When David Cameron promised last week that he would have “one last go” at securing curbs on immigration from within the European Union, he knew his rhetoric stood little chance of success. Days later, the President of the European Commission
Jose Manuel Barroso has said the concerns of UK citizens towards the European Union merit a “substantive response”. In a speech at Chatham House, the Portuguese politician who was at the helm of the European Union for ten years sought
The British economy will slow down sharply next year due to political uncertainty and a potential referendum on membership of the EU, a leading forecaster said on Monday. In an autumn forecast released after a turbulent week on world markets,
With just over a week having passed since the UK Independence Party won its first elected MP, and another defection victory on the horizon in Rochester and Strood, it is clear that the Conservative Party are still in a panic
Prime Minister David Cameron’s hopes of being able to secure changes to the EU’s freedom of movement rules have taken a blow today after the outgoing European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show: “Any kind
How do we value a person’s contribution? Is it by their productive capacity or their productive performance, or is it by the person’s time and intent to contribute? Do we attempt to measure their intrinsic worth as a human being
So the Labour Party has walked out of the cross party talks on constitutional reform this week, but I don’t think it really came as shock to anyone. They are in a spin about how to deal with the new
This week the Spectator ran a piece written by the former UKIP leader Lord Pearson about his attempts at a pact with the Conservatives before the last election. The piece was well timed having come after a whole raft of
It hasn’t been the easiest few months for David Cameron: he lost a national election to a party he dismissed as ‘fruitcakes, loonies and closest racists’ quickly followed by the departure of two of his popular MPs to the same
Another day, another “full and unreserved apology” forced on someone in the public eye by the leftist Offence Police. This time the mea maxima culpa comes from a minor government minister called Lord Freud who, apparently, has been caught out
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday Britain should stand up for the rights of people in Hong Kong, a former British colony, after more than two weeks of protests over Chinese restrictions on how the island
Anyone still prepared to take David Cameron at his word can be sure there is at least one issue on which his promises can be safely discounted: immigration. As his term runs out, he is presiding over net immigration each
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday Britain should stand up for the rights of people in Hong Kong, a former British colony, after more than two weeks of protests over Chinese restrictions on how the island
Today wasn’t a good day for David Cameron. He was forced to answer allegations that his Welfare Minister Lord Freud had suggested disabled people shouldn’t be paid the minimum wage. A throaty and obviously unwell Miliband demanded the Prime Minister
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted to cut inheritance tax so that it is only paid by the very rich, the Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday. Cameron, who faces an election in May next year
LONDON (Reuters) – Less than a month after Scots spurned independence, separatists said on Tuesday that British Prime Minister David Cameron was betraying Scotland by reneging on pledges to grant more spending powers to the Scottish parliament. In a last-ditch
The UKIP fox, as they love to tell us, is well and truly in the Westminster hen house. Of course there is one group of people for whom killing foxes is a favourite pastime: Tories. It will not be an
Thirty years ago, a terrorist bomb exploded at the Conservative Party conference, killing five people and wounding 34. Now, former party chairman Lord Tebbit has said he will never forgive the man who planted that bomb, branding him a “creature”.
The Conservative MP for Monmouth David Davies has called for the French Army to be drafted in to help protect cross-Channel ferry passengers. Police in the port town are preparing to join a mass rally over migrants camped in Calais
UK broadcasters have proposed a series of three leaders debates in the run up to the general election. They want to have one with just Ed Miliband and David Cameron, then a second with Nick Clegg as well, and a
I’ve just been re-reading what former Tory MP turned Times and Spectator columnist Matthew Parris wrote in the run-up to the recent by-election in Clacton. It goes some way towards explaining why UKIP won. So much so that, as I
Government ministers and medical professionals are among dozens of people taking part in a huge Ebola readiness exercise across Britain on Saturday. During eight hours of activities at secret locations across the country, actors were simulating symptoms of the deadly
British Prime Minister David Cameron is said to be urgently scrambling to the right on issues such as immigration and the European Union in a desperate, last minute bid to keep UKIP from stealing Conservative Party votes en masse at
After Douglas Carswell’s historic win in yesterday’s Clacton by-election, the Reuters news agency says that Prime Minister and Conservative Leader David Cameron now faces a serious challenge in dealing with UKIP. With British voters becoming increasingly disillusioned with the mainstream
CLACTON-ON-SEA, United Kingdom — “This idea that they’re all the same… It’s true. They’ve all got the same, multicultural, metropolitan ideas for England,” my cab driver in Clacton told me this morning. “I hope this is like another peasants revolt,
GLASGOW Scotland (Reuters) – Since partnering with Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives in 2010, the junior party in Britain’s first coalition government since World War Two has watched its opinion poll ratings slump. The Liberal Democrats have been hammered in
Polls opened in a by-election Thursday that looks set to shake up British politics by securing the anti-immigration, anti-EU UK Independent Party (UKIP) its first seat in parliament. MP Douglas Carswell defected from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party to
Read the full text of Nick Clegg’s 2014 party conference speech: Before I say anything else, I’m sure I speak on behalf of all Liberal Democrats when I say that our hearts and condolences go out to the family and
Opposing wind farms is “irrational”, claimed Liberal Democrat MP Vince Cable at his party conference yesterday. Actually, no. Here are some reasons why anyone who doesn’t oppose wind farms is most probably either deluded, criminal or insane. 1. Wind turbines
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the department tasked with collecting taxes from the British public, has been undertaking psychological experiments unbeknownst to the British people, in order to work out how best to elicit the tax payments as quickly as
The Liberal Democrats could reject a coalition with either the Conservatives or Labour if next year’s general election produces another hung parliament, a senior party figure said Tuesday. Speaking at the Lib Dem annual conference, party president Tim Farron said
David Cameron’s pledge to lead the investigation into how a convicted murderer entered the country has been revealed as nothing more than a discussion point at an EU committee. Speaking in Afghanistan after the body of teenager Alice Gross was
Now in it’s third day, senior figures speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, Scotland have been laying out their vision for the future of the party. Hoping for another hung parliament next year, they have been laying down
CLACTON-ON-SEA, United Kingdom – As he walks through the southeastern English seaside town of Clacton with a large banner for the anti-EU UK Independence Party under his arm, there is no doubt who 47-year-old builder Phil Drew will vote for
British Prime Minister David Cameron has responded to the news of the beheading of aid worker Alan Henning by Islamic State terrorists. Speaking late last night the Prime Minister said: “The brutal murder of Alan Henning by ISIL shows just
A new video depicting what appears to be an injured ISIS jihadist has been released this evening, daring British Prime Minister David Cameron to send British troops onto the ground in Iraq and Syria. The video, which bears the hallmarks
(Reuters) – Britain has named Alex Younger, a career spy who helped lead London’s counter-terrorist defence of the 2012 Olympics, as chief of its MI6 Secret Intelligence Service – Britain’s most prestigious intelligence job. An economics graduate and former soldier,
Of all the opportunities my accidental career in politics and such have afforded me, one of the greatest pleasures remains giving talks to sixth form pupils. This morning I addressed a group of 16-18 year olds at University College School,
