Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
The Scottish speech is normally a neglected part of the Labour Party conference but has more potency now that there’s less than a year to go to the referendum. Johann Lamont, leader of Scottish Labour, is an important actor in the battle to save the union. The Tory vote in Scotland has been reduced to staff members and blood
‘Labour plans have a £27 billion black hole,’ says the Sunday Times, quoting analysis from George Osborne’s Treasury. If true, that’s the first piece of good economic news we’ll have heard from Labour. Osborne’s black holes have been way, way bigger – well over £100 billion so far. In his excellent new book about journalese,
Three years ago, just two lonely journalists turned up to the UKIP annual conference. This year, they have accredited 150 of them. Now Britain’s third-largest party (it has led the LibDems in the polls since March) Nigel Farage positions himself as an insurgent whose message is so incendiary that the mainstream would not dare to
‘Drug use; spousal abuse; secret alcoholism; extra-marital affairs. I estimate I did nothing with 95 per cent of the stories I was told. But, yes, some of them ended up on the front pages of Sunday newspapers.’ And with this starts the serialisation of what will be perhaps the most explosive book about British politics for
In a small cupboard at the end of my office sits a bottle of 1995 Lagavulin, distilled in a Pedro Ximénez sherry cask. Just looking at it from my desk gives me immense pleasure. I can open it and smell the cork if I need inspiration. And sometimes, after The Spectator is put to bed, I
Twelve people have been killed in a shooting at US Naval Sea Systems Command’s HQ in Washington DC by a gunman later shot dead by police. The below charts events as they unfolded yesterday. It began at 8.20am EST in Building 197 of the Washington Navy Yard complex, which is home to 3,000 workers. Latest
During the Brown bubble, most economic commentators spotted nothing – buying the theory that the West was adopting to a new era of permanently lower interest rates. Jeremy Warner and Jeff Randall stood out amongst a consensus which spied no danger. But a new generation of economic commentators are more sceptical. Allister Heath, an associate
David Aaronovitch’s column in The Times today (here) is fairly devastating for Ed Miliband. He’s angry about the Syria vote, but this has crystalised his misgivings about the character of the man who would be Prime Minister. Miliband could have accepted Cameron’s motion and taken credit for getting proper process established, he said. But instead
Labour had better get used to headlines of economic upgrades. There’s about two dozen major forecasters out there, and each will take a turn to say that Britain’s doing better than they’d thought. To have such good news repeated will be a headache for Labour, as Iain Martin blogs today. But Labour are right to
Sir David Frost died of a heart attack this morning, aged just 74 Here are a few videos from his truly extraordinary career – starting with his own take on satire: His famous Richard Nixon interviews – highlights: With Margaret Thatcher:- With Mohammed Ali: And John Lennon: The exiled Shah of Iran:- With Brian Clough,
When seeking election, both David Cameron and Barack Obama promised to seek a vote before going to war. Until an hour ago, it seemed that the Prime Minister was as good as his word but the president was not. His decision to follow Cameron’s example and consult Congress has stunned Washington, not least because popular
Britain has not rejected America nor abdicated its role in the world. The Sun’s reports of the death of the special relationship are exaggerated. Thursday’s vote may have given John Kerry a chance to indulge his Francophillia (‘our oldest ally,’ purred the Swiss-educated State Secretary) but this was not us chickening out. It was a
A sombre George Osborne has just popped up on the Today programme saying that parliament last night triggered ‘soul searching’ in the country. ‘I think there will be a national soul-searching about our role in the world and whether Britain wants to play a big part in upholding the international system, be that big open
Having lost last night’s vote, David Cameron needs to spend today fighting back. There are quite a few ways he can do so. He can easily brush off the more excitable charges: that he faces a leadership challenge, or that Tories will come for him at party conference. They won’t. Cameron was elected to fix
David Cameron has lost far more than the argument over Syria. He put his credibility on the line tonight, and lost. This is not just an extraordinary defeat but a spectacular political misjudgment, as I say in my Daily Telegraph column tomorrow. There will be a great many more questions asked tomorrow: from a sleepy
The Sunday Times p1 today reveals (to people who don’t read the Daily Telegraph or CoffeeHouse) that Theresa May is planning a Modern Slavery Bill. The Home Secretary writes about its details in the newspaper and in so doing exhibits a very peculiar trait. She appears to belong to a tiny subcategory of politicians: those
Today is the United Nations day for he Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition – and the school packs have been readied to tell pupils about Britain’s part in this great evil. But the way we tend to remember (and, occasionally, apologise for) slavery has two main problems. Yes, British traders played a full
It’s not just Ed Miliband who’s facing pressure over HS2. George Osborne’s famous political antennae must be twitching furiously by now — does he really want to be the last man in England backing this? Alistair Darling’s case (£) reeks of cold logic: he has become the latest public figure to withdraw support for HS2
I’m just back from three weeks away to find the summer momentum very strongly behind the Tories. A ComRes poll suggests that the majority of Labour supporters think Ed Miliband is doing badly, and things are going so strongly for the Tories (as George Trefgarne writes) that the odds on a Tory majority are shrinking
The ABC circulation figures for The Spectator are out today. But they show only print sales which, in the digital age, are now just part of the story. Many of our readers are migrating to digital, especially our overseas subscribers who can now access The Spectator online and via the Spectator app on the same day as British readers.
