Politics

Now that Nigel Farage is stepping away from frontline politics, he has more time to focus on his family, television career and… appearance. In an interview for Russia Today (natch) with Sam Delaney, Farage has unveiled his new facial hair. With the look so far receiving a mixed reception online — with some likening it to that of an American daytime television host — Mr S welcomes your caption suggestions. The winner will be announced on Monday. Update: … and the winner is K G Barrett for coming up with a solution to Ukip’s troubles in their leadership contest — with the caption: ‘Nigel Farage? I’m sorry, I have never heard of

When Theresa May was gearing up for a summer-long leadership campaign, she identified a worthy target: George Osborne’s addiction to easy money and the whole notion of quantitative easing. Rock-bottom interest rates and QE, she said, boost asset prices – and, in so doing, transfer wealth to the richest. When she became Prime Minister, the Bank of England decided to do another £70 billion of QE. We can guess that the effects will be the same as they were last time: more inflation and a surge of asset prices, making the richest even richer. As I say in my Daily Telegraph column today, QE is a magic wand of inequality.

The row about Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme will continue for years. The fact is that Russia has a long tradition of Olympic cheating. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, when the big issue in Olympic sport was amateurism, the Soviet Union and satellites sent unabashed and obvious full-time professional athletes, while the International Olympic Committee, under the mad Avery Brundage, pretended not to notice. Politics first, ethics second. The end result was that amateurism, a dubious proposition at best and in practice an element of the class war, has now gone for ever. Question: will undoped sport go the same way? Russia promotes, the IOC condones, and ethics comes second

Although Labour Conference is set to take place next month, doubts have surfaced over whether it will go ahead thanks to a security snag. After the party decided to boycott G4S — their usual security supplier — they have been left with few options when it comes to security firms for the event. A leaked memo to Guido last week revealed that the only security firm available to Labour at present is Liverpool-based Showsec. Alas, questions have been raised over their suitability as they are in the midst of a row with the GMB after being accused of not letting staff unionise. However, Mr S understands there is another option on the table. If Labour

Labour has opted for Steve Rotheram to be their candidate in Liverpool’s mayoral election. It’s a big boost for Jeremy Corbyn, as Rotheram has been fiercely loyal to the Labour leader since Corbyn made him his PPS – essentially his right-hand man in Westminster – last September. He’s stuck by Corbyn along the way, and Rotheram suggested after winning the vote amongst Labour members that it could well have helped him defeat current mayor Joe Anderson and Luciana Berger, amongst others, in today’s vote: ‘When we phoned people I think what potentially did have an impact was this underused and rare commodity in politics at the moment and that is

Yesterday, it was the Chinese ambassador threatening Theresa May over Hinkley point. Today, it’s Lord Mandelson’s turn. The Labour grandee said that for the Prime Minister to ‘stretch out’ the Hinkley hold-up any further than the end of September ‘would be a mistake’. What was remarkable about Mandelson’s warning on Today just now was its similarity to that issued by China’s ambassador Liu Xiaoming. Xiamong didn’t mention the ‘B’ word – Brexit – but it was the elephant in his piece in the FT yesterday when he suggested that at such a ‘historical juncture’ Britain needed China. Mandelson went somewhat further to say the referendum was an important factor in

Is the tide in Germany turning against Turkey? It certainly seems to be. A poll today shows a majority of Germans favour ending the refugee deal agreed between the EU and Turkey back in March. The agreement has helped stem the flow of migrants flooding into Europe, making a repeat of the 1.1m people who arrived in Germany last year unlikely. But the deal came at a price: Turkey won a renewal of aid, the prospect of visa free travel for its people across Europe and the biggest prize of all – ‘re-energized’ EU membership talks. Yet for all the bluster talked about the EU deal, it seems that many Germans are

What a difference a year makes. Last August, Michael Dugher and Andy Burnham were thick as thieves with Dugher — a former Brown spinner — even running Burnham’s failed leadership campaign. Alas now that Jeremy Corbyn is leader their friendship has taken a turn for the worse. While Dugher was sacked as shadow Culture Secretary in January, Burnham has clung on as shadow Home Secretary — even choosing to remain when the majority of the shadow cabinet resigned in protest of the leader. While sceptics suggested this was because he was worried about losing Corbynista votes in his bid to be the Mayor of Greater Manchester, today any such bet paid off with Burnham announced as Labour’s

Andy Burnham has won the race to be named as Labour’s candidate in the Manchester Mayoral race. The shadow home secretary’s victory was certainly convincing – he won 50 per cent of the vote amongst Labour members; interim mayor Tony Lloyd got 28 per cent, whilst former minister Ivan Lewis won 19 per cent. So what now? Burnham had made himself something of a laughing stock recently with his flip-flopping about quitting the shadow cabinet. He drew derision for staying loyal to Corbyn, so at least after today he appears to have a bonafide reason at last for leaving the shadow cabinet. Despite the infancy of his mayoral campaign, Burnham is already