All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Over the weekend, John Prescott criticised Theresa May for arranging a trip to meet Trump as thousands of women marched in protest of the US president. Given that it has since been pointed out to Prescott that it’s not completely unreasonable for a Prime Minister to arrange a meeting with the new leader of the free world, Mr S suggests
Among the words and phrases I’d be quite happy to never hear of again in 2017 is ‘Alt-Right’, up there with ‘remoaner’ and ‘liberal elite’. It’s partly the extraordinary amount of media attention given to an absolutely tiny fringe of a fringe of a fringe; partly that it’s one of those phrases that can mean
Is there something in the water at BBC broadcasting house? First Theresa May appears on Marr where she refuses to answer a question on Trident four times, then Diane Abbott comes up blank four times on Sunday Politics when asked about Labour’s Brexit position. The shadow home secretary struggled as Andrew Neil asked her a
This morning Theresa May appeared on the Andrew Marr show to talk Trump and Trident. While the Prime Minister successfully batted away suggestions that she wasn’t doing enough to challenge the US President on feminism — stating that the fact she will be there ‘as a female prime minister’ when the two meet is the biggest statement
We all love Michelle Obama. Of course we do. For the last eight years she has been ‘mom in chief’ of America – and the world. She has personified grace, courtesy, warmth, humour and, not incidentally, shown us what a good marriage looks like. Tirelessly supportive of her husband, but successful in her own right,
Entries came flooding in following the invitation to submit poems about a politician and an item of clothing. Michael Foot’s donkey jacket; Harold Wilson’s Gannex mac; William Hague’s baseball cap; Hillary’s pantsuit: all featured in what was a cracking entry. I especially enjoyed Fiona Pitt-Kethley opening line on Theresa May’s leathers: ‘Her look’s more S&M
The Women’s March on Washington is going to be big. Officials say 1,800 buses have been registered to park in the city today. The subway will open at 5 a.m. (it usually starts running at 7 a.m. at weekends) to accommodate the numbers. In all, 250,000 people are expected to join the rally to show
With Theresa May expected to head to Washington next week to see President Trump, I have a look at what the Trump presidency might mean for Brexit in my Sun column this morning. Despite his protectionist rhetoric, on full show again yesterday, Donald Trump is keen on a US / UK trade agreement. He has told
I always knew security agencies were missing a trick with the ladies. Currently, less than four in ten workers in MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are female, which isn’t just embarrassing, but bad for national security; because women have the potential to be great spies. But things are about to change. Since 2015, intelligence services have been
You would think there was enough financial scandal in the world to keep MPs exercised without denouncing the owners of private boxes at the Royal Albert Hall. But no. Sharon Hodgson, member for Washington and Sunderland West, has just shown once again that what really gets a Labour MP seething with indignation is not wrongdoing
Washington, D.C. is a police state even in good times. Unique in the land of the free, only there do you find officers casually toting assault rifles outside of Union Station as though Amtrak has just staged a coup within, or vast swaths of road abruptly shut down because the secretary of agriculture has decided
We were told Donald Trump would be displaying his “philosophical” side in his inaugural address. To me, sitting beneath a grey Washington sky, it looked pretty much the same as the bombastic side that we saw so much of during the campaign. In short he stood on the steps of the United States Capitol, symbol of
The most striking thing about Donald Trump’s inaugural address was how little it tried to reach out to those who had not voted for him. On election night, Trump made a deliberate effort to strike a graceful note. He said that America owed Hillary Clinton a ‘major debt of gratitude for her service to our
He could be the greatest disaster ever to befall America. He could go down as the man that Made America Great Again. What’s certain is that Donald Trump is the most radical US president for centuries. Trump’s inaugural speech was predictable — in the sense that we have heard Trump say it all before. In
Rather than seek to inspire or unite a country, Donald Trump’s inaugural address was a long vindictive swipe at his enemies mixed with a whinge about free trade and how America has been the loser from it. Nothing about only fearing fear itself, nothing about asking what you can do for your country rather than vice
Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world: thank you. We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people. Together, we will determine the course of America
Washington, D.C. I just witnessed an anti-Donald Trump protest, and it was nasty. About an hour ago, I looked out the window on the corner of 13th and Massachusetts Avenue and saw a crowd of roughly 300 people — most of them dressed in black and wearing bandanas and hoods — moving quickly through the
Although Donald Trump has suggested that he is unhappy with the BBC’s coverage of him, it’s the corporation’s reporting of Michelle Obama at today’s inauguration ceremony that has landed the BBC in trouble. As Katty Kay, the BBC reporter, led the coverage on the news channel, she offered a running commentary of the movements of various
