All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Yesterday Mr Steerpike brought you news that rapper Snoop Dogg had taken his ban from the country of Norway remarkably well. Perhaps I spoke too soon. The Artist Formally Known as Snoop Dogg told hacks in the Big Apple yesterday: ‘I want to bury Snoop Dogg, and become Snoop Lion’. Righty- ho. ‘I didn’t know
It is becoming increasingly clear that Twitter might be the greatest threat to civilised life in Britain. Take just 24 hours of news: A 17 year-old has been arrested (and is currently being detained) in Weymouth for sending unpleasant tweets to the nation’s Olympic hero Tom Daley. Rio Ferdinand has been charged by the FA
There are more rumblings this morning on the shape of the next comprehensive spending review, this time at grassroots level within the Liberal Democrats. The Times reports threats from former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris that any attempt to sign up to a traditional spending review will trigger an emergency motion at the party’s autumn
The average disposable income is at its lowest point since 2003, according to figures released this afternoon by the Office for National Statistics. The statistics for the first quarter of this year show that take home income was an average of £273 a week, while real incomes per head fell by 0.6 per cent to
By some quirk of planning, Channel 4 and BBC Two ended up showing two very similar programmes last night about the mess of the assessments that determine whether a sick or disabled person is able to work. The most haunting of the stories told last night was Panorama’s case study of a man who had
London is quieter than usual this week in spite of the Olympics, with many commuters staying at home or fleeing the country while the Games take place. That’s a good thing for the transport system – clearly Justine Greening and Francis Maude’s ‘remoding’ advice had its desired effect – but retailers and tourist attractions are
In what has to be one of the better put-downs ever delivered to the people of Norway, rapper Snoop Dogg has taken his two-year ban from the country well and truly on the chin. After hitting the multi-millionaire with a paltry 52,000kr fine after he was busted with eight grams of marijuana, a judge also
Mitt Romney arrives in Poland today on the third and final leg of a foreign tour that has already taken him to London and Israel. While he may not have the obvious charm of Obama, predictions of his campaign being derailed by this foreign tour misunderstand Romney’s strategy. Foreign pundits are perennially guilty of ascribing
Boris Johnson has had a fantastic few days. On Thursday he drove a crowd in Hyde Park wild with his Mitt Romney banter. On Saturday he charmed the public with his thoughts on the Olympic opening ceremony (‘People say it was all leftie stuff. That is nonsense. I’m a Conservative and I had hot tears
Some conservatives have been accused of ‘politicising’ the Olympics by daring to say anything negative about the opening ceremony. Having begun by attacking an obscure back-bench MP, these accusations are now being aimed at Conservatives in the cabinet. Yet it is not conservatives, but the organisers of the opening ceremony who politicised the event. Naturally,
‘It is clear that urgent reform of the Libor compilation process is required,’ says Martin Wheatley of the Financial Services Authority. Hardly a revelation: it’s been clear since Barclays was fined for its part in the manipulation. Some were even pushing for reform back in 2008, such as the then-president of the New York Fed
The papers today are full of empty seats at the Olympics. This morning, a Downing Street spokeswoman tried to take a glass-half-full approach, saying the empty seats were ‘disappointing’, but adding that the Prime Minister was ‘satisfied’ that Locog was working to resolve the issue. Locog carried out a review at the weekend which found
As a slogan, ‘give me more money’ is an unlikely election winner. Nevertheless, Peter Cranie came close to trying it at the hustings for the leadership of the Green Party in Manchester on Friday. At the start of the above clip, a member of the audience asked what wage the contenders would take. Pippa Bartolotti
While the ladies’ beach volleyball is exciting Boris ‘glistening otters’ Johnson and the peeking Prime Minister, another event could be about to get very political. President Putin is set to arrive in town on Thursday: yes there will be bilateral meetings, but he’s really here for the judo. At a time when UK/Russian relations are
The Olympic beach volleyball is situated just behind Downing Street on Horse Guards Parade, and as such is perfectly located for a politician wishing to take an hour or so out from a hard day’s work. Boris Johnson is clearly a fan, writing in today’s Telegraph: As I write these words there are semi-naked women
In case you were in any doubt about how committed eurozone leaders are to the survival of the single currency, Angela Merkel has put out another statement on doing ‘everything possible to protect the eurozone’, this time with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. The pair had a phone conversation on Sunday and their remarks follow
