All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
It is not often, especially in the midst of what has been a grimly dreadful election campaign for her, that one feels some measure of pity for Theresa May. But there she was today, gamely putting on her bravest, gamest, face when she was asked for her reaction to Donald Trump’s latest witless provocations. The
Although it’s Theresa May who has earned a reputation for performing U-turns, today Jeremy Corbyn has given the Prime Minister a run for her money. The Labour leader kicked off the day by boldly claiming that May ought to resign over cuts to police numbers, in light of recent terror attacks. Given that there’s an
It is not enough for Muslims to say ‘We condemn terrorism’. Sure – we believe you. But something more is needed. What? It’s easy to get bogged down in the slightly wrong issue of violence and war. We should not expect Muslims to condemn all violence that claims a religious justification – for most war
Steve Hilton has called for Theresa May to resign as Prime Minister, blaming her for the security failures that lead to the three recent terror attacks. Without intimate knowledge of the workings of the Cameron administration it’s hard to know where blame does lie. And there certainly has been a large increase in the number of
Security is supposed to be Theresa May’s strong point. Today, it looked like her Achilles heel. The Prime Minister used a speech this morning to pit herself against Jeremy Corbyn as the one to trust on Brexit and keeping Britain safe. At the same venue as her leadership launch last year, May painted a familiar image
There’s a mischievous, not to say malicious, Twitter photograph of Theresa May circulating this morning. It shows her sporting shoulder pads and severely slicked-backed boyish hair, campaigning in the 1987 general election. On top of it someone has added the words: ‘Curbing the promotion of lesbianism in Merton’s schools starts with girls having male role
In three days, the British people will choose who they want to lead this country through the next five years. Five years that will define the future of our country for generations to come. I called this election because, as we face the start of the crucial Brexit negotiations in just a few short days,
Not since the days of William Hogarth has Mother’s Ruin featured so prominently in the national consciousness. In the 21st century, gin is seriously big business as evidenced by the slew of pop-up bars and festivals devoted to this elixir of the gods as well as the number of bottles weighing down supermarket shelves. Just
It seems to be a British tradition that Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s close friend and former director of strategy, intervenes in a general election. During the EU referendum, he came out for Brexit. Now, it’s Theresa May’s turn to have Hilton turn on her. The former No 10 aide, who now lives in California, has once more made
Jeremy Corbyn says that if he was Prime Minister, he would authorise the police to use ‘whatever force is necessary’ against terrorists. Is that true? Is he really ready to go back on decades of suspicion of the police, of hostility to the security forces of an imperialist British state? How can this be reconciled
Theresa May is under pressure over cuts to armed police in the wake of the London attack. This morning, Culture Secretary Karen Bradley popped up on Good Morning Britain to try and defend the Prime Minister. The only problem? Bradley refused to answer any questions. Here’s her awkward exchange with Piers Morgan: Piers Morgan: Do
This dismal, unnecessary election, conducted between the scream of police sirens and the murders of civilians, will be remembered for one thing only: the dementia tax. In years to come, political pros will shake their heads at the naivety of Theresa May. She appeared invincible, they will say. All she had to do was to
Campaigning starts again tomorrow, but in his speech in Carlisle today Jeremy Corbyn made what is – for any Labour leader – a fairly obvious point: ‘You cannot protect the public on the cheap. The police and security services must get the resources they need not 20,000 police cuts. Theresa May was warned by the Police
After the 9/11 attacks, Tony Blair traced the jihadi menace to the problem of ungoverned spaces, like Afghanistan. In her speech after the London Bridge attacks today, Theresa May used similar language to describe cyberspace. “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed,” she said. “Yet that is precisely what the
For the second time in this election, political campaigning is suspended because of a terrorist attack. Given the volume of terrorist attacks—three in the last three months and five other plots disrupted—you might think that the issue would have dominated the campaign. But it hasn’t. Until Theresa May’s statement today talking about how there has
Until last night, I always felt uncomfortable seeing police with guns on the UK’s streets. It’s just not very British, I used to think. But after I had the misfortune to be on London Bridge in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack, I’ve changed my mind. I was in an Uber with my wife heading
Are we all standing united, then? Not letting anything divide us? Not giving way to bigotry or intolerance or hate? And we’re all going to be terrifically brave and go out to vote on Thursday, because that’s what the terrorists don’t want us to do… do they? When I heard the news about the London
