Tony blair

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Osama Bin Laden’s death: the world responds

From our UK edition

We have already seen Barack Obama's statement on the death of Osama Bin Laden. Below is more reaction from across the world: David Cameron: “The news that Osama Bin Laden is dead will bring great relief to people across the world. Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the worst terrorist atrocities the world has seen - for 9/11 and for so many attacks, which have cost thousands of lives, many of them British. It is a great success that he has been found and will no longer be able to pursue his campaign of global terror. This is a time to remember all those murdered by Osama Bin Laden, and all those who lost loved ones. It is also a time too to thank all those who work round the clock to keep us safe from terrorism. Their work will continue.

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

The Royal Wedding by numbers

From our UK edition

I know, I know, it's deeply unromantic to anticipate tomorrow's Royal Wedding through the prism of opinion polling. But as no one ever said that a political blog has to be romantic — and as there are some quite noteworthy findings among all the data — we thought we'd put together a quick round-up for CoffeeHousers. So here goes: 1) The guest list. There has, I'm sure you've noticed, been quite some hubbub over the fact the Gordon Brown and Tony Blair haven't been invited to the wedding — especially in view of the Syrian ambassador's invitation, since withdrawn. But some new polling from YouGov — highlighted by PoliticsHome — suggests that the public agree with the twin snub for our former PMs.

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

Reinforcing the schools revolution

From our UK edition

There is extraordinary news today, suggesting that the Academies revolution is continuing apace. What was a trickle under the Labour years is turning into a flood. This time last year just 1 in 16 state secondaries had 'Academy' status: that is, operationally independent within the state sector. Now, it is 1 in 6. By Christmas, it should be 1 in 3. And by the next election, the majority of state secondary schools in Britain — about 1,600 — should have turned into Academies. Had Gove suggested such an expansion before the election, he would have been laughed at. The last time the Conservatives sought to give state schools independence was under Kenneth Baker, when just 50 availed themselves of such freedoms in three years. Now, freedom appears to be contagious.

Friday

Peter Hoskin

From the archive: the consequences of Nato bombing Kosovo

From our UK edition

There are two reasons to return to the Kosovo Conflict for this week's hit from the archives. First, of course, the surface parallels with Libya: Nato involvement, bombing raids, all that. Second, that yesterday was the 12th anniversary of Nato's first operation in Kosovo. Here's Bruce Anderson's take from the time: Milosevic has Kosovo, Nato has no idea, Bruce Anderson, The Spectator, 3 April 1999 There is a precedent for Kosovan conflict: Suez. Then, as now, our indignation was inflamed by misleading historical analogies; Milosevic is not Hitler, any more than Nasser was. Then, as now, we were afflicted by geopolitical tunnel vision, and lost all contact with the wider strategic realities.

Saturday

David Blackburn

Gaddafi defiant as the international coalition prepares his noose

From our UK edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJl8s8DSYvQ The fog of war lies thick in Benghazi this morning. There are reported explosions and gunfire and Sky News is showing footage of a Soviet-era fighter jet combusting in mid-air over the city; it is not clear if the aircraft was the victim of anti-aircraft fire, air-to-air combat or technical malfunction. Equally, it is unclear if the international coalition's campaign has begun – leaders will meet in Paris today to finalise diplomatic agreements before mobilisation, but defence analysts say that French and Italian aircraft could already be patrolling Libyan skies.      The Gaddafi regime has been typically deranged in response.

Friday

Fraser Nelson

The threat to a British liberty

From our UK edition

It’s a funny old world. I have now been contacted by two journalists informing me that Bedfordshire Police are investigating The Spectator. Why? Because of the Melanie Philips blog where she referred to the “moral depravity” of “the Arabs” who killed the Fogel family in Israel. CoffeeHousers can judge for themselves if they agree or disagree with her language and views – but should this be illegal?  The Guardian has written this story up, claiming The Spectator is being investigated by the Press Complaints Commission. This is untrue. The PCC tell me that a complaint has been lodged, but that’s as far as it has gone. They investigate only if they believe there is a serious prospect that their code has been breached, and it hasn't.

Thursday

David Blackburn

Time to bury the hatchet?

