All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
You can expect an oddly muted response to the news that the Camerons may be sending their son Elwen to Colet Court, the feeder prep for St Paul’s (public…i.e. private) school. All those pundits who are usually reliably furious at social immobility and Tory cuts are, I find, prone to pull their punches on this
Although Jeremy Corbyn is facing calls from Michael Dugher to step down in 99 days unless he proves himself, the Labour leader can take heart that not everyone is against him. In fact in a Sunday Times interview, Keith Allen professed his love for the man of the moment. The comedian says Corbyn is ‘drawing
It’s great to see Newsnight once again nominated for an award for its coverage of the Kids Company scandal, and I hope that it wins this time. When Miles Goslett broke the story in The Spectator in February last year, he had all of the details: the full horror of Camila Batmanghelidjh and her bizarre
A year ago, The Spectator blew the top off the Kids Company scandal – it was to take Fleet Street months to catch up. Here’s Miles Goslett’s original article, revealing not just the chaos within the charity but how civil servants wanted to stop charity boss Camila Batmanghelidjh’s funding but were overruled by 10 Downing
[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/whysexmatters-thedeathofsportandistheeusinkingwhetherbrexithappensornot-/media.mp3″ title=”Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson discuss whether the European project is in grave danger – regardless of Brexit happening or not” startat=1420] Listen [/audioplayer] Donald Tusk will not circulate the proposed draft UK/EU deal tomorrow. It had been thought that Tusk would put out a draft on Monday after final talks
David Cameron and Donald Tusk have been discussing Britain’s beef with the European Union over a dinner of beef this evening. The European Council president has just left, telling reporters there was ‘no deal’. Top of the Prime Minister’s menu was the issue of benefits that has been so chewy for him during his renegotiation. Cameron
Today is deadline day for all self-assessment tax returns, with those who fail to submit their return in line for a late-fee penalty. Happily John McDonnell looks set to escape this fate — he tweeted a picture of his tax return this morning. What’s more, the shadow chancellor of the exchequer is challenging George Osborne to do
I applaud the Prime Minister for pointing out the scandalous lack of black students at Britain’s top universities, but he’s wrong about whose fault it is – at least when it comes to Oxford, his alma mater. Yes, it’s true that Oxford only admitted five black British Caribbean applicants in 2013, a disgracefully low number,
As was often the case, Oscar Wilde was clever and witty but mistaken. There are worse things than being talked about but not being talked about is one of them. For evidence of this we need do little more than consult this graphic compiled by our friends at Politico. Derived from an analysis of more than
Terry Wogan has died, age 77. This is an extract from a 2007 Matthew Parris article in the Spectator, who looked at an under-examined aspect of his genius: his voice. Terry Wogan is simply the greatest light broadcaster who ever lived. Millions of words have been written on his genius, and I shall not add to them. There can
Even EU officials are now finally admitting that a lot – or, rather, most – of the people we have been calling ‘refugees’ are not refugees. They are economic migrants with no more right to be called European citizens than anybody else in the world. Even Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission, made
Last year Alex Salmond told Anna Soubry to ‘behave yourself, woman‘ after the pair clashed in the chamber. While it was Salmond who found himself in the firing line on that occasion for his choice of words, Soubry is now back in the spotlight over her Commons etiquette. John Bercow took the small business minister to task on Friday during
We are only days away from seeing Donald Tusk’s proposed text for the UK/EU deal. The President of the European Council is expected to circulate a draft early next week following his Sunday night supper with David Cameron. But, as I write in The Sun this morning, Downing Street is keen to stress that the
Things are pretty good in Britain right now: poverty rates are at a record low, employment is at a record high with rising wages and zero inflation. But for the young, there’s a problem: property prices are still sky high and the basic dream of home ownership (especially in London) looks cruelly unobtainable. The above graph might help explain
The latest brief, to submit up to 16 lines of verse that are the fruit of a collaboration between two poets (living or dead) was open to interpretation — which clearly drove Andrew Duncan-Jones potty: They fuck you up, these blasted comps Whose rubrics make you scratch your head. So do they want poetic romps
Try as I might, I find it difficult to feel too sorry for Charles Keidan and Rebecca Steinfeld, the cohabiting heterosexual couple who have failed to persuade a High Court judge that the government is wrong to deny them the right to form a civil partnership. Mr Keidan and Ms Steinfeld do not like the ‘patriarchal
What could be worse, from a Eurosceptic perspective, than multiple Out campaigns? One Out campaign that can’t win. Those Eurosceptics who believe that merging the various Out campaigns is the biggest challenge right now are missing the point. There are currently various serious government ministers and business people who are ready to back Vote Leave once
So, did Donald Trump outfox Fox? Shunning the crunch TV debate four days before the opening Iowa caucuses, setting up a rival show with CNN, and thumbing his nose at the most powerful right-of-centre media organisation in the world looked at first like madness. Then it looked like genius. And then, meh, well, who knows?
