Coffee House The Spectator Blog
Which Blairite will spill the beans on Brown?
After the censored purity of the Campbell diaries, the Blair era memoirs competition finally looks like becoming a race to the bitchy bottom. Jonathan Powell’s autobiography is to have the… Continue reading
1 CommentThe terracotta PM
Number Ten has been sending a steady stream of visitors to the British Museum to see its exhibition of the First Emperor of China and his terracotta army. Quite right,… Continue reading
0 CommentsDouglas Alexander admits Cameron is asking some of the right questions
In a Guardian interview this morning, Douglas Alexander let something interesting slip. Amidst the usual rubbishing of the opposition, Alexander says this about David Cameron: “Over the past 18… Continue reading
3 CommentsIan Gilmour RIP
Less than a year since the death of Frank Johnson, the Spectator has lost another of its family. Last night, the death of Ian Gilmour, who was our proprietor and… Continue reading
1 CommentWhat Baroness Thatcher told me about tax cuts
I have just been telephoned by the BBC about my “interview with Margaret Thatcher” where she laid into David Cameron. Em, not quite. It was a comment of hers I… Continue reading
10 CommentsDark Thoughts
If you ever roll your eyes to heaven in despair at the pretentious nonsense spouted by some rock journalists you might enjoy Graeme’s Thomson’s post on Guardian Unlimited’s music blog,… Continue reading
0 CommentsLabour conference coverage on Coffee House
From Sunday, Coffee House will have extensive coverage of the Labour Conference. Jon Cruddas, who ran such a strong campaign for the Labour deputy leadership, will be writing a conference… Continue reading
1 CommentHow close did we come to another war in the Middle East?
The more that emerges about the Israeli air strike on Syria the more mysterious the whole thing becomes. The Washington Post reports today that the US corroborated an Israeli intelligence… Continue reading
3 CommentsIt was Brown’s system that failed
Martin Vander Weyer examines who should be held responsible for the Northern Rock crisis and finds that as much as any individual, the system that Gordon Brown put in place in 1997… Continue reading
0 CommentsWho should carry the can for the bank run?
If you’re trying to figure out who should be blamed for the whole Northern Rock debacle, do read Martin Vander Weyer’s column today. As Martin argues, Northern Rock is in… Continue reading
2 CommentsWill Brown go early to avoid the voters’ verdict
Andrew Porter has a must-read story on the chances of an early election in the Telegraph this morning. He reports that Brown will not decide whether to call an early… Continue reading
8 CommentsThe great Blue Peter voting scandal
The breaking news is that the BBC Blue Peter cat-naming scandal was even murkier than it first appeared. As the Beeb fessed up today, the true result of a viewer… Continue reading
7 CommentsUS Defense Secretary doesn’t know if it was right to invade Iraq
If you want an idea of how far the Iraq debate has shifted since 2003 consider this exchange between David Brooks, The New York Times columnist, and Robert Gates, the… Continue reading
0 CommentsThe Ming Show
Lloyd Evans watches as Ming Campbell attempts to revive his party and leadership and witnesses a performance which is typically, well, Liberal Democrat. Lloyd Evans The final day of the… Continue reading
0 CommentsMing Reviewed
Lloyd Evans, The Spectator’s theatre critic, has penned an absolutely fantastic sketch of Ming Campbell’s speech today for us which you can read here. I particularly enjoyed his final thoughts on… Continue reading
2 CommentsMing places Lib Dems decisively to the left of Labour
Ming Campbell’s speech to conference just now removed any doubt about where the Lib Dems fit on the political spectrum. In a passage criticising Gordon Brown he charged that “New… Continue reading
2 CommentsWhat Cameron is missing
It was great to see Baroness Thatcher on such good form at the Rudy Giuliani dinner last night and with some choice words about the decision to bail out Northern… Continue reading
1 CommentHas Britain failed Zimbabwe?
On Wednesday night, The Spectator and Intelligence Square hosted a debate on the motion of whether or not Britain has failed Zimbabwe. You can listen to the whole debate via… Continue reading
5 CommentsTHE SPECTATOR VERSUS THE GOVERMNENT: NOW HAVE YOUR SAY
It has always seemed to me that the controversy over the EU Reform Treaty and the Government’s refusal to hold a referendum was more about honesty and transparency than sovereignty… Continue reading
9 CommentsListen live
You can now listen to the inaugural Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate via this link. The motion is ‘Has Britain failed Zimbabwe.’ Update: At the debate the motion was passed… Continue reading
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