All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
In German they have a concept whose equivalent is sorely needed in discussion of British politics: ‘anti-talent’. It means exactly what it sounds like – the opposite of talent, something any given person is uniquely ill-suited to doing. The Chancellor criticised ‘the nagging voices of decline’, which, when you’re standing a matter of inches away
Russians living in the Belgorod region of Russia got a taste of what Ukrainians have been enduring for over three years of war last night, after they spent it without power, hot water or internet. Ukrainian forces set the Belgorod power plant ablaze with US-made Himars missiles after the Trump administration reportedly gave Kyiv the
Labour mayors are stealing the limelight at Labour conference. As Sir Keir Starmer continues to struggle with staffing issues, policy positions and a prevailing surge in support for Reform UK, new polling for Sky News has revealed that six in ten Labour members would back Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to be leader, with fewer
‘The European path of Moldova must go on,’ a young Moldovan politician texted me as their parliamentary election results began to roll in yesterday. His party PAS, the pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity, won. The race was not as close as some supporters feared, with PAS receiving about 50 per cent of the vote.
Security, security, security was the message from Chancellor Rachel Reeves as she addressed the Labour party today in Liverpool. A Labour government, she said, would stand for a British economy first. An economy that would put the British worker above all else. That, Reeves proclaimed, was the key difference between a Labour government and a
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Whilst a certain noisy northern mayor has positioned himself as the problem child of conference 2025, The Spectator finds another Labour politician far more interesting. All around Liverpool the newsstands are decorated by the image of the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, dubbed the ‘Terminator’ by Tim Shipman in the most recent issue of The Spectator.
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Labour party conference has kicked off in Liverpool, and the Chancellor has just delivered her keynote speech. ‘Security, security, security’ was the message from Rachel Reeves as she addressed the Labour party faithful. The Labour government, she said, will create an economy that puts the British worker above all else. Aside from setting out her
The Chancellor has just finished her speech at the Labour party conference. It has been a pretty torrid 12 months since Rachel Reeves’ last appearance in Liverpool. Since then, the Budget and borrowing costs have left her precariously exposed, in both Westminster and the City. But Reeves – a Labour tribalist to her core –
At the last Labour conference before the 2026 Holyrood election, Scottish Labour is enjoying the limelight. With less than eight months to go until the Scottish parliament election, the party is trying to prove that – despite its rather dire polling – it can win. But in an increasingly fractured political world, Labour may have
A new report from the field of human origins had sub-editors reaching for their hyperboles. A million-year-old skull, we have learnt, has rewritten humanity’s story. The finality of this is misleading, but there is nonetheless something going on here. If Neanderthals, Denisovans and sapiens evolved away from each other a million years ago, there must have
‘I told you so’ – the most irritating four words in the English language, dripping with self-satisfaction and schadenfreude. So, forgive me. A year ago I – or rather, ‘we’, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee of which I was chair – told you, the great British public, that the UK risked economic catastrophe. A
Tony Blair is a man for all seasons, a political operator who knows precisely on which side his bread is buttered, the side of the super-rich oil and gas sheikhs and the well-connected elites of the Middle East. It is no coincidence, then, that his name has emerged as a potential candidate for a role
Last week, Reform UK announced the most radical proposal on overhauling immigration by a mainstream political party in a generation. Under their new plans, migrants in the UK with indefinite leave to remain (ILR) would have to reapply for residency and would lose access to welfare benefits, unless they qualify to become British citizens. This
Keir Starmer’s behaviour, demeanour and language has taken a rapid and strange turn of recent. Unable to do anything meaningful about this country’s economic woes or the chronic immigration crisis, the Prime Minister now resorts to words in preference to actions. He relies increasingly on alarmist rhetoric and hollow gestures in order to make us
When Rachel Reeves speaks at Labour party conference today, she has a tough message to deliver. The Chancellor will announce her plans to ‘abolish youth unemployment’ by forcing Britain’s jobless youth into work. There’s a moral case to be made for welfare reform and the Chancellor must make it today The ‘youth guarantee’ scheme will
Reform’s proposal to scrap indefinite leave to remain for foreigners is racist, according to Keir Starmer. ‘I do think it’s a racist policy,’ the Prime Minister told the BBC yesterday. ‘I do think it’s immoral – it needs to be called out for what it is.’ Removing people who were here legally, he said, was
Those who make the case in favour of national ID cards invariably do so on pragmatic grounds. As they have reminded us in recent days following Keir Starmer’s announcement of the rollout of digital ID, these would make life more simple, more convenient, secure easier access to public services, reduce fraud, criminal activity and even
