Coffee House The Spectator Blog
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This morning’s Guardian hailed the fresh brilliance of the new Unilever Turbine Hall project at Tate Modern by Doris Salcedo. It shows “a laudable unwillingness to compromise, wanting to make… Continue reading
0 CommentsThe inheritance tax con
By Fraser Nelson Here’s the weasel. The Inheritance Tax "reduction" is a canard. Anyone with financial acumen (or a lawyer) will not benefit at all. KPMG have just been on… Continue reading
2 CommentsThe impact of the PBR
By Fraser Nelson • Buy-to-let bonanza: Previously, if you sold a buy-to-let house you’d pay between 24% and 40% on the capital gains. Now it’s 18%. Great news, which may help… Continue reading
1 CommentHow much have taxes risen by?
By James Forsyth The Tories, who have been pumping out information at a ferocious rate all afternoon, are saying that taxes will rise by £2.2bn over the next 3 years.… Continue reading
0 CommentsA tax raising report
By Fraser Nelson I now have the costings. This is indeed a tax raising budget. By 2010-11 they plan to net £1.4 billion extra in tax. Highlights are: £440m a… Continue reading
0 CommentsThe Tories force Darling to play catch up
The most important line was George Osborne’s: “From this day on let there be no doubt who is winning the battle of ideas.” That’s right. Darling was chasing the Tories… Continue reading
0 CommentsA tax raising report
I now have the costings. This is indeed a tax raising budget. By 2010-11 they plan to net £1.4 billion extra in tax. Highlights are: £440m a year by "state… Continue reading
0 CommentsLive Blog Darling’s speech
3:30pm: The House is in confrontational mood and Darling is off on a party political point scoring exercise straight away. First mention of aspiration, the new political buzz word. 3:35… Continue reading
0 CommentsThe scene is set for Darling
This is a posthumous Brown budget. Let’s not forget he finished the Spending Review last year, but held it over to now updating it now and again. So you may… Continue reading
1 CommentOlympic Fever
From today’s Guardian: London Olympic organisers have been forced to abandon their original plans for the canoe slalom venue after the original site in Spitalbrook, Hertfordshire was found to be… Continue reading
0 CommentsLive from 3PM: The 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review
From 3PM, Matthew d’Ancona, Fraser Nelson and Allister Heath will be leading Coffee House’s coverage of the Pre-BudgetReport and the Comprehensive Spending Review. Can Alistair Darling wrestle back the political… Continue reading
0 CommentsA taxing friendship
At the risk of infuriating Coffee Housers (and Polly), I rather like Polly Toynbee. She’s good company and we chatted happily before appearing on Marr on Sunday. It’s just that… Continue reading
7 CommentsThe blame game
The fall out from the election debacle continues this morning. The ‘young Turks’ surrounding Gordon Brown—principally, Douglas Alexander, Ed Balls and ED Miliband—are receiving much of the blame. One junior… Continue reading
4 CommentsHitchens’s inconvenient past
It is good for the soul to be reminded what a sharp and funny writer Christopher Hitchens was in the days before he collapsed under the weight of his own… Continue reading
7 CommentsListen live, tomorrow at 6:45pm
Tomorrow night from 6:45 pm, we’ll be broadcasting via this site a debate on the motion, “We should not be reluctant to assert the superiority of Western values.” There is… Continue reading
7 CommentsLabour to try and steal Tory clothes on inheritance tax
I hear on the grapevine that Darling will tomorrow announce a "review" of inheritance tax. If so, Brown again risks derision about his claim to be a "conviction politician". In… Continue reading
4 CommentsBrown faces the press pack
Every time I’ve stood in a queue waiting for these No10 press conferences, the chat is usually “he’s really screwed now.” We’re usually disappointed. Same this time. This was neither… Continue reading
9 CommentsBrown’s poll pretence
At his monthly press conference, Gordon Brown is keeping up the pretence that the polls had nothing to do with his decision not to call an election. But this is… Continue reading
5 CommentsSociety v. the state
It’s always a pleasure to hear Will Hutton on the radio, the perfect antidote to the idea that the battle in politics is over. He justified inheritance tax on the… Continue reading
6 CommentsHow Gordon got into this mess
In the FT this morning, Philip Stephens neatly sums up how Gordon Brown got into this current mess. There is more to this episode than a miscalculation of the public… Continue reading
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