Politics

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, there were reports that Theresa May was concerned that Philip Hammond was not doing enough to help the ‘just about managing’ families — aka JAMs. While he did oblige with a fuel duty freeze, May’s government has since faced questions over its commitment to the JAMs — with matters not helped by the Prime Minister’s decision to don £1,000 leather trousers for a photoshoot. So, Mr S was intrigued to see that Hammond, too, isn’t afraid to indulge in a taste of the high life. The latest register of interests shows that Hammond and his wife enjoyed a dinner — courtesy of Andrew Taee, the founder of Dial

If only I’d known. If only I’d foreseen that the teenage classmate who strode through our school gates every morning, rolled-up Daily Telegraph tucked incongruously (and insouciantly) under one arm, dark leather trench-coat flapping rhythmically in sympathy with the long, swaying black crows-wings of shoulder-length hair, square-heeled boots clicking and clacking their way into morning assembly… if I’d somehow intuited, as I say, that this lanky 15-year-old with the questing, beaky nose and rimless glasses, this proto-goth, would one day be Chancellor of the Exchequer… Well, actually, I wouldn’t have been remotely surprised. I don’t think any of us who knew Philip Hammond back in 1971 at Shenfield School in

The National Front were out in force at my local Parisian market on Saturday. A coterie of volunteers handing out leaflets with suitably festive bonhomie. I took one from a smiling middle-aged woman. It was titled ‘Au Nom Du Peuple’ and there was a photograph of the party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, looking pensive. She’s dropped the surname for her election campaign. It’s deemed too toxic, what with her reptilian father’s reputation for playing down the holocaust and playing up the sins of homosexuality. There’s a message from Marine at the top of the page, an extract from a speech she gave in September this year. ‘Nobody should ignore that

Theresa May was not the only elephant in the room at Thursday’s European Union summit in Brussels, and EU leaders studiously ignored the other one as well. Paolo Gentiloni, Italy’s new Prime Minister – its fourth unelected one in a row since 2011 – must somehow save Monte Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest bank, from collapse. If he fails to do so – and much will depend on EU help – then it will set off a chain reaction that could easily engulf the Eurozone. You might have thought, then, that EU leaders would have had something to say about the matter. But no. Italy’s third largest bank, founded

Although the trouser-gate row between Theresa May and Nicky Morgan looked as though it was beginning to die down, the feud has been given fresh life thanks to brains at the BBC. After the Prime Minister banned Morgan from Downing Streeet for criticising her £1,000 trousers, the former education secretary dropped out of a planned appearance on Have I Got News For You. Explaining Morgan’s absence, Gary Lineker said producers had been left with no choice but to place a £1,000 Mulberry handbag — that Morgan owns a version of — in her vacant chair: ‘We were due to have the former education secretary Nicky Morgan, but because of a falling out

Theresa May is already not invited to the European Council summit dinner, and now it seems she’s not that welcome at the day activities either. Yes, the Prime Minister appears to have been given the cold shoulder this morning at the event — which sees the 28 leaders gather in Brussels to talk migrants, Turkey, Russia and Donald Trump. May was left looking as if she had no mates as she was blanked on the floor: https://twitter.com/EmilyPurser/status/809369281142157313 Let’s hope tonight’s solo dinner — when the 27 remaining leaders depart to talk Brexit without May — is more cheering than a ready meal for one.