All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
London’s nightlife is under attack. That became obvious this morning with the news that the popular club Fabric has closed for good. After a series of drug-related deaths at the venue, Islington Borough Council has decided the risk of keeping it open is too great. It’s come as a shock to many that Fabric is finished. Indeed, a petition to
Millions of us will be tuning in to The Archers this week to see if Helen is found guilty of the attempted murder of her abusive husband, Rob Titchener. For more than a year his bullying and controlling behaviour has made for compulsive, if unsettling, listening for many regular fans like myself. It is interesting
House price growth slowed in August but buying a property was still 6.9 per cent more expensive than a year ago, new figures show. The Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, said that the average home in the UK cost £213,930. Prices in the three months to the end of August were 0.7 per cent
To GQ‘s Men of the Year awards at the Tate Modern. With Russell Brand not around to make Nazi jokes at the expense of a sponsor this year, Amy Schumer did her best to unsettle the champagne-fuelled crowd. Accepting the ‘woman of the year’ gong, the American comedian said she was relieved an awards ceremony ‘finally celebrated men’. However it was Sadiq
Whatever the reason behind Obama not getting the red carpet treatment in Hangzhou, there’s one leader who was guaranteed it: ‘Little Potato’. Or, as you might know him, Justin Trudeau. The pronunciation of Trudeau sounds similar to the Mandarin word for potato, and Chinese media’s primary frame of reference for him is through his father
Donald Trump’s ‘Summer Meltdown’ appears to be over. The latest CNN poll puts him two points ahead of Hillary Clinton, which must come as a surprise to the many pundits who have been saying ‘it’s over’ after Clinton’s polling improved over July and August, and the Donald’s deteriorated. It’s never been over. Hillary’s ‘Autumn Horror’
Democracy is hanging by a thread in this country. At the start of this year, if someone had told you that in eight months’ time there would be open calls for the thwarting of the people’s will, and marches demanding the crushing of public opinion, you’d probably have scoffed. ‘This isn’t some anti-democratic backwater, it’s
Labour MPs have just voted 168 to 34 in favour of bringing back Shadow Cabinet elections. This doesn’t mean there will be elections for the Labour top team straight away: the measure, proposed by Clive Betts, now goes to the party’s ruling National Executive Committee, which is now dominated by Corbynites. If the NEC so chooses, it
It has become one of those journalistic clichés to talk about ‘firing the starting gun’ in politics. There has been some debate among the hacks at Holyrood as to whether or not Nicola Sturgeon has already ‘fired the starting gun’ on the next Scottish independence referendum campaign. So, to do justice to that cliché (and to mangle it
Theresa May didn’t choose a quiet life when she appointed David Davis as the Brexit Secretary, Liam Fox as the International Trade Secretary and Boris Johnson as the Foreign Secretary. Mostly, the men have bickered amongst themselves up to this point. But today the Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman put some distance between May and her
‘When the world ends, I’ll go to Mecklenburg,’ quipped Bismarck, ‘because there, everything happens a hundred years later.’ Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has always been seen as somewhere behind the times, but has this sleepy backwater now become a portent of momentous things to come? In last weekend’s regional elections, Germany’s fledgling anti-immigration party, Alternative für Deutschland, came second,
Today Keith Vaz has stepped down as chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee following a series of claims about his personal life. His decision comes after a number of his Labour comrades tried to help his cause by going onto the airwaves to wax lyrical about their colleague. Simon Danczuk — who is currently suspended from the party for sexting a
Why do people always fall from grace for the wrong reasons? I had always hoped that if Keith Vaz finally fell from whatever form of grace he could lay claim to, it would be for really good reasons. Regular readers will know that my detestation of him dates back to 1989 when as a young MP
If yesterday’s appearance of Keith Vaz in the Commons was a show of defiance, today will be a taste of reality for the Labour MP. The steely silence when he asked questions in Parliament spoke volumes; MPs are not happy with Vaz’s attempts to carry on as normal in the wake of allegations surrounding a
Throughout Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party, his links to Sinn Féin have been called into question by his critics. As Mr S’s colleague Douglas Murray has previously reported, Corbyn was chumming up to the Irish republican party even while their military wing was blowing up ordinary pub-goers, shooting farmers in the head and planting
‘Get back to the 1930s, you f***ing fascists’ was one of the more printable insults screamed at the small group of Brexiteers holding a counter protest at the March for Europe on Saturday. Given the event was intended by the organisers to be a ‘huge celebration of peace, tolerance and diversity’, it’s a shame that no
The BMA’s decision to cancel the first of its planned five-day strikes yesterday was justified as a response to concerns over patient safety. Yet these warnings were nothing new. The General Medical Council issued frank advice to doctors hours earlier saying the strikes could harm patients. And the former Department of Health director Sir John Oldham – who also wrote
Keith Vaz has finally stepped down as chairman of the Home Affairs select committee following allegations surrounding a pair of male prostitutes. In a statement (which was published on Twitter ahead of an embargo), Vaz had this to say: It is in the best interest of the Home Affairs Select Committee that its important work
Ah, the time-honoured tradition of pulling a sickie. It’s as old as employment itself and us Brits have forged a reputation for making the most of it. Everyone’s done it, right? That early morning call to your boss, the feeble ‘I can’t make it in today’, the creeping sensation of guilt quickly quashed by the
Women do ask for pay rises – they just don’t get them. That’s according to research by Cass Business School and the universities of Warwick and Wisconsin. The theory that women get paid less than men because they are not sufficiently pushy in the workplace is not true. Women are as likely as men to ask
Béziers’s mayor Robert Ménard is adamant that France’s highest court has got it wrong. ‘The burkini should be banned, it’s a provocative symbol, nothing to do with modesty,’ he says. ‘Two years, a year ago, burkinis didn’t exist on our beaches. Now people are wearing them to make a point. But this is a Christian country.
