Politics

In Kenya’s latest general elections, ‘The Hustler’ William Ruto has been declared our new President after a narrow victory against ‘Baba’ Raila Odinga. Last night as the announcement was made, politicians threw chairs at each other, allegations of rigging flew and a returning officer turned up dead. Dancing broke out in some streets, while in others rioters burned tyres and threw rocks. Raila’s camp is likely to contest the result in court, meaning nail-biting weeks of petitions, posturing and more entropy for our battered East African economy. Nobody wants a return to the aftermath of our 2007 polls, when hundreds died in ethnic bloodletting after an earlier loss for Baba

Satire was declared officially dead this week after the SNP’s latest right-on wheeze. In their desperation to declare that ‘Scotland is leading the world’, SNP-run Dundee City Council has named its new period poverty rights expert. Unfortunately the appointment has caused something of an immediate backlash – from women. It came after the city commissars opted to choose a, er, man as the Tay region’s ‘Period Dignity Regional Lead Officer.’ Jason Grant told the Dundee Courier of his appointment: I’m absolutely buzzing about it. It’s definitely pioneering as Scotland is the first to do this. It’s about making people aware of the availability of period products for anyone of any gender, whenever they need

Boris Johnson has written more than his fair share of controversial stuff over the years. Whether it’s jibes at Islam, the Commonwealth or Barack Obama, general statements about blue collar men, working women and single mothers or, er, advice on handling female Spectator employees – ‘just pat her on the bottom and send her on her way’ – there’s always been something to annoy the left. He, for his part, is largely unapologetic, claiming in the 2019 election debates that: ‘If you go through all my articles with a fine-tooth comb and pick out individual phrases, there’s no doubt that you can take out things that can be made to

Cast your mind back to 2020. Back then, in the dark days of Covid, a ray of light was apparently offered in the form of New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern. Here, we were told, was the shining beacon of hope, the solution to all our ails. A ‘zero Covid’ approach and a total national lockdown; closed borders and open hearts. Across the country Guardianistas gushed praise and oozed platitudes: here, at last, was the ideal model of a sensible, liberal, centrist leader. Fast forward two years and all that has now changed. First Ardern managed to irritate both right and left with her clampdown on immigration and complacency on China. Then she was forced to admit what

It’s a curious mix that are backing Liz Truss. Most of the Boris diehards like Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg backed her early on in their quest to deny Rishi Sunak the premiership. But since she became the frontrunner, a number of new-found friends have declared their support too: including those who found little favour under Boris Johnson. Chief among them is Tom ‘Talleyrand’ Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, in which capacity he’s repeatedly criticised his own government’s strategy. And today Tugendhat is at it again, taking to Times Red Box – the preferred pulpit of the frustrated backbencher – to make the case for Truss and,

Keir Starmer is today attempting to get back on the front foot over the cost-of-living crisis. Over the past fortnight, the Labour leader has been keeping a low profile (including a holiday abroad) which has given space to former prime minister Gordon Brown and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey to fill the vacuum in his absence. The policy Starmer has unveiled this morning isn’t so different to what both Brown and Davey talked about when it comes to helping consumers with rising energy bills: freezing the energy price cap. Starmer is proposing a £29 billion plan ahead of the scheduled energy price cap rise in October, which is currently forecast