All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Let it be understood that, in the realms of pressmen everywhere, the sight of two blowhards hammering away at one another is worth the silent stoicism of a thousand sensible folk. Let it also be understood that Henry Kissinger’s evaluation of the Iran-Iraq war also applies to the increasingly intemperate – by which I mean
Why is it that the sight of a huge, thrusting rocket ploughing through virgin space at 25,000 kmph makes me feel so good? As for seeing a real astronaut with a Union Jack on his arm, how can anyone not be moved? Englishman Tim Peake launched into space just after 11 AM yesterday, alongside Russian Yuri
Buying a present for a loved one at Christmas can be a difficult and time-consuming task, so luckily Sarah Vine has made her husband Michael Gove’s job easy thanks to her column in today’s Daily Mail. In a piece entitled ‘Sorry chaps but women love sleep FAR more than sex!’, Vine — who says that there
David Cameron is heading off to a European Council meeting tomorrow, where talks will continue on reforming Britain’s relationship with Brussels. But this will not yield results instantly, according to one of his predecessors. Sir John Major explained on the Today programme this morning why Thursday and Friday won’t be ‘high noon’ for these talks: ‘It’s a process, there
As a good (secular) Jewish girl, I adore Christmas. Top of my favourite ritual is listening to the King’s Carol Service on Radio 4 at 3.00pm on Christmas Eve. Although my husband is the cook, I am chief table garnisher, so I can be found singing ‘to a lonely cattle shed’ (‘Once in Royal David’s
You know what’s tough these days? Being a left-wing polemicist, that’s what’s tough these days. You don’t need to take my word for this. Just ask Owen Jones. Here he is, complaining about the “unfree media” that makes it “impossible to have a rational conversation about Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, or just politics full stop.” Now you may be
George Osborne has been busily signing more devolution deals today, with five pilot schemes moving power over health policy and spending from Whitehall to London boroughs. It’s part of the Chancellor’s devolution revolution that he is making a key part of his brand. It’s also – as is always the case with Osborne – a
David Cameron will be relived that his European Referendum Bill is finally on its way to Royal Assent, after weeks of threats from Labour peers. But Europe being Europe, there are a whole heap of other problems that the Prime Minister needs to contend with too. It’s not just the specific question of whether David
One of the government’s big achievements has been helping people off benefits and back into work. But the latest stage in the reforms – the proposed changes to the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) – would be a mistake. Far from encouraging sick people back to work, it might encourage them to stay on benefits.
Expediency is usually just trouble deferred. That’s the first thing to remember about David Cameron’s ham-fisted approach to his european referendum problem. The second thing to remember is that it is not, and never has been, about europe at all. It’s always been about the Tory party. Which means the third thing to know is
Anyone hoping for an inflation-linked pay rise in the new year can forget it. The only good news in today’s data is that, at least it won’t be a pay cut: Britain is out of deflation – prices rose by 0.1pc year-on-year last month, according to the CPI (and were up 1.1pc on RPI). But that’s
Since Lucy Allan was accused of faking her own death threat online, the Tory MP has gone underground — deleting her Twitter and changing her privacy settings on Facebook. Last night she made a brief return to social media in order to release a statement with an accompanying video. In this, she opted not to apologise
Two new opinion polls suggest that support is growing for Britain to leave the European Union. Today’s Daily Telegraph reports on an ICM survey which shows that half of voters back Brexit, if the undecideds are excluded: the first time since 2013 that voters are evenly split. But when the undecided voters are included, it is a much tighter split:
From Nicky Dunne, Heywood Hill bookshop Q. A much admired actor rang our bookshop to send a hardback copy of Don Quixote, with an appreciative handwritten note, to a very distinguished fellow board-treader. Unfortunately we sent a children’s illustrated edition by mistake, thereby putting a backhand slice on what was meant to be a compliment.
These figures should send a chill down the spine of anyone who values basic human dignity: in England in 2013, 2,018 newborn babies were taken from their mothers and put into the care of the state. This represents a huge hike from five years earlier, in 2008, when 802 newborns were taken into care. To put
The House of Lords has tonight rejected a Labour amendment that would have given 16 and 17 year olds the vote in the EU referendum. This removes the largest potential obstacle to getting the EU referendum legislation into law quickly. This means that, if the government can get a deal at the EU summit in
It’s happened. Jeremy Corbyn has released his annual Christmas card. The Labour leader has refrained from following the traditional MP format by including a photo of himself on the card — and has instead opted for a picture of some snow-covered bicycles: While Corbyn should be congratulated on managing to use the C-word this time around, it’s fair to
Although Owen Jones was once Jeremy Corbyn’s main cheerleader, in recent months his relationship with the Labour leader has cooled as his former Guardian colleague Seumas Milne has usurped him in Corbyn’s trusted circle. Still, Jones is now at least on good terms with other members of the party. Today the Guardian columnist has interviewed the outspoken Corbyn rebel Jess Phillips for
The second round of the French regional election was surprising in many ways. Surprising, because the strategy of the ‘Front Républicain’ worked well against the Front National. But Socialists are now in the awkward position of having zero seats in two important regions that until recently they governed. Even if the Socialists were able to save
Children’s services in local government will be taken over if they are deemed to be failing by Ofsted, David Cameron is announcing today. In an effort to avoid child abuse cases such as those in Rochdale and Rotherham, the government will carry out about more emergency inspections and services which fail to improve within six months will
Dear David, From Q2 1979 to Q1 1981, quarterly real GDP fell in the UK by 5.5%. Unemployment rose rapidly, from 1.4m in Q2 1979 to 2.4m by the end of the recession, then continued rising through to its peak of 3.3m in 1984 – 12% of the workforce. Unemployment stayed above 3m for 51 straight
A bad night for Marine Le Pen, then, in France’s regional elections. Having been ahead in six regions in the first round last Sunday, her Front National appears now to have failed to win one. Cue lots of somewhat contrived jubilation from every right-thinking human on social media. Tonight does indeed represent a significant blow
François Hollande appears to have been consigned to the political mortuary. The first Socialist French president since François Mitterrand has been more unpopular than any of his predecessors in office — his approval rating sank to 13 per cent towards the end of last year. His style of government has been ridiculed. His private life
So how has America reacted to Donald Trump’s proposal to stop all Muslim immigration? Has the Donald gone too far? Not at all, according to the Wall Street Journal and NBC News: Trump has overtaken former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has fallen back into fourth place on 11 per cent. Trump remains the frontrunner, now
Reading the Sunday newspapers, you could be forgiven for thinking an earth-shattering agreement was reached in Paris – one which outdid even the Kyoto Protocol in the way of binding agreement across the world on climate action. The deal was heavy on political will and ambition (or at least expressions thereof) but as many experts are
The Paris agreement is another acknowledgement of international reality. Further proof, if any was needed, that the developing world will not agree to any legally binding caps, never mind reductions of their CO2 emissions. As seasoned observers predicted, the Paris deal is based on a voluntary basis which allows nations to set their own voluntary CO2
Few really expected Jeremy Corbyn to pull out of the Stop the War fundraising dinner, which he attended last night. He used to chair the coalition, and hasn’t made any comment since becoming leader to suggest that he now disagrees with its aims and objectives. This, as Freddy wrote recently, simply shows that the new
The Paris deal promises to keep temperature rises below 2°C. However, the actual promises made here will do almost nothing to achieve that. It is widely accepted that to keep temperature rises below 2°C, we have to reduce CO₂ emissions by 6,000Gt. The UNFCCC estimates that if every country makes every single promised Paris deal carbon cut by 2030 to the fullest extent
When an EU country elects a government with nationalist or Eurosceptic policies, the European Parliament calls an urgent investigation into ‘the situation’ in that country. When Victor Orban became Prime Minister of Hungary in 2010 for example, the European Parliament called a debate entitled ‘the situation in Hungary’. Orban’s Fidesz party is known for its
When the EU is in crisis, the Commission’s answer is, inevitably, more Europe. So, its response to the migrant crisis is to propose an EU border force that could, in extremis, take over the management of Schengen countries’ borders without permission. Now, Britain is not in Schengen so this proposal would not apply here. But
Earlier this year the Times were forced to issue an apology after they falsely claimed that Karol Wojtyla was the first non-Catholic Pope. While that entry is a clear contender for ‘correction of the year’, Mr S is interested to see if the Evening Standard enter the race after a mistake that ran in Thursday’s edition. Yesterday’s Evening Standard
Many suspect that the latest delay on a third runway at Heathrow is actually the government bending to the will of Zac Goldsmith. On the Daily Politics today, the Conservative’s London mayoral candidate said he hadn’t been consulted on the latest delay — all the communications have been one-way from him to the government, apparently — but he still welcomed the decision: ‘It’s an
Tony Blair was hauled up in front of the sparsely-attended Foreign Affairs select committee today for a grilling about his links to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi — particularly around the time of the 2011 uprising. The former prime minister said he met with Gaddafi ‘once or twice’ because ‘it was important to bring them in from the cold’.
The Department for Transport announced yesterday that the final verdict on airport expansion will be put off until summer 2016. Back in October, The Spectator’s Martin Vander Weyer predicted in his ‘Any Other Business‘ column that the decision would be delayed until after the mayoral election in May: The Great British Runway final between Heathrow and