It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t have a strong opinion about Donald Trump. But it’s worth lowering the emotional temperature for a moment, taking a step back, and looking at him through the eyes of history. Has there ever been a presidential candidate like Trump? Here I’ll confine myself just to the last twenty-five
David Davis has just finished his first statement to the Commons on the process for the UK exiting the European Union. Davis’s initial statement stuck closely to what the government has said already; the coordinated Labour backbench heckle of ‘waffle, waffle’ had some truth to it. But it was striking that Davis said he hoped
Running through the summer like the writing in a stick of rock was the continually disappointing and dismal performance of Owen Smith in the Labour leadership contest, and Jeremy Corbyn’s spectacular ability to make party members love him more by confecting his own rows about trains and women going out for drinks. The post-match analysis in
In the EU referendum, Brexit triumphed after 17 million people plumped for Leave while 16 million voted for Remain. This act of democracy was not enough to satisfy some, however, with four million people subsequently signing a petition calling for a second referendum. As a result, a number of MPs spent their first day back from recess debating the
Keith Vaz has just asked a second question in the House of Commons, despite it being unclear whether he can continue as chair of the Home Affairs Committee for the long term following allegations about his private life in the Sunday newspapers. The Leicester East MP, who has a meeting with his committee tomorrow afternoon,
After the Government released its childhood obesity strategy last month, Theresa May stood accused of sidelining the issue. So, Mr S was pleased to receive an invite to an event focussing on the issue. Sharon Hodgson — the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for School Food — is holding a breakfast on Tuesday morning to call on the government
The Prime Minister and her colleagues are very slowly starting to reveal what they think they mean when they say ‘Brexit means Brexit’. This afternoon the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis will give a statement to Parliament on what the terms of negotiation might resemble for Brexit – or at
So, last week’s sharp rise in the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing wasn’t a freak. This morning its twin, the PMI for the much larger services sector, also showed a huge rebound to 52.9, more than reversing the fall to 47.4 in July and putting it marginally ahead of PMI for the Eurozone, which
In the aftermath of the Leave vote, it’s safe to say that not every Brexiteer’s career path has played out as they hoped. After Michael Gove’s leadership bid backfired, the former Justice Secretary has found himself on the back bench. What’s more, his old pals George Osborne and David Cameron appear to have cut him from their
‘Brexit means Brexit’, Theresa May has repeatedly reassured us. But it seems Brexit might not mean an introduction of a ‘points-based’ immigration policy which Vote Leave – and a number of cabinet ministers, including Boris Johnson – had called for during the referendum campaign. The Prime Minister said the system was no ‘silver bullet’ and
Junior doctors have scrapped plans to strike next week. In a dispute which looks increasingly messy and interminable, this is a small token of welcome news. But whilst the BMA has made the right decision in this instance, they are still sticking with their threat to stage three five-day walkouts in October, November and December. What’s
Christians continue to be slaughtered in the Middle East. But as reports of genocidal atrocities mount up, our governments have found a new reason to sit on their hands. Christians, the theory goes, don’t have it as bad as the Yazidis. As ‘people of the book’, Christians enjoy privileged status. Rather than suffering the full
I have no recollection of my first day at school. I was four-years-old so it’s not surprising that I can’t dredge up the memory. I do recall, however, refusing to return to nursery after being scared witless by Father Christmas. Back then (late 1970s), kids were dropped off at a new school and expected to get