So, did Donald Trump outfox Fox? Shunning the crunch TV debate four days before the opening Iowa caucuses, setting up a rival show with CNN, and thumbing his nose at the most powerful right-of-center media organisation in the world looked at first like madness. Then it looked like genius. And then, meh, well, who knows?
Mr S notices that the above video is circulating a lot on social media at the moment. An unfortunate choice of words, from a pro-immigration Chancellor. Perhaps George Osborne was paying homage to Rowan Atkinson’s Not the Nine O’Clock News sketch. Or perhaps the Chancellor needs to get a little better at not walking into such traps if he
Why is David Cameron having such trouble persuading Jean-Claude Juncker to give in to his minimal demands for EU reform? The Prime Minister pledged, in a Tory manifesto, to restrict welfare for migrants for the first four years they’re in Britain: not as an ‘emergency’, but as a matter of routine. He was returned with a
The Spectator is the latest publication to wade into the argument about facts in the EU referendum debate. As a campaign, we pride ourselves on using figures that come from expert sources like the Confederation of British Industry, the Centre for Economic and Business Research, The European Commission, the UK Government or bodies such as
Haven’t had a chance to follow the day’s political events and interviews? Then don’t worry: here, The Spectator, brings you the best of today’s audio clips in one place for you to listen to. David Cameron said that the offer of an ’emergency brake’ on in-work benefits for EU migrants was ‘not good enough’. Speaking
David Cameron gave all the appearances of being in a bullish mood as he said negotiations so far over Britain’s relationship with the EU were ‘not good enough’. Speaking after meeting Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels today, the Prime Minister said: ‘We’ve made some progress today, it’s not enough.’ He also again paid lip service to
When Cecil Rhodes was drawing up his will his final dream was of British world domination. He pledged funds for ‘To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system
Claiming credit for things that are nothing to do with you is where trouble starts in politics. You can claim that you have abolished ‘boom and bust’, even when occasionally qualified as ‘Tory boom and bust’, but the economy will disprove you – as Gordon Brown spectacularly found out during the Global Financial Crisis. George
Since Jess Phillips was elected as the MP for Birmingham Yardley in May, the Labour politician has become known for her outspoken views — previously telling Diane Abbott to ‘f— off’. However, her straight-talking approach reached new heights during last night’s episode of Question Time after she likened the Cologne sex attacks to a night out
Our most-read piece this week was Fraser Nelson’s article about the Swedish government’s refusal to be honest about the crime and immigration. He said: ‘News of an attack brings grief and outrage, but the sense that the authorities are not telling the whole truth brings a new level of anger and suspicion. All of this
Today’s OECD study of basic skills ranks England lowest in the developed world for literacy, and second lowest for numeracy. We knew that our schools might struggle to compete with the likes of Singapore and South Korea, but this puts the problem in a whole new perspective. It’s the delayed results of a study taken
Oxford University’s controversial statue of Cecil Rhodes will stay in place after Oriel College ruled out its removal. The decision came following the ‘Rhodes must fall’ campaign – which called for the statue to be taken down. Here, in a piece published in last week’s Spectator, Matthew Parris offers his solution to the situation: Lobengula
It’s easy to get carried away about televised political debates. But tonight’s Fox News/Google Republican Party showdown really could be a significant moment in American history. By ducking the debate, and picking a fight with Fox, Donald Trump appears ingeniously to have sucked all the media oxygen out of the event. All the headlines continue
You can tell when Michael Gove is driving all over another one of the policies of his predecessor Chris Grayling purely by the volume of incredibly polite language and fulsome praise that he deploys when doing so. In a written ministerial statement published today, the Justice Secretary announces that he will not be going ahead with
If I was in charge of the Home Office I’d employ someone whose sole area of expertise was Hitler’s Germany and whose only job was to keep an eye out for any vague echoes of Nazism, however fatuous, in the working practices of the government or its contractors. This would have avoided Monday’s controversy over asylum
Fifteen months ago Philip Hammond talked about treason. In an exchange with Conservative backbencher Philip Hollobone in the House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary declared: ‘We have seen people declaring that they have sworn personal allegiance to the so-called Islamic State. That does raise questions about their loyalty and allegiance to this country and about
