Stefan Stern

The story ran on Saturday, when much of the country was fixated on England’s first game in the World Cup. The story ran on the first left-hand page of The Guardian’s main section, a notorious “graveyard” slot in any paper where stories can…

On May 2nd 2010, the last Sunday before the general election, David Cameron was interviewed on the Andrew Marr programme. In his final answer – in response to the less than intimidating question posed by Marr, “You’re on a roll, aren’t…

At my hotel in Scotland last weekend I was served by a Russian, a Pole, and a Romanian, among others. The staff wore badges with flags on to indicate their mother tongue or nationality. This example of cosmopolitanism was on display in…

Excuses first. A 36% turn-out. An election that has proved a poor guide to the prospects for general elections in the past. A freakish, unprecedented and highly volatile Ukip performance (over 4 million votes!). And a big set of data from…

“Why are you doing so badly?” Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked Ed Miliband onFriday. It was one of those sharp jab questions that can take you by surprise. It certainly – temporarily – stopped the Labour leader in his tracks. But that was just…

I had a soft spot for John Smith ever since one evening at the Edinburgh Festival in 1988 when, looking up, I realised that he and at least one Smith daughter were filing out of the same show I’d been in – an hour of stand-up by the great…

Another fast-paced lap in the global race coming right up. Pfizer, the US drugs company, may be forced to increase its offer for the UK-based AstraZeneca after the Americans’ improved bid was rejected by the AstraZeneca board. But maybe…

For the avoidance of doubt, this is what Nigel Farage said in the Guardian on Saturday when asked if there was “a culture of criminality” among Romanians: “Bound to be.” And should British people be wary of Romanian families moving into…

“It will be me.” That was Hillary Clinton, at the end of November 2007, expressing her confidence to CBS’s Katie Couric that the Democratic Party’s nomination for President was as good as hers. Hillary was the “inevitable” candidate for…

He’s not backing down. The “cost of living crisis” remains at the heart of Ed Miliband’s pitch to the voters. In spite of increased optimism about economic growth, and the suggestion from some – notably the SMF think tank – that not all of…

Abraham Lincoln gave us the Twitter-friendly definition of democracy in his Gettsyburg Address in 1863: “government of the people by the people for the people”. In fact, as Dan Hannan reminded us recently, Lincoln may have been (consciously…

The perhaps apocryphal advice given by Tony Blair to David Miliband was (supposedly): keep smiling out in front… get someone else to do the punishment beatings. Maybe the former Prime Minister has said something similar to the current…