All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Scottish daily the National is known for its inimitable approach to journalism. The mainstream media bombards SNP ministers with impertinent questions about missed NHS targets, widening attainment gaps, and delayed ferries. The National, on the other hand, does proper reporting, like its front page denouncing the inclusion of Reform on a Question Time panel, the
It’s always nice when the muses of tragedy and comedy seem to be working in perfect sync: nowhere is this truer than the Labour deputy leadership contest. It would genuinely be difficult to relate how many people have indicated that they are standing for the role so unceremoniously vacated by Big Ange. Candidacies have come
When the government of Qatar condemned the Israeli airstrike in Doha as a ‘cowardly’ act, it revealed less about the operation itself than about the priorities of the state voicing the charge. In reality, the strike was an extraordinary and unprecedented move: Israel launched a precision airstrike inside Qatari territory targeting senior Hamas leadership, aiming
‘We are ready to accept a deal (with Hamas) that would end this war, based on the cabinet decision,’ Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said this morning. Yet whatever diplomatic momentum existed evaporated into thin air hours later. In an unprecedented Israeli operation in Qatar, Israel targeted the very Hamas officials they were supposed to be negotiating
What a difference 48 hours can make. On Saturday afternoon, Lord Mandelson, the UK ambassador to the United States, was treading the green and pleasant lawns of Ditchley Park near Oxford, where he was giving the annual lecture to an audience made up for the most part of the great and the good of UK
When it was put to him that the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, was blithe in his reponse: “Why do you think the UK is one of the most nature-dependent places? You look at our countryside, look at the environment, it’s incredible. It’s absolutely remarkable.”
Nigel Farage’s speech at the Reform party conference may have been, for the most part, heavy on spectacle and light on detail. But one crucial policy was offered: a pledge to ban the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 with the goal of bringing about a universal caliphate under sharia
19 min listen
With the announcement yesterday that the government would be prepared to suspend visas for countries that don’t cooperate with the UK over deportations, has Shabana Mahmood shown she has what it takes to tackle immigration? Tim Shipman and James Heale join Patrick Gibbons to discuss whether the new home secretary can ‘stop the boats’. But,
Harriet Harman has declared that the next deputy leader of the Labour party “definitely needs to be a woman.” I greatly respect Baroness Harman, but such a view is absurd and discriminatory. Equality must be rooted in mandate and merit, not gender diktat. Why should men not receive equal protection for their health? For nearly
Horse racing is a notoriously factional sport. The interests of owners and trainers, for example, are quite different from those of racecourses and administrators. Even for those not in the saddle, the chafing can be painful. But on Wednesday, this dysfunctional family will unite to go on strike for the first time in the sport’s history.
The Department for Health has published new performance league tables today which show that four in five NHS hospital trusts are failing, either because they are running substantial deficits or they are not meeting their performance targets. The real reason that NHS trusts in cities like London perform better is the same reason that accountancy
So at last, the vexed question of who is going to succeed the now 94-year-old Rupert Murdoch has been settled. A deal has been announced that reveals that Murdoch’s eldest son Lachlan, the chairman of News Corp and CEO of Fox Corporation, will now be taking control of the family business. His siblings – sisters
Are Britons getting sicker and sicker – or is our health improving? There seems to be something of a paradox. According to figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) the number of sickness absences has increased from an average of 5.9 days per worker in 2019 to 9.4 days in 2024. Interestingly,
Emmanuel Macron projects authority, but he’s trapped. After the collapse of François Bayrou’s government yesterday evening, Macron faces a divided parliament, hostile blocs on both sides, and no obvious way forward. After the crushing no-confidence vote, Macron insists that he will appoint a new prime minister ‘in the coming days’. But appointing a successor without
The resignation of Angela Rayner on Friday created two vacancies. The first was in her formal role as deputy leader of the Labour party; the second was her unofficial status as the next leader-in-waiting. Bridget Phillipson’s decision to stand to replace her can be seen as a bid to seize both mantles. The Education Secretary
This weekend, I bought a ticket to attend the controversial Pride in Surrey (PiS) event, held in Guildford. My interest in the event was heightened because I am currently recording a podcast about PiS’s co-founder Stephen Ireland, who in June was sentenced to 24 years in prison for raping an ‘extremely vulnerable’ 12-year-old boy. He
Jamie Borthwick is an uncommonly fine young actor who, frankly, is far too good for the increasingly strained and schlocky scripts that are churned out to him and the other residents of Albert Square. If you haven’t heard of him, then all you need to know is that he’s been a major character in EastEnders
They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but I have a better serving suggestion. How about revenge plated up simmering, every single day, again and again, inescapable and eternal? For surely that is the intended outcome of Emily Thornberry’s plan to – maybe, possibly – run for the position of deputy leader of
As expected, the government of François Bayrou has lost its vote of confidence in the National Assembly. Three hundred and sixty-four MPs voted to bring down the centrist coalition government, ten months after Michel Barnier’s administration collapsed in similar circumstances. On that occasion 331 MPs cast their ballots against the Prime Minister. Bayrou has been
Shabana Mahmood wasn’t given long in her new gig before facing the media. She became Home Secretary on Friday afternoon, after former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner resigned over an ethics probe into her tax affairs, and this morning set out her stall on immigration. Positioning herself as a ‘whatever it takes’ minister, Mahmood says
Prime Minister François Bayrou’s government has collapsed after a bruising no-confidence vote in the French National Assembly. MPs rejected his budget by a margin of 364 votes to 194, with 25 abstentions, forcing his resignation and plunging Emmanuel Macron’s second term into chaos. On Monday evening, the Élysée released a statement saying that Macron has
Here we go again. In what appears now to be an annual event, the Japanese prime minister has resigned. In a press conference on Sunday evening, Shigeru Ishiba, who had only been in the job since last October, explained that he was leaving because his continuation in post would prove divisive for his Liberal Democratic
As of late August, Nigel Farage’s Reform party now has representatives in local government, Westminster, the Welsh Senedd and the Scottish Parliament. The group’s only MSP is Graham Simpson, a frontline Conservative politician for almost ten years, who defected just under a fortnight ago. I caught up with him at the Reform conference – amid
You can tell a great deal about countries and people by how they react to a horrific act of terror. And this morning’s massacre at the Ramot junction in Jerusalem came at a moment heavy with symbolism: just as the world was waking up to reports of Donald Trump floating a new plan for the
The rules have been fixed and the timetable agreed. So, who will be the key players in the race to be Labour’s next deputy leader? That is the question all Westminster is asking this lunchtime, following Angela Rayner’s resignation last Friday. The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) met this morning and confirmed that nominations will
It’s all change in Sir Keir Starmer’s government. After his former deputy Angela Rayner resigned from both her government and party positions on Friday following an ethics probe into her tax affairs, the Prime Minister reshuffled his cabinet and his junior ministers. Those weren’t the only changes Starmer made, however – new appointments to the
16 min listen
Reform UK’s annual conference wrapped up this weekend – and it was anything but dull. From Andrea Jenkyns belting out her original song ‘I’m an Insomniac’ on stage to Nigel Farage trying to keep a sometimes chaotic movement united, the mood was more rally than conference. Despite the optimism in the room, there were obvious
A fugitive father who vanished into the rugged bushlands of the Waikato region of New Zealand with his three children has been shot and killed by police. Tom Phillips’s death marks the end of a case that has gripped the country for nearly four years. Phillips first disappeared from his small Marokopa community with his
London’s entire underground tube system – apart from the Elizabeth Line – is being paralysed for almost a week by a rolling series of strikes called by the RMT union to which the Tube drivers belong. The Tube is not due to return to ‘normal’ until 8 a.m. on Friday. The disruption is the first all-out
On Friday, Angela Rayner resigned as Deputy Prime Minister after a probe into her tax affairs by Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister’s ethics adviser. In a rather extraordinary scandal, Rayner was investigated after it emerged she had underpaid stamp duty when purchasing a seaside apartment in Hove, East Sussex. Sir Keir Starmer hinted on
Ian McEwan’s new novel What We Can Know isn’t even out yet, and already someone has spotted a goof. In response to an early review in a Sunday paper – which reports that McEwan’s novel is set in a world where a Russian hydrogen bomb has missed its target in the United States, exploded in
This evening Emmanuel Macron will almost certainly be searching for his fifth prime minister since January last year. Francois Bayrou’s decision to call a vote of confidence in his government looks like a calamitous misjudgement, one that will plunge France into another period of grave instability. Comparisons are being drawn with the tumult of the Fourth