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Friday

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The week that was | 30 April 2010

It has been a busy week at Spectator Live, where Gaby Hinsliff has argued that Gordon Brown looks too knackered to carry on and Jo-Anne Nadler interviews William Hague, who wants to be Foreign Secretary. Here is what Spectator.co.uk made of the final televised debate; Fraser Nelson says that Cameron shone, Clegg wobbled and Brown sank. James Forsyth believes Cameron delivered the required performance. Peter Hoskin argues that the sunshine wins it for Cameron. David Blackburn watches Labour’s campaign implode. And Alex Massie proclaims a victory for Cameron, at last. And here is a selection of other posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson asks Gordon Brown ten questions.

Thursday

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WEB EXCLUSIVE: William Hague interview

Over at Spectator Live, our panellist Gaby Hinsliff asks who has the three qualities – momentum, hope and stamina - needed to close the deal in the last week of campaigning. After his exhausted blunder yesterday, Gordon Brown looks finished.   Also at Spectator Live, you can read an exclusive interview with William Hague, written by Hague’s biographer Jo-Anne Nadler. Hague has discovered a life outside politics, but if the Tories win Hague will serve as Foreign Secretary. It is the only job he wants.

Monday

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CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 26 April – 2 May

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers' Wall. For those who haven't come across the Wall before, it's a post we put up each Monday, on which - providing your writing isn't libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency - you'll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there's no need to stay 'on topic' - which means you'll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There's also no constraint on the length of what you write - so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything's fair game - from political stories in your local paper, to chat about the latest football results.

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Just in case you missed them… | 26 April 2010

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson explains why Cameron is right about the regions, and argues that the Tories must work harder to sell the Gove schools plans. James Forsyth watches Cameron make the Big Society more accessible, and catches Cable flip-flopping on yet another issue. Peter Hoskin wonders who the Lib Dems will work with, and observes the Tories growing used to the idea of a hung parliament. David Blackburn considers Labour’s Catch 22. Daniel Korski reports on some American scepticism of the Tories’ Euroscepticism. Martin Bright urges Gordon Brown to manage himself with dignity. Rod Liddle questions Peter Mandelson’s strategic nous.

Saturday

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Letters | 24 April 2010

Delingpole’s victims Sir: In his most recent column (You know it makes sense, 17 April), James Delingpole suggests that ‘even as the wall is pushed on top of’ me by anti-gay Islamists, I ‘will be squealing with [my] last breath that it’s all the fault of Western imperialism and white heterosexist Islamophobia.’ I found this slightly odd, since I am so critical of Islamic fundamentalists that I have received a substantial number of death threats from them.

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Portrait of the week | 24 April 2010

Some 150,000 British travellers were stranded when the National Air Traffic Services stopped all flights from 15 April because of a cloud of fine volcanic ash drifting from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. Some 150,000 British travellers were stranded when the National Air Traffic Services stopped all flights from 15 April because of a cloud of fine volcanic ash drifting from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. It was feared that the glassy particles would melt in jet engines, causing them to fail. The name of the volcano was very seldom heard on British media because it was hard to pronounce. No aeroplanes flew over Europe from the Pyrenees to the Arctic. The quietness was widely noted.

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Blue sky thinking

The volcanic ash cloud over Britain, which for days kept nearly all aircraft grounded, was much more than an inconvenience. For many, it was a catastrophe. Businesses that rely on air-travel have been paralysed, weddings ruined, and tens of thousands of passengers stranded abroad or stuck at home. Yet for all the chaos — which appeared to be ending after air-space was officially ‘re-opened’ on Tuesday night – Eyjafjallajökull has had its upsides. As our enthusiastic poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, pointed out, the skies looked clear and calm, ‘as clean as white slate’, uncluttered by helicopters and 747s.

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Battle for England

As we celebrate St George’s Day, it is worth asking just what England has done to deserve being landed in such a mess. She certainly did not vote for it. In the last election, the Conservatives won the most English votes. And no one, aside from 24,500 Fifers, has ever crossed a box beside Gordon Brown’s name. Yet the Labour Prime Minister has had a free rein to trample all over England’s economy. The voting system, many conclude, is a joke. So why not throw the mother of all spanners into the works — and vote Lib Dem? The English have a long record of defying authority that they do not respect. So many people declared themselves ‘Jedis’ in the last official census that it is now on record as the nation’s fourth largest religion.

Friday

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The week that was | 23 April 2010

It’s been a busy week at Spectator Live, where Gaby Hinsliff argues that what’s wrong the TV debates is the visual aspect, and Rory Sutherland thinks that the Lib Dem surge may give the Tories a lasting advantage in Middle England. There is also a selection of videos, polls and additional articles for your delectation. Here is what Spectator.co.uk made of the second televised debate: Fraser Nelson says Cameron has pulled the Tories out of the fire. James Forsyth says an improved Cameron hasn’t burst the Lib Dem bubble. Peter Hoskin calls it Cameron’s evening. David Blackburn thinks the camera doesn’t like David Cameron. And Susan Hill bets that David Cameron won’t be Prime Minister.

Tuesday

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The killer poster

So, as Daniel Korski wrote earlier, a vote for Nick Clegg keeps Labour in office - surely fertile territory for a killer poster? Here's a selection of CoffeeHousers'  'Vote Nick Get Gordon' posters. Remember him?

