The piece you should read before Brown takes over
From our UK edition
This Fraser Nelson piece from September reveals which eight people will really matter when Gordon Brown finally gets his hands on the crown. Do give it a read.
The Spectator
Wednesday
Who we are
From our UK edition
Where better to spend the last night of the Blair era than in the company of ageing rockers? These days, The Who smash their tambourines rather than their guitars. But, other than that, they are still as sharp as the sharpest Carnaby Street winkle pickers and as taut as the tires on a brand new
Tuesday
Should Gordon worry about Tony’s new job?
From our UK edition
There are two reasons for Brown to be concerned about Blair becoming the quartet’s envoy to the Palestinians. First, it is going to exacerbate the problem of Brown establishing himself on the world stage. Back in 2005 one of Brown’s closest allies told Newsweek’s Stryker McGuire how when he was in the States during the
Blair to stand down as an MP
From our UK edition
Not that surprising, but BBC News 24 is reporting that Tony Blair will resign as an MP tomorrow.
Dangerous poppycock from Blair
From our UK edition
Today’s news that Afghanistan’s opium production is soaring takes me back to perhaps the biggest lie Tony Blair has uttered during the war on terror. He told the 2001 Labour conference that “90% of the heroin on British streets originates in Afghanistan. The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the lives of young
Why can’t London be more like Munich
From our UK edition
Just back from a weekend in Munich, escaping from the grey, the rain and the Blair/Brown folderol to help a friend, about to take up the reins as president of the European patent office, move into her new apartment. Oh, the joys of a well organized German city. Standard issue recycling bins for every sort
Good Friday for the Middle East
From our UK edition
So Tony Blair is off to the Middle East as peace envoy – not for the US, but for the “Quartet” of UN, EU, America and Russia. His decision to accept this role, and so soon, is more eloquent than any of the (many) farewell speeches he has made. First, it shows that he regards
Monday
Why Charles Clarke might make a comeback
From our UK edition
Iain Dale has an interesting post up on the gossip amongst Westminster lobby correspondents that Charles Clarke might return to government this week. He writes that, “None of us could come up with a reason why Gordon Brown would reward a man who has spent the last few months dissing him.” But it is precisely
Captions please
From our UK edition
Leave them in the comments below.
A good weekend to bury Europe
From our UK edition
I use to think that Blair’s desire to go to the European summit himself was a little bit vain and born of nothing more than a desire to give Jacques Chirac an Agincourt salute by outlasting him. But now, the cleverness of the move has dawned on me. By making the EU summit his final
Germans say nein to Cruise
From our UK edition
The news that the German government has banned Tom Cruise from filming at the defence ministry on the grounds that he is a Scientologist will reopen the whole debate about whether or not Scientology is a religion. The Germans take a very dim view of it; 4 of its biggest political parties even bar Scientologists from joining.
Heavy stupidity
From our UK edition
If you think Glastonbury is silly, click on the BBC News website and watch the clip of 2,000 heavy metal fans playing Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” in Stuttgart. This, as any fule kno, is one of the most over-rated songs in the history of pop music, plodding and portentous, opening with a mindless
Anyone for venison sushi?
From our UK edition
The price of tuna is now so high that Japanese sushi chefs are considering making their dish with raw horse meat and cuts of smoked deer instead of the traditional tuna. The Japanese, who eat three quarters of the tuna caught each year, are victims of sushi’s global success; it is the new found demand for
What Cameron should have said
From our UK edition
Here’s what I wish David Cameron had said when discussing social mobility with John Humphrys this morning. The reason I’m in politics, John, is to address the problem you’ve just highlighted. Belief in social mobility is stamped in the DNA of the Conservatives – and perhaps the most scandalous failure of Labour these last ten
Don’t put your shirt on Tiger Tim
From our UK edition
Wimbledon fortnight starts today with appropriately awful weather and with Ten Henman left to fly the flag for Britain after Andrew Murray dropped out with injury. But before all the folk on Henman Hiil get too excited, it’s worth pointing out that Henman is 200-1 with the bookies to win Wimbledon. To put that in
Sunday
The momentum is with Brown
From our UK edition
Brown has, what the Americans call, the big mo right now. He looks like the man in command and that is dictating how events are seen. Take the job offer to Ashdown and the Lib Dems, if Brown was perceived as weak this could have been seen as desperate, a recognition that Labour is unlikely
How Gordon will fight Dave
From our UK edition
“As good as it gets,” said Tony Blair of Gordon Brown. What he meant was: “As good as it got”, which is not quite the same thing. It is no secret that Mr Blair wanted someone to run against the Chancellor. But it did not happen, and here we all are. And so today, with
The Brown Era Begins
From our UK edition
I love how Gordon Brown walked on stage, as if he’d just won a vote of some kind. “I will endeavour to justify every day the trust you have placed in me,” – err no, Gordon, you successfully scared off all your rivals, there was no vote and folk were just landed with you. Anyway,
It is Harman
From our UK edition
So a minister who was dumped from the cabinet for not being up to the job in 1998 is now the deputy leader of the Labour party. Listening to her speech, it became clear how Labour under Brown will attack Cameron. She accused the Tory leader of “opportunism, weakness, no sense of direction”. She also
A fitting tribute to John Prescott
From our UK edition
The Labour deputy leadership results are a total shambles. The BBC is reporting that Harman’s won but they don’t seem really sure. If she has won, then it is a remarkable triumph for mediocrity.