Simon Heffer's Blog, page 45

MPs who trample on the graves of heroes who gave Britain freedom of speech

The demand last week by 42 Conservative MPs and peers for statutory regulation of the Press was deeply disturbing. Of course, I might be expected to react in such a way because most of my earnings come from writing for this newspaper.

Was the BBC’s blind hatred of Thatcher to blame?

Andrew Marr, a leading light of our national broadcaster, was quoted in this newspaper in October 2006 as saying: ‘The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It’s a publicly-funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias, not...

The 40-year grudge match between Lords Patten and McAlpine

Chris Patten has admitted he knew about the Newsnight paedophile investigation but did not think it right to warn George Entwistle, the then director-general, about it, as to intervene would have been ‘absurd’.

Obama has led US to £338bn bill - and to the edge of a financial abyss: Two brilliant voices give the ultimate verdict on Obama's divided America

On the streets of Manhattan last week, the American public were more concerned about the delay in restoring their public services after Hurricane Sandy than about the entrails of politics following the presidential elections.

Playing dirty’s the best lesson Dave can learn from Obama

British politicians often visit America to try to learn from successful presidential election campaigns. Indeed, there is much that David Cameron can draw from this week’s victory of his ‘friend’, Barack Obama.

New dawn? This looks more like a new dusk

The next four years for America look bleak. It’s not so much a new dawn as a new dusk. And with 50 months left in power, President Obama, his hands tied by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives, is a lame duck already.

If only we had a REAL choice like America: It has two entirely different visions of the future while our parties have become too similar

America has an enviable choice when it goes to the polls tomorrow. The contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney isn’t just between a Democrat and a Republican: It is between two entirely different visions of the future of the world’s greatest power.

Is David Cameron fatally out of step with the voters on Europe?

A government minister told me recently that although David Cameron relishes being Prime Minister, he thought he was increasingly oblivious to those subtle shifts in the political agenda to which all statesmen must respond quickly if they are to govern properly.

I’m gunning for you, Mr Mouse

Living in the country, I know rural life can come with one small downside. The moment the nights begin to draw in, the wheat is harvested and the weather turns colder, Mr Mouse turns up, uninvited.

Undeserving state-funded minority will no longer enjoy the same lifestyle as hardworking people

The tough-minded lecture that Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, gave at Cambridge on Thursday affirmed the Government’s determination to stop welfare becoming a way of life for millions of families.