All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Since the vote for Brexit, the media has fallen over itself to cover the apparently large upswing in the number of ‘hate crimes’ being reported. One of the trends noted is a particularly high occurrence of such incidents in areas that voted ‘Leave’. In his Spectator cover piece, Brendan O’Neill argues that there is an
One woman has been killed and five injured after a knifeman went on the rampage in Russell Square, London, late on Thursday night. Police said the lady who died was an American in her sixties. Those injured were British, Israeli, Australian and American. Police earlier said ‘terrorism is one possibility being explored at this stage’ but
You can’t watch the video promoting the new Amazon drone delivery service without checking the date for signs of 1 April. While superficially absurd, there is something distinctly unsettling about this short film. It’s as though someone has made a satirical treatment of our consumer age, a reshaping of Chaplin’s Modern Times. The Charlie in this video is
With Scottish Labour now the third biggest party in Scotland following disastrous election results in May, it’s safe to say that its members have seen better times. However, there does appear to be one positive to the beleaguered party’s lagging popularity: it’s never been easier to get involved. Today Scottish Labour have sent out an email to their full
Following the ruling from Ukip’s national executive committee that Steven Woolfe is not eligible to run for leader, a fresh bout of civil war has broken out in the party. The party’s top financier Arron Banks has — as James predicted — suggested that the party could now split. Meanwhile three Ukip councillors have immediately resigned
Steven Woolfe has been barred from standing for Ukip leader. The party’s national executive committee has ruled that he didn’t submit his nomination papers in time and so is ineligible. Woolfe’s exclusion from the race is a major blow for Ukip donor, and Leave.EU founder, Arron Banks who had thrown his weight behind Woolfe.
On Friday 19 August, London Underground will run its first night tube services as the capital congratulates itself on becoming the nation’s first 24-hour city. But while the Mayor’s office is intent on running trains for the city’s night owls, the rest of local government seems determined to tuck them up in bed. In the
While many have seen Theresa May’s accession to Prime Minister as striking a blow for feminism, she has also struck a mighty blow for indolence. With George Osborne and David Cameron pushed towards the exit, those of us in our mid-30’s who are still at the thinking-about-doing-something-at-some-point stage of our lives can rest easy a
Yesterday the Home Office won its appeal against a landmark ruling that allowed four Syrian refugees living in the main camp in Calais to come to the UK. While the refugees will be allowed to stay, the appeal means that it will be difficult for more refugees to come to Britain this way in the future.
Some years back, when I announced my decision to return to Manchester, I became the butt of a few jokes from my London pals. They mostly consisted of the usual clichés concerning whippets, flat caps and black puddings. There was also mention of ‘it’s grim up North’ and the weather. I’ll give them that last one.
Donald Trump doesn’t seem the forgiving type, so it’s no surprise he hasn’t let Barack Obama’s comments yesterday stand. Obama said Trump was ‘unfit’ to be President – so what did the Republican candidate have to say in response? He answered in the only way he knows how, by flinging mud back at the person
Millions of pre-pay energy customers will be protected by an interim price cap from next April, Ofgem announced this morning. The cap will save ‘vulnerable’ households using pre-pay energy meters about £75 a year, the regulator said. Ofgem said it would also work with suppliers to help ‘disengaged’ customers on ‘expensive standard variable tariffs’ to shop
The final shortlist for who will replace Nigel Farage has been unveiled – and the frontrunner Steven Woolfe has been excluded. Ukip’s NEC said Woolfe was left off the list after being deemed ‘ineligible as a result of a late submission’, having missed the party’s nomination deadline by seventeen minutes. It’s a decision which is sure
It’s not a good time to be a member of the MSM, aka mainstream media. A quick look at alternative news outlets like the Corbynista Canary will tell you that reports from the MSM are frequently inaccurate. What’s more, the Guardian now appear to have joined the cause. On Monday, the paper published an article by Piers Robinson suggesting Russia
On Sunday morning Channel 4’s Michael Crick put out the following Tweet about Steven Woolfe, the Manchester-born barrister and MP who was then the hot odds-favourite to become the next UKIP leader. I hear Steven Woolfe has failed to be nominated for leader of Ukip. His form came in 20 minutes late, I'm told. —
Who is Theresa May? Ken Clarke famously described her in an unguarded moment as a ‘bloody difficult woman’. Her favourite fashion designer, Vivienne Westwood, thinks she’s ‘awful’. And it has variously been said that she is ‘fundamentally unknowable’, ‘aloof’, ’reticent’, ‘self-contained’ and ‘sphinx like’. When she was officially appointed Prime Minister, reporters scrambled to write
Barack Obama has said Donald Trump is unfit to be President in his most resounding criticism yet of the Republican candidate. In a strongly-worded statement, Obama said Trump – who he couldn’t bring himself to name – was ‘woefully unprepared’ for the top job. Obama’s intervention is extraordinary and it’s difficult to think of a
Ukip’s leadership race has barely begun but the contest has already delivered plenty of drama. The frontrunner Steven Woolfe missed out on entering his nomination in time after a ‘Computer says no’ moment, and it’s also emerged that Woolfe failed to declare a drink-driving conviction when he ran for office in 2012 – potentially breaching electoral rules.
