Politics

John McDonnell claimed in a speech in Birmingham today that the Labour party’s plans to expand free childcare, cut rail ticket prices, and introduce free prescriptions and free school meals, along with various other measures, would save the average family £6,700 a year. Given how much Labour had allocated for these promises in the costings document accompanying its manifesto, I immediately suspected that their figures would not add up. But having seen the Labour dossier which costs this claim, it is impossible to stress – even by the standards of modern politics – how shoddy these numbers are and how quickly they fall apart. This document comes in two parts, the

Jo Swinson’s campaign ground to a halt this morning in Brixton after climate change activists dressed as bees stuck themselves to the front of the Lib Dem battle bus. The party has gone big in its manifesto on tackling what it calls the ‘climate emergency’, vowing to ensure Britain leads ‘the world in tackling’ the issue. But clearly this is not enough for the trio, reportedly from Extinction Rebellion, who are demanding ‘a new form of democracy’. Swinson hopped out of the bus in a bid to convince the activists into ending their protest. But unfortunately her attempt to do so backfired when one of the protesters said it was

During this year’s general election campaign, Labour has attempted to repeat their 2017 strategy of costing each commitment made in their manifesto. Given the sums involved, it seems only fair expect the party to lay out – in detail – what they are planning to spend and how they are planning to pay for it. But perhaps this time, their so-called ‘grey book’ wasn’t quite detailed enough. The party has been caught attempting to amend the costings document after its publication two weeks ago. In the original document, the shadow treasury team appear to have confused ‘profit’ with ‘turnover’. Such a mistake will do nothing to allay the fears those

Another day, another uncosted bribe from Labour. This time, Corbyn is promising to slash a third off rail fares and allow children to travel for free. What wonderful, munificent people we have putting themselves forward to lead us. And of course, it won’t cost the taxpayer an extra penny because, as Labour’s transport spokesman, Andy McDonald, said this morning, it is all coming from a ‘repurposed’ pot of money – money raised through vehicle excise duty, which had been earmarked for road-building. Except, of course, road-building is capital expenditure and subsidising rail fares is current spending. For all its guff about investing in Britain’s future, what Labour is proposing is

With ten days to go until polling day, the election campaign has turned to national security. Following the London Bridge knife attack on Friday by a convicted terrorist which left two members of the public dead, the Conservatives have made a concerted effort to get on the front foot on the issue. Over the weekend, Boris Johnson announced plans for tougher sentencing for terrorists – including a minimum sentence of 14 years. There’s more to come – with Johnson to announce a five-point plan to prevent serious criminals and terrorists from entering the country after Brexit. Given that this is the week the NATO summit comes to town, the Tories were

Some readers have been asking me to comment on the latest London Bridge terrorism incident. And if I have some reluctance it is only because although ennui comes from writing the same article over and over again, that’s nothing like the feeling you get from writing the same article so often that you don’t even need to change the name of the location of the attack each time now. London Bridge 2 has been pored over enough in recent days. The heroism of certain members of the public has rightly been noted. Politicians of all the main parties have tried to pin the blame for the attacker’s early release on