All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Diane Abbott believes that Giorgia Meloni is a ‘literal fascist’. That must come as a surprise to the 12.3 million voters who elected her prime minister of Italy two years ago. Not to mention King Charles, who hosted Meloni at Blenheim Palace in July. The Right Honourable Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington described
As we mark 10 years on from Scotland’s independence referendum, the entire political ecosystem in Scotland is engaged in attempts to define, or redefine, the narrative of that time. Those on my side of the independence argument remember a campaign of energy, optimism and positivity that is simply unmatched. It’s also the case that, for many on the
We are a day short of Sir Keir Starmer marking 11 weeks as prime minister. His first 76 days have not been easy ones, and it is striking how often they have been dogged by relatively minor stories which have nonetheless contrived to make the new occupant of Downing Street look out of touch, high-handed
Another day, another story about Sue Gray. Today the BBC reports the details of Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff’s salary. Gray is paid the handsome sum of £170,000 a year – £3,000 more than her boss, the prime minister. She therefore earns more than any cabinet minister or Tory predecessor in the role. In
If you really want to annoy a Scottish nationalist, tell them the 2014 Scottish independence referendum had a lot in common with Brexit. Well, what was the battle cry in both cases? It was ‘take back control’. For all its internationalist rhetoric, the Yes campaign was – is – a campaign to erect borders against a
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We have some new inflation figures today. Inflation rose 2.2 per cent in the 12 months to August. This is pretty much in line with the Bank of England’s target and should be good news for Labour, so why do they persist with this doom and gloom narrative? Elsewhere, Labour’s awkward week has got more
To Westminster, where more trouble is afoot. It now transpires the Prime Minister is paid less than, er, his own chief of staff. Sue Gray has once again made headlines after the Beeb revealed the former top civil servant has been given a salary of a whopping £170,000 – which is £3,000 more than the
The killing of 12 people, including several Hezbollah members, and the wounding of thousands more when 5,000 pagers simultaneously exploded in Lebanon yesterday represents an obvious tactical triumph for Israel (or whoever carried it out). The sight of members of the Iran-supported Shia Islamist group suddenly collapsing in agony while performing mundane daily tasks was
Any journalist who has covered a war will recognise Ryan Routh’s type immediately – the war zone nutter. Routh is currently all over America’s front pages, accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump. The photograph used by most news outlets shows a grizzled-looking character with a flak vest, a stars-and-stripes neckerchief, and a troubled stare. Back
It’s 10 years to the day that those pesky Nats failed to secure independence north of the border – and not much has gone well for the SNP since. The once-formidable duo that was Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon broke down soon after, Salmond was accused of multiple cases of sexual misconduct (of which he
Keir Starmer won the Labour leadership election in 2020 on the back of a promise to nationalise public utilities. In one of his most blatant flip flops, he later went back on that, committing instead only to nationalise the rail industry – and even then by degrees as current franchises reached the end of their
How to solve a problem like Reform? The Tories have been scratching their heads on the matter since their rather disastrous election result in July. And yet it appears that the Conservatives are, er, still pretty split on the best way forward. Former Conservative leader John Major has told the Beeb that a move to
Ten years ago today the Scottish independence referendum took place. The result was a resounding defeat for those who wanted Scotland to break away. The decade since has not been kind to the Scottish nationalist project. It all seemed very different for nationalists on the afternoon of Thursday September 18, 2014 Former SNP leader Alex
Inflation was 2.2 per cent in the 12 months to August, unchanged from the month before, today’s update from the Office for National Statistics reveals. This is ever so slightly above the Bank of England’s target of 2 per cent, but it’s in the ballpark of where it’s supposed to be. And while the Bank
It’s fair to say that the punishment handed out to Huw Edwards has not gone down well. The disgraced BBC newsman was only given a suspended six-month sentence for child abuse image offences, meaning he avoids jail. He will also be placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years, and undergo rehabilitation. There has been a
At the end of the 2014 film Kingsman: the Secret Service, the plucky spy hero is in trouble deep in an enemy base. Suddenly his tech wizard figures out that he can hack into the microchips inside the enemies’ heads and make them all explode. The bad guys all go boom. Hezbollah fighters must be asking
Sir John Major has been sounding off. Again. The former Tory prime minister criticised his party’s Rwanda asylum plan as ‘un-Conservative and un-British’. In an interview with the BBC, Major said he thought Rishi Sunak’s plan to send migrants to Africa was ‘odious’: ‘I thought it was…if one dare say in a secular society, un-Christian,