While Ukip won’t announce its leadership shortlist until Wednesday, Bill Etheridge is expected to be one of the names that makes it onto the ballot. Thanks to his hardline policies — which range from a referendum on the death penalty to a ban on halal meat — Etheridge is likely to get plenty of press attention without having to
Apart from Boris, where have all the posh boys (and girls) gone in Theresa May’s government? The answer, curiously, is the new department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Secretary of state Greg Clark is impeccably classless, being the product of a Roman Catholic secondary school in Middlesbrough where his father and grandfather were milkmen.
Jonathan Hill’s post-referendum resignation as the UK’s EU Commissioner was a deeply regrettable act. Even after the referendum, the UK remained a member of the EU and thus entitled to a commissioner. The UK government has nominated Sir Julian King, the Ambassador to Paris, as Hill’s replacement. Today, the Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said
Forget Pimm’s, sunburn and rain abandoned picnics. What really makes summer is a heap of outrage directed at an old white man for saying something feminists think is beyond the pale. Last year it was Sir Tim Hunt and his quip about the problem of women in labs. This time it is Kevin Roberts, chairman
Savings accounts are disappearing rapidly as the expected cut to the base rate draws closer, says the Guardian. Moneyfacts, a data provider, found that 13 best buy savings deals were withdrawn in July – and have yet to be replaced. These include a three-year bond from Saga at 1.8 per cent and other deals from
Those who follow Donald Trump on Twitter will be well accustomed to him prefixing every mention of Hillary with the word ‘crooked’. But whilst Trump has frequently tried to discredit Clinton by painting her as a liar he has never gone so far as to call her the devil. Until now that it. During a speech last
Whilst Labour tangle themselves up in civil war, the Prime Minister is making a move for the party’s economic territory. On her first day in Downing Street, Theresa May said her Government would stick up for everyone, not only the ‘privileged few’. Today, she’ll start work making good on that promise when she chairs the
It’s only Tuesday and Steven Woolfe must already be wishing this week was over. After missing the nomination deadline on Sunday, Woolfe will learn today whether his leadership application will be accepted. If that weren’t enough, he is also in the firing line over his lapsed Ukip membership and the Huffington Post‘s revelation that Woolfe broke electoral rules in
A few months back, after the Brussels terrorist attacks, I pointed out on Coffee House that there is a certain routine after any such atrocity. One part of it is that, after a couple of days pause, we always get the ‘Muslim good news story’. This is the part when after a couple of days of everyone
The Muslim extremist who attempted to murder a man at Leytonstone tube station last December has been given a life sentence today. Muhiddin Mire will spend at least eight-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of attempted murder. He’ll start his sentence at Broadmoor but whilst the Old Bailey Judge accepted Mire was suffering from
Plans to build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset suffered a surprise setback on Friday after the Government said it wanted to ‘review’ the decision before it gave the go-ahead. But what are EDF – the French company which had approved funding for the project – and the French press making
Today, Syrian rebels in Idlib shot down a Russian helicopter; five Russians were killed and footage from the site shows people dragging away at least one body, and not, I fancy, for Christian burial. The Russian defence ministry says that the crew had been engaged in humanitarian air drops in Aleppo, though I suppose there’s
Downing Street has made clear today that Theresa May will not move to prune down or veto David Cameron’s resignation honours list. This is the right decision. Whatever you think of the list, it wouldn’t be right for a new Prime Minister to seek to amend the resignation honours list of their predecessor. If this
Oh dear. After weeks of bubbling tensions, things have come to a head between Theresa May’s resident cat Larry and Palmerston, the Foreign Office’s chief mouser. The feuding duo — who have been engaged in a turf war for some weeks — got into such a scrap this morning that fur flew and the felines had to be
Pokémon Go makes me wonder about Generation Y, which will surely be remembered as one of the most childish collectives of all time. I am part of this contingent of people born in the 1980s and 1990s – the offspring of the baby boomers – characterised as a digitally-savvy cohort, among other things. We have
Last week, visiting friends in Italy, I had an epiphany in two car journeys. The first ride was in a spiffy-looking new Fiat 500 I’d rented. I’d been excited about driving this pretty update of a classic Italian design. Yet the brand new cinquecento was wheezy even as I drove it off the airport, and