All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Tony Blair thinks he has discovered a form of words that could lead to the reversal of the EU referendum result. When the vote was taken voters did not know the exact terms of our departure. When they become clear, people might change their minds. The mistake in this line of spin is that the
On this week’s podcast, we look at the global silence around the protests in Iran. We’ll also be asking whether Wilfred Owen might have been a paedophile, and railing against unnecessary subtitling on internet videos. First, in the magazine this week Douglas Murray turns his attention to the recent turbulence in Iran. Not since 2009 has
Not surprisingly, feminists lost no time this week weighing in behind Emily Lucinda Cole, a Virgin Trains passenger who took great exception to being addressed by a rail employee ‘with that hideously patronising word women shudder at in contexts such as these: ‘honey’’. And indeed, the episode she complained about did suggest that the term
A year and eleven months ago, Iran’s parliamentary elections ended in a resounding victory for the reformists. Last May, the reformist candidate Hassan Rouhani convincingly defeated his hardline rival, Ebrahim Raisi, in the Presidential election. Rouhani’s inauguration was presented as a celebration of the country’s democracy and stability. But last Thursday demonstrations began at the
Tony Blair’s message for voters on Brexit is becoming more and more shrill. His latest stark warning is that: ‘2018 will be the year when the fate of Brexit and thus of Britain will be decided. 2017 was too early in the negotiation. By 2019, it will be too late.’ The point Blair misses is
Oh dear. Coming back to work after the Christmas break is hard going at the best of times. So, spare a thought for Tom Bradby, who had a bad day at the office yesterday. The ITV News at Ten presenter was forced to cut the nightly broadcast short after the fire alarm went off. Bradby
We’re four days into 2018 and Tony Blair has kindly graced the nation with his first Brexit intervention of the new year. Proving old habits die hard, the former Prime Minister has written a blog criticising the government’s handling of Brexit. Blair claims Theresa May is on course to negotiate a deal that is the
The new year in France has got off to its traditionally violent start, with hundreds of cars set ablaze across the country and an attempted lynching of two police officers in the suburbs of Paris. Yet in the increasingly surreal world of social media, what is causing uproar is Brigitte Macron’s breach of protocol to stand
Forget North Korea for a moment — President Donald J Trump today launched a devastating assault on Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, and the man often credited as the architect of his success. Replying to bitchy comments Steve Bannon reportedly made in Fire and Fury, a new book about the Trump White House by
I interview Angela Rayner, the Shadow Education Secretary, for the forthcoming edition of The Spectator. I met her before Christmas and was fascinated by the way she explains her politics in terms of her biography. She tells me how much she owes to a welfare state that was there for her, in a way that
Whose fault is the current NHS crisis? Today Jeremy Hunt apologised to patients whose operations have been cancelled as a result of serious pressures on hospitals. There are ‘major incidents’ at 16 hospital trusts, and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine is warning that patients who do end up in crowded and chaotic emergency departments
The last full year before Britain leaves the EU has been foretold by some as a time of increasingly desperate negotiation. According to this view the government is drifting towards an economically painful Brexit, so consumed by the whole sorry business that it is unable to address any of the country’s other problems. Yet there
With the death toll in Iran thought to sit at 21 following a series of clashes between protesters and security forces at nationwide demonstrations, many politicians have been quick to express concern over the regime. However, Jeremy Corbyn has intriguingly gone quiet on Iran. Happily, some on the left have proved more willing to comment.
