James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
Splits appear to be emerging in the Pakistani Taliban after a US drone-strike reportedly killed its leader. The New York Times says that a ‘Pakistani government official and an intelligence official said Hakimullah Mehsud, a young and aggressive aide to the former Taliban leader, had been shot dead in a fight with Waliur Rehman, another
From our UK edition
I must admit that I thought that both the government and the Tories were committed to raising Vat to 20 percent after the next election. My recollection was that Vat rising to 20 percent was part of the PBR package that saw Vat temporarily cut to 15 percent and that the Tories had not opposed
From our UK edition
Frederick and Kimberly Kagan, two of the people involved in devising the surge strategy in Iraq which so transformed the security situation there, have a strong piece in the Weekly Standard arguing that the Obama administration is in danger of repeating in Afghanistan the mistakes the Bush one made in Iraq: not giving the commander
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Chuck Wald, a retired US Air Force General who was the air commander for the US response to the 9/11 attacks, has an important op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today about Iran. Wald argues that while no one wants to see the military options explored before all others have been exhausted, it would be
From our UK edition
The news that in one Northern city, 15 percent of Neets, those young people not in education, employment or training, are dead within ten years in immensely depressing. It is a reminder of the horrendous toll that drugs and social breakdown take on our society. The director general of schools, who revealed this, stresses that
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If Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed that is a major success which should help both in the fight against the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan; Mehsud had up to 20,000 fighters under his command. It appears that a drone hit his father in law’s house while he was there
From our UK edition
Elizabeth Rubin’s profile of Hamid Karzai in the New York Times magazine is brilliantly done; it is long-form magazine journalism at its best. The two impressions that you are left with after reading it, is what a waste the Karzai presidency has been since his election in late 2004 and how his paranoia has increased
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Last August was dominated by Russia’s invasion of Georgia and two recent stories are reminders that this conflict could flare up again. Radio Free Europe reports that Georgian officials says that Obama told Medvedev and Putin that the US “would not stand aside” if Russia marched in again. At first glance, this seems odd. Obama
From our UK edition
George Osborne might be steering well clear of Corfu after all the trouble that his holiday encounters there last summer got him into, but Peter Mandelson is a fighter not a quitter and so has headed back to the island. His spokesman tells the Mirror that this trip will be “much less glamorous” than last
From our UK edition
The Daily Telegraph reports today that the Tories are thinking about appointing a minister for Afghanistan. The paper says that the “role could be taken by a new appointee possibly a former member of the Armed Forces who would be brought into government by Mr Cameron by making them a peer.” This idea, however, will
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If all shadow ministers were as in command of their brief and had thought as much about what they would do in government as Paul Goodman had, I’d feel a lot more confident about how well the next Conservative government would perform. So, I was shocked—and disappointed—when Paul telephoned me a few months back to
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Conservative Home is reporting that turnout in the Totnes open primary is 25 percent. This is quite remarkable and a real vindication of the idea of open primaries: remember that the UK turnout in the European elections was only 34 percent. In Totnes, the Tory majority is less than 2,000. But by holding an open
From our UK edition
The Daily Mirror is very exercised by the fact that David Cameron has 12 secretaries. It reports that Cameron has “five correspondence secretaries, two diary secretaries, a personal assistant, two private secretaries, one assistant private secretary and an office secretary.” This is actually a relatively small number when you consider that Cameron doesn’t, unlike the
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I think this must count as one of the daftest things I have heard in quite a while: “Two sergeants and a community support officer dressed in head-to-foot burkhas, jilbabs, hijabs and niqabs – with only narrow eye slits to see through as they accompanied four Muslim women. Another officer wore Muslim dress and a
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The Times reports today that Iran has perfected the technology needed to make a nuclear bomb and could produce one a year from being given the order to by the Supreme Leader. This is yet another reminder that time is running short when it comes to stopping Iran from going nuclear. Indeed if the Times
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The Tory plan to put old exam papers online will show how transparency can drive up standards. By allowing people to easily compare today’s exams with those of twenty, thirty years ago it will make it possible for everyone to judge whether the exams have got easier or not. One of the things that I’ll
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The Guardian has just posted online a Julian Glover piece which will be in tomorrow’s paper. In the piece, Glover says that Eric Pickles has given an interview to Monday’s Guardian in which he says that he expects 17 more Tory MPs to stand down because of the expenses row. (That would bring the total
From our UK edition
Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British ambassador to Washington, has said that Britain will be involved in Afghanistan “for decades.” Sheinwald is right and right to say this, the public need to be prepared for the fact that it will take a generation to accomplish our strategic goals in Afghainstan. Coffee Housers often ask what the British national
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On Coffee House we frequently ask why the Tories do not get Lord Ashcroft to clarify his tax status. The silence over it seems an obvious strategic vulnerability and something that is bound to create some bad press for the Tories during an election campaign. But a poll in the Sunday Telegraph today, first reported
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There’s a an intriguing story in the Telegraph today which goes some way to explaining Labour’s confusion last week over whether or not Brown wanted a TV debate with Cameron. Andy Porter, who is well connected in the Brown circle, reports that Brown planned to challenge Cameron to a series of debates in his conference
