All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Personally, I love referendums. It’s the notion that the people really can have things their way which is so pleasing, unlike the normal state of affairs when every issue of importance is bundled up in a party political package in a general election which makes it effectively impossible to unpick, say, your candidate’s approach to
The latest competition invited you to give a couple of old nursery rhymes a contemporary twist by composing a new verse that incorporates the lines ‘What are little girls made of?’ and ‘What are little boys made of?’. This challenge was a potential minefield, given how high feelings run nowadays when it comes to the
It’s just as well that David Cameron abandoned his career in public relations because he seems to be comically (or, if you’re a journalist, deliciously) bad at crisis management. He has done absolutely nothing wrong, but is carrying on as if he’s Ken Dodd in 1989 – except Dodd handled it all more deftly. The
A few things come to mind as a result of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s bombshell revelation that his father was not, after all, Gavin Welby, but the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne – a discovery he made by dint of Charles Moore, of this paper, and his conversations with members of Sir Anthony’s family. One
Oh dear. David Cameron’s bad day just got worse. After he admitted to previously owning shares in his father’s offshore fund, he has faced calls to resign. Now Lily Allen has promised to pay him a visit. The Smile singer says she will be heading to No.10 tomorrow to take part in a protest calling for Cameron
Here is a story that needs little extrapolation. A male left-wing politician in Norway – Karsten Nordal Hauken – has spoken out about his rape, a few years ago, at the hands of a Somali refugee. The self-professed feminist and ‘anti-racist’ was subjected to a brutal anal attack in his own home. The culprit was
Yesterday, the government abandoned its plans to scrap farm animal welfare codes, but if you think that means the cheap chicken you buy is ethical, you’re a bird brain. The embarrassing u-turn was made after animal rights charities pointed out that asking the industry to come up with its own guidelines wasn’t going to work. The
Boxing is under scrutiny again and rightfully so. The sport’s dangers have been highlighted recently after pro boxer Nick Blackwell suffered a bleed on his skull during a British title fight against Chris Eubank Jr. After the fight, Blackwell collapsed in the ring and was induced into a coma which lasted for almost a week. Even long-time
As David Cameron finds himself in hot water over his admission that he once owned shares in an offshore fund, today ought to be a walk in the park for Labour. In fact, all Jeremy Corbyn need do is give the press a few soundbites on the Tories’ troubles and then sit back and relax.
Here’s the beginning of the Guardian’s report on Amoris Laetitia (Joy of Love), Pope Francis’s response to the Synod on the Family: Pope Francis has called for the Catholic church to revamp its response to modern family life, striking a delicate balance between a more accepting tone towards gay people and the defence of traditional
At last! We can now see why David Cameron tried to keep this quiet. He sold his shares in January 2010 – just as the recovery was starting. What a dunce! His £31,500 would be worth a lot more by now if he’d held, and diversified his portfolio. So can you trust him with the
You can tell a lot about how a party’s press operation thinks things are going from who it sends out to do its dirty work on the airwaves. Yesterday the Conservatives sent Michael Fallon out to defend the Government’s £9m pro-EU leaflet, which suggested that they knew it was going to be controversial and would
The state pension has just risen by the highest amount in 15 years, and the Tory Party boasts that this is a result of the ‘difficult decisions’ it has taken. This is odd, because no one else is being told about dividends from such decisions. In fact, Osborne’s deficit is still massive so he can’t
Last night’s Question Time saw David Dimbleby joined by Anna Soubry, Chris Bryant, Douglas Carswell, economist Ruth Lea and Irvine Welsh. As Soubry, Bryant and Carswell all bickered about the government’s use of £9m of taxpayers’ money for EU leaflets, Welsh — who lives in Chicago — said that even if he had a vote, he probably
This morning’s newspapers were never going to make enjoyable reading for the Prime Minister following his admission yesterday that he owned shares in an offshore trust. But David Cameron may still not have been quite prepared for the focus with which the headlines go after him. He has experienced bad newspaper headlines before, of course,
Rising house prices and a lack of properties has prompted many homeowners to improve rather than move. And who can blame them? According to the latest Halifax House Price Index, property values took a massive leap in the 12 months to the end of March, rising more than 10 per cent to £214,811. This is the biggest
House prices increased more than £20,000 in the year to March to a new record high as annual UK house price inflation returned to double-digit growth for the first time in almost two years, according to the latest Halifax house price index. Buyers chasing a low stock of homes for sale sent prices rising by £21,587
