Tom Goodenough

Tom Goodenough

Tom Goodenough is online editor of The Spectator.

Sunday

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator’s Michael Heath names his Desert Island discs

Michael Heath, The Spectator’s brilliant cartoon editor, has been on Desert Island Discs - which is like a knighthood, but without the cronyism. He's been talking through his illustrious career and his decades-long association with The Spectator. Subscribers know how well he draws; but his wit is a secret hitherto shared with those of us lucky enough to work with him. The interview (above) shares a bit of that with the rest of the world. Avant-garde jazz, he says, "sounds like fire in a pet shop". "I am the most romantic man you’ve ever met in your life – absolutely, completely certifiably-mentally soppy. If you showed me Bambi, I’d mop the floor sobbing..." "I don’t think there’s any fun without you being depressed at the same time.

Saturday

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: The real hate crime scandal | 6 August 2016

Since the vote for Brexit, the media has fallen over itself to cover the apparently large upswing in the number of ‘hate crimes’ being reported. One of the trends noted is a particularly high occurrence of such incidents in areas that voted 'Leave'. In his Spectator cover piece, Brendan O’Neill argues that there is an ‘unhinged subjectivity’ to hate crime reporting, which has skewed statistics in favour of self-critical moralisation. So, has there really been a post-Brexit surge in hostility towards minority groups or is our metric for recording these crimes simply off-kilter? Brendan O’Neill joins Kevin O’Sullivan, who was recently cleared after spending 20 months defending himself from a hate crime allegation, and Lara Prendergast to discuss.

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Owen Smith looks to 1945 to inspire Labour

Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith have faced off in their first hustings of what has already proved to be a bitter leadership campaign. That disunity and turmoil was on display on stage in Cardiff last night. The Labour leader hit back at Smith's dig about the 'fractured' state of the party by saying it was hard to preach about unity when Smith and others had 'resigned from the shadow cabinet'. This was business as usual then. So whilst Corbyn and Smith made it clear they will never see eye to eye, what did they have to say on what they actually stand for? Whilst their clashes on stage only reveal the divisions we already know about, their closing pitches were somewhat more informative in boiling down why they think Labour members should back them. Owen Smith's buzzword was 'crisis'.

Tom Goodenough

Dame Goddard’s resignation is a big blow to Theresa May

It's impossible not to see Dame Lowell Goddard's resignation as an embarrassment to Theresa May. When the Prime Minister was Home Secretary, she personally interviewed and appointed the New Zealand judge to head up the Inquiry into child sex abuse. What's more, Goddard was rewarded with an almighty pay packet which instantly made her Britain's highest-earning civil servant. Now, just 18 months on, Goddard has stepped down after it was revealed she had spent several months abroad during her brief tenure. The revelations in yesterday's Times came days after it was reported the Inquiry's chairwoman was confused by British laws.

Thursday

Tom Goodenough

‘Stimulus now’: Bank of England cuts interest rate down to 0.25pc

As expected, the Bank of England has cut base interest rates down to 0.25 per cent- the first movement since rates were cut to an 'emergency' low of 0.5 per cent in March 2009. There's a "clear case for stimulus, and stimulus now" said Mark Carney, BoE governor - so the money printing machine is being put back into action. About £60 billion is to be created electronically, and used to lend money to the government via gilt purchases. It will save Theresa May's government a fortune: the rate of interest charged on the many loans it takes (ie, gilt yields) collapsed to 0.63pc today; almost half the rate they were a month ago. The bank's prediction now is that Britain will avoid recession after the Brexit vote (contrary to what George Osborne was suggesting) but with growth halved to 0.

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: The real hate crime scandal

Since the vote for Brexit, the media has fallen over itself to cover the apparently large upswing in the number of ‘hate crimes’ being reported. One of the trends noted is a particularly high occurrence of such incidents in areas that voted 'Leave'. In his Spectator cover piece, Brendan O’Neill argues that there is an ‘unhinged subjectivity’ to hate crime reporting, which has skewed statistics in favour of self-critical moralisation. So, has there really been a post-Brexit surge in hostility towards minority groups or is our metric for recording these crimes simply off-kilter? Brendan O’Neill joins Kevin O’Sullivan, who was recently cleared after spending 20 months defending himself from a hate crime allegation, and Lara Prendergast to discuss.