From our UK edition

Who says irony is dead? The Four Barrow Hunt and the Countryside Alliance are holding a fundraising auction in April. The lots are largely predictable: a subscription to the Telegraph, a French holiday home and a cured fox pelt. More surprising is the signed copy of Tony Blair’s A Journey, with its comparatively brief account of the 700 hours of parliamentary time he devoted to banning fox hunting. What, you may ask, would the good folk of the Four Barrow want with that memoir? Time to bury the hatchet? Perhaps. But, equally, Blackadder’s assessment of the magazine ‘King and Country’ is recalled: 'Ah, yes, without question my favourite magazine; soft, strong and thoroughly absorbent.

Wednesday

David Blackburn

The emergence of a Cameron doctrine

From our UK edition

Daniel Finkelstein makes a simple but important point in the Times today (£): a Prime Minister’s foreign policy is determined by events more than by instincts. The revolts in the Middle East are defining David Cameron’s diplomacy. The emerging policy is a realistic expression of Britain’s current domestic and international capabilities. Cameron’s speech to the Kuwaiti parliament did not match Harold Macmillan’s ‘winds of change’ speech because Britain no longer disposes of continents. Likewise, Tony Blair’s messianic tendencies belong to a past era. Colonel Gaddafi’s murderous stream of conscious could have given cause to evoke the moral certainty of an 'ethical foreign policy'.

Saturday

David Blackburn

A new dawn for Dubya?

From our UK edition

Who is the unsung hero of the Egyptian revolution? Why, the 43rd President of the United States of course. (And, presumably, Tony Blair as well.) Reuel Marc Gerecht leapt to praise Bush in the pages of The New York Times. ‘President George W. Bush’s decision to build democracy in Iraq seemed so lame to many people because it appeared, at best, to be another example of American idealism run amok — the forceful implantation of a complex Western idea into infertile authoritarian soil. But Mr.

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Why the government is right to look beyond ASBOs

From our UK edition

We shouldn't have believed the hype. For all of Tony Blair's earnest focus on Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, this flagship policy was barely in effect at all. By the latest figures, only 18,670 ASBOs were issued between April 1999 and the start of 2010. According to this Policy Exchange report – the best on the subject that I've come across – that accounts for around 0.009 per cent of all incidences of anti-social behaviour. So let's not pretend that the coalition is upending the criminal justice system by shifting away from ASBOs today. Neither, on the evidence at hand, is it doing away with an effective policy. Here's a graph that I've put together from the latest Home Office statistics.

Friday

Daniel Korski

General Hague, attack

From our UK edition

William Hague must be feeling that the incoming rounds are coming closer and closer. The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph and now The Times (£) have each allowed their pages to be used as Forward Operating Bases from which to launch attacks against the coalition's foreign policy. Even in the coalition's own ranks, dissatisfied foot-soldiers (and a even a few senior officers) think that General Hague has lost his appetite for the fight. Tories talk about a man whose defeat in 2001left a permanent wound, and how the Christopher Myers fiasco left another gash. The government's equivocal response to events in Egypt has provoked fresh criticism, while the army of eurosceptics, once Hague's Praetorian Guard, no longer trust their commander.

Thursday

Carole Stone

Much more than a networking event

From our UK edition

What's the point of Davos? This is a question seldom addressed in the reports filed from the five-day "World Economic Forum" which ended on Sunday. Many speeches are made, many issues debated, but it is not a place where decisions are taken. It is not a G20. Manifestos are not launched there. It exists to serve a very particular function: every year for a short period of time it becomes the temporary capital of the globalised world. Top business and political leaders, distinguished academics and journalists - all committed to improving the state of the world - flock there to meet each other, swap ideas and then go home. This year, I went along for my first visit - and I promised to file my own report for CoffeeHouse on what I made of it.

Saturday

Lloyd Evans

Palace intrigue

From our UK edition

Plunging into the second volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries is like opening a Samuel Richardson novel. Plunging into the second volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries is like opening a Samuel Richardson novel. The tone is breathless and excitable and the dramatic world of backstabbing, tittle-tattle and palace intrigue is instantly captivating. Historians will scour the book for valuable new information. Practitioners of media management will regard it as a classic. Downing Street rivalries dominate from the start. The impression that ‘the TB-GB riftology’ developed after 1997 is inaccurate.

