Labour’s performance in the local elections is going from bad to worse. The party has, for the first time in four decades, lost overall control of Glasgow Council. Not too long ago, the city’s council would have been a banker for Labour. Under Jeremy Corbyn, it’s a different picture. Labour needed to win 43 seats
Poor old Emily Thornberry. Labour is having a torrid time in the local elections and during her appearance on the BBC this morning, things took a turn for the worse for the shadow foreign secretary. Thornberry – who Mr S previously revealed is known as ET by Jeremy Corbyn — was there to try and defend Labour’s
The results from the local elections are in — and we’re beginning work out what it means for the parties with regards to next month’s general election. While the Conservatives have much cause for (cautious) celebration, Ukip looks on the brink of extinction, Labour has had a dismal showing – and the Liberal Democrats are having a ‘neutral‘
The Tories are up 540 seats, have gained control of 11 councils and enjoyed success in the Tees Valley, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and West of England mayoral races. Conservative candidate Andy Street has won the West Midlands mayoral contest. Labour’s vote has plummeted, with the party losing 360 seats as well as control of six councils. Labour’s Steve Rotherham won
The Catalan opening looks as if it should be relatively harmless, combining as it does the Queen’s Gambit with the modest fianchetto development of White’s king’s bishop. But various endgame virtuosi, notably Petrosian, Korchnoi and Kramnik, have demonstrated that the Catalan can be dangerous. In particular, the nagging pressure exerted at first by White’s light-squared
White to play. This position is from So–Kramnik, Gashimov Memorial 2017. So retreated with 1 Ne3 and eventually won. How could he instead have initiated a winning attack? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 9 May or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of
It was 50 years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play. The result was a popular masterpiece. Thirty years later, a less accomplished, tone-deaf group of individuals collaborated on the Millennium Dome, and the result was an expensive, sniggerable calamity. For a while, I was one of them. Of course, it was not
Many of the mediums from which art is made have been around for a long time. People have been painting on walls, for example, for about 40,000 years. Similarly, figures have been fashioned out of stone and metal for millennia, and still are. But if there is one ancient medium you might think was now
Liverpudlian censorship Sir: I enjoyed Kelvin MacKenzie’s Diary (29 April). The obloquy thrown at him after his criticism of Everton footballer Ross Barkley would be laughable if it were not for the unpleasant undercurrent on Merseyside now. His remark was football banter, not a racist slur as the mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has alleged.
I’m sitting in my office and the place is still. The rest of the house is dark. Everyone’s out and I’m here writing about the death of a friend. I haven’t felt such gloom since my father died 28 years ago. The question why did he have to die is implicitly followed by another: how
‘Emmanuel Macron est le plus grand con du monde,’ said the elderly gent taking the vacant seat on my right at the Marine Le Pen rally last week. He had slicked-back white hair, a little hog’s-bristle moustache and broken-down white trainers. Plus grand means ‘biggest’, du monde means ‘in the world’, and con means, well,
A gentleman on Twitter ‘writes’ to say I’m boring him with my house move. ‘Snooze-fest’, says this chap, and he posts a little yellow unhappy face or ‘emoticon’, which passes for articulate on Twitter. I’ve never heard of this fellow, although it is likely he is some kind of pundit with followers in the blogosphere
Janet likes to tease me that whenever it’s my turn to write this column, it ought to be renamed The David Gold Experience. Well, maybe I do write about him a lot, but then again, he is one of the best players in the world. Anyway, this week I’ve decided to give David’s regular partner
Dear George Osborne, I thought it worth passing along some advice about your new job. I’ve never edited a news-paper, but I’ve been in the business for 32 years and I’ve seen a fair few come and go. I’ve also worked for the Evening Standard in various capacities. Indeed, my first job in journalism was
Q. I have a very good cleaner who comes once a week. She is far more efficient than anyone I’ve had in the past. But recently she has begun taking off her shoes and socks at the front door and cleaning in her bare feet, which I find utterly disgusting. How do I ask her
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s main Brexit negotiator, tweeted on Monday: ‘Any #Brexit deal requires a strong & stable understanding of the complex issues involved. The clock is ticking — it’s time to get real.’ This was on the same day as media reports — allegedly leaked by associates of Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission
Ralph Bathurst was accused shortly after his death in 1704 of being ‘suspected of Hypocrisy and of mean Complyance’. I am not quite sure what particular hypocrisy was meant, but the accuser was Thomas Hearne, a cranky but principled antiquary in the mould of Anthony Wood. Hearne resented not being able to accept appointments such
Spend, spend, spend London mayor Sadiq Khan ended support for the Garden Bridge, probably killing it off. How are other public projects going? — Manchester City Council spent £3.5 million blocking a right of way with a glass pod and iron gates likened to Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’. — Birmingham City Council proposes to spend £10 million
The Prosperity UK conference over a week ago kicked off with a dinner at Hatfield House that brought together Leavers and Remainers in the spirit of making the best of what happens next. Lord Salisbury (L) couldn’t resist a crack about his ancestor doing to the Pope what Mrs May is doing to Mr Juncker
Ian Paterson, a ‘charming’ breast surgeon with a ‘God complex’, has been found guilty of intentionally wounding patients by carrying out ‘extensive, life-changing operations for no medically justifiable reason’, probably to enrich himself. It raises a long-standing question. The brilliant Greek doctor Galen (129-216 ad) was the most famous doctor in the Roman Empire. In