The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 28 July 2007

From our UK edition

Sir: I’m very encouraged to see you doing such wonderful work supporting Boris Johnson in his bid to be Mayor of London… Why we need Boris Sir: I’m very encouraged to see you doing such wonderful work supporting Boris Johnson in his bid to be Mayor of London (Leading article, 21 July). Yes, it’ll be

The world after Bush

From our UK edition

This review essay by Samantha Power, a Harvard professor who is close to Obama, on where the Bush presidency is leaving the war on terror is well worth reading. Her main concern is that the American public, with little faith in the credibility of the government’s claims, may deny even cleareyed leaders the resources they

Common sense submerged

From our UK edition

The waters of the River Avon, recounted the vicar of Bengeworth, outside Evesham, ‘reached almost to the keystone of the arch of the bridge, and extended up Port Street to the public pump on the south side of the street… The waters of the River Avon, recounted the vicar of Bengeworth, outside Evesham, ‘reached almost

Tony Blair meets the Simpsons

From our UK edition

With Gordon jetting off to Camp David and the Simpsons movie coming out this weekend, here’s Tony Blair–he used to be Prime Minister, you know–doing a cameo on the show. Somehow, I think, that this is one invite Gordon will never get.  

How Brown is reversing Blair’s reforms

From our UK edition

Doesn’t anyone spot what Gordon Brown is really up to? The great Peter Riddell isn’t convinced that he has altered the Blair reform agenda, and thinks that “changes are at the margins”. Well, you could say that. If you snap the brake cable of a car, change is at the margins – but the consequences

Having a blast before blast off

From our UK edition

There are few things that can be more boring that floating around in a tin can looking down at the earth. So I’m glad to hear that the astronauts have found a way, albeit a rather unoriginal one, to make the time fly by. (Insert your own joke about one small sip for man, one giant

More poll woe for the Tories

From our UK edition

Today’s Telegraph poll is disastrous for Cameron. That the Tories are 9 points behind Labour is not even the worst news in it for him; what should worry him most is how his personal ratings have plummeted. In February, 43% of the electorate thought he was proving a good leader and 27% that he wasn’t

Is their money good here?

From our UK edition

If you’re wondering what to make of the Chinese decision to invest in Barclays and the Qatari effort to buy Sainsburys do read this column that Martin Vander Weyer has done for us explaining why there is nothing sinister about such developments.

Obama takes a shot at Hillary

From our UK edition

At the YouTube debate Barack Obama and Hillary got into a row about whether or not the US president should meet with some of the world’s least attractive leaders—Castro, Chavez, Ahmadinejad etc. Clinton went after Obama hard for promising to meet with all these guys during his first year in office. After the debate, she

Why would Rambo read The Indy?

From our UK edition

What do neo-con action hero John Rambo and not-neo-con newspaper The Independent have in common? A bottle of champagne to the first Coffee Houser to get the right answer.

The Tories have no plan b

From our UK edition

Fraser’s piece is already making waves. The reason for this is that it poses the question that all Tories are thinking about but dare not voice – not least because they do not know the answer to the question: “If not Dave, then who?” To lose a fourth successive general election, as the polls suggest

RIP Shambo

From our UK edition

If you’re thinking about the sacred bullock that is about to be slaughtered on the orders of the Welsh Assembly, do read the incomparable Jeremy Clarke’s piece on Shambo.

What if Cameron fell under a bus?

From our UK edition

Fraser has a cracking piece in tomorrow’s magazine on who’d  take over if something happened to Dave. As Fraser reports, there’s no clear alternative—something that Cameron has reason to be thankful for considering the feeding frenzy currently going on in the Westminster village. I called William Hills earlier and asked them for the odds on who

The warped world of Ward Churchill

From our UK edition

I have been interested in Ward Churchill for years. So interested, in fact, that his writings inspired me to write a novel about what might happen if the “global justice movement” developed a taste for revolutionary violence. Churchill, who claims Native American ancestry, has finally been sacked by the University of Colorado for calling the

Essential reading

From our UK edition

There’s been a lot of hype – justifiably – around P J O’Rourke’s book on Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations Indeed, we posted on it weeks ago. But Coffee Housers should not miss out on Eamonn Butler’s splendid new guide, Adam Smith –  A Primer (IEA, £7.50), which is a thorough and well-written introduction to