Monday

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CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 19 April – 25 April

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers' Wall. For those who haven't come across the Wall before, it's a post we put up each Monday, on which - providing your writing isn't libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency - you'll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there's no need to stay 'on topic' - which means you'll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There's also no constraint on the length of what you write - so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything's fair game - from political stories in your local paper, to chat about the latest football results.

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Just in case you missed them

It’s been a busy weekend at Spectator Live. We have the complete video footage of the leaders’ debate and you can read Will Straw analysis on the event here. Also, we’re conducting a readers’ poll: do you think that the Lib Dems will finish second? And here are some articles from the rest of the site: Fraser Nelson says that Cameron should tell us about his policy agenda, and explains how Charlie Whelan & Co exploit Britain’s libel laws. James Forsyth sees Gordon Brown’s mindset on full display, and argues that David Cameron needs to go big on the Big Society. Peter Hoskin responds to the Lib Dem surge, and watches Mandelson get the boot in early.

Saturday

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Letters | 17 April 2010

Tea parties began here Sir: Daniel McCarthy is right that the tea party is ‘a symbol of colonial rebellion’ (‘The trouble with tea parties’, 10 April). But where does he suppose the rebels drew their inspiration from? The American patriots of 1773 didn’t see themselves as revolutionaries, but as conservatives. In their minds, all they were asking for was what they had always assumed to be their birthright as freeborn Englishmen. Part of that birthright was liberty from unjust, arbitrary or punitive taxation. The proposition that taxes ought not to be levied except by elected representatives would have been every bit as popular in contemporary Great Britain as in the thirteen colonies.

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Portrait of the week | 17 April 2010

Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, sent the Foreign Secretary to a nuclear security summit in Washington, so that he could launch the Labour party manifesto in an empty hospital in Birmingham. It promised to halve the annual deficit by 2014, through growth, taxes and cuts, but not to raise rates of income tax and not to extend VAT to food, children’s clothes, books, newspapers and public transport fares. Underperforming schools might be taken over by more successful ones; failing police forces might be taken over by more successful ones. There would be a referendum before 2011 on the alternative vote method of electing MPs. Mr David Cameron launched the Conservative manifesto at Battersea power station, promising: ‘People power, not state power.

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Manifesto destiny

If economics is the dismal science, manifesto-writing must rank as a candidate for the most dismal of arts. Too often in recent times it has been a case of writing down the word ‘future’ and then throwing virtuous-sounding words such as ‘fairness’, ‘change’ and ‘all’ into the air and seeing in what order they land. Manifesto-writers ought to subject each sentence to a test: do not include any statement unless you can imagine your political opponents saying the opposite. The title of Labour’s manifesto sums up its intellectual exhaustion: which politician this side of the 19th-century would ever have opposed a ‘Future Fair for All’? That is what makes the title of the Conservatives’ manifesto so distinctive.

Friday

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The week that was | 16 April 2010

Keep up to date with the election on Spectator Live, where Gaby Hinsliff urges the need for police reform. Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week: The Leaders’ Debate: Fraser Nelson believes that the novelty of Nick Clegg won it for him. James Forsyth celebrates a good night for democracy. Peter Hoskin thinks that though Clegg won outright, it wasn’t all bad for Cameron.         Martin Bright congratulates all those involved and argues that Gordon Brown did well. Alex Massie’s list reads Clegg wins, Brown survives and Cameron misses. And Cappuccino Culture thought it was dreadful television.

Thursday

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Covering the TV debate

We'll be live-blogging tonight's TV debate on Coffee House from 2030.  Do, please, join us then. And, in the meantime, over on our special election site Spectator Live, Spectator panellist Gaby Hinsliff has written about why she doesn't think tonight's debate will be a make or break moment.  And Reform's Thomas Cawston has prepared a set of questions for the party leaders to answer.

Wednesday

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Around the Web: Liberal Democrat manifesto

Analysis from Pete and Daniel is available and here’s what the rest of the Web makes of the Lib Dem’s manifesto: Nick Robinson notes that the Lib Dems have made fiscal responsibility and fiscal fairness their standalone issues: 'But you don't need to reach for a calculator or even call our friends at the Institute of Fiscal Studies to ask this question - if you were in government and could really find £17bn, would you actually be prepared to give it all away? Nick Clegg's answer to that question is an interesting one. He argues that the public will only back what he once called savage cuts in public spending if they see that the cake is being fairly distributed.

Tuesday

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Around the Web: Conservative manifesto

You can read Fraser’s verdict here, but this is what the rest of the Web had to say: Janet Daley described it as ‘the perfect pitch’: 'The Conservatives have just given a launch performance for their manifesto which was as close to perfect as any I have seen. It was clear, coherent and genuinely compelling: the message was simple: people power rather than state power.' Ben Brogan welcomes less, not more: 'Today was also about David Cameron. He made a long speech, too long, and so reminded us that when he is scripted he is less effective.

Monday

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Around the Web: Labour’s manifesto

We have some video footage of Brown’s speech at Spectator Live, and you can read Pete’s analysis here. Elsewhere on the Web: Hopi Sen likes the promise on early diagnosis on Cancer care, and the fact that no incredible spending pledges have been included. The Guardian’s Julian Glover attacks a 'meaningless manifesto': 'Ed Miliband, who we are told wrote Labour's manifesto, is fond of saying that the Tories are on the wrong side of the battle of ideas. It's a neat phrase, but an empty one unless you have ideas of your own. On the basis of today's manifesto performance, Labour doesn't.