All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Although George Osborne was passed over for the role of Foreign Secretary in Theresa May’s Cabinet reshuffle, the MP for Tatton is still keen to show that he can fly the flag for Brexit Britain. It follows that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer is set to be guest of honour at Tina Brown’s Brexit bash
It turns out rock didn’t die when Elvis joined the Army in 1958, or when the Beatles accepted their OBEs in the 1960s, or when Vivienne Westwood went from making filthy t-shirts for punks to being dressmaker-in-chief to the filthy-rich bourgeoisie. No, it died last Thursday, outside Liverpool St, when an NME distributor shoved the
The British public are clearly dissatisfied with the way our immigration system currently works. One of the main reasons that motivated people to vote for Brexit in the recent referendum is the hope that Britain could better control immigration by ending the free movement of people from the EU. For years now, immigration has been
A month on from Brexit and the effects on the economy are beginning to show, says the Guardian in a study of the present state of the nation’s finances. It’s mostly bad news: the pound is at its lowest since 1985, down 12 pc against the dollar and 9 pc against the euro – meaning holidays are
In her opening pitch as Prime Minister, Theresa May vowed to stick up for the man in the street and fight ‘burning injustices’. There will be fewer clear opportunities for her to put those words into action than after today’s damning report into Sir Philip Green. It’s no understatement to say that Green’s reputation lies in
One real giant who is towering over a previously tainted sport is the extraordinary Chris Froome, whose victory in the Tour de France was as inevitable as a pair of Theresa May kitten heels. This is Froome’s third Tour victory, and a colossal achievement. He’s been undervalued, perhaps because he looks like a spindly seven-stone
‘Big theatre,’ the man who runs the shop downstairs said to me as I tried to buy a tin of tuna. Normally our exchanges are limited to a simple polite ‘hello, how are you, see you soon’. But this time he wouldn’t let me leave. He had something to say and I was his audience.
In last month’s EU referendum, pundits and politicians were left surprised when Brexit triumphed with 52 per cent of the vote. Since then not everyone has taken the outcome lying down. While the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon is adamant that Scotland should not have to leave the EU, a number of Remain-ers in England — including David Lammy
Ted ‘Grocer’ Heath, as he will always be for me, was chosen by his fellow MPs to be their leader in 1965 as the Tory answer to Harold Wilson. After two Old Etonian patricians, Macmillan and Douglas-Home, the Grocer was a grammar-school boy, a meritocrat who would spearhead a new-look, classless Conservative party. He was
You might find them abhorrent. You might think them stupid for having fallen for such a charlatan. You might be right on those counts. But you can’t pretend that Donald Trump voters are all vicious fascists, because they aren’t. Indeed, the most shocking aspect of the Trump fans I’ve met is their decency. For all
Theresa May’s warm reception in France has gone down well in Britain after she won key concessions from the beleaguered French President, François Hollande. But the cordial nature of their meeting – and the fact that Hollande appeared to cave in to May on a number of important issues – has not been so happily
As we come to the end of Theresa May’s first full week as Prime Minister, she hasn’t quite been the Prime Minister Westminster was expecting. As I say in The Sun today, even her supporters thought that she would be solid, dependable but a bit dull—as befits someone whose sporting hero is Geoffrey Boycott. But
Going into her first PMQs as Prime Minister on Wednesday, Theresa May faced the same struggles as a female stand-up comic. Taking the reins in an overwhelmingly male world, as only the second ever female PM and the most visible of the 29 per cent of female MPs, it was imperative that she appeared confident
Chevening, the stately home in Kent henceforth to be shared by David Davis, Liam Fox and Boris Johnson — and in a manner which hopefully provides the inspiration for at least one West End play — is a lovely house. I was last there 20 years ago when my father, as Foreign Secretary, had the
The latest competition asked for poems with titles which riff on that of Keats’s sonnet ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’. Although it was a varied and inventive entry there was a fair amount of doubling-up: while G.M. Davis and Tracy Davidson decided to speculate on what the first perusal of an Ann Summers shop
Nine people have been killed and 21 wounded after a shooting rampage at a shopping centre in Munich. The authorities say the perpetrator was an 18-year-old German of Iranian descent, who then killed himself. It’s far too early to form an clear picture of what has happened at the Olympia shopping centre: some reports say he
Donald Trump’s speech tonight was not exactly poetry, but it was clear and surprisingly coherent. It was also clever, sort of. And it might just help him win the election in November. People find it disturbing, but Trump’s anti-globalism, America First and law-and order-focus plays very well in America in 2016. Americans are less and
