All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The most striking thing about the Treasury’s forecast of the impact of Brexit is the relative modesty of its claim that by 2030, assuming a UK-EU trade deal akin to the one negotiated by Canada, ‘our GDP would be 6.2 per cent lower’ while ‘families would be £4,300 worse off’. Since those quotes come from
Do you want to know what it looks like when one party has become the most dominant force in its country’s political history, when one in every 30-odd voters is a member of that party and when it is regularly topping 50 per cent in the polls? Then look no further than central Edinburgh this
Today’s PMQs was a reminder that the old fashioned approach of detailed, forensic questioning on a single topic works best. Jeremy Corbyn delivered his best performance as leader of the opposition today, questioning David Cameron on why all schools will have to become academies. He skilfully exploited Tory splits over the issue. The relative silence
This week Jeremy Corbyn has faced an MPs’ revolt over the Labour party’s decision to ban McDonald’s from having a stall at its party conference. A number of MPs have accused the Labour leader of snobbery, while Corbyn’s spokesman has had to admit that he does not know what the vegetarian Labour leader could even eat
It’s perhaps not a surprise that Scottish Labour will oppose Trident renewal in the party’s manifesto for the Holyrood elections. The party did hold a symbolic vote on the matter at its conference last autumn, and delegates voted against renewal of the nuclear deterrent, despite Kezia Dugdale’s own preference for multilateral disarmament. And it’s not
To Aqua Nueva on Regent Street where the Spanish bar was transformed into a Mediterranean getaway for one night only to celebrate the Ibiza Preservation Fund… or Zac Goldsmith’s mayoral campaign, depending on who you spoke to. While guests including Bryan Adams and George Lamb gathered at the champagne-fuelled bash to show their support for
The SNP launched their manifesto for the forthcoming election to the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh today. 1,400 party members gathered for morning worship at the Edinburgh International conference Centre. Members of the media were forced to wear security bracelets emblazoned with the slogan “I’m with Nicola” which, given the contempt with which many nationalists view
If the number of foreign politicians and international organisations that the government is enlisting in the campaign to stay in the EU is anything to go by, David Cameron and George Osborne are a bit nervous about the outcome of the referendum. This week in particular has seen the Chancellor using not just the might
In More Human, Steve Hilton describes the EU as ‘a stinking cesspit of corporate corruption gussied up in the garb of idealistic internationalism’. So given his strong words on the issue, in theory it would seem that David Cameron’s former director of strategy — who is also one of the Prime Minister’s closest friends — has
Later today the House of Commons will vote upon a motion expressing belief that a genocide is underway against Christians, Yazidis and other ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria. The motion, proposed by Fiona Bruce MP, is supported by a large number of MPs from all parties. The Government is expected to oppose, as
Another British university has been revealed as a mini GDR. And this time it’s not the fault of those speech-policing students’ unions. The University of Edinburgh – which recently hit headlines after its students association banned head-shaking – has been slammed for an Orwellian new practice designed to keep tabs on its staff. Under a
Ah, the put-upon motorist. Fees to park outside your own house, potholes littering the streets, road tax, MOTs, and the biggest liability of all: insurance. Last year insurance premiums soared by 14 per cent. That’s an £81 increase in just 12 months, bringing the average annual comprehensive car insurance policy to £671, according to Confused.com. Analysis
It’s no real surprise that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have both secured victory in New York overnight and the only real question was what margin they would win by. With most of the votes now counted, it looks to have been convincing in both cases: Trump got more than 60 per cent of the
Do you eat lunch at your desk or work into the night? The Telegraph reports that all those skipped lunch breaks and late evenings in the office accumulate over time – adding up to 39 days worth of unpaid work a year, on average. Britons clock up almost eight working weeks worth of overtime each year without being paid for this
Ted Cruz once suggested – it feels like years ago but was only January – that Republican voters would not choose Donald Trump because of his ‘New York values’. The idea behind the diss was that Trump’s elite social liberalism would not play well with the conservative majority. Well, Cruz was wrong – and New
The Telegraph reports this morning that British Gas owner Centrica is attempting to shrug off a sharp drop in customer numbers with a range of new tariffs. In the first three months of the year, Britain’s biggest energy supplier lost 224,000 customer accounts – more than in the whole of 2015 – as customers turned to rival companies. The
‘The Commons at its best’ is a bit of a pompous phrase that people apply to all sorts of sessions in Parliament that aren’t really the Commons at its best at all. But the Commons at its worst is surely easy to find: it’s when MPs meet on a Friday to discuss Private Members’ Bills.
