All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Another day, another drama over at the Beeb. The BBC has apologised to ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe and his Rape Gang Inquiry, acknowledging that it should have given the parliamentarian more time to respond to reports that he was being probed for not registering donations in time. Lowe was cleared of breaching MP rules In
All is not well in the Green party. Adrian Ramsay is standing for re-election in the party’s leadership contest this summer – against the party’s deputy leader Zack Polanski. The rivalry appears to be more than professional though, as demonstrated during yesterday’s leadership debate on Iain Dale’s LBC show. As the election looms, the pair
The origin of the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes is difficult to pin down: could it be 19th century Denmark or 14th century Spain, 13th century India or the 500s BC in Greece? Perhaps the fact that all of these cultures and times are viable options confirms the truth of it: never underestimate the capacity of
When the story of how the British media responded to the October 7 atrocities is told, there will be a number of villains. High up on the list will be James O’Brien. The LBC host is smugness personified most of the time, but gets even higher on his horse whenever Israel is the topic, which
Donald Trump promised to release the Epstein files – so why hasn’t he? Spectator columnist Douglas Murray joins Kate Andrews to discuss the scandal that won’t go away, what it says about trust in institutions, and why even Trump’s most loyal supporters are starting to turn on him.
When it comes to protests against immigration and asylum hotels, accusations of two-tier policing are never far away. This week the spotlight has fallen on Essex Police, and its handling of a demonstration last week by Epping residents against an asylum hotel in the town, following an alleged sexual assault by a recently arrived Ethiopian
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As MPs depart Westminster for parliamentary recess, The Spectator’s political sketch writer Madeline Grant joins Natasha Feroze and economics editor Michael Simmons to talk about how to sketch PMQs and why Keir Starmer makes for the best sketches. Also on the podcast, Michael Simmons looks at the promising FTSE at record high following Trump’s trade
Uh oh. Protests have broken out outside an empty Canary Wharf hotel after claims began to circulate that migrants were being relocated to the venue from Epping. In response to the rumours spread by controversial figures like Tommy Robinson, protestors have over the last 24 hours turned up to the hotel in the centre of
For a man who wrote a book called How To Be Right, James O’Brien sure gets a lot wrong. Consider the message from one of his listeners that he read out on his LBC radio show yesterday. It said Jewish kids in the UK are taught to loathe Arabs and see them as ‘cockroaches to
Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath did something British groups had not done before. Before them, the British Invasion groups – from the Beatles, the Stones and The Who down to Herman’s Hermits and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich – had taken American music and sold it to the British public as the American
The Afghan data leak has generated a mass of lurid headlines and, no doubt, there is still much analysis, pointing of fingers and assigning of blame to come. But how did it happen that the UK ended up with such an obligation to so many thousands of Afghans and their families? I support the evacuation,
Relief. That was the overriding emotion in the Japanese financial markets and society at large today when, after months of speculation and discord, a trade deal was finally struck between President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s trade representative Ryosei Akazawa. The Japanese envoy, who has made eight trips to Washington in pursuit of
Kemi Badenoch might have reached an agreement with James Cleverly about his new role in the shadow cabinet, but it appears the pair remain at odds over the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). On Tuesday afternoon, the Westminster rumour mill ramped up as speculation that Cleverly – a onetime Tory leadership contender – was
Parliament may have risen for recess but that doesn’t mean that Sir Keir Starmer is getting much of a break. It transpires that the Prime Minister is facing growing calls to immediately recognise Palestine as a state with a number of Cabinet minister understood to be piling pressure on the PM alongside dozens of his
To conjure an image of England on Thursday 16 October 1969 you could do worse than compressing all of Withnail and I into one day. The country was crippled by strikes. The bubble-gum pop track ‘Sugar Sugar’ was number one. And the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus had just aired. At Regent Sounds Studios in London’s Denmark
Junior doctors are set to strike this week, despite winning little public sympathy with their demand for a 29 per cent pay rise. Doctors in their self-righteous mode – as many recently have been over this row – are insufferable. I sympathise with their situation, but they should do themselves a favour – and get
Those within the BBC might be afraid to say so, but an ex-producer like me has no such qualms: Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director-General, isn’t cut out for the job. For the good of the BBC, Davie must go. The last few weeks have been painfully bad for Davie. The Masterchef saga, which led to
