Politics

King Charles has been a victim of his own success. His first Christmas broadcast last year, which was both affecting and socially conscious, attracted 10.6 million viewers, making it not only the most-watched monarch’s seasonal address since viewing records began, but also the most popular single programme to air over the festive period last year. The cynical might argue that its success was partly down to rubber-necking curiosity – would Charles mention his family’s rift with Prince Harry? – and partly because of the relative paucity of must-watch television in our increasingly bifurcated age. Still, it was a triumph both of presentation (the new monarch is a far more natural and

On Saturday, according to the Daily Telegraph, pro-Palestinian protestors ‘brought Oxford Street to a standstill on one of the busiest shopping days of the Christmas period’. The organisers, Sisters Uncut, declared that ‘Christmas is cancelled’ while placards read ‘no shopping while bombs are dropping’ – a reference to Israel’s military response to the 7 October massacre in which Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 Jewish men, women and children. The Telegraph recorded that the marchers had ‘walked slowly’ along Oxford Street and ‘forced fashion retailers Zara and Puma to temporarily lock their doors’. They wrote that the demonstrators ‘made their way from Soho Square towards Oxford Circus, holding up buses and taxis’.

A month after ‘Stockton-gate‘, the Home Secretary is in the headlines again over reports of another verbal indiscretion. James Cleverly has tonight apologised for comments made at a Downing Street reception about spiking his wife’s drink with a date rape drug. Speaking to female reporters at the No. 10 lobby drinks on Monday, Cleverly said that ‘a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night’ was ‘not really illegal if it’s only a little bit’, according to the Sunday Mirror. The remarks came on the same day that the Home Office announced plans to crack down on spiking. Cleverly – who is often accompanied at such events by his

The world’s largest offshore wind farm is coming to Britain but there will be only one winner from the scheme – and it isn’t electricity consumers. Wind energy giant Ørsted had raised doubts about the Hornsea 3 offshore project earlier this year. But after securing more generous subsidy arrangements from the government, the Danish firm is pressing ahead with the project. Soon, another 230 turbines will fill the North Sea due east of Hull. The news this week is being hailed as a boost for Britain’s net zero strategy but don’t be deceived: the true cost of this scheme will be enormous. Last year, Ørsted won a contract for difference – which is