John Murray – the publisher of Byron, Goethe, Jane Austen and Charles Darwin, inter alia – turns 250 this year. This week, they’re launching – in association with The Spectator (a stripling at 190-odd) – a new international prize for non-fiction. Entrants, who must be previously unpublished in book form, are invited to submit an
Donald Trump is becoming increasingly unbuttoned. Last night, he tweeted referring to Kim Jong–un that: ‘I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my button works!’ To Trump, size matters. Yesterday was a big—or bigly—day for Trump. He started it off by taking a swipe
The philosophy of the National Health Service, as stated on its website, is that ‘good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth’. This is why, in theory, Britain’s health service ‘covers everything’. Not this month. Last night, NHS hospitals were made to cancel all non-emergency surgeries until February in order to divert resources to this
Is there anything more evil than Dry January as an unchristian abomination and a conspiracy against Baby Jesus? Unless it’s Veganuary. It’s part, you know, of the war against Christmas and indeed against a sane approach to the seasons. Look around you, folks: this is a bleak month if you cut out decorations, tinsel, candlelight,
Shortly after midnight on 1 January my phone began to vibrate repeatedly. Happy New Year messages from absent friends? No, I was trending on Twitter — the third-most popular topic on the network after #NYE. The cause was a story about me in the next day’s Guardian that had just gone live. The headline read:
Although we’re only three days into 2018, the Guardian has put in an early contender for the coveted title of most Grauniad article of the year. Proving that Brexit misery can be found in pretty much anything so long as you look hard enough, the paper has published an intriguing review of McMafia, the BBC’s
Is Iran on the brink of a revolution? The mullahs’ main political adversaries in Washington and Tel Aviv appear to think so, as does much of the western media. With the Wall Street Journal reporting that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps is taking charge of security in Tehran, it is equally clear that the regime
Say this for Donald Trump — if he does bring on nuclear apocalypse, at least he made it funny. Every amateur Freudian with a media platform is now dissecting his latest ‘mine is bigger than yours’ exchange with Kim Jong-Un, perhaps not realising that the joke is on them. Here is what Trump tweeted: It may
The anger that greeted the hike in rail fares yesterday once again caught the Tories on the back foot. Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, eventually popped up from Qatar to say that he too was annoyed at the rise in ticket prices. But it was too late: Labour had spent much of the day making
We believe strongly that the best non-fiction isn’t confined by category – as our history shows. Alexander von Humboldt’s Personal Narrative of his five years exploring South America came out in 1814; it was a major influence on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and his seminal Origin of Species (1859) and both inspired Andrea Wulf
It’s easy to overdo the Christmas spending – but what if you’ve really blown the budget? Here are this week’s Best Buys, of unsecured five-year loans of up to £10,000. Data supplied by moneyfacts.co.uk.
It’s safe to say that Chris Grayling’s trip to Qatar hasn’t exactly gone to plan. The Transport Secretary has been accused of ‘going into hiding’ in the Middle East following his decision to be out of the country on the day train fares are revealed to have their biggest rise in five years. That announcement
As is traditional, the new year begins with harrumphing. Railway users appear appalled by the suggestion they pay a greater share of the cost of their journey. The current formula for determining railway fares, introduced by the last Labour government a decade ago, was designed to offer a better deal to the majority of citizens
Turmoil in the Middle East, a reshuffle rumoured at Westminster, and Toby Young is offending the liberal establishment. So far, 2018 doesn’t seem all that different from 2017. The occasion for the latest sputtering is the Speccie columnist’s appointment to the board of the Office for Students. The OfS is the new regulator of Britain’s
Will Theresa May really go for a wide-ranging reshuffle in the next few weeks? Westminster wisdom has long been that it is dangerous to move your top team around, as sacked ministers make troublesome backbenchers. This does ignore the inconvenient truth that most of the trouble that May has faced over the past few months
With nine more people reported to have died overnight in Iran following clashes between protesters and security forces, the death toll is thought to sit at 21 following a series of nationwide demonstrations. Several politicians – including Boris Johnson – have been quick to express concern over the situation. However, despite an active Twitter feed, Jeremy Corbyn
When he isn’t jetting around the world making huge sums of money, Tony Blair now dedicates himself to the cause of blocking Brexit. The former Prime Minister has warned that leaving the European Union will do ‘profound damage’ to Britain, and last month, Blair confirmed he is working to stop the UK leaving the EU.
Rail fares are up again, with the latest rise – of an average of 3.4 per cent – the biggest in five years. Labour are clear about who is to blame: it’s the government’s fault, according to the shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald. But whether that’s right or not, it’s inevitable that anger at this
Terms and Conditions for The John Murray Prize Those interested in entering should visit the main page here. The prize for this competition is an opportunity to have a book published by John Murray Press (“JMP”), an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton Limited (“Hodder”) with an advance of £20,000. The Winner will also receive at
Old establishment New establishment Order of the Garter BBC Sports Personality of the Year Parliament’s Woolsack The Supreme Court The Borgias Sir Nicholas Serota and friends William Rees-Mogg Owen Jones Jacob Bronowski Simon Cowell Ciggy soak and TV cook Fanny Cradock Clean-living (Deliciously) Ella Mills Shirley Williams Lily Allen MCC committee members BBC trustees
Although I wrote in my last post that social media makes people miserable, Twitter is also a fantastic resource for acquiring knowledge from experts and specialists in different areas. One of my favourite accounts is Rolf Degen, who daily tweets a number of scientific studies into human behaviour. Just before Christmas he linked to a story concerning the