As Donald Trump is sworn in today as the 45th US president, not everyone at the ceremony appears thrilled to be there. In fact, both Hillary Clinton and the departing first lady — Michelle Obama — look as though they would like to be anywhere but the White House: Mr S welcomes your caption suggestions on this
It happened because you banned super-size sodas. And smoking in parks. And offensive ideas on campus. Because you branded people who oppose gay marriage ‘homophobic’, and people unsure about immigration ‘racist’. Because you treated owning a gun and never having eaten quinoa as signifiers of fascism. Because you thought correcting people’s attitudes was more important
It’s inauguration day, and as the world watches with bated breath to see how President Trump’s first days in office pan out, the dollar is dwindling. Reuters reports that it fell 0.1 pc in the hours before Trump’s speech, which economists hope will shed some light on his economic policies. Hitherto, his pledges have been
Washington, D.C. Nigel Farage’s 2016 celebration of Nigel Farage’s 2016 is a party that might never stop. And it is a jolly affair. Yesterday, at the Hay-Adams Hotel, in Washington, DC, Nigel and his pals — let’s call them the champagne populists — had a US election bash. Nigel stood up to do his usual
Margaret Thatcher’s Lord Chancellor, Quintin Hailsham, himself half-American, once observed that the US system of government was ‘an elective monarchy with a king who rules . . . but does not reign’. The British system was ‘a republic with a hereditary life president who . . . reigns but does not rule’. And so, perhaps, it
Some Christians on the fundamentalist fringe think President Trump is ‘the new David’ who will turn the United States into a godly kingdom. More mainstream evangelical leaders, meanwhile, hope he can reverse the tide of American secularism, not least with Supreme Court appointments. Both groups are likely to be disappointed – but as Tim Stanley of the Daily Telegraph
Things are changing in Washington… and not just at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Political newbies watched the fireworks at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday night. Elderly women prepared for their first inauguration. One family had brought their daughter to Washington to witness the moment that Donald Trump was sworn in. And Washington regulars – the politicos, party hacks
One of the most important jobs in The Spectator is opening up, and we’re looking for a pretty exceptional person to fill it. Peter Robins, our brilliant production editor (read about him here) is off to the New York Times. We’re looking for someone with skill, patience and a love of writing to take his
The irony of Barack Obama’s presidency is that while it began at a time when it seemed America’s fortunes could only improve, his inauguration day turned out to be his personal high water mark. The retiring President’s speech in Chicago last week contained flashes of the optimism that he brought to a country and a world
When Martin McGuinness said he was retiring from politics due to serious illness it gave vent, almost immediately, to the sort of ‘How McGuinness became a man of peace’ stories. Personally I have always thought the salient point about the man is not that he became a man of peace but that he was ever a man of
On Thursday, Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet found themselves in disarray after the Labour leader suggested he would issue a three-line whip for MPs to vote to trigger Article 50. This upset many in his party as they had hoped he would make Labour’s consent — at the very least — conditional upon certain details being revealed or caveats
There are certain traditional ceremonies without which the inauguration of a new American president cannot take place. Chief among them, at least on this side of the atlantic, is the opportunity such a moment provides for pondering anew the health and well-being of the ‘special relationship’. A remarkable amount of tripe must be talked on these
After Labour party members in Copeland rejected Jeremy Corbyn’s preferred choice as candidate for the upcoming by-election in favour of former doctor Gillian Troughton, the hunt is on to find a suitable candidate for the upcoming Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election — to be held on the same day. With Tristram Hunt quitting to take a job with
Jeremy Corbyn is a famous rebel, so famous that when he was elected, many in his party wondered how he might tell MPs to vote the way he wanted them to when he himself had refused to listen to the whips throughout his backbench career. When he was still a backbencher, he enjoyed telling a
When Seumas Milne first announced that he was joining Labour as Jeremy Corbyn’s director of communications in 2015, it was made clear that he would not be exiting the Guardian for good. Instead — in an arrangement that raised eyebrows in Westminster — Milne would merely work for Corbyn while taking leave from his role as the
Ella Mills, née Woodward – aka ‘Deliciously Ella’ – was on Radio 4 this morning discussing ‘clean eating’. Many will know her as one of the main advocates of this fashionable nutritional advice, even though she now says she doesn’t like to use the phrase ‘clean’. Her best-selling book suggested that food could be used as