Coffee House The Spectator Blog
The Liberal Democrats, the natural party of government?
If four years ago, a Liberal Democrat politician had attempted to portray the Lib Dems as the natural party of government we all would have laughed. But that is just… Continue reading
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Top Tory calls party activists ‘mad swivel-eyed loons’
Insulting your own side is a dangerous thing to do in politics and in the current circumstances for any prominent Tory to do it is positively incendiary. But one ‘senior… Continue reading
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Ministers aren’t just preparing for Coalition divorce, they’re organising arguments with their partners too
Reports today that the Conservatives are wargaming end-of-Coalition scenarios in the event of the Lib Dems leaving early won’t come as a surprise, given the bickering over the past few… Continue reading
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High Speed 2 is needed to bring Britain’s infrastructure into the 21st century
The National Audit Office has slammed High Speed 2 today, citing a £3.3 billion ‘black hole’ in the funding plans while suggesting the construction timetable is ‘over-ambitious.’ Not exactly an… Continue reading
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Will the draft EU referendum bill calm Tory tensions?
The last few days have seen the Tory party losing its collective head. Number 10 hopes that the publication of a draft referendum bill will begin to restore order. If… Continue reading
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Childish childcare bickering continues
Last winter, the surest way to get a Lib Dem to ring you back was to mention the words ‘boundary changes’. Better still to write a piece criticising the party’s… Continue reading
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Gove: I’d vote to leave the EU if referendum held today
In a firecracker of an interview on the Andrew Marr Show, Michael Gove confirmed that if an EU referendum was held today he would vote out. But he followed this… Continue reading
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What was Clegg’s priority in the last few hours of the coalition talks? Stopping a European renegotiation
The latest extracts of the Andrew Adonis’ book on the 2010 coalition negotiations couldn’t have been better designed to stir up Tory backbench bad feeling to Nick Clegg. Adonis claims that… Continue reading
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The Tory party holds its nerve – for now
The dust is settling from the County Council elections and, crucially, the Tory party seems to have stayed steady. Yes, David Davis has had a pop at the number of… Continue reading
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The coalition should have extended anonymity on rape cases
No one can ever recover from being wrongly accused of sexual assault, which is why I welcomed the government’s plan to ‘extend anonymity in rape cases to defendants‘. Turns out… Continue reading
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David Davis and the Tories’ class war
To the relief of Conservative Campaign Headquarters, relatively few Tory MPs have taken the opportunity of the County Council election results to sound off. The most prominent exception to this… Continue reading
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Nigel Farage, the anti-politician
Nigel Farage was in full anti-politics mode this morning on the Today programme. He railed against ‘three frontbenches that look and sound the same’ and ‘haven’t done a proper day’s… Continue reading
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Nick Clegg: No one has proposed to me that the UK should leave the European Court of Human Rights
In a detailed interview on the Sunday Politics, Nick Clegg claimed that neither the Home Secretary nor Downing Street have ever proposed to him that Britain should temporarily leave the… Continue reading
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David Cameron and the married couple’s tax allowance
The married couple’s tax allowance is back on the agenda. After Conservative Home’s exclusive yesterday, David Cameron has confirmed that he will introduce one before the end of this parliament.… Continue reading
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What will Ed Miliband do on spending?
The political mood has shifted these past few weeks. There’s now, as the Sunday papers demonstrate, far more focus on Labour than there was a couple of months back, something… Continue reading
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Where are today’s titanic Cabinet battles?
Reading Norman Fowler’s recollections of the Thatcher years in the Telegraph, whose coverage this week has been simply superb, is to be reminded of how much debate there was in… Continue reading
42 Comments![tory-poster[2]](http://cdn2.spectator.co.uk/files/2013/04/tory-poster2-140x91.jpg)
The Tories steal the Lib Dems’ best clothes with new poster
This poster will, I am sure, have the Lib Dems hopping about with fury. The Tories have hi-jacked a key Liberal Democrat policy: raising the personal allowance. Perhaps this is… Continue reading
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Key David Cameron aide to quit Downing Street
Sky News has revealed tonight that Rohan Silva, one of the Prime Minister’s key advisers, is leaving Downing Street. Silva might not be a household name but he has been… Continue reading
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George Osborne’s benefits speech – full text
George Osborne’s speech is below. As you will see, it is a bold defence of the government’s policies on tax and welfare, including the 50p rate cut. There was a… Continue reading
51 Comments Mixed messages on the minimum wage
The government has managed to upset its own apple cart while trying to walk in a straight line. The indefatigable Paul Waugh inquired about rumours that the government was considering… Continue reading
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