I was struck recently as I perused the modest collection of bottles I pretentiously call my ‘home cellar’ (the really good stuff has to be kept out reach, I’m afraid) by the dreadful uniformity of its contents. There was certainly enough variety in terms of style, but everything was held within the globally invariant, ubiquitous,
This article was originally written by Jonathan White for the Berry Bros. & Rudd Wine blog, who have kindly given us permission to republish the piece here. Berry Bros. & Rudd are a Spectator wine partner. At the end of the team’s third day of tasting Bordeaux 2015 en primeur, Jonathan White compares the
To get himself in shape for the forthcoming Spectator St. George’s Day trip to Chapel Down Winery in Kent, Jonathan Ray spends a weekend in the wine-lands of Sussex and Surrey. It’s one of life’s greatest pleasures, taking one’s car across the Channel and pootling about Champagne, say, or the Loire Valley or Alsace, Burgundy,
Although you might not think so, female genital mutilation is a welcome subject to many on the left, because it is one of the few areas in which they can be rude about what they would never, in other contexts, dare to call ‘backward’ cultures. In their hierarchy of virtue, women’s rights trump even those
Yesterday’s rejection of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement by Dutch voters was loudly cheered by Leave campaigners. It will certainly have boosted their morale. It will also have increased the sense that the continent is in chaos and that the EU is becoming less credible. Ultimately, the result is rooted in the EU’s longstanding failure to address its many internal
He has recanted! The blasphemer, the thoughtless pricker of moral orthodoxy, has backtracked! Rejoice! Yes, novelist Ian McEwan, who had the temerity to question the transgender ideology has now clarified his comments. He has declared that transgenderism is actually something to be ‘respected and celebrated’. He has seen the light. He has been corrected. He has ‘acknowledged the hurt’
David Cameron has defended the £9m government leaflet promoting the EU as ‘money well spent’ and ‘necessary’, as the Tory party erupts into fury once again. What’s interesting about this new row – over a leaflet sent to all homes which sets out ‘why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union
Today David Cameron is trying to win the youth vote in the upcoming EU referendum. To do this, he has given a speech to students at Exeter University — claiming that young people will be be hit hardest in the event of Brexit. Taking questions from the audience after his speech, one student pointed out that it may
During the Labour leadership election, Jeremy Corbyn found himself in hot water after he appeared to claim in an interview with the Independent on Sunday that he wanted to reinstate clause IV of the Labour party constitution. The clause — which Tony Blair scrapped — commits the party to nationalising industry: ‘To secure for the
The news today that the government are to spend over £9m of taxpayers’ money on leaflets for the pro-EU campaign has gone down like a lead balloon in the Brexit camp. In an interview with ITV News, Boris Johnson has blasted the leaflets as ‘a complete waste of money’: ‘I think it’s a complete waste of money.
The junior doctors’ dispute has been characterised by a series of extraordinary claims by the BMA. At one time the union claimed that doctors were going to suffer a real-terms pay cut of 26 per cent – a claim debunked by the respected Channel 4 Fact-checking team. A pay calculator on the BMA website which claimed
Savers are wasting a fortune by keeping their money in cash only. They may as well be burying the £735 billion they’ve collectively put by in a sock in the back garden for all the good it’s doing them. The figure was revealed by investment platform Selftrade, which also found that 62 per cent of
Millions of internet users face costs of up to £60 a year to keep their email address if they switch broadband provider. Others risk losing their account altogether if they switch. This is according to Thisismoney.co.uk which reports that BT is tripling the amount former customers will have to pay to keep their BT email address when
Jeremy Corbyn’s enemies within the Labour party are known to be dreaming about a time after his leadership. But why aren’t his opponents doing anything about getting rid of him? According to former Labour party advisor John McTernan, they should do it sooner rather than later. Speaking on the Spectator podcast this week, McTernan said:
These days the BBC can’t seem to get anything right. On top of regularly riling Brexit-ers with ‘EU bias’, the corporation has been accused by some — including former BBC pol ed Nick Robinson — of showing anti-Corbyn bias. Now they can add a new one to their list; anti-Green Party bias. Yes, Green Party MEP Molly
Let me make this perfectly clear: I have never asked Mossack Fonseca of Panama to set up a company for me in the British Virgin Islands or anywhere else. At least I don’t think I have: I mean, who reads the small print of all that boring paperwork from wealth managers and accountants these days?
Downing Street has spent the past 24 hours trying to clarify David Cameron’s links to an offshore fund set up by his late father, which never paid tax in Britain. Initially, Downing Street said this was a ‘private matter’, Cameron was then asked about the matter, and said ‘I own no shares, no offshore trusts,