If you think Britain’s free speech crisis is bad now, if Ofcom gets its way it could get a whole lot worse. The broadcasting regulator-turned-internet-policeman is currently consulting on proposals to beef up the Online Safety Act. The proposals in its blandly-title ‘Additional Safety Measures‘ document could reduce the internet in Britain to a shadow
Well, well, well. The atmosphere is more than a little tense as Labour conference kicks off in Liverpool. In recent weeks, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suffered not just from poor poll results – with a recent MRP suggesting his party could fall to less than 100 seats at the next general election – but
Day one of the Labour conference – oh frabjous day! The annual gathering of people who hate each other just a little bit more than they hate themselves was underway. You really do wonder where they find some of these characters. Sir Keir arrives in Liverpool as the least popular PM in history. Worse than
A glorious exchange on GB News this morning. Steve Reed, the new Housing Secretary, has been making a big song and dance this conference about his plans to ‘build baby build.’ Red caps bearing the slogan are being dispersed to delegates who are proudly displaying them around Liverpool. There is just one problem: the government
To Liverpool, where politicians and delegates are gathering for Labour’s annual party conference. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has just finished his speech on the main stage, where he lead out his vision for his party with just eight months to go until next year’s Holyrood elections. But it was a non-Labour politician that dominated
The first clue that Scottish Labour might not be dead in the water came with a soundtrack by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. Campaigning for the 2021 Holyrood Election, party leader Anas Sarwar joined an open-air dance class in the town of Livingston and – throwing all dignity to the wind – joined in. Then,
Labour conference has begun this weekend in Liverpool under something of a cloud. The run-up to the five-day shindig has been dominated by questions about old donations and Andy Burnham’s intentions. A slew of poor polls suggest the party has gone badly off track after 14 months in office. But following a summer in which
Oh dear. It seems that Keir Starmer’s great big conference reset is beginning well. A blizzard of new polls have been published – all of which make for devastating reading for our embattled PM. A major new Sunday Times MRP survey shows that Reform is on course to win 373 seats at the next election,
There has been a recurring theme when it comes to meetings between the Duke of Sussex and his now estranged family in recent years. If he has any such meeting, sympathetic media outlets (if such a thing exists) will somehow learn of the contents and a (typically pro-Harry) story will appear shortly afterwards. Unsurprisingly, the
On 4 October, voters in Georgia will be called to the polls to vote in the country’s municipal elections and choose a new cohort of local councillors and city mayors. How many citizens will actually turn out, though, remains to be seen: for many, after a steady erosion of democratic freedoms in Georgia, this vote
Bram and Hubertus are marked for death. Camouflage-clad government marksmen – licensed but anonymous, for security reasons – are hunting them in the sparse woodlands of one of Europe’s most densely populated nations. But it’s proving trickier than expected. The hunters are not alone in the woods. A parallel force – equally camouflaged, well equipped and
Operation Raise the Colours, a grassroots movement to adorn our towns and cities with England flags, has swept across the country. It has even hit Liverpool – long mythologised as a bastion of left-wing exceptionalism, and where Labour conference starts today. St George’s crosses can now be found across the north of the city: Dovecot, Knotty
What happens when you boil a frog? It doesn’t notice the warming water until it is too late. According to Margus Tsahkna, Estonia’s foreign minister, Russia is boiling Nato like a frog. He fears that Vladimir Putin’s provocations of Nato (none of which on their own would necessitate a military response) will become increasingly and
When ITV executives commissioned The Hack, the new drama series dealing with the News International phone hacking scandal, they surely hoped they were getting another Mr Bates vs. The Post Office. Not only did it star that show’s Toby Jones as – bizarrely – Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, complete with ludicrous wig, but it was
Donald Trump’s political and legal assault on the Federal Reserve has provoked concern and indignation from the defenders of central banks’ operational independence. Amid the sound and fury, some simple points are being forgotten. Whether or not this distracts central bankers from their main goal of controlling inflation is a matter of debate First, public
Claudia Cardinale, who died this week aged 89, was one of few Italian actresses to achieve global stardom along with Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren. Whereas Lollobrigida and Loren embodied the beauty of Italy, Cardinale – I always feel – embodied the beauty of the Mediterranean. Her face and physique were the irresistible but perilous
Two days before Charlie Kirk was murdered, Claire Guinan, a writer for the US women’s website Jezebel, paid witches online to hex him. When I first read Guinan’s article, my thought was that it was quintessential Jezebel: clickbait that might have interested 19-year-olds in 2011, back when witchcraft still had a frisson of feminist rebellion.