Coffee House The Spectator Blog
Sarah Wollaston, the next ticking Tory timebomb
MPs are having a party next week to celebrate the return of Nadine Dorries to the Tory fold. But as they pop champagne corks for the Prodigal Daughter, they might… Continue reading
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If Cameron is going to win in 2015, he is going to need a lot of help from Boris
One consequence of the local elections is that no Tory now denies that they need to win over UKIP voters to win the next election. How to do that, though,… Continue reading
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EU referendum amendment is just first step in long battle
As expected, the backbench Tory campaign for an EU referendum bill started as soon as the Queen’s Speech proved not to contain one. The first battle is over an amendment… Continue reading
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The Tories failed to make the case for relaxing childcare ratios: no wonder the policy bombed
Two ministers appeared in the Commons today to explain two different reforms. One is at the very start of its legislative life, appearing in yesterday’s Queen’s Speech, while the other… Continue reading
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Will an EU referendum kill the Scottish independence referendum?
The UK faces two referendums about its future, not one. As well as David Cameron’s promised ‘proper’ referendum on the UK’s relationship with the European Union, there is also the… Continue reading
175 Comments
The Spectator app arrives on Kindle Fire
The digital evolution of The Spectator continues apace and I’m delighted to announce our new app for Android. It is due to popular demand: after listening to your feedback, we… Continue reading
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The View from 22 — Britain’s shale gas dilemma, the ruling elite and the Queen’s Speech
Will Britain’s lack of enthusiasm for shale gas result in a collapse of the government’s whole energy policy? In this week’s Spectator cover feature, Peter Lilley writes we will soon… Continue reading
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Yes, my remarks on Keynes were stupid. But I’m no homophobe, and here’s why
Last week I said something stupid about John Maynard Keynes. Asked to comment on Keynes’s famous observation ‘In the long run we are all dead,’ I suggested that Keynes was… Continue reading
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Exclusive: Nadine Dorries reinstated as a Tory MP
Nadine Dorries has been given the Conservative whip back by Sir George Young, Coffee House can exclusively reveal. Sources in the Tory party tell me that the MP, who was… Continue reading
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MPs gear up for 2015 slugfest in Queen’s Speech debate
The Queen’s Speech debate is always a mix of MPs patting each other on the back and political combat. This year, in a sign that the next election is looming… Continue reading
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The euro-elite responds to Nigel Lawson’s ‘dinosaur argument’
I’ve just come from a briefing with a European Union official. He was asked whether Lord Lawson’s call for Britain to leave the EU was a ‘dinosaur argument.’ In response, the… Continue reading
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The bluffer’s guide to the Queen’s Speech
Want to know (or at least pretend you know) what the Queen was talking about when she addressed the House of Lords this morning? Here are the bills that the… Continue reading
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Goodbye Alex Ferguson, and good riddance
Over the next few days, we’ll all have to swallow gallons of journalistic effluvium about the great Alex Ferguson, who announced his resignation this morning. We will be told about… Continue reading
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After leaving office, Margaret Thatcher believed Britain should leave the EU
On Tuesday night, at a Spectator readers’ evening, Andrew Neil interviewed me about my biography of Margaret Thatcher. He asked me if, after leaving office, Lady Thatcher had come to… Continue reading
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George Osborne braces himself for economic Ofsted inspection
It is probably unfair to say that the Queen’s Speech will have nothing to do with the economy: we are, after all, expecting a deregulation bill among others, which the… Continue reading
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Lord Lawson is wrong that change in the EU is impossible
In its present form, the EU serves British interests very poorly. The time has come for us to finally take matters into our own hands. But I don’t agree with… Continue reading
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Ministers hope to reassure backbenchers with Immigration Bill
One of the key bills to be announced in today’s Queen’s Speech is an immigration bill. This serves two key purposes: the first is to bring into legislation all those… Continue reading
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Peter Hain wants more debt — another policy stolen from the Tories
Peter Hain is pessimistic about Ed Miliband’s chances, in spite of what the bookies say*. ‘If a general election was held tomorrow, Labour wouldn’t win a majority,’ he writes in… 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 real significance of Israel’s strikes on Syria
It is hard to overstate the significance of Israel’s surgical strikes against Syrian military positions over the weekend. The raids targeted missiles bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon while also destroying… Continue reading
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