Last week, disgruntled MPs walked out of a meeting of the Commons Brexit Select Committee — chaired by Hilary Benn — in protest at a report they claimed was ‘too gloomy’. Today that report has been published in its 155-page entirety. As expected, the committee is divided over its contents — with Tory members of
As a type of (Platonic) gerontophile, I never expected to say this, but can the dinosaurs not shut up? In recent weeks the nation has had to suffer repeat appearances on the television by Lord Heseltine. In each interview the Remain-supporting peer appears ever more viciously angry – brimming over, indeed with a sort of concentrated,
ICM, who Vote Leave used for their own referendum polling, have some striking numbers on what elements of an EU exit deal British voters would find acceptable. 54 per cent of voters regard maintaining free movement as part of a transition deal – something that Theresa May wouldn’t rule out in her interview with Andrew
Last year, Baroness Ruth Deech warned that Britain’s leading universities are becoming no-go zones for Jewish students because anti-Semitism is so rife. With a survey out today reporting that two-thirds of Jewish students say the National Union of Students does not respond appropriately to allegations of antisemitism, there is clearly work to do tackling discrimination on campus.
The way that ‘fake news’ became an overnight crisis is telling; just as progressive ideas were being rejected by voters across the western world, the media suddenly discovered a glitch which explained why. Fake news is the new false consciousness. All democracies face the problem of uninformed voters. But in a reasonably educated society, this should not
Ten people have been killed and dozens injured in an explosion on the St Petersburg metro. The blast happened onboard a train travelling between the Sennaya Ploshchad and Tekhnologichesky Institut stations in the city centre. Russian news agency Interfax said that at least 50 people were hurt. There are reports that the device which exploded was a nail bomb
‘Let the people see what I have seen’, said the mother of Emmett Till. In 1955 her son, a 14-year-old black boy from Illinois, was falsely accused of flirting with a white woman, tortured, murdered and dumped in a river by the woman’s husband and his half-brother, both of whom were summarily acquitted by a white
In 2002, I befriended an old Frenchman called Andre. He had been a resistant, one of the first, and when the SAS parachuted into the wooded, rolling countryside of the Morvan in central France, he was there to greet them. For three months in the summer of 1944, the SAS and the Resistance waged a guerrilla
The news that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has cancelled her speaking tour of Australia due to ‘security concerns’ should concern anyone who believes in freedom. It is a dark day when a woman who fled to the West to escape the Islamist suffocations of Somalia, and precisely so that she might think and speak freely, feels she
There’s no panacea for the nation’s credit card debt – but the Financial Conduct Authority is having a go at helping people languishing in continual debt. So-called ‘persistent’ debt is a serious problem. Under the FCA’s definition, credit card customers are in persistent debt if they have paid more in interest and charges than they have
When it comes to bank branch closures, there are two schools of thought. One side isn’t bothered, pointing to the ubiquity of online banking and celebrating the fact that technology has, in their opinion, made bank branches obsolete. The other side – of which I’m a part – laments the loss of local bank branches, not
Donald Trump once said that he wanted to share a hamburger with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. Now that he’s President, fast food diplomacy looks to be off the menu. Instead, the tough talk has started and Trump has used an interview with the FT today to warn that America will act against North Korea unless China
Remember the hoo-ha about the sharp fall in the number of EU students applying to study at British universities? Numbers were down, we were told, and there was only one reason: Brexit. In the months since the referendum, applications from EU students have fallen by seven per cent. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, told MPs
Paul Collier is right to say that the refugee crisis will not be solved with tents and food alone. But context is everything, and aid remains vital. In middle-income countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, getting refugees into jobs is essential. Businesses are part of the jigsaw. So is government legislation to ensure, for example,
When Theresa May was snapped shopping in Waitrose last year, the Prime Minister was praised by the Telegraph for putting the politics of envy to one side by unapologetically shopping in the high-end supermarket. But is the real story that she was in a supermarket to begin with? Mr S only asks after Richard Burgon —
Michael Howard – ‘Show resolve’ over Gibraltar Former Conservative leader Michael Howard caused a stir on social media after his appearance on the Sunday Politics regarding his comments about Spain and Gibraltar. Interviewed by Andrew Neil, Howard stated that the British government should respond ‘as it has responded, by making it absolutely clear that we
It was quite right for Theresa May to not mention Gibraltar in her Article 50 letter – why should the future of its people be in question in our negotiations? To do so would be to introduce a dangerous notion: that Gibraltar and its people were somehow a bargaining chip. Of course, the press will have fun with the idea
The latest competition invited you to dream up an April Fool disguised as a serious news feature that contains a startling revelation about a well-known literary figure. The top-ranked April Fool of all time, according to the Museum of Hoaxes, was Panorama’s 1957 report on how Swiss farmers on the shores of Lake Lugano were
Michael Howard (the good one, OM, CH, MC) is 94 and still razor-sharp, but depressed by echoes of the 1930s on both sides of the Atlantic — ‘and I am one of the few people still alive who watched it all happen’. At Wellington he learned, and recites to me from memory, lines from Auden’s
How good a businessman is Donald Trump? Maybe the answer doesn’t matter, since barring death or impeachment he’ll be the most powerful man in the world until January 2021, or even 2025, come what may. Or maybe it does matter, in the sense that the only positive spin to be put on his otherwise ridiculous