Politics

Last night’s PLP meeting proved to be a lively affair as Jeremy Corbyn was turned on by members of the Labour party over his ‘shoot to kill’ comments. As Mr S’s colleague Sebastian Payne reports, Corbyn was then ‘shouted down’ by MPs for his stance on military action and Syria. So where was the Labour leader’s primary cheerleader Diane Abbott while all this was going on? Well Abbott, who has won herself the nickname Madame Mao since her close friend – and rumoured former lover – was elected, was rather distracted at the event. In fact, far from taking on the role of Corbyn’s attack dog, one insider tells the Mirror that the shadow international development secretary spent

Unlike political Twitter, which was full of armchair experts extolling their own surprisingly untapped talent while the Paris attacks were still taking place on Friday night, senior politicians have today been rather cautious in their responses to the massacre. Theresa May repeatedly told the Marr Show that there were ‘lessons to be learned’ from the attacks, but that it was ‘too early to tell’ what the fate of the Schengen agreement would be. She also said that there needed to be political consensus on British action against Isis in Syria. But she was carefully non-specific, saying: ‘It is of course important that we look at the lessons to be learned

Nearly 50 years ago, soon after I first came to this country, my landlady, upset I was reading the Guardian and not her favourite newspaper the Daily Telegraph, said, ‘You must not believe Labour propaganda that they gave India freedom. Churchill would have done the same had he won the 1945 election.’ Had my landlady been alive and witnessed how Narendra Modi has been received by David Cameron, culminating in yesterday’s love fest at Wembley, she would have required little convincing that her beloved party is no longer a pariah for Indians in this country. For all the talk of developing ties with India to attract investments and create jobs,

On Wednesday night, Jeremy Corbyn brought to an end one of the most undignified sagas in recent politics, cobbling together a shuffled compromise on his induction into the Privy Council. The Privy Council, as we’ve been told so often now, is the body of senior politicians that is allowed to receive security briefings. Membership would have required Corbyn – the life-long republican –  to vow ‘not to know or understand of any manner of thing to be attempted, done, or spoken against Her Majesty’s person, honour, crown, or dignity royal’. Did he kneel, bob, or grab the royal paw in an firm egalitarian handshake? Does it matter? Meanwhile, America’s college campuses remain