Politics

We are approaching the deadline for the prestigious ‘Most Odious Political Commentator of the Year’ award. Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s joint bid is so far out in front of the pack, that the result is surely a foregone conclusion. But this should not deter us from running through some of the other noble contenders.  Owen Jones has had a quietish year, for which we should all be grateful I am keeping my eye on Newsnight’s Nick Watt as a dark horse. Frequently seen gracing Watt’s programme (and on which he was a staffer) is the ghastly Lewis Knowall, who plies his trade now with the shriekingly right-on Emily Maitlis on something

The Labour government seems determined to undermine excellence in schools. The Department for Education has announced that from February it will be terminating its Latin Excellence Programme, which taught Latin to over 5,000 pupils, as part of a cost-saving measure. The cutback comes a month after an external review suggested ‘middle-class bias’ should be removed from the curriculum and that ‘high-brow pursuits’, such as ‘visits to museums, theatres and art galleries’, might be replaced with more ‘relatable’ activities such as graffiti workshops. This retrograde decision is deeply frustrating because it makes the so-called elitism surrounding Latin a self-fulfilling prophecy The decision to effectively end Latin lessons in some state schools is particularly

At the start of a roller-coaster ride, a motorised chain pulls the carriages up to the highest point of the circuit, emitting a clanking sound as a ratchet takes effect. When the clanking stops those in the cars know they are about to go over the top. The canniest politicians across the western world are hearing such a clanking sound right now. In just a month’s time, the second term of President Donald Trump will get underway and those with the closest connections to it are promising us all a wild ride. According to Steve Bannon, Trump’s former senior adviser and continued confidant, we are going to see ‘as aggressive

If Keir Starmer does succeed in his aim of stimulating a house-building boom, it may be that landowners will have little to celebrate. The government has launched a consultation into proposals to extend the powers of compulsory purchase to help councils assemble land for new housing developments. No public body can simply seize land; that would be in breach of the Human Rights Act. But the price that landowners should be paid when their land is required for public projects is a matter of much argument. Should councils or development commissions simply pay the current value – what the seller would achieve if he tried to sell it on the

Parliament may be in recess, but Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government still can’t catch a break. The Prime Minister is facing further allegations of cronyism after a pro-Labour lobbyist was appointed to a top government advisory job. Dear, oh dear… Iain Anderson, a prominent businessman who defected to Labour from the Tories in 2023, has now been hired to the Department for Business and Trade as a non-executive director. Yet Anderson will not be stepping down from his executive chairman role at Cicero, a lobbying firm whose roster includes Royal Mail, Barclays and Accenture – the latter being a management consultancy firm which holds multiple government contracts. How curious. Anderson