Thursday

Daniel Korski

The dangers of CameronCare

From our UK edition

A consensus has formed in the commentariat that besides George Osborne's stewardship of the economy, Andrew Lansley's healthcare reforms could become the government's vote-loser. The political facts are as simple as the forms are complex. One, David Cameron ran a campaign based on a promise to protect the NHS. Many people thought that meant from cuts and culls alike. The Health Secretary's reforms look, whatever the truth may be, like they are going back on the PM's promise. Second, the reforms can only be successful if a range of stakeholders - voters, practitioners, analysts - have been brought along, and had a chance to debate the issues. What Michael Gove has done so brilliantly is to pick up a debate Tony Blair began.

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

The Big Society in 1997

From our UK edition

Titter ye might. The Big Society? In 1997? If the idea was of, erm, limited electoral worth in our last general election, then it was certainly of little use when Tony Blair hurtled into power all those years ago. Yet there is was, mostly speaking, in the "Civic Conservatism" espoused chiefly by David Willetts. Danny Finkelstein, writing for the pre-paywall incarnation of Comment Central, has already alluded to the intellectual debt that Steve Hilton et al owe to Willetts' thinking back in the 1990s. Fraser did likewise in an interview with Willetts from four-and-a-half years ago. I mention this now for two conjoined reasons.

Friday

Fraser Nelson

How do you snare a spin doctor?

From our UK edition

So, who’s next after Andy Coulson? This question is oddly important, and will certainly influence the direction of his government. It shouldn’t, but you have to understand the way the Cameron operation works – and of how life looked before George Osborne persuaded Coulson to come on board (hoodie hugging, husky-riding, etc). Coulson was an advocate of fundamental conservative values (crime, tax cuts, Europe) and emphasised their mass appeal. Tim Montgomerie has a list of possibles for this job. But how to persuade them? Whoever does it can kiss goodbye to their life (and family) for the duration. No.10 is a pressure oven, and there’s a horribly large chance that you’ll turn out like Alastair Campbell.

Peter Hoskin

The Coulson story won’t be buried – but will it matter?

From our UK edition

There's not much chance that the Andy Coulson story will be buried in tomorrow's newspapers. Blair's appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry will scatter a handful of earth across it, as will AJ's travails. But it's not as though people outside the Westminster bubble will fail to notice all this. Watching the 24 hour news channels now, it's all Coulson, Coulson, Coulson. In which case, this is bound to inflict some damage on the government in the short term. The public is not inclined towards liking, or trusting, spin doctors. And Andy Coulson leaving Downing Street through a fug of phone-hacking allegations will not do anything to change that. Questions will be asked about David Cameron's judgement in appointing Coulson in the first place.

David Blackburn

Déjà vu | 21 January 2011

From our UK edition

Tony Blair is beguiling the Chilcot Inquiry once again. He was majestic last time – quick witted, sincere and convinced. There was nothing in that benign hearing room to alter, as he might have put it, the ‘calculus of risk’. His ease was sufficient to crack subtle jokes at Gordon Brown’s expense, and most emerged from the hearing believing that Britain had actually been at war with Iran. He is already ploughing those same furrows, albeit with a barely audible note of impatience, irritated that these banal proceedings continue. Iran is the new Iraq, Blair says, and he publicly takes a ‘hard line’ against Tehran, just as his government, in its entirety, had done with Saddam Hussein.

Peter Hoskin

How things are different now that Balls is shadow chancellor

From our UK edition

The timing could hardly have been more resonant. On the day that Tony Blair is paraded, once again, in front of the Iraq Inquiry, Team Brown is firmly back in charge of the Labour party. For, I'm sure you've noticed CoffeeHousers, three of the four great shadow offices of state are occupied by former members of the Brown coterie: Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper. The fourth belongs to someone who doesn't sit easily in either half of the TB-GB divide: Douglas Alexander. The question, of course, is what this means for Labour's economic policy. And the answer according to Miliband is "nothing much". The Labour leader has been keen to stress that his party's fiscal plans remain largely unchanged by Balls' ascension.

Tuesday

David Blackburn

The return of Chilcot

From our UK edition

The Chilcot Inquiry is back, and with bang not a whimper. In his opening statement, Sir John said: ‘There is one area where, I am sorry to say, it has not been possible to reach agreement with the government. The papers we hold include the notes which Prime Minister Blair sent to President Bush and the records of their discussions. The Inquiry recognises the privileged nature of those exchanges but, exceptionally, we sought disclosure of key extracts which illuminate Prime Minister Blair’s positions at critical points. The Cabinet Office did not agree this disclosure. On 10 December last year, in accordance with the Protocol, I asked the Cabinet Secretary to review that decision.