All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
After Labour’s local election results proved to be less catastrophic than many pundits predicted, John McDonnell told party naysayers it was time to ‘put up or shut up’. The comments went on to anger disgruntled Blairites in Labour who argue the party ought to strive for greater success. Speaking on the Sunday Politics, Caroline Flint appeared to reinforce
Sir John Sawers, an ex-MI6 chief, insisted to Andrew Marr earlier that No10 did not put him up writing today’s article in the Sunday Times saying that Britain needs the EU to ensure its security. I can quite believe it. No10 abandoned this line of argument after the Belgian Airport atrocity, and the subsequent debate
It’s rare that an election result leaves you with a sense of giddy, disbelieving glee, but there it was in black and white. Galloway, George, Respect (George Galloway) Party, 37,007 votes. Walker, Sophie, Women’s Equality Party, 53,055 votes. Once you took second preferences into account, Walker and her newly formed feminist movement beat Galloway and
The city of Palmyra, recently liberated from Isis, has seen a return to civilisation and culture with a performance by a Russian orchestra. The concert, conducted by a ‘close associate’ of Vladimir Putin, was of course a propaganda exercise – but what a propaganda exercise! It fills me with genuine sadness that no western power would
It’s a useful rule of thumb that any business which reduces its name to its initials is heading for trouble. Having gone that way under Goodwin, RBS almost doubled down last year by becoming the lower-case ‘rbs’, before apparently thinking better of it. British Petroleum became ‘BP’ after its 1998 merger with Amoco, tried to
The comparison between the referendum questions — that asked in 1975 and the one which we shall be asked on 23 June — is interesting. In 1975, the question was ‘Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain part of the European Community (Common Market)?’ (Answer: Yes/No). Today, the question will be ‘Should the United Kingdom
When I got an email from the Evening Standard’s education correspondent at 06.29am yesterday I had no idea that my life was about to turn to shit. She had just read an interview I’d done for a magazine called Schools Week in which, among other things, I said that I was standing down as chief
Election results day a good day to bury bad news — who’d have thought it? Fortunately for people living in rural areas, the bad news wasn’t buried as well as the government might have hoped: it turns out the Conservatives have changed their tune a little on their plans to roll out decent levels of broadband across
As the dust settles on Thursday’s election, it becomes ever clearer that—with the exception of London—these were awful results for Labour. They were bad enough to suggest that the party is on course for a third successive general election defeat. But, as I say in The Sun, not disastrous enough to persuade the Labour membership
Last week, I wrote about the fevered state of mind of the Financial Times as British voters threaten to throw off their EU chains. Here is another example. Martin Wolf, usually the best columnist in the paper, wrote a column giving ten reasons to remain. He said: ‘Above all, those promoting departure ignore what the
I am no admirer of Donald Trump — not because he is a doomsayer and professional patriot but because he is a fake and, worse, he owes me money. A few years back I was telephoned by a friend. ‘I have to give a dinner for Donald Trump,’ he said, dolorously. ‘He entertained me in Palm
As Isabel Hardman wrote yesterday, many interpret Labour’s failure to fail on a bigger scale in yesterday’s election results as the worst possible result for the party. Sadiq Khan, who had nominated Corbyn for the leadership, won comfortably in London. Predicted to lose 150 or more council seats, by midday Labour was down a net 26
The latest competition called for a verse obituary of a well-known person who has died in the past year. There’s certainly no shortage of candidates. Whether more famous people than usual are dying or whether it just seems that way I don’t know, but hardly a day goes by without one of the stars of
Following Thursday’s elections, Sadiq Khan is on course to be the new mayor of London, with his rival Zac Goldsmith trailing a distant second. With Goldsmith’s campaign billed as ‘racist’ and ‘divisive’ by critics, the Tories will now need to work out who is at fault for his disastrous mayoral bid. However, while Goldsmith could do with all the friends
Zac Goldsmith has spent much of the past few weeks telling us that the London mayoral vote ‘will be very close’. But it wasn’t, in the end: he lost by a fairly large margin. Some political campaigns are failures; others are simply tragedies, and Zac Goldsmith’s falls into the latter category. As I found out when I spent
It’s disappointing to see how many Tories are buying into Labour’s spin about Zac Goldsmith having fought a ‘dog whistle’ campaign and – even more ludicrously – blaming that for his defeat. Any Conservative candidate faced an uphill struggle getting elected in London, one of the only areas in the country where Labour did better
Sadiq Khan is the new Mayor of London. After what seemed like an eternal wait, withs second preferences counted, he claimed 57pc of the vote to Zac Goldsmith’s 43pc – a comfortable margin of 14pc. So after eight years of Tory control, Labour has retaken City Hall. Khan’s result is Labour’s best of this election cycle. He
