Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
You don’t have to be a socialist to be alarmed at the way executive pay is, once again, spinning into the stratosphere. Did the head of Burberry really need £16 million? And the head of Nationwide £2.6 million? It fit a trend: the average FTSE100 chief executive salaries are rising again – by about 10pc
Meet Maurice Mcleod. He’s a proper leftie, who has lived in council accommodation all his life. He pays rent for it — about £480 a month for his rather down-at-heel one-bedroom flat in Tooting. Yet due to the London property bubble it is now valued at £150,000 and if he wants to buy it he
I like his style already. Keeps the press waiting for two weeks, and then gives the press a two-fingered flick of a greeting. His parents had just a few minutes on the hospital steps, but played it perfectly. Prince William held the baby, joked about how his son has more hair than he does, strapped the
Is Britain addicted to immigration? I argued so in my Telegraph column yesterday and Radio 4’s Today programme held a discussion about it this morning and asked me on (22 mins in, here). You can say that that immigration has worked wonders for the economy – without it, we’d have a pathetic 2 per cent
The business case for HS2 is falling apart, and with it the political consensus. Vince Cable has today become the latest one to say that the case is not made. Wednesday’s Newsnight put together transport experts who suggested that the taxpayer would get 50p or 60p of benefit for every £1 spent. (HS2 started by
Libya is a success from which David Cameron might not recover. This, at any rate, seems to be the fear of Sir David Richards who has marked his exit as head of the military with a Daily Telegraph interview. He appears to reinforcing a point David Cameron once made: ‘I am not,’ he once said,
What to do about the NHS? I’ve just been on a Newsnight which took as its premise that the model is broken and needs to be fixed. “Uncaring. Cruel. Inadequate. Lax,” said Kirsty Wark, opening the show. “Why is the NHS now failing so many patients?” The Keogh report is published tomorrow and is expected to
As the House of Lords prepares to vote on gay marriage, a YouGov poll shows that the opinion of people who regard themselves as ‘religious’ is 48pc against and 44pc in favour of gay marriage. Given the margin of error, this can be seen as an even split. So why the acrimony? The answer, in
Andrew Marr was back on the Marr show this morning, doing a great public service by reminding Britain why we’re not missing David Miliband. The ex-Blair adviser formerly nicknamed ‘Brains’ is off to join International Rescue next week – and even Marr couldn’t resist a Thunderbirds reference. Miliband wasn’t amused. He’d come to give a
I am taken to task by the Guardian’s Ally Fogg for my Telegraph column on the growing underachievement of boys. It’s a thoughtful and spunky piece, which I thought worth replying to here. The phenomenon of male underperformance causes much angst on the left, demanding a choice between feminism and equality. For anyone born after Perry
Today’s Daily Mirror has exposed half a scandal: that the tax changes under this government have hit the poor harder that the rich. That’s what you get when you jack up VAT: it hits everyone, but will hit the poor proportionally harder. But this year, the lower-paid half of British workers will be asked for
A Scot has ended Britain’s 77 years of hurt: it’s a glorious day, and Andy Murray’s was a glorious victory. Anticipating this, there were three party leaders watching. From the moment Alex Salmond settled down in Centre Court, you knew what he was up to: he’d have packed a Saltire in his lunchbox and would
The Home Office has released pictures and video footage of Abu Qatada being escorted to an aircraft heading to Jordan where he is to stand trial. He left Belmarsh at midnight and his private jet (carrying a Jordanian welcoming party) took off (yes, they have pictures of that too) from RAF Northolt at 2.45am. He’s
Parents have an irritating habit of telling the world how wonderful, clever, gifted etc their children are. It used to annoy me, until I became a parent – and I worked out that it is a trick of the mind. Something happens to you where you do actually believe it, and think it’s so obvious
In today’s Observer, Andrew Rawnsley says that Ed Balls has become a victim of his own success. The Shadow Chancellor predicted the George Osborne ‘would smother growth by cutting too far, too fast…The coalition jeered that Mr Balls was a deficit-denier and an unreconstructed old Keynesian,’ says Rawnsley — as if this has been subsequently disproven.
There is a strange disconnect between George Osborne’s enthusiasm that young people should buy homes, and the reluctance of young people to do so. The Telegraph has reported that fewer young people own homes than ever – and it fears, perhaps as the Chancellor does, that this has political implications because owners tend to vote
Many Prime Ministers go native when they head to Brussels. But David Cameron’s hostility to the whole racket is hardening with every trip. At his post-summit press conference today, he was remarkably frank about what had just happened. “I have defeated this latest attempt to cut the rebate,” he said. “I am frustrated I have
Poor old Ed Balls. His economic policy seems to be imploding, and he was reduced this morning to concocting stories about the Wicked Tories. He revived his favourite theme: that ‘welfare’ includes people who are working and claim tax credits. So in reforming welfare the Wicked Tories are attacking the working poor, whom they portray as
Listen to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth discuss the 2013 spending review: listen to ‘Spending review 2013: the Coffee House analysis’ on Audioboo
