All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
As expected, Jeremy Hunt has just announced in the Commons that he will impose the junior doctor contract after he was advised that there was no longer any chance of an agreement with the British Medical Association on the issue. And as expected, the BMA has said that it does not accept the contract and
The queues haven’t started forming outside branches in Frankfurt or Cologne yet. Even so, it is hard not to suspect that something is badly amiss at Deutsche Bank, Germany’s and indeed Europe’s mightiest financial institution, and the rock on which that economy is founded. The shares have been in freefall, and executives have been wheeled
[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thenextrefugeecrisis/media.mp3″ title=”Simon Barnes and the Sea Watch Foundation’s Dr Peter Evans discuss whales” startat=1400] Listen [/audioplayer]Imagine if a bunch of Bollywood celebrities turned up in Britain to protest outside steak houses, lie down in front of abattoir trucks as they tried to leave beef farms and started describing Britain as ‘barbaric’ for killing cattle.
If you think it’s only crybaby students who set up safe spaces in which they might hide from gruff words and ugly sentiments, think again. More of the world beyond touchy campuses is being safe-spaced too. Consider Twitter, which this week announced the establishment of a ‘safety council’ — Orwellian much? — to ensure its
[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thenextrefugeecrisis/media.mp3″ title=”Listen to this week’s edition of the The View From 22″] Listen [/audioplayer] In this week’s issue, Laura Pitel discusses whether the next refugee crisis emerging in Turkey could dwarf the first which has gripped Europe. Turkey has taken in two and a half million refugees – nearly three times as many as
Bernard Hogan-Howe did his best to appear calm on the Today show but it is clear he is increasingly rattled by the pressure he is under. The Met Police commissioner was on the front page of several newspapers this morning for all the wrong reasons. ‘Just say sorry’, screamed The Sun. The Daily Mail went
Housing is Jeremy Corbyn’s second favourite subject (after drainage lids). Back in the 1970s the grateful proletariat hailed his long years of service as Commissar For Council Accommodation in the People’s Republic of Haringey. At his retirement, chanting school-girls tied garlands of lilies around his brows and presented him with a commemorative Rent Book in
One of the more intriguing exchanges at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was between Julian Lewis and David Cameron on Trident. The chairman of the Defence Select Committee asked the following: ‘The debate and vote on the Trident successor submarine should have been held in the last Parliament, but was blocked by the Liberal Democrats. Given
A walk in the park for David Cameron at PMQs this week. Jeremy Corbyn asked six questions on housing, but they were all too long and lacked any edge: they were the opposite of forensic. Cameron simply batted them away and rattled off a list of what he had done and the supposed failings of
As Labour peers prepare to join forces with Liberal Democrat peers this week to challenge the trade union bill in the House of Lords, Jeremy Corbyn is doing his bit at PMQs. The Labour leader has taken the bold step of wearing a ‘heart unions’ badge. It’s in support of an official ‘Heart Unions’ week, which
If a dirty mind is a perpetual feast, then a filthy mind is an open sewer. You see where the manure is coming from. More to the point, you know where it is going. When Galloway faced a challenge for the Bradford West seat from the Labour candidate, Naz Shah, he thought the best way
What will Jeremy Corbyn lead on today at Prime Minister’s Questions? The Labour leader could ask David Cameron about the junior doctors’ strike, about Europe, or about party funding, given Labour is currently fighting the Trade Union Bill, and given it was the Tory Black and White Ball this week. But almost as interesting as
Michael Hanlon, the science writer, has died at the age of 51. He was the science editor at the Daily Mail, and also wrote for the Independent, the Telegraph and The Spectator. A collection of his articles can be found here. In 2013, he wrote the following piece for this magazine, in which he asked why
This is an extract from the new issue of The Spectator, out tomorrow: Last week Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, tabled proposals which the government hopes will form the basis of the UK’s renegotiated relationship with the European Union. Politically, the proposals may be just the job: a new commitment to enhance competitiveness,
Manchester, New Hampshire ‘Anybody here got any student debt?’ asks Bernie Sanders halfway through his speech at a rally in a small university on Monday. He then starts conducting a fake auction. ‘What are some of the numbers you got? You? 35,000. You? 55,000? Who else? A young lady here… 100,000 dollars. You win! I
A new European banking crisis. Seriously? Starting at Deutsche Bank? That’s the way markets were pointing on Tuesday as Deutsche’s shares plunged, inter-bank liquidity shrivelled, would-be investors in bank bonds hid in the toilets and speculative short-sellers did the work of the devil. And we all know there’s no smoke without fire, right? Let’s pause
This is a bleak day for the NHS. The doctors strike has gone ahead and some 3,000 operations have been cancelled. Talks broke down last night, and the British Medical Association has shown it is quite prepared to put patients in the firing line in its dispute over a deal that would mean a pay
Manchester, New Hampshire Populism won tonight in New Hampshire. Rage against the elite won tonight in New Hampshire. Class warfare came out on top. Bernie Sanders, who wants a ‘political revolution’ to tackle ‘the billionaire class’, thrashed the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton. Donald J. Trump, the billionaire who tells everyone that only he can stop the elite buying Washington,
New Hampshire The Spectator’s deputy editor Freddy Gray is currently in New Hampshire. Here’s his report from the evening as the results of the primary came in. 3.13am Things slowing down now, folks. Thanks for reading. Story of the night is Bernie Sanders, just, and the Donald’s mind-blowing win a close second. A goofy 74 year old socialist
Emily Thornberry has not had an easy few weeks since her appointment as shadow defence secretary last month. On Monday she received a frosty reception at a meeting of the PLP, when Labour MPs heckled her as she discussed the party’s Trident policy. With members of her own party now against her, perhaps it’s only natural that
The Catholic bishops of England and Wales – and the separate hierarchy for Scotland, for that matter – have long been uncritical, even sycophantic, supporters of the European Union. The question isn’t whether they will try to persuade Catholics to vote to stay in, but how they will go about it – and whether they will succeed. The
Ukip’s announcement this afternoon that it will be backing Grassroots Out in its bid for designation as the official ‘Leave’ campaign in the EU referendum has caused consternation in its ranks. The party put out a press release saying that the National Executive Committee, MEPs and its Local Councillors Association are backing GO, which was
Jacob Rees Mogg might be one of the best known Eurosceptic faces in Parliament but he won’t be leading the charge for Brexit. The Tory backbencher laughed off the suggestion on the Daily Politics that he would be the face of the leave campaign – saying he didn’t need to rule himself out ‘because no
Shadow Cabinet members are a little disorientated after the heated discussion on Trident that they were expecting at today’s meeting didn’t go ahead. Officially, the reason that Jeremy Corbyn and his top team didn’t talk about the party’s defence policy review is that they had a discussion on Europe and the economy, which were considered
How can Ruth Davidson become the Leader of the Opposition in Holyrood? The leader of the Scottish Conservatives made her pitch to do just that this week, and also set out her own vision for tackling inequality in a speech last night. She has become a popular figure in political circles, respected by right and left
Ruth Davidson has been previously tipped as a front-runner in the Tory leadership race. The Scottish Conservative leader has proved popular with both the public and her own party, with the Tory MP Heidi Allen even naming Davidson as her preferred choice for leader in an interview last year. Alas, those hoping that Davidson has what
Here we go again. According to today’s Daily Express, leaving the European Union is the only way to ‘save the NHS’. According to the Prime Minister, remaining a member of the european club is the only way to guarantee the United Kingdom’s security. I suppose it is too much to hope that everyone, on both sides of
Last night politicians and celebrities dined with the super-rich at the annual Tory Black and White ball. While press are banned from the event, Mr S managed to infiltrate the lavish do and bring readers a live-blog of the event. Alas the evening saw a downturn in David Cameron’s fortunes as his donors failed to dig as deep at
The Shadow Cabinet has its session with Emily Thornberry on Trident today. At least there are fewer people so she cannot be shouted down, as she was at points in last night’s parliamentary Labour party meeting. But there are a number of MPs at the table who only joined Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench on the understanding
A few weeks ago, James Forsyth revealed David Cameron’s strategy for fighting the EU referendum: to campaign on the theme on security, rather than an economic argument. This is already backfiring badly. Britain’s security does not depend upon the EU, and the Prime Minister’s attempts to suggest otherwise are inflicting grave damage to his chances of
David Cameron’s mum has joined the battle against Conservative cuts, it has emerged this morning. Mary Cameron’s intervention after signing a petition to save childrens’ centres has been splashed over the front page of the Daily Mirror. The headline: ‘Cameron’s mum fights Tory cuts’ looks deeply embarrassing for her son. Is this a family rift?
As the first results of the Iowa caucus began to come through, a remarkable prospect dawned on US election analysts. There finally seemed to be a way out of ‘the crazy’ that had dominated the Republican race since early summer, following the launch of Donald Trump’s campaign. And what a nine months it has been:
These are wild times in the Labour party, as an appetite for self-destruction grips the party leadership. Central to the ‘new politics’ approach of the party leadership is a deliberate abandonment of basic political professionalism. Positions don’t have to make sense, policies don’t need to be thought through, the political concerns of the public can be
I had the rather subversive idea of offering a six-figure sum to Oriel College, Oxford. On one condition: that the college immediately withdraw the Rhodes scholarship from the South African Ntokozo Qwabe, the hypocrite who led the campaign to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes, as well as any other recipients of Cecil’s munificence who