Tom Goodenough

London knife rampage: Police hold Norwegian-Somali suspect

One woman has been killed and five injured after a knifeman went on the rampage in Russell Square, London, late on Thursday night. Police said the lady who died was an American in her sixties. Those injured were British, Israeli, Australian and American. Police earlier said 'terrorism is one possibility being explored at this stage' but went on to say they found no evidence of radicalization or anything to suggest the man held - a 19-year-old Norwegian of Somalian ancestry - had been motivated by terrorism. The attack happened just after 10.30pm on Thursday and the response from police - on the day the Met unveiled their new specialist anti-terrorism squad - was swift; armed officers arrived within just a few minutes.

Wednesday

Tom Goodenough

Donald Trump wins the war of words against Barack Obama

Donald Trump doesn't seem the forgiving type, so it's no surprise he hasn't let Barack Obama's comments yesterday stand. Obama said Trump was 'unfit' to be President - so what did the Republican candidate have to say in response? He answered in the only way he knows how, by flinging mud back at the person who called him out. Here's what he said: 'Well he's a terrible President, he'll probably go down as the worst President in the history of our country. He's been a total disaster, you look at what's happened to the Middle East, what's happened to Syria and his 'line in the sand'.' It's unlikely Obama will go down as America's worst President.

Tom Goodenough

Ukip’s leadership race kicks off. Who are the candidates hoping to replace Nigel Farage?

The final shortlist for who will replace Nigel Farage has been unveiled - and the frontrunner Steven Woolfe has been excluded. Ukip's NEC said Woolfe was left off the list after being deemed 'ineligible as a result of a late submission', having missed the party's nomination deadline by seventeen minutes. It's a decision which is sure to cause ruptures within the party. So who are the candidates who have made it on to the list? Diane James is the new favourite to replace Nigel Farage after Steven Woolfe was kept off the ballot paper. The party's justice and home affairs spokeswoman has capitalised on the various blunders which afflicted Woolfe to find her bookies' odds on replacing Farage slashed. And now that Woolfe is out of the running, James is 1/3 favourite to win the race.

Tuesday

Tom Goodenough

Barack Obama says Donald Trump is ‘unfit’ to be President

Barack Obama has said Donald Trump is unfit to be President in his most resounding criticism yet of the Republican candidate. In a strongly-worded statement, Obama said Trump - who he couldn't bring himself to name - was 'woefully unprepared' for the top job. Obama's intervention is extraordinary and it's difficult to think of a precedent for a sitting President condemning in such terms one of the frontrunners who could replace him. But whilst Obama fans will cheer from the sidelines, in reality his decision to wade in won't help. Firstly, it will make it harder for any Republicans to now withdraw their endorsements of Trump.

Tom Goodenough

Coffee House Shots: Ukip’s leadership contest

Ukip's leadership race has barely begun but the contest has already delivered plenty of drama. The frontrunner Steven Woolfe missed out on entering his nomination in time after a 'Computer says no' moment, and it's also emerged that Woolfe failed to declare a drink-driving conviction when he ran for office in 2012 - potentially breaching electoral rules. But whilst we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out whether Woolfe actually makes it on to the ballot paper, a number of other candidates are also vying to take over from Nigel Farage: Ukip MEPs Jonathan Arnott and Bill Etheridge and Diane James amongst them. So who will come out on top? In this edition of the Spectator's Coffee House Shots podcast, James Forsyth speaks to Lara Prendergast.

Tom Goodenough

Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton is the devil

Those who follow Donald Trump on Twitter will be well accustomed to him prefixing every mention of Hillary with the word 'crooked'. But whilst Trump has frequently tried to discredit Clinton by painting her as a liar he has never gone so far as to call her the devil. Until now that it. During a speech last night he suggested that in backing Hillary, Bernie Sanders had made a Faustian pact. Trump said of Hillary: 'She's the devil. He's made a deal with the devil. It's true' It's tempting to say that Trump really has crossed the line this time around. But then the wild applause which greeted his remark at the Republican rally in Pennsylvania is the noisy rebuke that suggests otherwise.

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May’s Labour land grab starts today

Whilst Labour tangle themselves up in civil war, the Prime Minister is making a move for the party's economic territory. On her first day in Downing Street, Theresa May said her Government would stick up for everyone, not only the 'privileged few'. Today, she'll start work making good on that promise when she chairs the first meeting of her Cabinet committee on the economy and industrial strategy. So what does that all mean? It's obvious the sentiment suggests an attempt to beat Labour at its own game. From the politician who coined the description of the Tories as the 'nasty party', May is doing her best to show the Conservatives are the party of both compassion and competency.