What has Jeremy Corbyn got against McDonald’s? He wants to block the fast-food chain from having an outlet at the Labour party conference, a position which has been blasted by quite a few MPs in his party, who presumably enjoy a Big Mac every now and then. It raises a more serious question though. According to their website, McDonald’s employ about 85,000 people in the
Whatever might be said about the Governor of the Bank of England, it’s hard to fault his persistence. Mark Carney has made a habit of wading into the debate surrounding the EU referendum. And based on his appearance in front of the Lords Economic Affairs Committee this afternoon, he isn’t planning on stopping any time
After Vote Leave were awarded the official designation to campaign for Brexit in the EU referendum, there was much disappointment from Grassroots Out and Leave.EU. So much so that the campaigns’ main funder Arron Banks toyed with the idea of launching a judicial review. However, in the end the Brexit backer decided to be the
Michael Gove has been making his case for Brexit and doing his best to knock the stuffing out of the ‘remain’ campaign. He started the day on the Today programme, spelling out why he thought Britain was best off outside the EU. In his pitch to the nation, he said: ‘I want us to vote
Earlier this year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer used Treasury Questions to take a swipe at Paul Mason. Osborne described the former Channel 4 economics editor as a ‘revolutionary Marxist’. Mason responded by denying the claim in a blog post, even though he is a former member of the Trotskyist Workers’ Power group. Happily Mason
Today’s Treasury questions was a pretty tame affair. Labour produced a pretty mild set of questions on tax avoidance and solar energy, while Tory eurosceptics only caused trouble in the opening questions by complaining about the Treasury’s analysis of the economic consequences of Brexit – and at the very end when Sir Edward Leigh and
One of the most striking things about the debate on Britain’s future relationship with Europe is that the case for staying is couched overwhelmingly in negative and pessimistic terms, while the case for leaving is positive and optimistic. Those of us who want to Leave believe Britain’s best days lie ahead, that our country has tremendous
After yesterday’s furore over Treasury warnings about exactly what Brexit will cost British families, today it’s Michael Gove’s turn to hit back. The Justice Secretary is set to accuse the Government of ‘treating voters like children who can be frightened into obedience’. It’s extraordinary just how quickly the war of words seems to be intensifying,
During last night’s BBC mayoral debate, Zac Goldsmith was asked whether he had run a racist campaign against Sadiq Khan — following negative press surrounding the Labour candidate’s links to extremists. After Khan found himself under fire for sharing platforms with characters like Suliman Gani, as well as for his work for Louis Farrakhan — the man who claimed Hitler
I see that a small furore has been occasioned by the South Downs National Park. It has urged walkers to stop and talk to one another in a civilised and friendly manner. I do not know what business it is of a national park to enjoin us to act like human beings – these bodies
Mortgage Freedom Day. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Think about that for a second. Mortgage. Freedom. Day. Well, if you’re a new borrower, then today’s the day. According to Halifax, April 19 is when you’ll have earned enough to pay off the annual cost of your mortgage. It works like this:
Nobody should be surprised that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has instituted effective blasphemy laws to defend himself from criticism in Turkey. But many of us had assumed that these lèse-majesté laws would not yet be put in place inside Europe. At least not until David Cameron succeeds in his long-held ambition to bring Turkey fully
I first heard of Asad Shah’s murder through a WhatsApp group. Its members are mainly prominent, respected Sunni Muslims. When it was reported that the Glaswegian shop owner – whose final message on Facebook was to wish Christians a happy Easter – had been killed, the group expressed its outrage. ‘This is what happens when the
As the European referendum campaign gains momentum, the London mayoral election has had to take a backseat in recent weeks when it comes to setting the news agenda. Tonight the mayoral candidates had a chance to turn this around as part of the BBC’s London’s Mayor debate. While Respect candidate George Galloway was left out of the line-up, the five
Although the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour party is a private affair, Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman offers journalists lurking in the committee corridor outside a briefing as soon as it has concluded. Today he had to take questions from hacks on whether or not his boss goes to McDonald’s – prompted by the news that the
George Osborne’s warning over what Brexit will cost the UK economy has dominated the headlines for much of the day. But how have the Treasury figures gone down in Westminster? Based on the number of Tory MPs queuing up to slam the Chancellor’s claims, it would seem not very well at all: Kwasi Kwarteng said
Departmental questions in the House of Commons are generally an opportunity for backbenchers of all parties to hold the government to account. But a strange pattern is emerging at Defence Questions, whereby the backbenchers of each of the two main parties pour their efforts into making life uncomfortable for their own frontbenchers, even though Labour’s