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So far we know from previous reports that Hazel Blears, Ruth Kelly, Yvette Cooper and Caroline Flint have admitted to taking drugs in the past. Jack Straw, the brothers Miliband, Peter Hain and, of course, Gordon Brown have said they have never taken them.
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Denis Skinner, the Beast of Bolsover, has taken to making drug jokes at David Cameron in the chamber.
From our UK edition
"Can you believe it?" Every time Barbra Streisand remembered how long it was since she had first sung a song, visited a town, tried a local delicacy - "1961!" - 23,000 adoring fans agreed that, no, it was quite unbelievable. Most of the audience at the 02 arena last night could not quite believe they were actually, at last, genuinely hearing their heroine, playing in London for the first time in 13 years. And the sense of event was as palpable as the crushed velvet of the legend's gown: veering effortlessly from the ditzy to the diva, she held a thousand dreams in the palm of her hand, and yet was not too grand to take questions from the crowd, too. Like Gordon, she was listening and learning, although it must be said that, in her case, the questions were not very tough.
From our UK edition
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From our UK edition
Today sees the launch of an intriguing new international group, The Elders. It is a collection of aging, diplomatic all-stars who will join forces to push issues up the international agenda. The cast is pretty stellar: Nelson Mandela and his wife, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Muhammad Yunus et al. The whole idea makes sense--even if the current crew do rather run the risk of group think--as at the same time that people are living longer, political leaders are getting younger. It would be foolish to let their expertise and knowledge go to waste once they’ve left office. At the very least, this new club will give our recently departed PM something to aspire to in retirement.
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From the always entertaining Beau Bo D'Or.
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George W. Bush’s former speechwriter Michael Gerson takes a swing at Rudy Giuliani in today’s Washington Post saying that the Republican president Rudy resembles is not Reagan but Nixon. Gerson lays out how Giuliani is on the wrong side of Catholic teachings on everything from abortion to torture and claims that, “No one inspired by the social priorities of Pope John Paul II can be encouraged by the political views of Rudy Giuliani.” Do read the whole thing.
From our UK edition
Boris mania has, understandably, rather crowded out coverage of this Thursday’s Ealing Southall by-election. But the result will be key to the political mood over the summer. If the Tories get within 3 figures of Labour, it will ease the pressure on David Cameron that has built as Labour’s lead has widened. It will show that his more inclusive, less tribal politics appeals not only to commentators but voters. While if the Tory campaign belly flops, there’ll be much grassroots muttering about how on earth someone who’d been photographed beaming with Blair at a Labour fundraiser just last month got picked as a Tory candidate. The result, though, will have the most direct impact on Ming Campbell’s future, as Iain Dale argues.
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Mike Read, the former Top of the Pops presenter who was touted as a possible Tory Mayoral candidate, has announced today that he’s backing Boris. If Coffee Housers see any other Boris endorsements send them along to us.
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If you want a handy primer on why so many people think we’re slipping into a new Cold War, read Fraser Nelson’s cover story on the Russian arms build up under Vladimir Putin. As Fraser points out, while we’ve been fixated on the Middle East, Putin has been preparing the ground for an aggressive restoration of Russia’s great power status.
From our UK edition
From our UK edition
It has been a blistering first 24 hours for The Candidate. But who would have thought that Day Two would begin with the passing of such a significant Non-Electoral Milestone - the condemnation of Boris by the Guardian's in-house funster and Coffee House's choice to write the next Bond novel, Polly Toynbee? In a column of intergalactic joylessness that would have had Malvolio saying "hey, lighten up a bit, Pol", she takes a hatchet to Boris, claiming that he is right-wing (wrong), a Europhobe (wrong) and a sociopath (about as wrong as you can be). All this is worth many votes for our man. Her opposition was essential to the Project and we thank her for it.
