to posture as the New Labour continuity contender. This line-up will give comfort to the Blairites who have rushed on to the Brown-wagon,
What did the affable and able Alan Johnson ever do to deserve the support of John Prescott in the Labour Deputy Leadership race? It’s the evolutionary equivalent of homo sapiens getting a posthumous thumbs up from the dinosaurs. Maybe it’ll endear Mr Johnson to Labour activists, but in the electorate’s eyes it is the black
Since Coffee House is always keen to recommend guilty pleasures, it is only right to say that 28 Weeks Later is a splendid multiplex movie. More than just another zombie flick – although it is certainly that – it follows the honourable tradition of Aliens in trying a completely new riff on the original film
Stand by for a huge constitutional debate: that was one of many messages to be drawn from Gordon Brown’s launch this morning. Asked whether his plans included a written constitution, he would only say that he favoured a “better constitution”. But there was an explicit promise to curb the Crown prerogative, make Parliament more powerful,
Matthew d’Ancona and Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home debate what the Tories can–and should–learn from Blair. Dear Tim,Here is my starter for ten.Tony Blair is already transforming Tory politics. Here are few of the lessons that are being learned (or should be):1. Economics is no longer enough. The 1997 election result showed that growth no
It’s going to be a very interesting day, and we will be keeping you up to date with commentary and review of Blair’s performance. Don’t forget our unmissable special supplement on the Blair years, free with the new issue of The Spectator. To kick things off, here’s a piece by me in today’s Wall Street
Nobody knows what Blair will say tomorrow in his constituency. But this is what he will mean: “People of Sedgefield: in 1983 you were fortunate enough to elect me your MP – no, stop crying at the back, the weepy bit doesn’t come till later. Anyway, I have been in the Commons for 24 years
I am amused by much of the coverage of John Reid’s resignation which focuses on the upside for Gordon Brown of securing a senior vacancy in the Cabinet. The exit en masse of veteran Blairites may well be handy for a new Prime Minister looking to surround himself with new talent (old Pope, young cardinals
When John Major was at his most paranoid, he used to have every edition of the Evening Standard brought to him by a flunky in his study – whereupon he would jab at the page and blame specific colleagues for specific leaks. In his final months, Iain Duncan Smith acquired a similar habit, saying to
I started the day unsure that the political landscape had changed but 12 hours is a long time in politics. Few moments deserve to be called historic, but the fall of Scotland to the SNP is amongst them. In theory this brings Scottish independence closer than at any time since the Home Rule Bill of
The general view so far which I myself posted earlier is that this has been a respectable rather than seriously impressive night for the Tories. However, see Iain Dale’s analysis for a different perspective which should give all Tories cause for cheer.
‘A new dawn has broken,’ said Eric Pickles, the Tories’ local government spokesman, just after 5:20. Oh no it hasn’t, Eric. Hovering around 41 per cent, with patchy gains in the North West, the Tories had a respectable night in the English local elections. But, at this point, Labour seems to have improved slightly upon
The funny thing is that Labour is wholly relaxed about Sarkozy winning – he and Gordon get on very well. But imagine the identity crisis into which a muscular, right-wing but emphatically modern French President might plunge the Cameroons. Sarko is perhaps the least likely person on Earth to “hug a hoodie”, and his “love
Why do the Scottish elections make me uneasy? Because the performance of the SNP, which is certain to be strong, is bound to stir up a reciprocal nationalism south of the border. England’s moment is undoubtedly drawing closer. And I am not sure that is such a good thing. In his masterly book, England: An
New York As I ascend the solemn steps of Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library, a Parthenon transplanted to Broadway, the early spring snow crunches underfoot and the woes of Africa and the developing world seem very distant. Yet that is what I am here to discuss with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the university’s Earth
I meet Ian McEwan for lunch at Elena’s L’Etoile near his Fitzrovia home. He is greeted like a member of the family, and he tells me with relish that the restaurant features in The Dean’s December by one of his literary heroes, Saul Bellow. McEwan’s last book, Saturday, was explicitly influenced by Bellow, and in
Paddy Ashdown spent more than three years trying to reconstruct Bosnia. He was asked by Donald Rumsfeld to do the same in Iraq. Here, he tells Matthew d’Ancona that such reconstruction must be at the heart of 21st-century geopolitics You send an ex-Lib Dem leader to the Balkans for three and a half years, and
In a taped diary entry for April 2003, David Blunkett describes a terrible dream: ‘a dream that had all the undertones of being on the outside, of being alienated, of being given the cold shoulder, of being friendless and leaning on a stick, having fallen out with Tony Blair and then having challenged him in