All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
When has any nation’s government amnestied hundreds of people facing criminal charges in return for the votes that allow it to stay in office? That’s what Spain’s government has just done. After last July’s general election, Pedro Sánchez, the incumbent left-wing prime minister, discovered that he needed the 14 votes of two Catalan separatist parties
Uh oh. It’s the first day of Labour’s official GB Energy launch and things haven’t quite got off to a flying start. Sir Keir Starmer is in Scotland this morning to announce plans (including an all-new the website and logo) for his brand new publicly-owned Great British energy company. It’s the third of Labour’s ‘first
Oh dear. Less than 48 hours after he quit LBC to stand for Tunbridge Wells, Iain Dale has now ruled himself out. In an interview with his former employer this morning, Dale revealed that he had asked for his name to not be included on the candidates’ shortlist after a clip of him disparaging his
Donald Trump’s trial and his conviction on 34 felony counts is disgraceful. As the legal expert and former Harvard Law professor, Alan Dershowitz, has argued, ‘the judge essentially instructed the jury to convict Trump.’ Biden’s America has shamefully crossed the Rubicon. The rule of law has been supplanted by the whims of elites and the
The tightening looks on. On Tuesday, my polling firm JL Partners published its first campaign poll showing a 12-point Labour lead, down from 15 points at the start of May and 18 points in April. Our data scientist, Callum Hunter, has written for The Spectator on why we are confident our methodology is the right
The indictment and trial on a thin charge, the gagging of a presidential candidate in the middle of a campaign, and the judge’s consistently biased rulings amount to deliberate judicial interference in the 2024 election. The process was led by a Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who ran on the campaign platform of going after
So, we have a little more flesh on the bones of Labour’s energy policy, with the party giving more details of Great British Energy, the state-owned company it wants to set up to invest in wind and solar energy. But there are still gaping holes in Labour’s promise to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030
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Keir Starmer has began a purge of pre-existing candidates and MPs who risk frustrating their election campaign. There is an ongoing row about whether Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, will be barred from standing. Angela Rayner has now weighed in saying she ‘sees no reason why Diane Abbott can’t stand for Labour’. Could
Labour has been deliberately opaque when it comes to their plans for government, but on one issue Sir Keir Starmer has been uncharacteristically lucid. The leader of the opposition will be slapping VAT on private schools on ‘day one’ in Downing Street, a promise which has already prompted some parents to cancel places for September.
This is an extremely strange moment for American democracy. Polls suggest that independent voters – the people who decide American elections – will not vote for a man who is a convicted felon. But now Donald Trump, currently the favourite to win re-election in November, has been found guilty, on 34 counts, of falsifying business
Ajury delivered a guilty verdict Thursday on all thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records in former president Donald Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial. The jury deliberated for just a couple of days before returning its verdict, although they did go back to the judge several times asking for a re-read of the instructions and testimony
Another day, another defection. This time it’s Mark Logan, now former Conservative MP for Bolton North East, who has announced he will be backing Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party at the general election. It’s yet another blow for poor Rishi Sunak who is already facing an exodus of 78 MPs while the Tories remain 20
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Professor John Mearsheimer joins Freddy Gray to talk about the powder keg situation in Eastern Europe, why Putin is possibly the least hawkish of possible Russian leaders and why Israel has lost escalation dominance. This was originally broadcast on SpectatorTV.
