All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Theresa May sent a strong message to the corporate world when she criticised the ‘irrational, unhealthy and growing gap’ between the pay of top executives and average workers. Yet what should be a vigorous debate on this topic — about the balance between fairness and the right incentives for optimum performance — never quite takes
Although Labour Conference is set to take place next month, doubts have surfaced over whether it will go ahead thanks to a security snag. After the party decided to boycott G4S — their usual security supplier — they have been left with few options when it comes to security firms for the event. A leaked memo to
Labour has opted for Steve Rotheram to be their candidate in Liverpool’s mayoral election. It’s a big boost for Jeremy Corbyn, as Rotheram has been fiercely loyal to the Labour leader since Corbyn made him his PPS – essentially his right-hand man in Westminster – last September. He’s stuck by Corbyn along the way, and
If NHS England ever comes to be dismantled it won’t be because a heartless Tory government has decided that, for reasons of neoliberal ideology, it ought to be replaced by private insurance schemes. It will be because the unreasonable and limitless demands placed on it by those who claim to be its friends have inflated its budget
A post from a friend pops up on my Facebook page. ‘It’s August 9th and the winter tights are on.’ I feel her pain. Last weekend I bought logs and smokeless fuel, and I don’t mean for the barbecue. Yesterday I went shopping wearing a cardigan, a coat and armed with an umbrella. For the
Watch this clip of Donald Trump suggesting yesterday that gun-rights enthusiasts might kill Hillary Clinton, and tell me, seriously, that you think he is being serious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvVbdmP0bk Now watch Hillary Clinton in 2011 joking about the death of Gaddafi, and tell me — honestly — who is more sinister? ‘We came, we saw, he died!’
First-time buyer lending was up 25 per cent in June compared to a year ago, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said this morning. According to the industry trade body, first-time buyers borrowed £5.5 billion, up 28 per cent on May. This equated to 34,300 loans. Overall, homeowners borrowed £12.3 billion for house purchases in June, up
Yesterday, it was the Chinese ambassador threatening Theresa May over Hinkley point. Today, it’s Lord Mandelson’s turn. The Labour grandee said that for the Prime Minister to ‘stretch out’ the Hinkley hold-up any further than the end of September ‘would be a mistake’. What was remarkable about Mandelson’s warning on Today just now was its
Just when it looks as though Donald Trump couldn’t go any further with causing outrage, he opens his mouth. This time, the Republican candidate appeared to suggest that gun owners could do something about Hillary Clinton if she picked Supreme Court judges in favour of gun control. Here’s what he said: ‘If she gets to
A fun game for football fans involves trying to recall players who were earmarked as future Premier League stars and fell hilariously short. There was a balletic Manchester City midfielder – I can’t remember his name – who was slated as a future England captain, only to be photographed by fans eating a takeaway a few years later,
Is anyone in Labour getting along? Currently the party is trying to appeal against a High Court decision in favour of its own members, and its own grassroots campaign group Momentum is sending a petition to the party to tell it not to appeal that decision. Today the Deputy Leader and the Leader had a
Is the tide in Germany turning against Turkey? It certainly seems to be. A poll today shows a majority of Germans favour ending the refugee deal agreed between the EU and Turkey back in March. The agreement has helped stem the flow of migrants flooding into Europe, making a repeat of the 1.1m people who arrived
It’s tough being a Trot nowadays. As well as having Tom Watson peddle ‘baseless conspiracy theories‘ about your political motives, you have to take your message to the masses in order to win power. Perhaps that’s why Momentum top dog James Schneider spent the weekend sunning himself at an ancient royal hunting ground owned by
What a difference a year makes. Last August, Michael Dugher and Andy Burnham were thick as thieves with Dugher — a former Brown spinner — even running Burnham’s failed leadership campaign. Alas now that Jeremy Corbyn is leader their friendship has taken a turn for the worse. While Dugher was sacked as shadow Culture Secretary in January, Burnham has clung
It is almost two months since Omar Mateen walked around the Pulse nightclub in Florida, gunning people down while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. During the assault Mateen spoke to American law enforcement and swore allegiance to Isis. Frustratingly Omar Mateen failed to call the group ‘so-called Islamic State’, thus betraying a woeful lack of linguistic sensitivity among his
Andy Burnham has won the race to be named as Labour’s candidate in the Manchester Mayoral race. The shadow home secretary’s victory was certainly convincing – he won 50 per cent of the vote amongst Labour members; interim mayor Tony Lloyd got 28 per cent, whilst former minister Ivan Lewis won 19 per cent. So what
Britain’s trade deficit – the difference between what we import and export – widened in the run-up to Brexit. Figures out today show that we imported £5.1bn more goods than we exported to the rest of the world. That gap widened by nearly £1bn between May and June, according to the ONS, in a picture