The Labour leadership election has become even more bizarre today. Len McCluskey, the leader of Unite the Union and a key Corbyn backer, has given a Guardian interview in which he suggest that the ugly behaviour of Corbyn supporters online is actually the work of the security services. He tells Decca Aitkenhead: “Do people believe
Those who acted as the biggest cheerleaders for Project Fear in the run-up to the referendum now have the awkward task of changing tack. One of those shouting loudly was Rob Wainwright, the British head of Europol. A key campaign strategy of David Cameron was that Britain would be safer in the European Union –
Claws out, it’s all kicking off in Downing Street. After a month of drastic change and bubbling tensions among Westminster’s big beasts, things have started to turn violent. However, rather than May vs Osborne, it’s the government’s two top cats who can’t seem to keep a lid on it. When David Cameron moved out of No.10, he
Finance firms love taking football fans for suckers. The latest is Virgin Money which has this week launched a Manchester United savings bond. It pays just 1.25 per cent for 12 months which is roughly two-thirds the interest you could get at the current best buy account. So far, so rubbish. But it has a
Mortgage lending rose last month to its highest level in eight years as homebuyers appeared to shake off uncertainty prior to the EU referendum. The Council of Mortgage Lenders said that gross mortgage lending reached £20.7 billion, 16 per cent higher than the previous month and the highest figure since 2008. In June last year mortgage
Well, no-one could accuse Donald Trump of pinching his speech from an Obama. Over an hour-and-a-quarter on Thursday night he set out a dark vision of a crime-ridden America crumbling from neglect, and where decent people live in fear of immigrants and corrupt politicians. And he accepted the Republican nomination in much the same way
If there’s one slogan that encapsulates what is happening at the Republican convention in Cleveland it is not any of the official ones. Not Donald Trump’s ‘Make America great again’ or his ‘America First’ line with its awkward echoes of American fascists through the ages. Instead it is the one emblazoned on thousands of T-shirts worn
Lying on an insurance claim should not necessarily invalidate it, the Supreme Court has said, in a judgement likely to affect all household policies. It said collateral lies – which are untrue, but do not affect the validity of the claim – can be acceptable. The BBC reports that the judges voted by four to one
American political conventions are supposed to be coronations. They are meant to be choreographed and scripted arrangements to ensure that aspiring presidents can be exhibited on prime time TV to their full advantage. Dull. Nothing about this election season has been routine. And this week in Cleveland has been the craziest of the year so
Paris was meant to be the more difficult leg of Theresa May’s first European tour as Prime Minister. But May’s press conference with Francois Hollande was far more cordial than expected. The French President was at pains to stress all the forms of cooperation that would continue between the two countries after the UK left
Is it something to do with Theresa May’s departure as Home Secretary, or are the police completely losing it? The first extraordinary circumstance today is that police have advised Angela Eagle, until yesterday, a Labour leadership candidate, that she should no longer hold constituency surgeries – you know, that regular point of contact between MPs and
They call him Big Sam. At 6’3 that’s not an unlikely nickname, especially when you’ve spent most of your professional career crunching through opposition centre-forwards. But the mythology of Big Sam goes beyond mere volume. Sam Allardyce has just been appointed to the role of England football manager. The great poisoned chalice of international sport,
Across the world, outsiders are challenging the political status quo: Ukip in Britain, Marine Le Pen’s Front National in France, Donald Trump in America. So does this mean that voters are finally dumping the established parties which for decades have simply swapped power between themselves? On 13 July 2016, The Spectator held a discussion at
Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to strike a contrast between his beliefs and those of his Labour leadership rival Owen Smith would have rather big implications or medical research in this country. The Labour leader told the launch of his campaign to hold on to his job that pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer shouldn’t take on medical research:
Today Jeremy Corbyn has launched his campaign ahead of the Labour leadership election. Corbyn, who is being challenged by Owen Smith, used the launch to announce that — under him — the next Labour government would introduce compulsory pay audits for companies with more than 21 staff — in order to show whether or not they are discriminating against
A politician with no legal training and limited experience of the legal world becomes Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor. The legal world is offended and fellow politicians speak out against this unwise appointment. Some resign in protest, or refuse to work under the new minister. ‘I fear this could be damaging to the justice system,’
If we didn’t know it before, Diane Abbott has made it clear that this summer’s Labour leadership contest is going to be very nasty indeed. On the day Jeremy Corbyn will officially launch his campaign, his loyal ally has taken to the airwaves to stick the knife into his challenger Owen Smith. We’ve had a