Coffee House The Spectator Blog
Is this all that Gordon has left to do?
I guess all the other problems facing the government must be solved as Gordon Brown is now to turn his attention to making sure that premiership teams select more British… Continue reading
1 CommentThe future of Conservatism?
Conservative Home have just conducted an interesting survey of the candidates in the seats that the Tories have a realistic chance of picking up next time round. 70 of the… Continue reading
4 CommentsSing along with the Foreign Office
David Miliband was the guest of a press gallery lunch today and the Foreign Secretary had prepared the obligatory joke. Inspired by the decision of his French and German counterparts… Continue reading
2 CommentsWho is more corrupt?
Now that the European Court of Auditors has refused to sign off the EU’s accounts for the 13th year in a row citing "errors of legality and regularity", I have… Continue reading
14 CommentsWhat did the Prime Minister know?
Daniel Finkelstein cuts to the chase on Comment Central and points out that if the Home Secretary knew about this government foul-up for four moths and kept it secret then… Continue reading
2 CommentsHow well worked out are Cameron’s council tax proposals?
Cameron is on rather shaky ground claiming to abolish the council tax cap. His plan for a national annual tax rise, thus freeing councils to go over this limit in… Continue reading
15 CommentsBrown dusts off an old Blair number
Blessed are the cheese makers, I mean, changemakers. Good old Brown. As James says, it was a Blairite speech – so much so that he’s resurrected the star of Blair’s… Continue reading
1 CommentAnother Home Secretary on the rocks
The storm that has broken around Jacqui Smith about illegal immigrants working in Whitehall is particularly dangerous for the government as it combines concerns over the loss of control over… Continue reading
9 CommentsHow very Blairite, Brown’s foreign policy is
Gordon Brown’s Mansion House speech lacked the rhetorical flourishes of any Tony Blair address on world affairs but it was substantively far more similar than one would have expected. Indeed,… Continue reading
0 CommentsIs Gordon doing better than people think?
Political Betting has a must-read post up on why it would be a mistake to write off Gordon Brown. As Mike Smithson points out, Labour’s current performance compares favourably to… Continue reading
2 CommentsBalls’s real priorities in education
The more that comes out about the Brown-Blair tensions, the more you realise quite how damaging they were to good government. Just take this example from the forthcoming BBC documentary… Continue reading
1 CommentDon’t give your opponents ammunition
There is yet another story about Lord Ashcroft’s role with the Tories in the Guardian today. This time the news is that Ashcroft gave David Cameron a ticket to and… Continue reading
0 CommentsParliamentarian of the Year Awards live on Spectator.co.uk
This Thursday watch the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards on Spectator.co.uk. The awards ceremony from Claridge’s Hotel in London will be broadcast live with the welcome speeches running from… Continue reading
0 CommentsBrown’s world
Gordon Brown’s Mansion House speech tonight will be pored over for hints about the direction of British foreign policy. As Jackie Ashley, a columnist normally sympathetic to the Prime Minister,… Continue reading
0 CommentsThe question Aitken still needs to answer
Jonathan Aitken’s return to Tory politics to lead a review on prison reform for Iain Duncan-Smith’s Centre for Social Justice makes me uneasy. As Peter Preston writes in The Observer, “to this day,… Continue reading
1 CommentTories on 43% in new poll
The Tories will be encouraged by the latest ICM poll which puts them at 43%, up 3 on the last one. Labour are steady at 35% with the Lib Dems… Continue reading
7 CommentsThe failings of the MCB
The interview that the head of the Muslim Council of Britain has given to The Daily Telegraph today is phenomenally unhelpful to the cause of community cohesion. Muhammad Abdul Bari… Continue reading
3 CommentsBrown’s fundraiser goes wobbly
I had always expected a major Brown backer to start selling shares in our PM. But I would never have guessed it would be Sir Ronald Cohen, who is supposed… Continue reading
0 CommentsHas Gordon got the solution?
Gordon Brown has come out of hiding to give Adam Boulton a quick interview, and his (belated) take on the Queen’s Speech. It’s all about setting out long term views,… Continue reading
0 CommentsTortured thinking
The debate over torture in the US has descended into tragic farce. Some on the right are so determined to always take the toughest position possible on any war on… Continue reading
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