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The key to Barack Obama’s phenomenal fund-raising success, $58.6 million raised so far, is that he is working both ends of the spectrum equally hard. He is playing the grassroots card for all its worth by registering anyone who buys so much as bumper sticker as a donor and has raised more in small donations than the rest of the Democratic field combined. But he is also tapping the banker class hard. If you look at the five firms from whose employees he’s raised the most money they’re all finance houses: Lehman Brothers, $160,760; Citadel Investment Group, $152,150; Goldman Sachs, $103,550; JP Morgan Chase, $101,950 and Citigroup $61,125.
From our UK edition
As Boris steps up to the plate, a word in praise of the man who is now advising him and would, barring an illness, be running as a first-class candidate for London Mayor himself. Nick Boles is one of the best and the brightest of the Cameron Conservative Party, very much in its in innermost counsels, and a thoroughly decent person to boot. It is absolutely typical of Nick that, even as he has been beginning treatment for early stage Hodgkins Lymphoma, he has also been helping Boris out and transferring the impressive resources he had marshalled over to his care. Not much is certain in politics, but, once he has recovered, I am certain that Nick will proceed to a good seat, enter Parliament, and become a prominent member of the next Tory Cabinet.
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"Surely what Londoners want is a Mayor who not only gives a lead - and champions the arts and culture of the city in every way - but who also keeps his government simple, doesn't trample needlessly over the councils, and directs his intellectual energy at the core problems: transport, housing, crime." If that’s what you want, head to Boris’s website and sign up to help his campaign.
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This exchange between Lindsey Graham, John McCain’s right-hand man, and Jim Webb, Ronald Reagan’s navy secretary who is now an anti-war Democrat, gives you a good idea of how heated the Iraq debate is now getting in the States. Senators, who pride themselves on their Roman reserve, don’t squabble like this in public. The debate is going to become bitterer still before General Petraeus’s delivers his make or break update to Congress on the war in September. In reality, we’ll be faced with the same dilemma then that we are now. Leave—and resign ourselves to the genocidal civil war that will surely follow and the boost that Iran and al Qaeda will receive from the Coalition’s humiliation.
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Even as I write, the television screen is alight with the long-awaited words: “Boris to stand.” The great man is, as Coffee Housers know, the Spectator’s official candidate and there is much work to do in the months ahead to get him into the mayoral office and at the helm of the greatest city the world has ever known (apologies to Rome, Boris). For the duration of the campaign, Toby Young will be our roving correspondent, keeping you up to date on the progress of the tousle-haired one. This blog and the magazine will keep you in touch at all times.
From our UK edition
Andrew Rawnsley’s column in today’s Observer on quite how much Brown and Cameron dislike each other is essential reading. As one Brown ally tells Rawnsley, 'Gordon could only be more contemptuous of him if Cameron were a lawyer.' How the two sides handle this enmity is going to be key to the next election result. To go back to Gore v. Bush in 2000, which to my mind is the previous campaign which most resembles the Brown-Cameron showdown, there’s little doubt that Gore’s disdain for Bush ending up hurting his election effort. His desire not only to beat Bush but to humiliate him, to expose him led to Gore’s over aggressive debate performances.
From our UK edition
Further to James's post on the dreadful Lord Malloch Brown, my column in today's Sunday Telegraph addresses the predicament facing Gordon Brown. I doubt the PM will be remotely sentimental if the foreign minister drops another Malloch (so to speak). Watch Andrew Marr's interview with David Miliband for a clear signal of the stakes: the Foreign Secretary was charmingly indulgent of his in-house Falstaff, smiling about the whole episode with a commanding menace that, if I were Lord Malloch Brown would have filled me with fear. No second chances.
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Gordon Brown’s government has gone from blunder to blunder in Anglo-American relations. First it ennobled and hires Mark Malloch Brown, a talentless UN bureaucrat known only for his hostility to America (and vice versa). Then it approves Douglas Alexander’s speech, not realising how the haughty and misjudged line about ‘build, don’t destroy’ would go down. A panicked Brown makes public a memo telling his Cabinet to behave. Then some genius lets Malloch Brown loose on the press – and, quelle surprise, he’s sounding off about how the British government wont be “joined at the hip” to America like it was under Blair, ie - distancing is about to begin.