Monday

Tom Goodenough

Leytonstone tube attack: Islamic fanaticism or mental illness?

The Muslim extremist who attempted to murder a man at Leytonstone tube station last December has been given a life sentence today. Muhiddin Mire will spend at least eight-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of attempted murder. He'll start his sentence at Broadmoor but whilst the Old Bailey Judge accepted Mire was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, he said it was also clear Mire was motivated by Islamic extremism. In his sentencing remarks, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC said: 'In other words, because Muslims were being bombed in Syria, he was going to attack civilians here. That was designed to intimidate a section of the public, and it was to advance an extreme cause.

Tom Goodenough

Cameron’s ‘gongs for chums’ list sparks fury. But don’t expect Theresa May to block it

His time in No.10 might have come to an end last month but it's David Cameron who is on the front pages of several newspapers this morning. The former PM's resignation list of honours has sparked outrage since it was published by the Sunday Times yesterday. And today the fallout shows no sign of dampening down. Many of the usual suspects have attacked Cameron but what's interesting about the criticism is its unanimity. Labour MP Tom Watson said it was 'cronyism, pure and simple'; and many Tory MPs seem to agree. Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said those who were going to be rewarded were the 'people who brought politics into disrepute'. Whilst Andrew Rosindell said those on the list were being honoured only for doing their jobs.

Saturday

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator Podcast: Summer of terror | 30 July 2016

After a week where both Germany and France suffered terror attacks, the question of the relationship between Islamic terrorism and Europe’s refugee crisis is once again rearing its head. In his Spectator cover piece, Douglas Murray argues that whilst the public knows that 'Islamism comes from Islam', Europe’s political classes are still refusing to tackle the problem at its core. So how can we bridge this gap between what politicians are saying and what the public are thinking? And does Europe have to come to terms with a new reality of domestic terrorism? On this week's podcast, Douglas Murray speaks to Lara Prendergast. Joining them both to discuss Europe's summer of terror is Haras Rafiq, Managing Director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank.

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Summer of bloodshed continues after latest police killing in the US

Once again, an American police officer has been killed in the line of duty. This time, a policeman in San Diego was shot dead, and his colleague wounded, in a gun attack which happened after the two officers stopped a car. It is, of course, too early to tell exactly what happened, but the horrific pattern makes one thing clear: police in America are increasingly becoming a target. The latest senseless killing caps off one of the bloodiest months ever for police officers in the US. On July 17th, three police officers were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in a targeted shooting which left three others injured.

Tom Goodenough

Hillary Clinton says ‘Love trumps hate’. But will that message win her the White House?

One of Hillary Clinton's biggest problems when she took to the stage last night was who had come before her: Barack Obama gave a belting speech at the Democrat convention, which Freddy Gray said was like a band playing back some of their old hits. The audience lapped it up. And her husband Bill's number also went down well as he showed off some of his famous charm with his potted biography of Hillary & Bill: The love story. So Hillary was in danger of being upstaged before she even took to the stage. But whilst the Democrat nominee's speech might not have the fiery rhetoric of the man she wants to replace in the White House - and nor does she have the natural oratory talent of her husband - her address was still clever.

Thursday

Tom Goodenough

Hinkley Point is the imperfect answer to a pressing problem

Brits had been told that we'd be cooking our turkeys on power generated at Hinkley Point by next Christmas. It's clear that for those still holding on to that promise, cold lunches will be on the menu. But nonetheless the drawn-out, long-running saga of Hinkley Point should at least reach some kind of conclusion today. Or, at the very least, the end of the beginning. It seems all but certain that EDF - who hold the final piece in the puzzle for funding the project - will agree to give the go-ahead to Britain's first new nuclear power plant in two decades at a board meeting later. The resignation of an EDF director who opposed building the Somerset power plant has removed one of the final hurdles in the way of the mammoth construction project.

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator Podcast: Summer of terror

In a week in which both Germany and France have suffered terror attacks, the question of the relationship between Islamic terrorism and Europe’s refugee crisis is once again rearing its head. In his Spectator cover piece, Douglas Murray argues that whilst the public knows that 'Islamism comes from Islam', Europe’s political classes are still refusing to tackle the problem at its core. So how can we bridge this gap between what politicians are saying and what the public are thinking? And does Europe have to come to terms with a new reality of domestic terrorism? On this week's podcast, Douglas Murray speaks to Lara Prendergast. Joining them both to discuss Europe's summer of terror is Haras Rafiq, Managing Director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank.