Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
It is, of course, lunacy to have £2,500 of taxpayers’ money sent to Abu Qatada as per the instructions of the European Court of Human Rights. But what would a Conservative government do about this? It is crucial to remember that David Cameron’s proposed Bill of Rights would itself enact the ECHR and, therefore, not
We’ve had a great response to our call for help in The Spectator’s wiki-inquiry into the causes of the recession. Our hope is to draw on the collective wisdom of our readers – and we’ve received plenty of it already. So here is the second draft of our inquiry. Please bend it, shape it, any
It’s the anniversary of the Northern Rock nationalisation today, and I’ve just done a discussion on Simon Mayo’s R5 programme arguing why the occasion is not to be celebrated. Rosie Winterton, the pensions minister, was saying nationalisation was a great success. Her argument is worth recording here because it gives a clue why Labour’s poll
There is a problem hanging over British politics so big and ugly that no party wants to acknowledge it, far less discuss it: how far do we cut state spending? Cameron’s plan to outspend what he’ll inherit from Brown is no longer viable. Since those decisions were taken, the UK tax base has collapsed. We
As we wait for the next nationalisation – probably Lloyds Banking Group – a horrible thought occurs. Something has gone badly wrong. It is as if there has been a silent coup d’état – instead of the taxpayers owning the banks, the banks now seem to own the taxpayers. They have been given access to
The first serious Tory defection will be detailed in tomorrow’s News of the World. David Freud, the architect of the Purnell welfare refrom that we’ve been admiring in Coffee House, is to become a Conservative peer and shadow welfare reform minister. So someone with genuine expertise will be in the DWP driving through a desperately-needed
Opposite Alan Johnson’s desk is a plaque from the Chinese health ministry — a gift that must, at times, seem like a taunt. The Health Secretary controls 1.3 million staff, more than anyone bar the commander of the Red Army. His £120 billion budget is greater than any government department in Beijing. The Chinese economy
It cannot be much fun to interrogate men who are already broken, but the Treasury select committee had assembled on Monday for a show trial rather than a genuine cross-examination of witnesses. Sir Fred Goodwin, former head of RBS offered a ‘profound and unqualified apology for all the distress that has been caused’. And how
Most of the stuff we do at Coffee House is for a laugh – but our wiki-investigation into the recession is deadly serious. We urgently need to find out what went wrong, and the thinking of the Westminster village consensus won’t do. We need you, your insights, your suggestions, your criticisms. If you have friends
There was a kind of grand jury feel to Gordon Brown’s appearance before the select committee chairs today. “I’m not sure I can make my hearing as exciting as the one you’ve had in the last two days,” he said. “Get started,” said John McFall. Brown has a great genius in neutralising hostile questions by
We need your help. The Spectator is to launch an inquiry into the causes of the 2008 recession, and it is to be a wiki-inquiry: one that will be directed by you, report regularly back to you, and be moulded by your collective wisdom. It will live or die by your input. Finding out just
How high will unemployment get? In his interview with me in today’s Spectator (an extended, web version here) Alan Johnson says – towards the end – that we’d best prepare for two years of downturn. He was being optimistic. During the last three recessions (mid-70s, early 80s, early 90s) it took three years for the
In PMQs today Gordon Brown said there are 500,000 vacancies in the economy – a revision from his recent 600,000 claim. But this morning’s unemployment data show that even this is out of date. The number of vacancies is collapsing way below the half-million mark – so these British jobs are becoming even more scarce.
Just as you thought the British Jobs for British Workers imbroglio has died down, the ONS issues an update to its migrant v native workers figures and it shows just who the recession is hurting. In the last three months of last year there were 278,000 fewer British-born people in work. Over the same period there were 214,000
It’s hang-a-banker season, so David Cameron had an open goal: Sir James Crosby, the former HBOS chief who allegedly sacked a whistle-blower, and who has today resigned his role at the FSA. The Labour whips planted a question with Khalid Mahmood about Crosby, as if to shoot the Tory fox. “They can even plant questions at short notice,” started
Every Wednesday, a new and rather sadistic ritual takes place at Prime Minister’s Question Time. David Cameron will ask Gordon Brown to admit he got something – anything – wrong and the Prime Minister will refuse. Mr Cameron is lowering the bar each time: last week, Brown was asked to confirm if there was a
Opposite Alan Johnson’s desk is a plaque from the Chinese health ministry — a gift that must, at times, seem like a taunt. The Health Secretary controls 1.3 million staff, more than anyone bar the commander of the Red Army. His £120 billion budget is greater than any government department in Beijing. The Chinese economy
Good piece by Piers Morgan in today’s Daily Mail about the British talent doing well in America. He quotes an American film director saying our actors are more likely to be formally trained – and then, to America, for the big bucks. From The Wire (McNulty’s from Yorkshire) to Gossip Girl (Chuck Bass is from
We have a new signing to reveal today: my old counterpart at the New Statesman, Martin Bright. We have long admired his writing here at Coffee House, and we’re delighted that The Bright Stuff will be joining Melanie Phillips, Clive Davis and Alex Massie under the heterodox, multicoloured Spectator e-umbrella. It’s not just the sharpness
Ever noticed how the debate on African development is colonised by white men? I’ve just finished a book on the subject by Dambisa Moyo, an African woman, and it’s a brilliant indictment of the aid industry which, she agues, does more harm than good in her native continent. Moyo is Zambian born, bred and educated