Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
Both Che Guevara and Thatcher declared they were for “reform”, so Brown saying it means nothing in itself. His definition of reform is “personalisation” which, as far as I can make out, is 180 degree opposite to Blair’s idea of reform. One of the best (and shortest) think tank pamphlets I’ve read in a while
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A new motto – “uncertain times call for uncertain leadership” – could apply right now to the Church of England, the government and parliament. In my News of the World column today, I say that the Williams fiasco fits a depressing trend. 1. The Church of England is in crisis. Its own figures show a
From our UK edition
Charles Clarke throws the book at Brown today in an interview with the Daily Mail. A few choice quotes. 1) “You saw it with David Cameron over MPs’ expenses when he was out, very fast, dealing with the situation. Gordon must stop being a ditherer. He lacks courage. He looks at his papers, dithers
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If a museum were built to honour the ancestral political class, it would not look much different from the House of Commons. Its corridors are lined with portraits of the political greats and its staircases are adorned with old Vanity Fair caricatures. ‘Honourable members’ are still treated as if they were just that, with the
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Unkind souls joke that proof of Tony Blair’s Catholicism came not on his conversion, but when he recommended Rowan Williams as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Under his tenure his church has seen schism (over gay clergy) whilst being overtaken by Catholicism in attendees for the first time since the Reformation. This Archbishop lost my confidence
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Nick Clegg is finally doing the clever thing and openly talking about backing the Tories in coalition. I’m in a BBC studio waiting to do News24 paper review, and just have the FT’s front page. But it quotes him saying that he: “…could back a minority Tory government if David Cameron proposes genuine ‘liberal’ reforms.” Now,
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For some time I have been waiting for Digby Jones to return to his good old unpredictable self. It’s happening in tomorrow’s FT where Labour’s trade minister says Darling’s copycat clampdown on non doms will cost Britain. Jones suggests that the non-dom rules have caused people to ask “does this mean you don’t want us?” He
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I never nod in agreement more with any piece than with Charles Moore’s diary, and in today’s edition of the magazine he says Derek Conway: “…exclaims that ‘An MP is paid less than a sous-chef in the Commons’ as if this were a self-evident absurdity… he wants what he sees as the befitting lifestyle and
From our UK edition
Gordon Brown will now be regretting briefing this morning that he was going to meet John McCain. The senator has pulled out (he could take the Vietcong, says Iain Martin, but not an hour with Brown). His (cancelled) destination was Germany but it does make you wonder how seriously John McCain takes the UK-US special
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When they didn’t mention MPs expenses last week, it was odd. This time it was downright embarrassing – and adds to the impression that they all have something to hide. Which, of course, they all do. First thing’s first: Ed Miliband seems to have a new job. He now sits next to Brown making theatrical
From our UK edition
The spending debate continues with Philip Hammond over at ConservativeHome defending his decision to sign up to Brown’s current spending plan. The 2% total ain’t that much, he says, slower than economic growth in fact. Therefore Brown is (magic phrase) “sharing the proceeds of growth” like he would. He’s right, Brown’s spending is the tightest
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Cameron may have moved first, but Brown has now upped the ante, writing to the Speaker calling for a “root and branch overhaul of the current system”. He has told “all Labour MPs” (not just frontbenchers like the Tories) thay must “abide, not by April but as soon as possible, with the Committee on Standards
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Danny Finkelstein does me the honour of Fisking my post on Tories and spending. I’m being a little bit mischievous, he suggests, by claiming the Tories didn’t offer tax cuts in 01 and 05. And I link to media reports, he says, not original documents. This is a huge debate, as future policy is based
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This time it’s Caroline Flint who has been wheeled out to get tough on welfare claimants. But this sentence in her interview in The Guardian jumped out at me. “She admitted she was surprised by figures showing that more than half of those of working age living in social housing are without paid work –
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William Rees-Mogg yesterday added his voice to the many suggesting that, now the economic outlook has changed, so should the Tories’ daft proposal to match Gordon Brown’s spending pledges. Iain Martin, Iain Dale and my good self are just a few who argue that now Brown has been found out, the Tories should think twice about
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At last, some life in the Lisbon Treaty debate – and from the least likely party. All LibDem MPs stood on a manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution and quite a few (perhaps as many as half) believe they should not break this trust with the voters as Labour has done.
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What I love about the Derek Conway’s je ne regrette rien in the Mail on Sunday is the way he gives clues as to where the other bodies are buried. “I know many MPs with family members who have different names registered so that they are not so obviously spotted. Some spouses work under maiden
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Lieutenant George: Look what I got for you sir. Captain Blackadder: What? Lieutenant George: It’s the latest issue of “King & Country”. Oh, damn inspiring stuff; the magazine that tells the Tommies the truth about the war. Captain Blackadder: Or alternatively, the greatest work of fiction since vows of fidelity were included in the French
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What started off as a joke is growing more serious by the hour. Bets are being laid on the next EU president and the favourite is one Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. Ladbrokes has cut him from 3/1 to 2/1, perhaps after the Guardian piece this morning. Put aside the (rich) comic value of all this,
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Francis Urquhart will be spinning in his fictional grave. Once Tory whips were the MI5 of the Commons. They put a bit of stick about, knew every skeleton in every closet – and provided the best early-warning to the leadership. So Cameron should have been warned about the full horrors of the Conway crisis months
