All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
There’s one word you may not hear in connection with the death of Lt-Col Beltrame who died last night, the fourth victim of the 25-year-old Islamist gunman, Redouane Lakdim. And that word is chivalry. The reason why the police officer died from wounds he sustained in the shootout, in which Lakdim was killed, was that he
Joseph Goebbels said fascists should not worry about their propaganda being too rough or too mean. ‘It ought not be decent nor ought it be gentle or soft or humble; it ought to lead to success.’ No one could accuse the anti-Semitic propaganda in London’s East End of being ‘soft’. The Los Angeles graffiti artist
Theresa May has had by far her most successful EU Council this week. The terms of the transition deal were signed off and, in a genuine diplomatic achievement, she got the EU to collectively recognise that no one other than Russia could have been responsible for the Salisbury attack. But as I say in The
Boris Johnson is right that Vladimir Putin will seek to use the World Cup this summer in the same way that Hitler did with the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Putin doesn’t care much for football, but the World Cup is a useful chance to confer legitimacy on his pseudo-democratic regime by basking in the glory of
This evening Owen Smith has been unceremoniously sacked by Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour front bench after he called for another EU referendum. However, given that the Labour frontbench aren’t exactly known for sharing a coherent Brexit position, some are questioning how fair the move is. After all, when it coms to calling for second
In the past few minutes, Owen Smith has been sacked from Labour’s Shadow Cabinet after he wrote an article calling for a second referendum and continuing single market membership. The party this evening released a statement from Jeremy Corbyn which did not thank Smith for his work but instead praised the record of his successor
John Bolton – owner of the finest moustache in American politics since Teddy Roosevelt – has been appointed Donald Trump’s new national security adviser. He replaces the outgoing HR McMaster, a veritable survivor who managed to last 395 days at the White House. That’s two terms plus a recess appointment in MAGA years. Hysteria is
What rubbish we British talk about American Christianity. For example, we’re still convinced that hardcore fundamentalist evangelicals can swing elections. But do Americans themselves really understand what’s happening to religion in their own country? In the new Holy Smoke podcast, I’m joined by Professor Stephen Bullivant, Britain’s leading expert on patterns of churchgoing, to discuss
The Cambridge Analytica row looks set to move from the US presidential election to the EU referendum. After Christopher Wylie blew the whistle in the Observer and claimed that Cambridge Analytica used questionable Facebook data to win the US election, the paper looks set to re-focus its investigation on the Brexit campaign. In an 8,000
Artificial intelligence is about to transform healthcare. The claim is not being made by excitable tech gurus from Silicon Valley but by medics. Machines, having been fed enormous amounts of data, are developing algorithms that detect disease from X-rays and tissue samples. This is, potentially at least, a much cheaper and more efficient way to
Gavin Williamson has not had a good few weeks. While Theresa May has never looked more statesmanlike than in her response to Russia over the Salisbury poisoning, the Defence Secretary has become the subject of ridicule for suggesting Moscow ‘go away and shut up’. This week, Williamson’s Cabinet colleague Matt Hancock even went so far
Islamist terror returned to France this morning with at least three people reportedly killed when a Moroccan man, reportedly claiming allegiance to Isis, opened fire on police and then ran into a supermarket in Trebes, shouting ‘Allah Akbar’ and vowing to avenge his “brothers in Syria”. The gunman is now believed to have been killed
This piece first appeared in The Spectator The maximum amount you can save in an ISA for the tax year 2017-2018 is now £20,000. The maximum annual pension contribution is £40,000. Counterintuitively, these huge allowances are actually a disincentive for ordinary people to save. With a £5,000 ISA maximum, a modest saver had an impetus
That EU leaders have agreed to move to the next stage of Brexit talks and rubber stamp the transition period is no great surprise. It took just a matter of minutes this morning for them to wave through guidelines on the negotiations for a future trade deal between Britain and the EU. But while the
Another massive America news blizzard yesterday: Trump lawyer quits, tariffs tariffs tariffs, stock-market slide, former alleged mistresses of the President speaking out, McMaster out (finally), Bolton in (finally). And then, as a night cap, the Senate approves a whooping $1.3 trillion spending plan to prevent a government shutdown. The Bolton news has, so far, been
The Left has found something to raise its cheer. Needless to say, it is someone predicting that mankind is doomed. The most-read piece on the Guardian website yesterday was an interview with Paul Ehrlich – not the one who did something useful, the 19th century immunologist, but Paul R Ehrlich, the Stanford Professor of Biology, who
In this week’s Books Podcast, I’m joined by the Telegraph’s former parliamentary sketch writer Andrew Gimson, and the Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson, to discuss their latest superhero-style team-up: Gimson’s Prime Ministers. The book is a complete set of brief lives of every occupant of Number Ten from Walpole to May — illustrated by Martin’s distinctive caricatures.
