James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
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The unemployment numbers are expected to be grim by the end of this year. But Bagehot notes in this column this week that the Brown circle believes that rising unemployment might not be as big a political deal as it has been in past recessions: “But, in private, some of his associates argue that redundancies
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At the beginning of Israel’s action in Gaza many claimed that it would bring down the more moderate Fatah-run Palestinian Authority on the West Bank. But it has not. Walter Isaacson of the US Palestinian partnership tells Jeffrey Goldberg that it is because the Palestinians on the West Bank can see what peace would bring
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We are at the point in the electoral cycle where the political class begins to speculate about a hung parliament. Personally, I’m sceptical that there will be one-the signs point to the polls breaking decisively for the Tories in 2009. But Vince Cable’s comments in The Times are noteworthy as they rule out the Lib Dems
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There are few more sickening sights than people wandering around with banners stating things like “We are all Hezbollah” or “We are all Hamas”. These people are using the freedoms entrusted to them by a liberal democracy to endorse terrorist groups with genocidal ambitions. Over at the Telegraph, Shiraz Maher has written a powerful denunciation of
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David Brooks is, to my mind, the most perceptive American political commentator. He is a conservative who understands both the potential and limitations of Obama. Today, he argues that Obama’s decision to try and do everything through the stimulus is as bold as it is risky. He writes that: “This is daring and impressive stuff.
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Obama gave a big-speech today promoting his stimulus plan. It was short on detail—there’s much Congressional horse-trading to come—but there were two passages that stood out. The first was Obama’s diagnosis of what has caused this economic collapse: “This crisis did not happen solely by some accident of history or normal turn of the business
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Tim Montgomerie and Iain Dale have both written posts today objecting to the briefing against Alan Duncan. They are right that it is never edifying to see someone being knifed by their own side, but I can’t help but feel that this is an inevitable consequence of Duncan giving that rather too memorable quote about
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Frank Field was once famously lifted off his feet by his lapels by Gordon Brown, so enraged was Brown by Field’s criticism of him. Considering this, Field would we well advised to steer clear of the great clunking fist after writing this on his blog: “During no move since has the Government been able to
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I’ll leave the economics of printing more money to those more qualified than I, but the politics of it seems appalling. Mike Smithson is right when he writes at Political Betting that: “…the notion of “printing money” sounds quite horrific – something that simply won’t be understood, surely, by 99% of the electorate and something
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Alistair Darling’s latest comments are among the most baffling he has made during this whole crisis. Here is his response when asked on BBC News about reports that the Bank of England is to start printing money: “We’re looking at a range of measures to support the economy, to support business, to help people, but
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So, it has all ended in tears. Kevin Pietersen’s resignation came even sooner than his worst enemies would have predicted when he took the job five months ago. A lot of people are already blaming Pietersen, saying that you can’t have the captain forcing the management’s hand as publicly as he tried to do when
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The vacation habits of the shadow cabinet are under discussion today principally because everyone thinks that one holidaying member will soon have much more time on his hands. But Alistair Darling’s remarks in the FT today are actually more worthy of comment. Asked about the delay in launching loan guarantee scheme for small businesses, Darling
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Kevin Maguire devotes the bulk of his column today to arguing that Gordon Brown should sign up to a televised debate before the next election. Maguire writes: “In Downing Street, the mood remains opposed to US-style Presidential TV debates. … Brown should declare now that he’ll talk podium-to-podium with Cameron and the Lib Dems’ Nick
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After the PBR there was a huge sense of relief among Tories that Brown had chosen such politically poor tax cuts. An income tax cut (or an increase in the personal allowance which would have had the same effect) would have caused the Tories far more problems than the two and a half percent cut
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One thing that strikes me about many of Israel’s critics is their unwillingness to even think about why Israel acts as it does. Those who think that Israel is wrong to be doing what it is doing in Gaza should read Daniel Finkelstein’s column in The Times this morning; I won’t quote from it because
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Michael Crick has taken to his blog to reveal the contents of leaked Minutes from a Tory meeting: “”Care needs to be taken over the candidates that have the potential to embarrass the Party – there will now be a fortnightly meeting to assess the watch-list of candidates, and the reasons they are on the
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Rachel Sylvester’s column today, highlighted by Pete this morning, raises the question of who should take the blame for the decline in Britain’s utility as a combat ally. This is principally a result of this country fighting wars on a peacetime budget. It was one of Tony Blair’s great failings that he did not tell
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Jeffrey Goldberg, formerly of the New Yorker and now at The Atlantic, is a fantastic writer and always worth reading on the Middle East. His post, flagged up by Clive, explaining why he isn’t commenting more on the situation in Gaza, is as depressing as it is moving: “I’ve served in the Israeli Army in
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One habit the Tory party should aim to cure itself of in 2009 is its over-reliance on David Cameron to gets its message across. Some Tories defend the heavy use of Cameron by arguing that he is both the party’s most attractive face and the only way they can guarantee getting their message reported in
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The economic crisis is so bad that it is often easy to forget that the foreign policy challenges that so dominated the news a year or so ago have not gone away. The mission in Afghanistan will present General Petraeus with an even tougher challenge than Iraq, Iran’s nuclear ambitions will have to be confronted