Politics

Here are the outstanding questions to be taken by the Prime Minister and the coronavirus strategy committee he chairs (CS) today about how far lockdown will be eased on 4 July and thereafter. First, on socialising inside where we live; will we be allowed to meet with anyone we like indoors in groups of up to half a dozen, or will we be restricted to socialising with a single family or household of our choice with whom we would form a long-term ‘bubble’? This is a choice between a rule more likely to be actually followed, namely the permission to mix with whomever we like so long as there are

Is Boris Johnson heading for his first Commons defeat since the election? Plans are afoot in government to bring in legislation to suspend Sunday trading laws as part of a wider effort to get the economy going again. The Prime Minister and Chancellor first thought up the idea of relaxing Sunday trading as a way to make it easier for key workers to shop amid queues and rushes but research then suggested that such measures could have a significant economic impact as well. However, early signs suggest that if the government presses ahead, MPs could move to block it. The Telegraph reports that 50 Conservative MPs have signed a letter to the Prime Minister urging him to

It has become a truism that there are not enough liberal voters to get Labour a majority at the next general election. That Labour need to recapture some of the socially conservative vote to win. That they need the ‘red wall’ seats back to give them even the slimmest chance of victory. But for a period last year, however brief, the Lib Dems were as high as 24 per cent in the national polls. If Starmer can tap into this potential electorate I believe he can win, and Labour can become the biggest party in England and Wales – which would probably allow the party to govern. It looks like

Russia, the old joke goes, has long been a country with an unpredictable past. On September 22, 1939, for instance, Soviet Brigade Commander Semyon Krivoshein stood alongside German Generals Mauritz von Wiktorin and Heinz Guderian in Brest-Litovsk, Poland, to review a joint parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army troops who had recently occupied the town. The street was decorated with joined swastika and hammer-and-sickle banners celebrating the Nazi-Soviet Pact signed in Moscow less than a month before. Under the terms of the now-infamous secret annexe to that agreement, Hitler and Stalin agreed to divide Poland and the Baltic states between them – and less famously but more importantly to Berlin,

No one seems to think Boris Johnson has handled this crisis particularly well. But who might have done a better job than him? According to the Great British public, the answer is obvious: Mrs Thatcher.  A poll carried out by Redfield & Wilton Strategies suggests that 34 per cent of people think that Maggie would have handled coronavirus better than Boris – beating any other modern PM. Whatsmore, 47 per cent of those in the north east said Thatcher would have done a better job, the highest proportion out of any UK region.  Until the last election, just three of the 29 constituencies in the north east voted in a Tory MP. Boris

For months now, the British public has been told there’s only one way to resume normal life: a successful virus-tracing scheme. Early on in the pandemic, the UK decided to go its own way in this area, rejecting Apple and Google’s established, decentralised app model by trying to launch its own one. NHSX would create a centralised app that funnels contact details to public health officials once somebody reported their symptoms via their phone. Bad for privacy, good for knowing exactly where infection rates were spiking in something close to real-time. Hailed as a soon-to-be ‘world beating’ app by the Prime Minister, it was launched on the Isle of Wight in

Trade talks between the UK and the EU are in a better place than they have been at any point since they started back in March, I say in the magazine this week. The two sides’ decision to commit to an intensified set of negotiations between now and August, some of which will involve face-to-face meetings, suggests both the UK and the EU are serious about seeing if the deadlock can be broken. The question now is, how can that be done? Well, the biggest obstacle to a deal is the EU’s demands on the level playing field. The UK has repeatedly said that it simply cannot accept them. Michael