Sebastian Payne

In the basement of The Spectator's offices in Old Queen Street, there are piles of tomes detailing our rich publishing history right back to 1828. Our archive is our most prized possession and today, we're delighted to share that. For the first time, both scanned and digitised copies of the magazine from July 1828 to December 2008 can be browsed online using the beta Spectator Archive. Everything in the last five years can of course be found on spectator.co.uk The archive is a treasure trove.

For the first time, David Cameron is trailing behind his party, according to the latest polling from Lord Ashcroft. Labour has long struggled with this problem, but as the charts below show, voters now also feel more favourable towards the Conservatives than they do to Cameron himself: The PM's allies within the party have long argued he is their greatest electoral asset, and this would make any attempt at removing him a folly. Now this is no longer the case, the dissenters have a whole new round of ammunition to fire at the leadership. Cameron need not utterly despair — he’s still the preferred option to Miliband as Prime Minister at 57 per cent. Just 30 per cent would to see prefer Miliband living at No.10.

You just can’t keep Michael Gove down. After beating a very public retreat by u-turning on plans to replace GCSEs earlier this year, he’s announced today the all-new I-level qualifications. I-Levels will be graded 1-8 — with a current A* roughly equal to a 7 — and will take on much of his English Baccalaureate plans, including a greatly reduced significance on coursework and limited resits. The Baccalaureate was a rare defeat for the most fervent of cabinet ministers. Back then, he told the Daily Mail his exam reforms were a ‘step too far’, but it now appears Gove was still determined to get his own way. Following the GCSE English marking disaster last summer, the secondary exam systems has been waiting for a radical rethink and toughening up.

Ukip has been unusually quiet in its response to the Woolwich killing last week. The only thing we've heard is a tactful statement on the day from Nigel Farage, slamming the incident and calling for calm. Not a peep more, and certainly no outlandish statements about tackling the 'cancer' of Islam. The muted response is a clear sign Ukip is working hard at its message discipline. The party still has one significant issue to overcome — the views of some of its members. In their response to the Woolwich incident, it appears Ukip wanted to avoid a rerun of the difficult stories they encountered at the local elections.

Earlier this week the Major Projects Authority gave High Speed 2 an amber-red flag, informing the government that the project (along with the MoD's two new aircraft carriers) is looking 'unachievable'. To its detractors, the warning confirms HS2 remains little more than a pipe dream. In last week’s Spectator, Rory Sutherland bemoaned the 20-year time frame as reason enough to abandon the project and focus our energies somewhere more immediate. But it didn't have to be like this. HS2 remains in the doldrums thanks to a lamentable amount of faffing by the government. When the coalition came to power, most of the plans for HS2 were ready to roll.

The National Audit Office has slammed High Speed 2 today, citing a £3.3 billion ‘black hole’ in the funding plans while suggesting the construction timetable is ‘over-ambitious.’ Not exactly an overwhelming vote of confidence, but does this mean the project is dead in the water? Far from it — it’s more likely to happen than even an EU referendum. The hybrid HS2 bill (to ensure the project is speedily moved along) was prominent in the Queen’s Speech for this parliamentary session. When I was travelling along the proposed route, even the most ardent fighters have conceded the line will be built. As one remarked to me: 'all we can do now is maximise our compensation'.

Westminster is on fire with speculation about Tory/Ukip joint candidates after The Spectator's exclusive this afternoon. But would it really work? CCHQ has already rejected the idea, with a spokesman telling Coffee House: 'It's not party policy and it's not going to happen.' Currently, joint candidates can't officially stand without the sign-off from Labour or Conservative head office. The national nominating officers from both parties would have to co-sign an application to register a joint description. Although in practice the Conservative party gives someone in each local association permission to nominate Conservative candidates, they don't give other people permission to change the party's registered descriptions, which this arrangement with Ukip would do.

Will Britain's lack of enthusiasm for shale gas result in a collapse of the government's whole energy policy? In this week's Spectator cover feature, Peter Lilley writes we will soon cross this shale rubicon. The former shadow chancellor and advisor to David Cameron vigorously argues that fracking can no longer be ignored in order to make the country's energy ends meet. On the latest View from 22 podcast, Fraser Nelson discusses Lilley's theory with Matthew Sinclair of the Taxpayers' Alliance and the likelihood of another Downing Street u-turn. Will Cameron radically shift the government's energy policy in an attempt to reduce consumer prices? And can the green lobby be successfully challenged in Westminster?