Sebastian Payne

As the world's reaction to Syria continues to develop, with Barack Obama's vote in Congress and talks of a second vote in Parliament, the Spectator’s Douglas Murray, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the state of the special relationship, who will be responsible for the eventual outcome in Syria, what Labour and the Tories are thinking about a potential second vote, the significance of Obama following in Cameron's footsteps and what to expect over the next week. Douglas Murray on the problems with intervention 'How do you hit targets in Syria that punish Assad which do not go some way to toppling the regime? If you do topple the regime, then there is a strong argument you've broken it and therefore you own it.

George Osborne is not relinquishing his love for High Speed 2 anytime soon. On his welcome return to television this morning, Andrew Marr gave the Chancellor a grilling over the new line. Osborne in return defended the government's position both on monetary and ideological grounds. With the most recent costings of £50 - 80 billion thrown around, the Chancellor added some clarity on how much he will authorise for construction of the new line: ‘We have set the budget for £42bn for the construction costs. That includes, by the way, a big contingency. As we demonstrated with the Olympic Games, we can deliver these big projects actually sometimes under budget. I think we have got a good budget, which has got a very big contingency in it, we've set a budget.

At 10.00pm last night, Parliament votes against giving British approval to an American missile strike that was going to happen with or without us. But to the New York Daily News, it's a sign that the British have gone AWOL. And to many in Britain, it's a sign that the world has ended. Here's a selection of the more emotional responses to last night's vote: @paddyashdown In 50 years trying to serve my country I have never felt so depressed/ashamed. Britain's answer to the Syrian horrors? none of our business!

Is David Cameron pushing Britain into a war without a purpose? On the latest View from 22 podcast, the Mail on Sunday’s Peter Hitchens vigorously debates Alan Mendoza from the Henry Jackson Society on this week’s developments in Syria. Why should Britain increase its involvement in Syria? What benefit would it bring to our nation? And how has the Prime Minister evolved from a leader who once said ‘democracy should not be dropped from 40,000ft’ into a foreign policy hawk? Fraser Nelson and Isabel Hardman also discuss how this week’s parliamentary business on Syria will play out between the coalition partners. Are the Tories and Lib Dems united?

Surprise, surprise — Michael Gove doesn’t think much of Ed Miliband. To keep up the momentum on Labour's summer of discontent, the Education Secretary gave a speech at Conservative HQ this morning, focusing on Labour's troubled relationship with the trade unions — again. He was clearly enjoying himself as he compared the Labour leader's present position to two of the party's moderate forces: ‘And if anyone thinks I am asking too much I ask simply this - what would Blair do? Indeed, what would even Kinnock have done? ‘The sad truth is that - charming, intelligent, eloquent, thoughtful, generous and chivalrous as Ed Miliband may be - in this critical test of leadership he has been uncertain, irresolute, weak.

Labour has decided that the cost of living is the best way to attack the Tories while it tries to fathom what its own policies are. This is a rich seam to mine, and the party wants to ask voters whether they are really any better off than they were five years ago. But Ed Miliband and his team may be reckoning without the energetic attack dog mood that the Tories are in at the moment. They are keen to fight Labour on this turf, too, rather than giving any ground. So confident are the Conservatives that rather than defend their record, they are also going on the defensive, launching Cost of Labour, a new website which estimates, based on personal circumstances, how much a Labour government would cost you. Like all CCHQ initiatives of late, it includes an all-important email field.

At last, something Michael Gove and Stephen Twigg agree on. Both the Education Secretary and his opposite number agree that efforts need to be made to tackle pupils entering the same exams multiple times, sometimes even through multiple exam boards. There are often legitimate reasons but the practice has become more c used to boost grades. In light of today’s GCSEs results, the shadow Education Secretary has urged Gove to target schools that are gaming the system; to ensure ‘the system is robust, so students only need to take the exam once.' Good idea, except the Education Secretary has already recognised the issue and taken steps to address it.

As if many true blue parts of England didn't dislike the Chancellor enough, today's Financial Times adds to his misdemeanours renewed support for High Speed 2. Their splash (£) reports that despite fresh concerns from Treasury officials over the sums, George Osborne is still pushing ahead with the new line. According to the pink 'un, Osborne sees the project as 'an emblem of the coalition's commitment to spread growth more evenly across the country'. I'm sure many of his fellow Tories will be disappointed that he isn't backtracking instead. Osborne's rallying cry doesn't drown out the scary new figure that the FT has for the cost of HS2.

Is the Lobbying Bill another erratic attempt to censor bloggers? In a similar fashion to the Crime and Courts Act, which almost put blogs under the same umbrella as newspapers for fines, the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill has potential implications for charities and 'third sector' groups, not just political parties and bog standard lobbyists. As Mark Ferguson pointed out on LabourList, any campaigning classed as 'political' in an election year will be subject to a £32,000 limit, more paperwork and potentially, permission from a political party to actually take place if they exceed that limit.This new regime, unless clearly defined in the bill, could affect political blogs.

Why is David Cameron still backing High Speed 2? It’s controversial inside his party and divisive in the Tory heartlands. Despite a government task force set up to promote the business case for the new railway, the anti-HS2 brigade are winning the war of the words, as evidenced by Fleet Street's recent attacks on the project. The Mail on Sunday splashed yesterday with leaked analysis on how HS2 is going to result in vast amounts of disruption in beautiful parts of the country. Not exactly a new revelation but the full impact of the construction is only being realised now. With this knowledge, Melissa Kite argues in the Guardian today that Cameron is only pushing ahead with the railway to engage in some good old class warfare.

Are those Home Office vans targeting illegal immigrants universally disliked? The outcry from when the vans first took to the streets — notably #racistvan on Twitter — would suggest so but new polling from YouGov shows a disconnect between what those in politics and media think and the rest of the country. Over half of those polled this week support the vans, up eight points when last questioned in July: Two thirds also stated they disagreed that the vans were racist, up five points since the last batch of polling, while only 34 per cent thought they were offensive and stupid. The campaign group Liberty were certainly offended; they were disgruntled enough to commission their own van.

Would Labour destabilise Britain’s fragile economic recovery? The Tories are keen to convince the nation that Labour would, ahead of Miliband's expected offensive on the state of the economy and the cost of living. Positive growth forecasts, increasing construction and export figures  all add to the perception that the economy is on the up; but, as I discussed earlier this week, the mood in the country is still cautious and many people are struggling to make ends meet. Treasury minister Sajid Javid tackles this problem in the Telegraph today.

The battle for The King's School is over, and Labour has lost. As reported in today's Newcastle Chronicle, North Tyneside Council met yesterday and voted against pursuing a judicial review of the new Kings Priory Academy in Tynemouth. After threatening to halt the merger of the independent King's School and state Priory Primary School since May, the council has accepted that it is on the wrong side of parents and the local community. The council is not celebrating the arrival of a new state school. The Labour mayor of North Tyneside, Norma Redfearn, said of the decision: 'I have been in education for years and I can’t believe how this process has taken place.

Fresh polling (£) from The Times and YouGov today says that the Tories still have much work to do to convince voters that they will directly benefit from an improving national economy. The good news for the Conservatives is that confidence in the economy is up. Nearly a third of those polled think that they will be ‘satisfied’ with the economy this time next year. This is a eleven-point jump from the last time the question was asked in June — and a steady trend upwards over the last year: But only 16 per cent think that their personal finances will get better over the next 12 months. On pay, 58 per cent of those working full-time and part time (more than eight hours a week) believe their pay will go up by less than inflation, or go down.