Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
Until now, new Prime Ministers have always arrived in 10 Downing Street accompanied by the team they built around them in Parliament. But Boris Johnson is different. He is the creature of two Blair-era inventions: devolution and referendums. The team he is building around him in No. 10 is from City Hall and Vote Leave,
Sajid Javid as Chancellor is the latest of a string of encouraging appointments. He knows finance better than almost anyone else in parliament, let alone Cabinet. When Osborne took the the brief, he would confess to people that he didn’t have a clue about economics. In Sajid Javid, we have someone who was vice-president of
A moderate, halfway-competent Labour party could crush the Tories. But given that Labour members are Corbynite in inclination, what are the chances of a moderate leader emerging? In my latest Daily Telegraph column, I argue that to change leader now in order to make Labour the party of Remain might well make this even worse
For some time now, I’ve been involved in the Social Mobility Foundation, whose interns we take at The Spectator (and who were at our summer party last week). It has been run by David Johnston, who has stood down after ten years. What he has achieved at the SMF has been nothing short of extraordinary.
The Spectator is growing – and hiring. We’re looking for a researcher for fact-checking, data reporting and editing news for our daily emails. We’d like someone who can find a story in figures, perhaps someone familiar with Google Analytics (or capable of learning about it). The advantages: no two days in the office will be
I’m not sure we learned terribly much this from the rather noisy BBC debate this evening. Each Tory candidate had rehearsed the answers so well that they sounded like pull-string dolls at times. If you watched Ch4’s debate on Sunday – conducted along the lines of its old Fifteen-to-One gameshow – you’ll have heard many
At the hustings held by the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs this evening, the question wasn’t who was going to win but who should be sent to put Boris Johnson through his paces before he wins. Word is that Team Boris is lending about 15 votes to Jeremy Hunt, who he’d most like to
If half of Boris Johnson’s supporters had stayed in bed this morning, he’d still have won by a safe margin. The number of MPs supporting Johnson is astonishing, given how many were saying until a few weeks ago that they despised him. They may well still do, but Nigel Farage is now grasping them by
Michael Gove’s launch was, easily, the strongest of any candidate yesterday and he deserves the plaudits he’s getting now. Even if you dislike him, his speech is worth listening to (it’s here) and it was made without notes. I’ve heard him talk before about the school in Liverpool he mentioned where only one pupil got
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“I entered politics to do my best for this country,” says Sajid Javid in the video that launches his campaign, “the country that has done so much for me”. A good point, which he didn’t elaborate. A shame, because a powerful point lies therein – a point that explains who he is and his claim
As Brits understandably focus on Brexit and populism, another story is emerging: the green wave. It is especially focused in amongst the young and in cities: Greens took nine of Germany’s ten largest cities, sometimes by large margins. Across Germany, Die Grünen relegated the Social Democrats to third place. In France, Les Verts came from
If the EU is unable to make a Brexit offer that is acceptable to Parliament by the Brexit deadline on 31 October, what then? This is the big question in the Tory leadership contest and – slowly – we’re getting answers. 1. No deal back on the table, an extension not ruled out Dominic Raab this morning
Yes, Eurovision is political – but for 20 years now, this fact has been used as an excuse to explain why Britain bombs. Everyone hates us, runs the complaint, the system is rigged, there’s nothing we can do. But as we digest the latest embarrassment (we just finished last – again) it’s hard to escape
The biggest winners from last night are the Liberal Democrats who have (so far) won 260 seats – their best overall performance since 2003 and the highest number of gains since 1995. And this matters because the rationale of Change UK (the latest name for the Chuka Ununna-Anna Soubry group of breakaway MPs) is that
The power of editors is comically overstated. I’m struck by the number of politicians who imagine that there’s a hierarchy: that editors shape the opinions of columnists who, in turn, shape opinions of readers. The truth, I’m afraid, is that the hierarchy works in the other way. People like reading well-argued pieces with which they
Since we abolished CVs for The Spectator’s internship scheme, it has acquired quite a reputation. There are fewer than two dozen journalists here in 22 Old Queen St and we recruit people rarely – but when we do, we seek to recruit from our interns. As do other people: The Spectator‘s no-CV internships helped a 48-year-old mum-of-three with no previous
David Lidington is the most powerful minister you’ve never heard of. He is Theresa May’s de facto deputy, tasked with both supervising the domestic agenda and solving the trickiest Brexit conundrums. And the Sunday newspaper front pages talk about a plot to enstool him as a caretaker Prime Minister: an idea supported, we read, by
Philip Hammond’s whole career as Chancellor has been leading up to this moment. Next week, in his Spring Statement, he’ll say that MPs have a choice: back the EU’s deal, or go for a no-deal Brexit for which government has failed to prepare. Without any serious leadership for the latter, it’s unlikely to pass. The
The first edition of the first Spectator was published 308 years ago today. I recently found a copy in a second-hand bookshop (pictured above), complete with every issue of the first series of that publication. It’s one of the most expensive things I’ve bought but gives me no end of pleasure and inspiration. The Spectator