The country is divided in many ways. High up on this list of divisions, perhaps even in the top five, is the one between people who have bought the property they live in, and those who rent it. This gap is wider and growing at a faster rate than you would guess. The average deposit
Imagine the reaction of Her Majesty’s Opposition if the government announced that it was to introduce a new ‘voter charge’ – a levy which citizens had to pay before they were allowed into the polling station. Just as they did with the ‘Community Charge’ over a quarter of a century ago Labour would undoubtedly –
Today the Sun have splashed on the revelation that Antonio Horta-Osorio, the married boss of Lloyds Bank, managed to combine business and pleasure on a recent trip a banking conference in Singapore. Horta-Osorio is alleged to have met his mistress Dr Wendy Piatt — a former special adviser to Tony Blair — at the five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel,
It’s been two years in the making but the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has finally published its investigation into the retail banking sector. The watchdog announced this morning that Britain’s High Street banks must launch a technological ‘revolution’ in an effort to promote better competition. The CMA concluded that new phone-based apps should be brought in by
One of David Cameron’s last acts as Prime Minister was to approve an application by Ashlawn School in Rugby to set up a new free school in the city. It’s not surprising that Ashlawn’s application was approved. Not only has it been ranked ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, but last year 74 per cent of its pupils
It was already clear that Theresa May’s decision to review the Hinkley Point power plant had not gone down well in China. The nuclear plant upgrade is backed by billions of pounds of Chinese money and is also intended by Beijing as a key opportunity to showcase the country’s nuclear technology. So when the delay to giving
Spare a thought for Eddie Izzard. Every campaign the cross-dressing comedian attaches himself to has a tendency to end in failure. After backing Ed Miliband in the General Election, Izzard found himself on the losing side once again in the EU referendum campaign when his tour of university campuses failed to swing it for Remain.
Theresa May’s plans to limit both the number of special advisers and the way in which they are appointed are rather curious, given how influential and essential her own advisers were when she ran the Home Office. As I explained in the magazine recently, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill held a great deal of power
We were warned during the referendum run-up that Brexit could be a disaster for tourism. Much of the Project Fear medicine focused on what it might mean for British tourists heading overseas; the answer could be largely summarised as all doom and gloom. Abta, for instance, warned that ‘a Brexit could…affect the flow of trade and
Isabel Hardman and Lara Prendergast discuss what’s next for Labour: Could Labour hold its autumn conference without a confirmed leader? The party’s QC is to appeal this morning’s High Court decision that it cannot have a six month freeze date for members voting in the leadership contest, and this could delay the contest between Jeremy
When I was a cub reporter, writing for the paper of record at a time when the economy was booming and weekly personal finance pages numbered more than two dozen, the phrase ‘hardy perennial’ was bandied about on a regular basis. Like the plants which reappear year after year, in this context ‘hardy perennial’ referred
In 1960, my father failed the eleven-plus. He was lucky: his parents could afford to send him to a private school. In 1968 he went up to Cambridge, in 2000 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and last year he retired as head of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. Although it was seldom
Following the BHS scandal which put the retirement savings of 20,000 people at risk, the Pensions Regulator is facing the prospect of an overhaul as MPs investigate its role, The Times reports. The work and pensions committee will examine whether the regulator should be given new powers to block takeovers if pension schemes are not adequately
Theresa May has made wooing Scotland over Brexit one of her key missions. Her first trip as Prime Minister was up to Edinburgh to meet Nicola Sturgeon in order to reassure her that she was willing to listen to ‘all options’ following the referendum. It was an attempt to put out the fire started by Sturgeon in
Oh dear. Less than a month into his tenure as transport secretary, and Chris Grayling already has a crisis on his hands. As commuters on Southern Rail face a week of rail chaos across London and the South East thanks to strikes, there is a growing anger that Grayling is yet to take charge of the
As David Cameron gets use to life on the backbenches, he is making the most of his reduced workload by enjoying a lavish break with his wife Samantha to Corsica. However, when he returns to the bubble he will need to get used to a life without some of the luxuries previously awarded to him as Prime Minister.
Since Theresa May succeeded David Cameron as Prime Minister, she has wasted no time in putting distance between herself and many of Cameron’s flagship policies. As well as putting the brakes on Hinkley Point, May has hinted that she will take a fresh approach to the Northern Powerhouse and grammar schools. Now Mr S understands that another aspect