Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
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
There’s an old joke that the word “lies” is banned in the House of Commons because it would be used so often that you’d get no business done. The actual reason is that MPs (hilariously) judge themselves above telling untruths. Yet we do hear rather shameless porkies at PMQs. And Tiberius makes a point: why don’t
The best part of PMQs came just after it ended, in the form of an irate Boris Johnson. “I am sure the Prime Minister inadvertently misled the House when he said I want to cut spending on the Metropolitan Police”…. Brown was walking out the door, to Tory roars. “I’m the only one who has
Ladbrokes has cut Hillary’s odds, but she’s still in the lead. McCain now cut from 4/5 to 1/5 to win GOP nomination. For all the odds – and expert analysis – head to Americano.
After saying he wouldn’t withdraw the whip from Derek Conway last night, Cameron has finally performed the U-Turn and done so now. Good. A night of dithering is better than a decade of it. So all eyes now on Old Bexley & Sidcup Conservative Association (a rather bashful lot, judging by their photo gallery) –
We know that Team Cameron are keen readers of CoffeeHouse – and if so, our comment board has some free advice for them. Sack Conway. Remove the whip. De-select him. Give him the Howard Flight treatment. Flog him to the LibDems. His “unreserved” apology was for “administrative oversight”. As Quentin Letts says, is that what
This Derek Conway expenses scam is one of the most outrageous I’ve heard in some time. He bunged his son £1,000-a-month of taxpayers’ money on the basis that he was doing research. And as the Standards and Privileges Committee said, there was zero independent evidence of any work done – or any commissioned. A total
It has been called the speech of the 2008 – and it’s only January. But here on YouTube is William Hague at the Lisbon Treaty debate last Monday. People pay £25,000 to hear Hague on such form. Yours for free – click below:
James Purnell made his Marr debut today, filled with the Brownite script. Our new Work & Pensions Secretary should have looked more closely at those fake statistics he was given to regurgitate, because he repeated the most outrageous claim they make: that Britain has reached full employment. As he told Marr:- “We used to even
Nick Clegg continues to say the right things. This passage from Steve Richards’s interview on GMTV Sunday Programme this morning: “We understand that the years of unprecedented increase in public spending, and let’s remember the increases in public spending since 2000, three years after New Labour came into power, is probably without precedent anywhere in
It is a story that could have been scripted to boost morale in Conservative headquarters. At five o’clock one morning, security guards at 10 Downing Street were called in to intercept an intruder only to find the Prime Minister trying to enter his own office. Apart from the delicious image this conjures of Gordon Brown
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first tip for stardom. Throughout his twenties, Jim Murphy suffered this affliction. Before Tony Blair led the Labour party he was starting a Blairite revolution in the National Union of Students. His slogan, ‘realism, not revolution,’ made a cover story in the Sunday Times magazine. No list
It was easy to forget during Gordon Brown’s trip to India and China that he has actually been Prime Minister since June. His speeches were filled with export targets and trade deals, barely distinguishable from the rhetoric he deployed as Chancellor. This is deliberate. Mr Brown makes no claim to be a suave statesman (a
Andy Burnham was named “minister to watch” at the Spectator/Threadneedle parliamentarian of the years awards 2006. He has not disappointed us, replacing Purnell as Commissar of Culture. He reacted as if he’d won the pools. His beloved Liverpool being European City of Culture in 2008, and all that (quite right too, splendid city). But I
For the three hours after Hain resigned, several names flew – none James Purnell. But thinking about it, his appointment makes sense. Aged 37 he will add zest to Brown’s team, and he knows the DWP (he was pensions minister until Brown took over). He gave his first-ever interview to me in June (read it
The last thing Gordon Brown can afford is to dither over the reshuffle. I hear he will, indeed, name a new Work and Pensions Secretary today – so the story by the evening news is one of him taking the initiative. The DWP moves at a glacial speed, but welfare reform will be a major
I was at the Channel Four political awards last night, where the strangest thing happened. Their main award – (most inspiring political figure of the last decade) – was given to the Countryside Alliance, introduced by Jeremy Irons. As he spoke, boos came from the crowd. At first, I thought it was a joke. Then when
In India, Brown was full of beans – boasting at one stage that he’d outlasted Dame Kelly Holmes who had to retire to her hotel. He should have saved his energy. He looked exhausted at PMQs today. Until Cameron piped up on Northern Rock, that was. Then he sprang to life and put up a
Some of the best journalism never appears in print and we had two stunning examples last night. Ross Kemp’s journey with 1 Royal Anglian as they prepared for and entered Helmand was vivid and compelling – it had me hooked like an episode of 24. It is the first series I have seen that takes
Have a look at the stock market today, then the housing market, and then ask what kind of idiot would try to flog a mortgage bank like Northern Rock right now? Brown and Darling are fast becoming the Del Boy and Rodney of British politics – churning out dodgy figures, mesmerised by their own little