Theresa May has said ‘enough is enough’ in a robust statement following last night’s terror attack, which left seven people dead and 48 injured. Acknowledging that this is the third terror attack Britain has experienced in three months, the Prime Minister said that while the three attacks were not connected in their planning, they are bound together
Last night seven people were killed and at least 48 injured in terror attacks in London Bridge and Borough. This is the country’s second terrorist attack in less than two weeks, following the Manchester Arena attack last month. On Friday, Douglas Murray wrote for Coffee House about the need to change our approach to Islamic extremism. Last Sunday,
Seven people were killed and at least 48 injured after a van and knife attack in the London Bridge area. The police have declared the incidents as terrorist attacks. The Conservatives, Labour and the SNP have suspended their national election campaigns for the day. Officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command have arrested 12 people in
Just after 10pm on Saturday night, I was in an Uber minicab with my wife, heading south over London Bridge. We’d been out for a tapas dinner and were on our way home. It had been a lovely evening. Suddenly I noticed something odd on the pavement on our side of the road. It looked
When the Conservatives were rebranded “Theresa May’s team” and the party’s name purged from its literature, there were two explanations. One, that the UK system of Cabinet government doesn’t suit the Prime Minister, so wants an election where she’d campaign by diktat in order to govern by diktat. She’d go fetch a three-figure majority, then her Cabinet
Labour have been up-in-arms this weekend about a viral Conservative campaign video, which used some dubious editing to suggest that Corbyn said ‘No’ when asked whether he would condemn the IRA. In fact, he said ‘No, I think what you have to say is all bombing has to be condemned and you have to bring about
The Tories want to make their closing argument in this campaign about Brexit and how Labour would raise taxes, I write in The Sun this morning. I understand that Lynton Crosby held a meeting with senior Cabinet Ministers on Tuesday which set out this strategy. I’m told that the meeting made clear that Crosby is
Theresa May’s ‘strong and stable’ strapline has apparently been withdrawn after the electorate started to sway with nausea. Yet the words remain emblazoned on the ‘battle bus’, still crop up in interviews, and continue to litter campaign material across the country. To little effect. The phrase was soon found to be a blunt weapon, not cutting through to
Enough of all these vital, apocalyptic, existential elections. They don’t half wear you out. The Scottish referendum was vital and apocalyptic, so they said, because the wrong decision would have seen Britain crack like a plate, and Scotland spiral off into insane debt, and residual Britain fade in geopolitical importance. Or, on other side, Tory
‘The news that Harry Perkins was to become prime minister went down very badly in the Athenaeum.’ Thus begins my novel A Very British Coup, written 35 years ago and, with the narrowing gap in the opinion polls, suddenly topical again. Since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader it has been reprinted twice and, earlier this
Theresa May turned in what, I think, was her best TV performance of the election tonight. May engaged with the questions more than she has in previous TV events, and was more confident and fluent than she had been on Monday night. After a prolonged Tory wobble, her performance will have steadied jangling Tory nerves.
Tonight Jeremy Corbyn faced his toughest media appearance of the campaign as he took questions from a live studio audience in the Question Time Leaders Special. Although the audience appeared more favourable to him than Theresa May at first (with the Labour leader receiving a loud whoop as he entered the stage), the format actually
We’ve just had our pre-election meeting at The Spectator, and agreed the usual drill for the big night. Election day itself is dead: we relax and steel ourselves for the evening. There’ll be the normal 8.30pm curry as we wait for the exit poll and we’ll lay on some wine (and desk space) for contributors who’ll
Yesterday’s announcement by Donald Trump that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is truly historic. The Paris accord was the closest the Europeans had come to getting the US to accepting timetabled emissions cuts in the now quarter century saga of UN climate change talks. The first was in the 1992 UN climate change
At the outset of this general election campaign one thing seemed clear: Labour would get everything they deserved but, alas, the Tories would not. That is, Jeremy Corbyn would lead Labour to a thoroughly-merited disaster and Theresa May would gain an ill-deserved, but whopping, victory. Well that was then and this is now as it
Only a few weeks ago, the polls brought nothing but joy for the Tories. With just six days to go until election day, that’s no longer the case. An Ipsos MORI survey out today cuts the Conservative lead down to just five points. Labour’s support has burst through the 40 per cent mark – rising
Last Sunday, I appeared on the BBC’s Sunday Politics to discuss the aftermath of the Manchester attack. I said what I thought, and various Muslim groups promptly went bananas. This was not caused by my suggestion that this country should finally crack-down on British officials who spend their retirements working as shills for the House