Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
The Republican Convention, Minneapolis, Minnesota Word that Sarah Palin is to become a grandmother, aged 44, is spreading rapidly through Minneapolis. Should it matter? James says no, but personally I can’t see how it can avoid being an issue. Just three days ago, Palin was on a stage introducing her entire family to America. The
I’m in Denver airport waiting for what a Republican friend in St Paul has just informed me is likely to be a one- or two-day convention. Even if Hurricane Gustav does not cause the destruction expected, it may yet blow away McCain’s chance of victory. The Republicans are acutely aware that this brings back memory
Denver, Colorado Just as high street stores send spies to the Paris fashion shows in order to copy all the latest designs, so British political parties send agents to American conventions in search of ideas and inspiration. Several Brits were skulking around the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week, carefully noting the new soundbites
Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future that Disappeared by Andrew Brown Sweden holds a powerful allure for British men, which I used to see for myself every Friday in a departure lounge of Heathrow airport. I was part of a group of weekend commuters who met for a beer, en route to see our
When John Kerry got up there to speak with his insomnia-curing drawl, I thought I’d watch the old loser just from a sense of schadenfreude. But then his attack came out. It was interesting, potent and it had Michelle Obama rising to her feet. In fact, it struck me as the punchiest, hardest-hitting speech of
Just as high street chains send spies to Paris fashion shows to nick ideas, so British political parties send envoys to American conventions to see what new ideas are coming off the production line. Francis Maude is here for the Tories and Ed Miliband (plus his fellow Harvard alumni David Lammy) for Labour. In my
My take: Hillary did what was required of her but I saw plenty traces of a 2012 campaign in her speech. The CNN coverage (it’s all they show here in the press tent) focuses on how incredibly gracious she was – but I didn’t see it. Unsurprisingly, she told people to vote for Barack Obama
James and I have now installed ourselves in a bit of space at the Pepsi Centre in Denver. The stage is all set up, Obamabilia is being sold in the halls and musicians are warming up for the opening night of the Democratic National Convention. Tonight is, essentially, Michelle Obama’s coming-out party, a speech from
One of Churchill’s mistakes in the 1945 election campaign was to argue that no socialist system could be established in Britain without a form of political police, a British Gestapo. He should never have used the g-word: it struck the electorate as excessive. But reading the Sunday Times this morning, I could see what the
I’d like to quickly scotch this myth that softening in average fixed-rate mortgage rates means it’s now easier for first-time buyers to buy houses, which I hear the Treasury is now punting in the hope that journalists start to repeat it. Moneyfacts has joined the number of dotcom setups getting great publicity by saying the
Brown’s Bubble: these two words should come to sum up the last seven years of British economy. Today, George Osborne used the phrase. But it should become more than a soundbite, it should be a forceful and coherent analysis explaining how and why the economy has got to this point. That the “prosperity” of the
David Miliband should remember: it is still war between him and Gordon Brown. Thinks he’s Foreign Secretary? Thinks he can go around talking up Nato protection to former Soviet states in speeches like these? Well, Team Brown has something to say about it. Here is Nick Brown, deputy chief whip and Brownite muscleman in a
Yvette Cooper on Monday revealed two parts of George Osborne’s policy of which I was unaware. The first was his secret plan for swingeing tax cuts. Next, she informs us, “by my tally, the Tories have commitments of an extra £11bn of unfunded promises”. Well by the ONS tally, revealed this morning, Labour’s unfunded spending
It is dangerous, almost reckless, for a British Prime Minister to leave the country while in a jam at home. Had Margaret Thatcher not gone to Paris during the Tory leadership contest of 1990, she would probably have found the two extra MPs she needed to survive. Had Callaghan not jetted off for a Caribbean
Might Labour’s attack machine have come back from the dead? They have today seized – and quite rightly – on this comment in Boris Johnson’s Daily Telegraph column: “If you believe the politicians, we have a broken society, in which the courage and morals of young people have been sapped by welfarism and political correctness.
Great moment on the Today programme this morning when John Major – without irony – told James Naughtie how great the National Lottery was because an opera lover like him could benefit from the money poured into the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. That deal was perhaps the most egregious example of cash transferred
I’m now back from my fortnight in Sweden where I kept my word to give up Coffee House for a fortnight. There’s something about the country that makes it a lodestar for left and right, and the reasons why hit you as you travel around. Here are a few of my notes:- 1. At a café
Many smokers I know say they aren’t addicted, they just choose not to stop. By the same token, I’m seeing if I can give up Coffee House for a fortnight as I take my summer holidays in Sweden. I was asked by a media reporter for the Sunday Herald newspaper last week if I mind
Taxing alcopops is one of Tory ideas designed to stop youth drinking. “They’ve done this kind of thing in Germany and Australia and it has had dramatic effects,” George Osborne told Andrew Marr last March. Just how dramatic is now clear, with the evidence now in from Australia. Jacking up pre-mixed drink prices by 70%
As the Blair memo shows us today, the grinning charlatan had the right idea. He stayed too long, and as a result his own popularity was destroyed. But he knew how to fight the Tories. If his “trust schools” idea had not been torn to shreds by Labour rebels (who were directed by Brown), Michael Gove