The most pathetic aspect of Darling’s speech, just reiterated by Patricia Hewitt on the BBC’s coverage, was the recourse to comparisons with the last Tory government. Every administration, especially one that begins its life with an unambiguous landslide, feeds off the public’s desire not to turn back the clock. For years after 1997, Tony Blair
No room for manoeuvre: that is David Cameron’s mantra in response to Darling’s “resilience and stability” formula. The theme could hardly be simpler: we failed to put aside money for a rainy day (or “mend the roof” while the sun was shining, to use George Osborne’s metaphor). Now, Cameron says, we have no scope to
Any citizen tuning in to the BBC to watch the Budget would conclude that we are governed by a wardful of maniacs. As Darling drones on, Jack Straw and Alan Johnson have their tongues lodged in their mouths. Ed Balls and Hazel Blears compete to nod like the dogs on the dashboard of a Ford
The blandness of Darling’s speech is awesome: his tie may be imperial purple but his manner is scarcely that of a natural helmsman. What a contrast with the bullishness of his predecessor. He has the countenance of a man expecting to be punched very hard. All is predicated on the Big Global Excuse: times are
Lest we forget: in the midst of today’s Budget-mania, pause and consider that the Lisbon Treaty, a sweeping package of reforms to our relationship with the EU, cleared the Commons without a hitch last night. So much for Tony Blair’s promise in April 2004 to mount a definitive national debate on the original EU Constitutional
What is going on over school admissions? Last week, Jim Knight, the schools minister, urged disappointed parents to make greater use of the hopelessly bureaucratic appeals system. Today, he and his boss, Ed Balls, said they had evidence of schools – they won’t say how many – breaking the admissions code and asking parents inappropriate
Mumbai A city where the children dash from car to car selling novels is the perfect place for a literary festival: on the way from the airport, snaking past shantytowns and catching my first glimpse of the Arabian Sea, I am offered The Kite Runner by street urchins knocking on the window of my taxi.
There is something utterly shaming in the RAF uniform story. However isolated the instances of mockery near RAF Wittering, one is too many. Those who put their lives on the line to protect the nation should be feted and honoured by civilians – not urged to wear their uniform with discretion so as not to
As the psephologists continue to argue how many caucus members can dance on the head of a pin, political folklore has already settled around the idea that Hillary was saved by the famous “3am ad”. Like the destruction of Michael Dukakis by the Willie Horton ad in 1988, this aimed squarely at Obama’s most vulnerable
Danny Finkelstein has a must-read column today on the Tory tax row, which has already prompted response over at Conservativehome. Quite apart from his formidable intellect, Danny has something which most of those commenting on the pros and cons of tax cuts don’t, which is scars on his back. As a close adviser to William
The Number Ten operation is getting stronger by the day. Downing Street will announce tomorrow the appointment of WPP’s David Muir as Director of Political Strategy. Regarded as one of Sir Martin Sorrell’s right hand men, he has been CEO since 2005 of WPP’s unit The Channel, which brings together the company’s media and research
Lord Tebbit’s response to Michael Gove’s Spectator article last week is a remarkable spectacle: an argument between a past colossus of Tory Government and a future one. To the irritation of some of my fellow modernisers, I have a deep respect for Norman and thought it was especially crazy of that faction to try and
Charles Leadbeater tells Matthew d’Ancona about the riches to be mined from online collaboration — and says that the Conservatives have a chance to launch a new form of politics The man who brought you Bridget Jones is, you might think, an unlikely guide to the deeper philosophical and cultural meaning of the web. But,
As a sporadic but enthusiastic follower of British athletics, I find the Dwain Chambers story very dispiriting. There is something utterly compelling about the sprinters – from Jesse Owens, via Jim Hines’s 9.95 seconds in the 1968 Olympic 100m final, to the prodigious Carl Lewis, our own Linford Christie, and beyond. Britain has done well
One might have guessed that the Archbishop of Canterbury would find a verbally tortured way of explaining himself. “I must of course take responsibility for any unclarity,” he told the Synod this afternoon. What a curious word to use. In this case, I suppose, “unclarity” begins at home. It has been said by one or
The most shocking story in today’s papers is a Sunday Telegraph scoop by Melissa Kite (also a Spectator columnist). How was an illegal immigrant able to work at the House of Commons using a fake identity pass? Elaine Chaves Aparecida, a Brazilian cleaner, was arrested at the Palace of Westminster ten days ago in possession
In the Sunday Telegraph today, I argue that the Archbishop’s speech is a sort of liberal book-end to Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ outburst 40 years ago. Let us call Dr Williams’s lecture ‘Rivers of Blather’. One comic aspect of an otherwise deadly serious row has been the extent to which it has started
And so, with his job now on the line, the Archbishop’s fightback begins. It is, predictably, the Prufrock Defence: that wasn’t what I meant at all. On his website, he insists that he was not proposing ‘parallel jurisdiction’ of sharia and British law. No indeed: the phrase he actually used was ‘plural jurisdiction’ which is
Aside from news programmes, I rarely stay in specifically to watch something on television (as Hugo has written, boxed DVD sets are a very civilised invention). But last night was an exception: as a Life on Mars fanatic, I wanted to see its much-hyped sequel, Ashes to Ashes. No more John Simm as DI Sam
For once, the devil does not lie in the detail. The real problem with the sharia row triggered by the Archbishop of Canterbury is not legalistic, but that it should be happening at all. What on earth possessed the most senior Christian churchman in the land to suggest what he did in the first place?