All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Lest we forget: Winnie Madikizela Mandela (1936 – 2018); Age: 81; Cause of death: illness James “Stompie” Seipei (1974 – 1989); Age: 14; Cause of death: murder, throat slit South Africa is in mourning over Winnie Madikizela Mandela who died on Monday. The official mood is of sadness and eulogy. The unofficial mood is quite
When I lived in the Soviet Union in my early twenties, I developed a personal hostility to socialism. I saw the misery it had visited on that society – the political, spiritual and economic harm. I understood at first-hand how the secret police corrupted personal and public life, how state propaganda denied freedom of thought and how
As in 2017, the Prime Minister decided to spend some of her Easter break enjoying a walking holiday with her husband in Wales. It is very unlikely that this year’s mini-holiday will be followed by a similar decision as was last year’s: to hold an early general election. The failure of the Conservative campaign in
Yesterday I wrote about a letter that was in the Guardian on Monday defending Jeremy Corbyn from accusations of anti-Semitism. In particular I noted that the signatories of that letter, who the Guardian described as being ‘forty senior academics’, were nothing of the sort. By way of example I gave readers one William Proctor from
Theresa May has never published her case blaming Russia for the Salisbury poisoning. She has reason to be wary of Blair-style intelligence dossiers, and she didn’t need to make everything public to win the support of allies. But as things stand, her case against Russia is open to misinterpretation by the Kremlin. As we have
Next time I hear a government minister on radio or television bemoaning Britain’s poor record on productivity I request that the interviewer puts to them a simple question: can you tell us how many man-hours have been spent by large British firms in fulfilling their legal duty to provide data on their gender pay gap
Oh America, what have you done to your kids? Consider David Hogg, the 17-year-old survivor of last month’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and now omnipresent media agitator for tighter gun-control laws in the US. That young Mr Hogg’s instant reaction to being criticised by a news anchor was to
Theresa May’s widely-praised handling of the Salisbury poisoning hit a bump in the road this afternoon with the news that British scientists at Porton Down have not been able to establish that the Novichok nerve agent used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal was made in Russia. In a clumsy interview, Gary Aitkenhead, the chief
The Guardian has published a letter headlined ‘Stop Jeremy Corbyn’s trial by media over antisemitism.’ The paper explains: ‘More than forty senior academics write to condemn what they see as an anti-Corbyn bias in media coverage of the antisemitism debate.’ Mark. Not just forty academics, but forty senior academics. Why this quantity of Regius professors
Oh dear. On Bank Holiday Monday, Stella Creasy took to the airwaves to promote the #PayMeToo campaign launched to close the gender pay gap. The campaign claims to give working women advice on how to tackle the gender pay where they work. Alas, the Labour MP appeared to be taken by surprise to find the Institute
There are some things in life that are inevitable: the sun rising in the east, the bus always being late and Labour centrists suggesting David Miliband is the saviour of British politics. Today Rachel Sylvester has delivered on the latter. Writing in the Times, Sylvester suggests that the answer to the lack of centre in British
None of this is normal. It’s important that we cling to that. It’s not normal that British Jews are forced to protest for their fair treatment and safety. It’s not normal that four-fifths of the Labour Party think such protests are a political tactic or a Zionist plot. It’s not normal that the man who
The supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are meant to comprise the most cultish movement British politics has seen. Yet on the issue of left anti-Semitism they do not blindly follow their leader. For once in their lives, they give every impression of thinking for themselves. Corbyn has come as close as he can to admitting a
Oh dear. The Labour party is once again divided thanks to the unfolding row over allegations of anti-Semitism. Although Jeremy Corbyn has insisted there is no place in the party for anti-Semitic views, the Labour leader has antagonised many of his MPs further with his decision to attend a Jewdas – ‘radical Jewish diaspora group’
OK the headline isn’t serious, but it got your attention. It also highlights a serious point about the politics of transgender rights which might have been missed over the Easter weekend. The Mail on Sunday this week carried an interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg. The paper didn’t make much of it, but it contained quite an important
Used properly, a purchase credit card is often the cheapest way to borrow – but make sure you pay back what you’ve borrowed before the interest-free time is out. This can be for anything up to 31 months, as you can see in the data below. Here are some of the best 0% Introductory Purchase
China’s imposition today of tariffs on 128 imports from the US was inevitable – and is no doubt exactly the reaction that Donald Trump wants, giving him the excuse to announce yet more tariffs in addition to those on steel and aluminium imports which he has already imposed. After all he did say, even before
