All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
On Tuesday, the Daily Politics aired a segment lifting the lid on the staff in No 10. Among the power players featured were the Prime Minister’s chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, her press secretary Lizzie Loudon and a man by the name of… Philip May. ‘One more activist seen working at CCHQ made his
A landmark legal decision announced today could improve the pension rights of unmarried couples working in the public sector. Denise Brewster, from Coleraine, was refused payments from her former partner’s pension after he died suddenly in December 2009. They had been living together for a decade. She argued she was the victim of ‘serious discrimination’.
I have a friend who lost three members of his family when an Islamic extremist drove a truck down the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on Bastille Day. When we saw each other at Christmas he said he had yet to decide whether to cast his vote for François Fillon or Marine Le Pen in
John Bercow has defended his comments about Donald Trump by saying his remarks were made ‘honestly and honourably’. Today’s editorials, however, do not see it that way. ‘This time he has gone too far,’ says the Daily Mail, which calls the Speaker an ‘egotistical publicity speaker’ and a ‘pipsqueak’. The Mail goes on to say
How times have changed. When Jeremy Corbyn first entered the Labour leadership race in the summer of 2015, Glenda Jackson — the former MP for Hampstead and Kilburn — wrote to him saying her only regret of not standing at the last election was that it meant she was unable to nominate him for the leadership. Has
For a second day running, the government yesterday defeated all amendments proposed to its Brexit bill. Most notably, MPs voted down Chris Leslie’s Labour amendment that would have stopped ministers striking a Brexit agreement until it had been passed by MPs and peers, by a comfortable majority of 33. This was an issue the government worried
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
John Bercow has taken a lot of flak for his comments about Donald Trump. The Speaker has been accused of being an embarrassment to Parliament for saying Trump wouldn’t be welcome to address MPs during a state visit. But amidst all the fury, Bercow’s pre-emptive ban does touch on a deeper question about the muddled thinking
As the committee stage of the government’s Brexit bill rolls on, MPs have been debating a range of amendments. Signalling that she could back an amendment on parliamentary sovereignty, Claire Perry – a former transport minister defenestrated in Theresa May’s purge of the Osbornites – said that she had been left disappointed by the attitude of some
Given Theresa May’s largely meaningless ‘Brexit means Brexit’ refrain, any new pronouncement on Britain’s departure from the EU is treated like gold dust. But Keir Starmer fell into the trap of thinking Brexit minister David Jones’ opening remarks today had offered up a bigger morsel than they actually had. Jones confirmed, as Theresa May has
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,
It was a family affair at this year’s Oldie of the Year awards. The magazine’s new editor-in-chief Harry Mount — who paid tribute to his predecessor, the great Alexander Chancellor — was joined by his second cousin, David Cameron. The former prime minister told hacks at the reception how much he missed Larry, the No
The Government’s Article 50 bill emerged unscathed from yesterday’s first committee stage. Today won’t be so easy. As Isabel Hardman pointed out in her coverage of last night’s session, the real fireworks are expected this afternoon. The session will kick off at 1.30pm and end at around 8.30pm – giving seven hours for MPs to
The Twitter-cheering for John Bercow, the transformation of him into a Love, Actually-style hero of British middle-class probity against a gruff, migrant-banning Yank, could be the most grotesque political spectacle of the year so far. Not because it’s virtue-signalling, as claimed by the handful of brave critics who’ve raised their heads above the online orgy
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
The Conservatives’ black-tie billionaire-laden black-and-white ball ain’t what it used to be. Although Nigella Lawson’s former personal assistant once complained that she would ‘rather go to jail than live in Battersea’, top Tories had to brush such qualms aside as they headed to Battersea Evolution for the annual fundraiser. Happily Mr S had a mole on the inside
John Bercow has grabbed the headlines this morning with his pronouncement on Donald Trump’s state visit. But was he right to voice his opinions about the President? No, says the Daily Telegraph which claims that Bercow was only speaking for one person when he said Trump would not be welcome addressing MPs in Westminster Hall: himself.
John Bercow is a little chap, and no harm in that, but does he really need to grandstand about his inviolable liberalism? Do we really need to know that ‘opposition to racism and sexism’ were ‘hugely important considerations’ in making him raise an issue which should have been left well alone, viz, the theoretical possibility
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
