Faisal Islam has a very interesting report from Davos on how at least one bank no longer believes that a euro from Ireland, say, is worth the same as one from Holland or Germany. He writes that: ‘A leading European [...]

… This is, of course, PB’s regular overnight open thread where all things political are discussed. Welcome to the cafe – have a good evening. Mike Smithson [...]

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day, here's a piece Sam Schulman wrote for The Spectator 12 years ago, on his fear that ‘Holocaustology’ will create a new form of anti-Semitism. Did six million die for this?, Sam Schulman, 1 January 2000 [...]

Here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk during the past week: Fraser Nelson tells Tristram Hunt that capitalism is just what Britain does, and says Osborne owes Darling an apology. James Forsyth thinks the Tories will be delighted to see [...]

It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. Here’s a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week The Independent View: The benefits cap policy is based on myths (30 comments) by Alison Garnham How should [...]

With the media showing a considerable degree of interest in the Cabinet Office's list of people who declined to accept honours between 1951 and 1999, it is a matter of some considerably irony that something as simple as typographical error [...]

Guido won’t bother with the fashion round up this time, but devout nicotine addict Laurie Penny popped up on our television again this lunchtime, complete with a fake cigarette. Jackie Ashley had dropped out at the last minute from appearing [...]

Dear Jeremy, Thank you very much for your typically robust performance on BBC TV’s Question Time last night. However I wish to counsel you against using the prospect of war with Iran as a vehicle to demonstrate your resolve, and the [...]

Thanks to his spectacular surge last week, culminating in a big win in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, Newt Gingrich looked like he was back in contention for the Republican presidential nomination. [...]

RBS’s award of a £963,000 bonus to Stephen Hester has provoked anger. A chart of stock prices shows one reason why. In the last 12 months, RBS’s share price has underperformed the market; it has also underperformed two of its [...]

One prominent member of Liberal Youth hits the nail on the head when she says ‘[I am] frankly sick of all this I’m a social liberal so I’m a better Lib Dem; no it’s Orange Bookers that are real Lib Dems… we’re in the same [...]

A £963,000 bonus in shares awarded to Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester has been strongly criticised. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said the payout represented a "disgraceful failure of leadership by the Prime Minister". And the Conservative Mayor of [...]

Poor Jeremy Hunt is getting frightfully carried away with his £12 billion Olympic baby: “come and enjoy what will be the most exciting time in British history.” Guido is looking forward to catching up with all the “excitement” after a month at [...]

I have an article up at Progress online (AKA Web HQ of the Neo-Blairite Zombie army of doom – right deviationist branch) called "Once more, With Taxes". This is a response to the publication of "White Flag Labour" by Compass, (AKA The North [...]

Does the boss of ICM have a point? Alex Salmond announced on Wednesday that his “straightforward” question for the Scottish referendum was: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country? This has now been scrutinized by academic and polling experts [...]

A confused co-conspirator whispers to Guido that the Guardian have been working on the story they ran this morning about Michael Gove giving public funds to a group they don’t like for at least two weeks. The latest installment of their campaign against the  education secretary [...]

Nick Clegg has been all over the airwaves this week, promoting one of the Liberal Democrats’ flagship policies: raising the income tax threshold to £10,000. This is something that everyone interested in social justice should naturally be inclined to support. [...]

Every year I give some thought to the question of how best to mark Holocaust Memorial Day... ...and every year I come back to same thing, this video of Jacob Bronowski at Auschwitz, from the landmark BBC series 'The Ascent of [...]

Created to remember one of the darkest chapters in mankind's history, Holocaust Day is for many people an occasion for unadulterated discomfort. Most of my family perished in the Holocaust and those who survived either hid in occupied Poland, pretending [...]

We wrote this morning about the Tory backlash to Nick Clegg’s speech in which he called for an acceleration of the personal tax allowance – which is currently pencilled in for 2015. One way to interpret his words was a [...]