All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
MPs are finally making their way out of Parliament – or staying for Ed Miliband’s late night adjournment debate – after the first day of Committee Stage of the Article 50 Bill. As explained earlier, the real fireworks are expected tomorrow, and any flashes of drama today came from MPs complaining about the lack of
The legalisation of cannabis is once again in the headlines. Following the death of his 21-year-old son Rupert Green, Lord Monson has called for a ‘war on skunk’ and the legalisation of less potent forms of cannabis. According to his father, Rupert became addicted to skunk, developed paranoia and psychosis, and took his own life. His death is
We’re looking for interns to spend a week or two with us here at The Spectator. We tend to get over a hundred applications for about a dozen places, and take the process seriously. Several of our recruits (Camilla Swift, Alex Massie, Sebastian Payne) first came through our doors as interns: when we have a vacancy,
Fibs, white lies, alternative facts. We all bend the truth from time-to-time, although for most of us that doesn’t include spouting nonsense from the podium of the White House press briefing room. When it comes to finance, we’re not exactly a nation of truth-tellers. I can relay multiple stories of people who have concealed chronic
The housing market is ‘broken’, ministers have conceded, as they unveiled the Government’s revised housing strategy. Under the plans, councils will be ordered to build thousands more homes, with an emphasis on high-rise blocks and city centre developments, The Guardian reports. The Government believes that too few councils have plans to meet England’s housing demand. It says
John Bercow has just declared that he will oppose an invitation for Donald Trump to speak in either Westminster Hall or the Royal Gallery when, or should that be if, the US President comes on a state visit to Britain. The Speaker of the House of Commons’ opposition makes it extremely difficult for any invitation
Much of the fiercest opposition to the Trump regime has come from large corporations. The most recent example is Airbnb, whose Superbowl advert showed a group of people alongside a message saying: ‘We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong’. It was a clear
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that Parliament must have its say on Brexit, it seems MPs are determined to make the most of it. After last week’s mammoth debate, today’s session on amendments to the Government’s White Paper will drag on until the early hours of tomorrow morning. It’s expected to finish up
MPs will shortly begin their Committee stage of the Article 50 Bill in the Commons. Before that begins, Theresa May had one more chance to try to reassure colleagues who are considering voting for amendments to that Bill by giving a statement to the House on the informal EU summit in Malta that took place
This afternoon, Theresa May appeared in the Commons to update MPs on her trip to Malta for the EU summit. One of the topics brought up in the session was the UK’s attitude to Russia — and the threat from Putin to Europe. The Prime Minister went on to explain that concerns had been raised at the
It’s a miracle. After coming down with a migraine at the exact time of the Article 50 vote last week, Diane Abbott was accused of having a case of ‘Brexit flu’ and ‘bottling’ the vote. However, worried colleagues and supporters can today breathe a collective sigh of relief that the shadow home secretary has made
A senior civil servant gave Andrew Rawnsley a haunting description of Brexit Britain’s new place in the world. When Theresa May visited Washington, he said, she looked ‘needy’. The diplomat summed up our future to perfection. Britain is now a needy country. The importuning Mrs May tours foreign capitals looking for emergency trade deals like a
It’s not been a great few days for Daniel Kawczynski. First the Tory MP had to cancel a controversial Commons reception featuring Putin’s Kremlin spin doctor Maria Zakharova. Now he is struggling to stay on-message when it comes to his party’s position on the economy. Over the weekend Kawczynski took to social media to warn of the
Tools to help with ‘personal improvement’ were the big consumer trend of 2016. Whether it was healthy recipe boxes to overhaul your diet, a Fitbit to force you to exercise or apps to teach you another language on your commute, they were hard to avoid. Industries of all kinds predicted a future where goods and services
The news about the machete man in the Louvre broke just as my Eurostar was approaching Paris. Was this just a one-off, or were there more terrorist attacks to come? In the Gare du Nord that lunchtime, the atmosphere was humdrum. Armed policemen passed by like ghosts, unseen and unnoticed. For Parisians, these incidents have
There was some surprising news over the weekend concerning the Government’s policy on home-ownership. Ahead of the publication of a long-delayed white paper this week, Gavin Barwell, the housing minister, said the Government intended to encourage more housebuilding of all kinds, including more social housing. According to The Independent, this represents a ‘major shift in housing
This morning, we wake up to the news that the government is now serious about collecting money from health tourists – those who come to the UK to use the NHS without being entitled to it. We have, alas, heard this before. For weeks now, we have been reading about a crisis in A&E —
