A Palestinian prisoner, 33-year-old Khader Adnan, passed his fiftieth day on hunger strike last week, protesting along with 300 other inmates against the Israeli policy of internment without trial (‘administrative detention’). Details about the case (below) can be read at the website, The Electronic Intifada. “We have reached a moment no one can be silent anymore. Khader Adn...

While both countries had the same sorts of export surplus in the early 1990s, they have diverged massively since the D-Mark and franc were fixed in perpetuity. Germany has a current account surplus of 5pc of GDP: France has a deficit of 2.7pc, anathema for Colbertistes. You can see from IMF data that the silent

Liam Byrne MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has written to Nick Clegg calling for a clamp down on profiteering by private landlords.

US President Barack Obama used his last State of the Union speech before the November election to paint himself as the champion of the middle class, by demanding higher taxes for millionaires and tight reins on Wall Street. He made no reference, however, to a tax on financial transactions like the one proposed by the European Commission. More »

With Europe facing a “silent crisis” of biodiversity loss, MEPs are considering ways to strengthen protections for habits and species but are divided over how to compel EU national governments to live up to their commitments. More »

The Today programme's Justin Webb returns to the scene of the first all-postal primary in Totnes, Devon to try and get to the bottom of why the government has gone silent on plans to use similar elections all over the country.

Westminster has been "silent" in response to calls for Holyrood to have the power to run all Scottish elections, an SNP minister claims.

Michel Hazanavicius’ black-and-white movie manages to be both a homage to Hollywood’s past and wittily original.

North Korea's fledgling new leader, Kim Jong-un, bowed low before thousands of mourners massed in central Pyongyang yesterday, but did not utter a word on the first day of his rule as the third-generation heir to the dynasty founded by Kim Il-sung.

A brief post to let CoffeeHousers know that the blog will be going a bit quieter over the next few days. We hope you have a very happy and peaceful Christmas. Coffee House won't fall completely silent, though. Tune in over the weekend for the occasional post and selections from The Spectator archives. And there's our ongoing Christmas competition here. We'll be back, proper, early n...