Scottish independence became such a difficult issue for Labour that it is easy to forget the party was once the UK’s staunchest defender. As voters prepared to go to the polls a decade ago, it was Gordon Brown who delivered the barnstorming call to arms that the Unionist cause so desperately needed. In doing so,
Junior doctors made headlines this week after they begrudgingly accepted the government’s pay deal. Two thirds of British Medical Association (BMA) members voted in favour of Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s offer, meaning medics across England will see a 22.3 per cent rise consolidated into their pay. Yet the move hasn’t entirely eased tensions between junior
Sensational dramas about the Duke of York are rather like London buses: you wait five years for one, and then two come along at once. Amazon Prime’s three-part series, A Very Royal Scandal, which focuses on the notorious Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, is released tomorrow. The show follows the perspective of both the journalist
After coasting his way to No. 10, Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership has got off to a pretty cursed start. Some of this wasn’t his fault, such as the Southport riots, and some has come from enacting policies that, while controversial, represent rational political choices, such as means-testing the winter fuel payment and early release of
Liam Gallagher, it is fair to say, is not renowned for thoughtfulness or tact, particularly on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Still, many fans will have been appalled to learn that the singer apparently wants the Irish republican band, the Wolfe Tones, to perform at Oasis’s shows in Dublin next year. In response to
Back to the Foreign Secretary, who seems unable to keep himself out of the headlines these days. It transpires that as well as being rather gaffe-prone on the subject of international relations – having described Donald Trump in the past as a ‘neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’ – David Lammy has today taken it upon himself to
Sir Ed Davey has just finished his conference speech in Brighton. No party is likely to hold a more upbeat political jamboree this year than the one which the Lib Dems have just concluded. With a record 72 MPs, July’s result ensured Davey became his party’s most successful leader since the days of Asquith and
After 22 months of on-and-off strikes, junior doctors have voted to accept the government’s offer of a 22.3 per cent pay rise over the next two years. But this doesn’t mean the strikes have come to an end. Rather, the government seems to have secured itself only a brief pause from the walkouts, before the
Back to Westminster, where the Prime Minister is facing some rather uncomfortable questions about freebies received from top Labour donor Lord Alli. Last month, it emerged that Alli received a No. 10 pass after funding the PM’s wardrobe – before the Sunday Times revealed at the weekend that Lady Starmer had also been a beneficiary
Ed Miliband told the EnergyUK conference this morning that he wants to take on the ‘blockers, delayers and obstructionists’ who stand in the way of Britain’s energy security. Oh good, does that mean that finally he appreciates that the North Sea needs some encouragement? And that a UK fracking industry will finally be allowed to
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Liberal Democrat Conference wraps up today in Brighton. It could well be the happiest conference we visit this season with the party riding high after winning 72 seats at the election. The challenge that they face now is improving on that number, providing some opposition to the Labour party and protecting their new Surrey MPs
The spectacular resignation of Thierry Breton from the European Commission suggests that the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is not quite as useless as her numerous critics suggest. Breton’s departure was overdue. Credit to von der Leyen for wielding the long knife. Breton’s arrogance was exceeded only by his uselessness. After Mario
A day after nearly being shot again, the 78-year-old Donald Trump is once more being mocked for sounding like a fool while talking about cryptocurrency. In an interview with Farokh Sarmad, another of these hugely popular male influencers whom the vast majority of people have never heard of, Trump ruminated on the importance of making America
‘The UK-UAE relationship is central to driving economic growth – it’s our largest trading partner in the region.’ So tweeted David Lammy earlier this month following a meeting with Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed, the Emirati foreign minister. Perhaps the Foreign Secretary should think twice before making such boasts. The UAE is up to its neck
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As if there hadn’t been enough drama in America in 2024, Donald Trump has survived another assassination attempt. The attempted killing of the 45th president at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida yesterday afternoon was not nearly as threatening or deadly as the shooting nine weeks ago in Butler, Pennsylvania – but questions remain
Albert Einstein wasn’t thinking about the BBC when he defined insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result’, but he could have been. The BBC’s latest scandal, involving its former star presenter Huw Edwards, has followed a remarkably similar trajectory to the last two marmalade droppers that embroiled
All is not well in the Labour party. Diane Abbott has launched an attack on the Prime Minister over his behaviour towards her during the Frank Hester racism row. The Labour MP for Hackney North has told the Beeb that she felt Sir Keir Starmer treated her like a ‘non-person’ following the Tory donor fallout,