NHS hospitals will charge foreign patients who are not eligible for free, non-emergency treatment up front from April, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will announce today. It’s a controversial step, but one likely to go down well with voters angry at people from abroad using NHS services without paying. The move is designed as a way
After Diane Abbott missed the Article 50 vote thanks to ‘a migraine’, her comrade John Mann accused the shadow home secretary of ‘bottling it’ over Brexit. Since then, a #PrayForDiane email has been doing the rounds among Labour MPs. In a further sign that Abbott’s claims of suffering are not being taken entirely seriously by her party, Caroline Flint has
I am worried about the mental state of many Brexiteers. The author of The Spectator’s weekly Notes, Charles Moore, always a sharp observer of the passing scene, noticed my worry almost before I noticed it myself. He complained here a few weeks ago that I’m citing among my reasons for distrusting the Leave case the
‘A Bill to confer power on the prime minister to notify, under Article 50(2)…’. When it comes to the House of Lords, some of those trying to amend or delay the bill will be paid pensioners of the European Commission. Peers are obliged to declare any interest that ‘might be thought by a reasonable member
Matthew Parris’s article about the madness of the Brexiteers has caused much interest on social media, as did Alex Massie’s article along the same lines on Friday. I’ve been amused to see this described by some as a evidence of mutiny on HMS Brexit. A magazine’s star writers attacking each other with some passion, and sparing no
If a home was built for every new initiative, speech or newspaper article about “fixing the housing crisis”, our housing stock would be in much better shape than it is as a result of the past few decades of political failure on the matter. This week, there’s another attempt – the first from Theresa May’s
For the latest assignment, inspired by W.W. Jacobs’s macabre mini masterpiece ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, you were invited to supply a chilling short story featuring an animal’s body part. There were echoes of Jacobs in the entry: in Alan Millard’s malign machinery, for example, and Jennifer Moore’s be-careful-what-you-wish-for theme. Toni Hinckley, Roger Rengold and David Higham
President Donald Trump is demolishing his predecessor’s legacy as fast as he can sign executive orders, but one thing for which the Obama administration will be remembered is its zest for imposing fines on UK and European banks. In a flurry of Department of Justice activity ahead of the transfer of power, Deutsche Bank agreed
The bicoastal elite might be more effective in opposing Mr Trump if it weren’t obsessed with the persecution of anybody who says the wrong thing. ‘While you self-involved fools were policing the language at the Kids’ Choice Awards,’ raged the broadcaster Bill Maher last week, ‘a madman talked his way into the White House.’ This
I have noted before in this place that the people who seem most fascist these days are self-described ‘anti-fascists’. The inaugural weeks of Donald Trump’s Presidency are – whatever else you think of them – doing a fine job in smoking these people out. The principal cause of ‘anti-fascist’ ire today would appear to come
Jeremy Corbyn isn’t going to become Prime Minister. But if the housing crisis isn’t solved, the next left wing populist could—I say in The Sun this morning. Home ownership has dropped to a 30 year low and homes are becoming increasingly unaffordable. In London the average house costs 11 times earnings. Without radical reform, the
I think on balance I would prefer people to demonstrate their opposition to political developments — Brexit, the forthcoming state visit of Donald Trump and so on — by setting fire to themselves in the manner of outraged Buddhist monks, rather than simply by clicking ‘sign’ on some internet petition. I think the self-immolation thing
Friday morning’s attack in Paris in which a machete-wielding man was shot and wounded in the stomach by a French soldier after he injured another soldier near the Louvre museum is the first terrorist incident in France since July. Then two teenagers murdered an elderly priest in his Normandy church, an attack that shocked and
President Trump has a ‘dark vision’ of America under siege from radical Islam, says the New York Times – and that vision is now radically reshaping the policies of the United States. Hence the ‘Muslim travel ban’, as it’s still being called, despite the protestations of the administration that it’s nothing of the sort. Fear of
A man armed with a machete has been shot by a soldier outside the Louvre in Paris this morning. French police said the attacker – who is fighting for his life in hospital – yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he tried to gain access to the world-famous museum. Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has described the attack
You know what the world needs right now? More seriousness, that’s what. Within that, we desperately need more serious commentary. These are serious times and they demand stout-hearted, truth-telling, serious people. The kinds of people who will speak truth unto power while assaulting a series of diminutive straw men. Serious types who stroke their serious
The last time Theresa May met with EU leaders en masse, she was caught on camera being shunned by her European counterparts. At today’s Malta EU summit, the Prime Minister managed to avoid any lonesome moments. On the walkabout she was seen with Angela Merkel, but then a planned bilateral meeting between the two was