Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
To listen to the debate about Labour’s prospective Mansion Tax, you’d think that the UK didn’t have any wealth or property taxes. So your CoffeeHouse baristas looked up the figures, which are collected by the OECD. Our stamp duty, business rates and council tax give the UK the highest property tax in the world. This has
It seems hard to believe now, but only The Spectator supported Margaret Thatcher in the first leadership ballot. She had been Keith Joseph’s campaign director, and when he faltered she took his place. The Economist, true to its endearing habit of being wrong in major calls in modern British history, said she was “precisely the sort of
The Spectator’s sales figures are out today, and our rise continues. The website’s traffic is up a remarkable 50 per cent year-on-year to 1.8 million monthly unique users and over 4.5 million pageviews. But the rise in digital is not coming at the expense of print sales, which are also rising – our sales in the
The tragedy of the Rab C Nesbitt caricature is that there is a lot of truth in it – Scots do tend to have more problems with booze then those in the rest of the UK. Things are improving: today’s figures show that the alcohol-related death rate for men in Scotland is 29.8 per 100,000 –
All you want from Europe is free trade, cheap flights and the Eurovision Song Contest – the rest is bureaucracy. One of the contest’s many strengths is its generous, expansive definition of ‘European’. Its soft power is awesome, and effective. It reaches out to countries banging on the door of the West – nations the European Union
Under George Osborne, borrowing costs have fallen to record lows – as data released by the Bank of England today shows. And this, rather than pretending that he has been helping savers, should be his line of attack – after all, when borrowing costs are down so is the interest savers can earn. The effect Osborne’s cheap
Even the evening BBC bulletins are leading with this morning’s announcement by George Osborne that he will extend his ‘pensioner bonds’ programme – a glorified way of giving pre-election bungs to the over-65s. This is Osborne’s answer to Gordon Brown’s bribe, the ‘winter fuel payment’ (the word ‘fuel’ being redundant). When elections grow near, governments
Socialism fever is spreading. This time last year, Ed Miliband looked to be on course for 10 Downing St for the simple reason that the right in Britain had been split (by Ukip) while the left stood united for the first time since 1983. Lefty LibDems had returned to Labour and it seemed that Miliband was
Gordon Brown is holding an adjournment debate on the union this evening, which comes after an Ashcroft poll which shows precisely what danger the union is in. If today’s polls were tomorrow’s election result, the SNP would have 55 out of 59 seats in Scotland. It’s even set to lose Coatbridge, where it picked up
Newsflash! Labour does have a business supporter – or so, at least, Ed Balls was able to disclose to Emily Maitlis on Newsnight. His name is Bill. But he couldn’t quite remember his surname. It was comedy gold, certainly my moment of the campaign so far. Maitlis asked if Balls was worried that in 2001 there were 58
David Cameron has today been refreshingly honest about his plans for school funding in England: budgets will be flat, which (when you factor in inflation) will mean a drop of 7 per cent over the next parliament. Cue much mockery from Labour. But what will this mean for the future of education quality? Not very
In a Telegraph interview, David Cameron today pledges to cut the welfare cap – to £23,000 from £26,000 – to fund another three million apprentice places. He says that this:- ‘Tells you everything you need to know about our values’ He is refreshingly honest, in that this welfare/apprenticeships policy is designed to articulate Conservative Party
Everything seems to be falling into place ahead of the election for the Tories. Today’s data shows high street spending rising at the fastest rate for more than 13 years – and this is not a freak. In fact, it’s part of a broader picture which is more impressive (and promising) than George Osborne seems to
The hijacking of Oxfam by the politicised left is nothing short of a tragedy. It’s heartbreaking to see a charity that has built up so much goodwill from so many people being used by activists as a vehicle for global class war. As a result, Oxfam is switching its focus away from global poverty towards something
We’ve spent plenty time on Coffee House challenging George Osborne’s more dubious claims (‘deficit halved!’, etc) as has much of the media. But happily, there now seems to be a truce. Grant Shapps, Tory chairman, has confirmed that from now on he’ll use clear and honest language when talking about the deficit – a promise made
For goods, as opposed to services, Britain has just joined the Eurozone deflation club. This morning’s figures show that goods (i.e., the stuff we buy) were 1pc cheaper in Christmas 2014 than Christmas 2013. Factor in services and still, UK consumer price inflation was 0.5pc in December, the (joint) lowest since records began in 2004 (pdf).
Today, on the Andrew Marr show, Ed Miliband repeated his porkie that David Cameron plans to reduce state spending to 1930s levels. When he first made this bizarre and obviously untrue claim, even your baristas here at Coffee House didn’t have 1930s spending data to hand. Now we do, so the extent of his deceit can be laid
Ed Miliband was on Andrew Marr’s sofa this morning, drawing 2015 battle lines. It all looked very encouraging – if you are a conservative, that is. Miliband started discussing the Paris attacks, saying he wants to give the security services what is necessary — but as MI5’s director-general said on Thursday evening, that means more
A lot of rot is written about what MI5 thinks, because the spooks don’t talk –even to deny wrong stories (like the supposed Remembrance Day Plot to kill the Queen, etc). But now and again, they do speak. Andrew Parker, the agency’s director-general, gave a wide-ranging speech last night which worth reading in full. It
The Muslim Council of France, and of Britain, have denounced today’s attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. The imam of the mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, has said: “This is a thunderous declaration of war. The times have changed. We’re entering a new phase of this confrontation… we are horrified by the brutality and the