Oh dear. With Theresa May in Brussels today for the EU Council summit, Remain campaigners have been keen to do what they can to undermine her latest Brexit efforts. In that vein, Vince Cable held a meeting with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) on Brexit today. The Liberal Democrats subsequently issued
Ever since Gavin Williamson’s speedy promotion to Defence Secretary, the Conservative MP has divided opinion in his party. While some enjoy his high profile antics (which include banning Philip Hammonf from MoD jets over an outstanding bill), others think he does too little to mask his leadership ambitions. So, last week Williamson offered his critics
On this week’s episode, we discuss the state of mental health in this country, and whether doctors are all too happy to prescribe medication as the miracle solution to mental illnesses. We also ask what on earth is the deal with Cambridge Analytica, and commemorate the death of the world’s last male northern white rhino.
Theresa May’s Home Office record is normally off limits at cabinet. But, as I write in the magazine this week, when ministers discussed the government’s strategy for reducing violent crime on Tuesday, Boris Johnson took issue with what the Prime Minister regards as one of her key legacies: the dramatic reduction in stop and search. He
The blue passport has become one of those symbols of Brexit, mocked by Remainers and taken really very seriously by Brexiteers. So it’s fitting that the row about is production tells us so much about the way the two camps operate. The current manufacturer of the Burgundy passport is De La Rue, a British supplier,
The new British passport being made abroad is a perfect symbol for Brexit Britain. For after we leave the European Union, we should be an open, free trading nation. If a French firm is offering to make our passports to the requisite standard for a lower price than any British company, then the contract should
Since Michael Gove took over Defra, the Conservatives have been on a mission to rebrand as the party of the environment. However, some have questioned whether it’s a move that comes from the heart – or one which is down to more cynical reasoning. Theresa May’s former director of communications Kate Perrior said in the
Some people I respect are content to go on the Russian TV channel RT, on the grounds that ‘they let me say what I think’. I’m afraid this is a form of vanity. Of course, RT lets you say what you think: they would be ludicrously ineffective propagandists if they didn’t. The point is that
Could there possibly be a harder decision to make than whether a young baby should live or die? Yesterday, that was the role which the Supreme Court assumed when it decided to back Mr Justice Hayden in his judgment that Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool should be allowed to switch off the life support
Serious and organised crime, from drugs and cybercrime to people trafficking, costs the UK economy an estimated £24 billion a year. The majority of proceeds are laundered through UK banks and other regulated businesses, and includes money from international criminal activity or corruption. Not only is money laundering a serious crime in itself, this practice plays a wider
The furious response to the revelations about Cambridge Analytica is in danger of missing the point. Much of the backlash has focused on what hand the company played in the Trump election and Brexit vote. But this is actually a broader tale of what goes wrong when our tech firms hand authority and power to poorly-educated,
Zuck speaks! He’s finally responded to the Cambridge Analytica debacle. To be honest, I could have predicted almost word-for-word this evening’s statement: It wasn’t really our fault; it was mostly their fault; we’re a little bit responsible (‘front-up’ I can imagine a comms person insisting); and here are the steps we’ve taken. In fact, we’d already taken most of these steps in 2014,
Now that Alexander Nix has been suspended as Cambridge Analytica chief executive, the hunt is on to see who else he has been meeting – in London or Washington. His meetings with UK officials would have been disclosed. But one wasn’t: a meeting with Boris Johnson in December 2016. The Foreign Secretary wasn’t seeking the
From the outside it all looked haphazard and frenzied. A campaign that was -skidding from scandal to crisis on its way to total defeat. That’s not how it felt inside the ‘Project Alamo’ offices in San Antonio, Texas where Trump’s digital division — led by Brad Parscale, who’d worked previously with Trump’s estate division setting
The political weather has changed at Westminster. Tory MPs now have a spring in their step in a way that they haven’t had since the snap election went so wrong. By contrast, the Labour benches look glummer than they have in a while. Tory MPs might be exaggerating how much things have really changed; several
Brexit is going well, apparently. And the prime minister seemed in chipper mood at PMQs. She was even enjoying herself. To neutrals this is a distressing sight. To fans of the Tory leader it must seem downright dangerous. History has taught us that when May feels she’s on top the world, the world promptly lands
Jeremy Corbyn had a good line of attack at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, choosing to focus on the financial crisis at Northamptonshire Council. When the Labour leader chooses a less-obvious topic, he has the benefit of surprise, but also the disadvantage of appearing to be avoiding talking about something more important. Today, though, Corbyn had