Nobody likes the sound of trade war, and rightly so. China’s new retaliatory tariffs moves against US products feel like the beginning of something bad: an escalating tit-for-tat trade conflict between the world’s richest countries which could choke the global economy. But there are good reasons to think that, far from being another silly move
Jeremy Corbyn’s loyalists might howl at the suggestion that his style is similar to President Erdogan’s. But they would do well to pay heed to the parallels. The Turkish strongman, like the Labour leader, puts great effort into polishing his image as a pluralist and an ally of the minorities. On Friday he sent his
After a weekend of horrid headlines for Labour over anti-Semitism, Jeremy Corbyn is keen to be seen to be talking tough on the issue. The Labour leader has told Channel 4 news that his party will not be ‘tolerating anti-Semitism in any form’ and Momentum – the pro-Corbyn grassroots group – has acknowledged that ‘accusations of
One of the most important ingredients for success in politics, journalism, campaigns and advertising is to have a clear message. So, spare a thought for Carole Cadwalladr’s Observer investigation which appears to have failed this test over the weekend. Over the past few months Cadwalladr has launched an investigation into alleged collusion and data misuse
The late Alan Watkins was so right that no half-hour spent with Who’s Who is ever wasted. This is partly because it is complete in certain categories — MPs, peers, bishops, judges, generals etc — and therefore dependable; partly because no one can be removed from it except by death, so that it builds up a picture
A Times/YouGov poll at the weekend found that nearly eight out of ten Labour members believe that accusations of anti-Semitism within the Labour party in the last fortnight are being exaggerated to damage Jeremy Corbyn and prevent criticism of Israel. So, it seems an opportune time to share Andrew Neil’s helpful explainer on what anti-Semitism
After Britain voted to leave the European Union, there was much mistaken talk about how it might also move away from its allies. Boris Titov, one of Putin’s appointees and a half-hearted challenger to him in the presidential election a fortnight ago, claimed that it would break the transatlantic alliance, turning the remainder of the
This week’s challenge marks the centenary this year of the birth of Muriel Spark. ‘I still take a poetic view of life as I see it through the novel,’ Spark once said, explaining that she viewed her novels as long prose poems. So a verse assignment seemed just the thing: you were asked to come
Who is the most important politician in Germany? Angela Merkel? No, it’s the Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz. Merkel remains a colossus on the world stage, but domestically her power is much diminished. Meanwhile German eyes are on Kurz, the world’s youngest national leader, as he strives to bridge the gulf between centrists and populists –
After a torrid few weeks for the Labour party over alleged incidents of anti-Semitism, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel – at least for the party’s moderates. As allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour spiralled, Corbyn’s close ally Christine Shawcroft had to resign on Wednesday as chair of Labour’s disputes panel for
A question for Labour’s moderates, however we define the term and assuming they are still sizeable enough to merit the plural: Do you want to see Jeremy Corbyn become Prime Minister? Specifically, do you think he possesses the character and temperament of a national leader? Does the prospect of a Corbyn-led Labour government fill you
It might be raining outside but the political weather has changed, I say in The Sun this morning. Theresa May is now in the strongest position she’s been in since the general election, and Jeremy Corbyn the weakest. When May addressed the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers on Wednesday, she received a—rather unusual—standing ovation. She
The first news about the Nazi annihilation camps began to spread in the crucial year of 1942. They were vague pieces of information, yet in agreement with each other: they delineated a massacre of such vast proportions, of such extreme cruelty and such intricate motivation that the public was inclined to reject them because of
Why is it that whenever some organisation comes up with some half-baked prediction of doom for the UK economy post-Brexit it is splashed all over the news, yet real data on the economy gets ignored? Yesterday, the ONS quietly released the latest figures for Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) which covers investment across the whole
‘The Scottish Conservatives aspire to lead the next government of Scotland,’ proclaims Ruth Davidson in a pamphlet setting out the party’s thinking. Could it really happen? Could the Tories go from wipeout in 1997 to triumph in 2021 – from resisting devolution to effectively running the show in a generation? Too long; didn’t read answer?
This week, Jeremy Corbyn said he was ‘sincerely sorry’ for the pain that had been caused to the Jewish community by anti-Semitism in ‘pockets’ within the Labour Party. Alas, his apology wasn’t enough to stop protesters – including some of his party colleagues – gathering in Parliament Square on Monday to voice their concerns. Nor were
One of the most thought-provoking pieces in The Spectator this week is from Alastair Thomas on why his generation don’t get so upset about anti-Semitism. He explains the phenomenon and offers an explanation: the years have passed, the memories of the holocaust have dimmed. It’s no longer the experience of someone’s grandparents’ generation, but further