It’s Friday 5 July 2024. The electorate has proved the pollsters right, and Labour has returned to power with a staggering majority to match or even surpass the landslide victories of 1945 and 1997. Will the new Labour MPs have the courage to stand up Sir Keir Starmer and his team when they believe that
Oh dear. It was only a matter of time before the issue of Partygate came up on the campaign trail and today the Prime Minister was forced to face up to it. On his trip to Buckinghamshire, the first question asked of Rishi Sunak centred on the pandemic, the government-enforced lockdown and the rule-breaking in
Another day, another confusing twist in Labour’s stance on Diane Abbott. The ongoing saga has created significant disquiet over the last 48 hours, with Labour’s confusing messaging on the whole thing proving a rather effective distraction from Sir Keir Starmer’s party policies. It’s hardly the best way to kick off your election campaign… First we
He has created a major automobile company. He has built space rockets, taken over X, made himself hundreds of billions, and even found time to father lots of children. Elon Musk has plenty of achievements. And yet he may soon have one more. A cabinet post in the next Trump administration. But hold on: Musk
From the start, it didn’t look good this time round for the African National Congress (ANC), which has ruled South Africa since Nelson Mandela came to power in the first democratic elections 30 years ago. Since mid-2023, polls for the ANC have ranged from 38 per cent to the high-40s, a long way down from the 57
When the Bank of England finally delivers an interest rate cut, can the Tory party take credit for it? Rishi Sunak thinks so. ‘We are the party who has committed to bringing down inflation, which is a necessary condition for bringing down interest rates,’ he told the Times in an interview published today. ‘And I think people
Zoe Godrich of Swansea might best be described as collateral damage in Britain’s glorious march towards net zero. Three years ago, she had her three-bedroom home fitted with cavity-wall insulation – which the government is out to encourage through its Great British Insulation Scheme. Sadly for her, it has not worked out quite as intended.
North Korea has long been known for its rhetorical braggadocio. Most of the time, the regime’s bluster needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. But on occasion, we should be less quick to dismiss the threats emanating from it and its state-controlled media mouthpieces. Earlier this week, North Korea launched over 250 balloons
Sir Keir Starmer’s determination to prove to voters that Labour has changed, by purging the party’s far left, may look like cruel contemporary opportunism to his opponents. However, it actually fits a pattern that has recurred throughout the party’s history. Ever since Labour’s foundation in 1900, the party has been an uneasy coalition between a
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Keir Starmer is now putting the final touches to this with a last minute purge of pre-existing candidates and MPs who risk frustrating their election campaign. There is an ongoing row about whether Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, will be barred from standing, but who else might join her? Oscar Edmondson speaks to
Oh dear. No one party appears to be enjoying an especially slick campaign at present, but north of the border the SNP seems particularly down on its luck. As Mr S noted on Monday, the Nats are not exactly swimming in cash at the moment — the party is struggling to bring donations in while
Most observers would agree that Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, is a serious person. One newspaper profile last year spoke of her ‘steely determination’. Sir Keir Starmer knew what he was doing when he appointed her to the Home Office brief, the toughest and most unforgiving in Westminster. On Wednesday, while the party leadership was mired
The problem with spending an election campaign saying as little new as possible is that it does leave a big gap that can easily be filled with rows over process and mistakes. Labour has a safety-first approach to its campaign, wanting to reassure voters that it has changed rather than being too exciting, but this
In the classic comedy Blackadder II the late, great Rik Mayall was responsible for one of the most memorable cameo appearances in television history. As the swashbuckling adventurer Lord Flasheart, he gatecrashed Blackadder’s wedding, declaring himself ‘flash by name and flash by nature’. Leaving female guests giddy and male ones open-mouthed in admiration, he then
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. That appears to be Paul Waugh’s guiding mantra anyway, after the former chief political commentator for the i newspaper put himself forward for the Rochdale candidacy for a second time this year. He has now been successful and will stand as Labour’s candidate for the
After many years in power, a corrupt and inept government is finally close to being removed. There is no great confidence in the opposition — but the people have had enough of seeing their country ruined and are finally having their say. No, I’m not talking about Britain and the Conservative party but South Africa,
One of the first thing Keir Starmer and his team decided to focus on after winning the Labour leadership was candidate selection. The Labour leader’s senior aide Morgan McSweeney takes the view that a Labour rosette needs to mean something – and in recent years that has appeared to be in doubt. In the 2017
It’s always a sad day for journalists when a newspaper goes to the great printing room in the sky. But for all Londoners, the death of the capital’s last surviving evening paper is particularly poignant. The Evening Standard has announced that it is to cease publication as a daily paper – remaining alive only as a weekly edition.
Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday what many of us have quietly suspected for some time. As a nation, we have too few apprentices and too many university students. Why not, he said, look hard at the higher education courses we provide at public expense, and where we see high drop-out rates, or poor employment and