It’s a good day for the Conservatives to bury bad news, when all attention is on Labour and the SNP’s election performances. So that must be why in the past few minutes Nicky Morgan has announced she is U-turning on the government’s plans to force all schools in England to become academies. The Education Secretary
With George Galloway predicted to have won roughly one per cent of the vote in the London mayoral election, his dream of becoming Mayor is fading fast. So, barring a drastic recount, the next question to ask is: what will become of his battle bus? Barely a day has gone by in the campaign when Galloway
The election results that we’ve had through so far are a pretty potent combination for the Labour party. Diane Abbott said this morning that they show that Labour is on course to win the 2020 general election, while Jeremy Corbyn skirted around what they actually meant for the party in the long-term when he gave
We are past peak SNP. The party has won a third successive Scottish Parliamentary election, an achievement that is not to be sniffed at, but it has lost its overall majority. There are signs that the normal rules of political gravity are beginning to apply in Scotland again. Equally telling is that the SNP is
As Nigel Farage come to terms with his old foe Neil Hamilton’s success in the Welsh elections, there is another new Welsh Ukip Assembly Member who could also prove problematic for party harmony. Earlier this year, Ukip candidate Gareth Bennett made the news after he blamed increased litter in Cardiff on eastern European migrants. He then appeared on
Nicola Sturgeon has her mandate but it is a smaller, feebler, mandate than almost everyone thought likely as recently as 18 hours ago. The SNP remains the natural party of government in Scotland – a position it is unlikely to relinquish for the foreseeable future – but it no longer enjoys an overall majority at
The Tory achievement in Scotland was delightfully encapsulated in one sharp moment during the BBC’s overnight coverage. Jackson Carlaw, the Scottish Tory deputy leader, turned to Alex Salmond, pointed his finger and said: “Alex Salmond said we deserved to stay in purdah, well, we are not in purdah any more.” That retort summed up the frustration built
This morning the Labour party is waking up to both disaster and relief. Disaster because the party is falling into third place in the Scottish Parliament – and third to the Conservatives, a party it has long teased for being unpopular and unacceptable north of the border. And relief because so far in English council
One of the starkest trends in recessionary Britain is the ever expanding army of the self-employed. Among the staggering 4.4 million people who work for themselves are 166,000 taxi drivers, 140,000 carpenters and joiners and 123,000 farmers, as well as more prosperous lawyers and computer contractors. These workers have few perks: no paid holidays or
Property news has dominated the financial headlines this week and today is no exception. On the front page of The Times is an exclusive story revealing that Britain’s biggest mortgage lender has decided to increase its age limit from 75 to 80 as it adapts to an ageing population. The change will be introduced by the
Summary: Sadiq Khan becomes Mayor of London. SNP fail to win a majority. Scottish Tories become second largest party in Scottish parliament; Scottish Labour in meltdown. Little change in England, Ukip gained seven seats in Wales. Scotland: SNP fails to win majority; Scottish Labour in meltdown The SNP won 63 of the 129 seats at the Scottish Parliament. The
To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. Has Erdogan brought Europe to heel? In his Spectator cover piece, Douglas Murray argues that the Turkish President has used a mixture of intimidation, threats and blackmail to
Donald Trump has waded into the EU referendum debate tonight, saying he thinks that Britain is better off walking away from Europe. It was just a matter of time before Trump had his say on Brexit, as the presumptive Republican nominee has never been shy about giving his opinion on a whole host of matters.
Ahmet Davutoglu’s resignation comes at a sensitive moment for the EU’s migration deal with Turkey. Why did the prime minister fall from the sultan’s favour, and what does it mean? Over the past few weeks Davutoglu appeared increasingly worried about the hollowing out of his position. He had every right to be frustrated. In late
Imagine, if you will, two epileptics trying to share a bowl of noodles and you will get a sense of how messy and unappetising the contest between Donald Trump, a Mussolini wannabe, and Hillary Clinton, a Nixon in a pantsuit, is going to be. (Actually, let me preemptively engage in America’s favourite pastime and apologise
Is Turkey part of Europe? For most of our civilisation’s history, to have even asked such a question would have been to invite derision. The Ottomans were kept out of Europe not by some early-onset prejudice, but by the armies of Europe having to beat back their repeated invasions. The question became slightly more plausible
Possibly Sir Philip Green has behaved disgracefully in the matter of BHS. It does not follow that he should be stripped of his knighthood. Think of the consequences. At present, the promise of a knighthood can keep people who might otherwise be independent in line. But once a knighthood has been granted, it can hardly