David Miliband has confirmed that two US rendition flights – carrying suspected terrorists – stopped on UK territory in the Indian Ocean, in 2002. There had previously been “no evidence” of the flights, and the Foreign Secretary assured the House that previous assurances about rendition flights had been made in “good faith”. The Government’s efforts
Few have torn into Gordon Brown’s Government with the ferocity of Anatole Kaletsky, and today the Times writer adds another landmark article to the pile. In it, he highlights the parallels between the Northern Rock debacle and Black Wednesday: “Black Wednesday revealed a Prime Minister unable to face reality or think more than a few days ahead,
I took a pew at James Purnell’s talk to the Social Market Foundation earlier today, and it was striking just how far he went to distinguish Labour’s tough line on benefit claimants from the Tories’ tough line on benefit claimants. There were ideological distinctions between “freedom from” and “freedom to”; claims that only Labour understand how
There was a nice vignette on Today in Parliament last night; centred around Lord Foulkes of Cumnock’s request for another bank holiday in the UK. Sir Digby Jones was the main voice against the proposition, stressing that each bank holiday results in a £2.5 billion loss for British coffers. Whilst its supporters cited imbalances (England gets
The number of NEETs – that’s those young people Not in Education, Employment or Training – has swollen over the past decade. There were 154,000 NEETs aged 16-18 in 1997, and some 206,000 at the beginning of 2007. To tackle the problem, James Purnell yesterday announced a crackdown on young benefit claimants. 18 year-old NEETs will
Hamish McRae writes an excellent article in today’s Independent; reminding us that the Northern Rock debacle pales in comparison to the Government’s mishandling of public finances: “The much more substantial charge is that the Government has mishandled public finances, borrowing far more than it planned, year after year. We are heading into a global downturn,
It has just been confirmed that Fidel Castro – leader of Cuba since 1959 – is to retire as President of his country. Whilst it’s certainly a moment for the history books, it’s difficult to see what his stepping-down will change in the short-to-medium term. After all, Castro “temporarily” handed over power to his brother
Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have just delivered an absurd medley of deceptions, unwarranted boasts and blame-shifting. Their Northern Rock press conference in brief: everything’s the fault of global forces, and we can be happy that Brown’s “long-term decisions” will stave off the worst of it all. There’s plenty of material there for the Spectator’s Brownies campaign. The worst part, though, was
Bruce Anderson writes an essential piece in today’s Independent, in which he crystallises the tortoise-hare debate around changes in public opinion; the political narrative of the past thirty years; and Laffer curves. His conclusion? That David Cameron has the opportunity to forge a new consensus; one which doesn’t equate tax cuts with reductions in public services: “Messrs
The BBC are reporting that Northern Rock is to be nationalised. The move comes after Richard Branson’s overtures to the beleaguered company were rejected. It’s yet another case of Government dithering, and one of the most monumental yet. This was true back in January – when the Chancellor had allegedly found a private sector solution
I wrote earlier that the George Osborne’s approach to tax cuts may “reduce to a tortoise-hare debate”. By characterising the Tories as “ditherers” over tax, Ben Chu of Open House feeds ammo to those on Team Hare: “The Conservative leadership attacks Gordon Brown for being a “ditherer” and ordering endless reviews to put off making decisions. But the Tories
Following William Hague’s excellent speech there last week, George Osborne has today delivered an important address on tax reform at Policy Exchange. The key component was a cogent defence of the Tories’ current pledge to match Labour spending plans: “Now the Labour Government have been forced by their own profligacy to adopt plans for the coming three
It’s emerged that Lee Jasper has been suspended from his role as Ken Livingstone’s race adviser, as police investigate a number of suspect spending decisions that he had a hand in. This is the last thing Livingstone needed. He’s come under heavy fire recently, but he can expect much worse now there’s the whiff of a criminal investigation around his
The Royal United Services Institute delivers a stark warning in a report today – that the Government’s “misplaced deference” to multiculturalism has made Britain a “soft touch” for terrorists. In the wake of the recent Sharia controversy, the Institute’s claim that “The UK presents itself as a target, as a fragmenting, post-Christian society” will have
James wrote earlier on plans to make MPs formally declare any family members who work for them. But, if the New Statesman’s Kevin Maguire is right, the new measures may be to little avail. The reason? Well, the MPs have a cunning plan: “Wife swapping is the name of the game, swinging the new earner. A snitch of unimpeachable
A reminder that Boris wants to know which of Gordon Brown’s misleading little claims you find the most outrageous. At the moment, our Prime Minister’s statements about inflation are topping the chart. As CoffeeHouser ‘m’ puts it: “Inflation is only 2.1%, or as he will now say, only 2.2%. That is not what my groceries, fuel, energy, rail travel, council tax, water
Prompted by Peter Riddell’s article in the Times today, I’ve just read through the speech that Jack Straw delivered yesterday on “modernising the Magna Carta”. It’s heady stuff – all talk of Labour’s “quiet revolution” and of a UK Supreme Court – but the grandest suggestion is of a codified British Bill of Rights. As Straw puts it: “The next
Following Steven Spielberg’s withdrawal as an artistic adviser to this year’s Beijing Olympics, a new web exclusive article by Heidi Kingstone investigates Chinese relations with Africa, and what both regions hope to gain from each other. Do check it out.
If you’re after a profound cinematic experience, then you could do far worse than to invest in Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage (1921), which got its first UK DVD release yesterday. The premise of this silent, Swedish film is ripped from a dark fairytale. Anyone who dies at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve
A new YouGov poll for the DWP confirms the dangers of a lifestyle culture. The bottom line: many young people now expect to enjoy certain luxuries when they retire, without having to save in the meantime. There are, however, signficant regional variations. 84 percent of Scottish under-34 year olds expect the same lifestyle when they retire, compared to 37 percent