Anyone know why Shami Chakrabarti was carrying the Olympic flag? The boss of the Olympic Federation said it was because she had “founded” the organisation Liberty. But of course she didn’t. It was founded eighty years ago, by some other people who have never been honoured. Nor was she responsible for the name change from
This is not a great time to be a tabloid journalist. It is an even worse time to be an out-of-work tabloid journalist. Few tears are shed when red-top hacks lose their jobs and they are consigned to a discard pile that includes unemployed bankers and politicians. This is why the case of Matt Nixson
‘Desperate Treasury to water down planning laws,’ blasts the Telegraph today, making it quite clear that it’ll oppose any effort by the government to return to planning reform. Those Tories who were uncomfortable with the original proposals are also making clear that they haven’t changed their position. The new national planning policy framework was announced
Ed Balls is doing very well out of the GDP figures that were released on Wednesday. The Shadow Chancellor is right to say that George Osborne is not yet doing the right thing with the economy. But that doesn’t mean Balls’ solution is the right one. Cuts should have been only one side of the
The Guardian has published an interview on its site with Stephen Hester in which the RBS chief executive predicts his bank is facing a huge fine for its part in the Libor fixing scandal. He says: ‘RBS is one of the banks tied up in Libor. We’ll have our day in that particular spotlight as
Today’s papers are stuffed full of Olympic reportage rather than analysis of the GDP figures. But down in the bowels of Whitehall, a list of policy options to try and boost economic growth are being drawn up. Decisions on what to do will be taken after the Olympics but I understand that further planning reform
Remember that great scandal that rocked the Olympics, G4S? That pre-Games row has been completely eclipsed, at least for now, by the rows and rows of empty seats at supposedly sell-out Olympic venues. It turns out that those seats, often situated below the masses of people who shelled out a pretty penny for their own
A couple of weeks ago, I took a look at the tight battle for control of the United States Senate. This week: the House of Representatives. The fight for the lower chamber of Congress is much harder to assess. There are, after all, 435 individual contests — each with its own unique candidates, characteristics and
You’d think that after the bad economic news of the past week, George Osborne might have reverted to submarine mode as soon as he possibly could, moving quietly under the cover of the Olympics. But this afternoon he has stuck a periscope up with this message: the world has confidence that Britain is dealing with
There was an uncomfortable moment last night at the Olympic opening ceremony when the Syrian team entered the stadium. The athletes – who are there as competitors, not apologists for the Assad regime – did not receive the same raucous cheer as many of the other nations. The BBC commentators at least, who had been
Until last night I thought Danny Boyle was the respected director of a film about smack-heads. But after seeing the Olympics opening ceremony I now realize ‘Danny Boyle’ is the nom de guerre of the satirical team of Rod Liddle and James Delingpole. In their capable hands what might have been merely an opportunity to
I suspect there’s a certain relief in Downing Street today. First, the opening ceremony passed off pretty well; no one is talking about G4S this morning. Second, Standard and Poor’s has reiterated Britain’s AAA credit rating despite the negative GDP figures this week. The government is hoping that the Olympics will help it turn the
What have we learnt about Willard Mitt Romney since he arrived in Britain? Not a lot. He’s a plonker, that’s for sure, but most of us knew that. The UK leg of his world tour will be remembered, if it is remembered at all, for the gaffes. And as Isabel suggested yesterday, Mitt’s diplomatic clumsiness
In his first statement as Prime Minister on the steps of No10 Downing Street, David Cameron said that “One of the tasks that we clearly have is to rebuild trust in our political system… yes, it’s about making sure people are in control and that the politicians are always their servants and never their masters.”
Boris Johnson is one of the few politicians in the world able to clamber up on a concert stage in Hyde Park, take the mic, and whip a crowd up into a frenzy as he did last night. If you haven’t seen the Mayor of London sending Londoners wild with excitement while mocking Mitt Romney,
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The furore surrounding the news – which James broke on Coffee House this afternoon – that academies will now be able to employ teachers who are not qualified was so brilliantly predictable that we could have written the unions’ press releases for them. Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers slammed it as a ‘clear
Mario Draghi’s announcement yesterday that the ECB would ‘do whatever it takes’ to preserve the euro certainly cheered markets up – but only for a while. Interest rates for Spanish 10-year bonds dropped below the danger threshold of 7 per cent and the euro gained two cents against the dollar. But the more eagle-eyed spotted