Imagine, for a moment, that a respected middle-aged British male character actor – Jason Isaacs, let’s say – had been cast in the lead role of a sex therapist in a popular, Gen Z-focused Netflix series, called something like Love Lessons. Then imagine that Isaacs had become seemingly so obsessed with blurring the lines between
Kemi Badenoch has saved the biggest news of the Tory reshuffle for last. This morning, the headlines were dominated by news of James Cleverly’s return. But this evening, the only story causing shockwaves is Lee Rowley’s departure as Badenoch’s chief of staff. His importance to the Kemi project cannot be overstated. The pair entered parliament
Cries of ‘Shame!’ rang out in the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, today as lawmakers from Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People Party, backed by most opposition parties, voted to bring key independent anti-corruption agencies under government control. The new law, which was backed by 263 lawmakers with just 26 opposing or abstaining, has sparked widespread condemnation
When French General Bosquet watched the 600 men of the Light Brigade charge helplessly into the Russian heavy artillery at Balaclava he muttered ‘c’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre’. Well, history repeats first as tragedy then as farce. And so today, those words came to mind as I watched Rachel Reeves prepare to
The Commons is closing down for the summer, but Kemi Badenoch has treated us to a shadow cabinet reshuffle. At the beginning of the year, Badenoch’s team were keen to stress stability, dismissing talk of an early reshuffle. But, as so often in politics, events have forced her hand. Ed Argar, the shadow health secretary,
Despite Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s efforts, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced this afternoon that the doctors’ strikes are on. From 7 a.m. this Friday until 7 a.m. next Wednesday, medics across England will stage a walkout – the first of Keir Starmer’s premiership – over pay disputes. The announcement by the doctors’ union
The war for Ukraine’s future is being fought not just on the battlefield, but also within its democratic institutions. Today, one of those battles was lost. The parliament passed a bill that destroys the independence of Ukraine’s key anti-corruption bodies. If signed into law, it would effectively dismantle their ability to investigate all senior officials
Well, well, well. It would appear the former Unite the Union boss Len McCluskey is not immune to the temptation of free gifts. An internal report has revealed that the trade unionist enjoyed private jets and freebie football tickets arranged by a company in charge of building a multi-million pound hotel for the organisation. Alright
This afternoon, Nigel Farage unveiled his party’s first defector in the Welsh parliament. Laura Anne Jones was first elected to the Senedd in 2003 and has been a card-carrying Conservative for more than 30 years. But today she has crossed the floor, citing the dire state of the country and the urgent need for change.
A few years ago, I was encouraged to apply for a role within the College of Policing for an advisory body on a revamped code of ethics for police officers. When asked what sort of qualities the code should embody, my answer was succinct: ‘moral and physical courage.’ I didn’t make the cut, of course,
The ability of Britain’s quangos to sugarcoat their rather unflattering performance figures will never fail to amaze Mr S. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Authority (DVSA) is just the latest example. The organisation’s chair and chief executive have both issued glowing reports of the company’s ‘progress’ thus far, using an exciting range of buzzwords to
For more than 650 days of war in Gaza, one swathe of territory remained mostly untouched by Israeli ground manoeuvres: the dense, urban core of the central camps – Nuseirat, Deir al-Balah, Maghazi, and Bureij. That pattern has now decisively changed. On Sunday morning, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) issued evacuation orders for southern Deir
Former home secretary James Cleverly is expected to make a return to the Tory frontbench as Kemi Badenoch reshuffles her shadow cabinet. Cleverly has been content sitting on the backbenches since losing the leadership race in November, but with the Tories’ poll rating dropping to 17 per cent, the Braintree MP is returning to the
Hurrah! We are going to get a new water regulator. Sir John Cunliffe’s independent water commission has recommended that Ofwat be abolished and replaced with a new body which also incorporates the drinking water inspectorate. It will be yet one more opportunity for a quangocrat to take a plumb job, while Ofwat’s bosses are pensioned
Things are not going so well with left-wing comedian talk show hosts over the water. Last week came the news of the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert by CBS/Paramount. And Ellen de Generes, whose daytime chat show was chopped back in 2022, revealed this weekend that she’s moved permanently to the Cotswolds,
When nurse Sandie Peggie complained about the presence of a trans-identifying man in the women’s changing room at Falkirk’s Victoria Hospital, she was treated as a dangerous bigot. A witch-hunt saw her suspended from the job to which she had devoted thirty years of her life and she faced horrifying allegations of placing patients in
Britain is continuing to chuck billions onto our mounting pile of debt. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that last month the state had to borrow just under £21 billion. That was £6.6 billion more than in June last year and the second-highest June borrowing total since records began 32 years ago.