All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
To misquote von Clausewitz, the European Union sees lawfare as the continuation of politics by other means. Brussels’s latest sally against the government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, which it viscerally detests (and which seriously rattled Eurocrats last week with its calculated brinkmanship over the Ukrainian aid programme) is a nice example. The new casus belli is a piece
What will Labour’s flagship promise be going into the next election? There’s a policy vacancy, now that the party plans to ditch its pledge to spend £28 billion a year on green investment. This is not your average U-turn. This has been Labour’s big offering for more than two years. Yet today, Keir Starmer will ditch
The transgender row isn’t going away. Prime Minister’s Questions this week was dominated by a jibe Rishi Sunak made about Keir Starmer’s stance on gender. The Labour leader then lashed out at Sunak for criticising him on the topic while the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey was in the Commons. It’s clear that
Brianna Ghey’s father has called on Rishi Sunak to apologise for his ‘degrading’ comments at Prime Minister’s Questions. Peter Spooner told Sky News: For the Prime Minister of our country to come out with degrading comments like he did, regardless of them being in relation to discussions in parliament, they are absolutely dehumanising. Identities of
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It has been a gaffe-filled week for Rishi Sunak. At PMQs today the prime minister was chastised by his opposite number for an ill-judged comment about transgender people with the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey in parliament. This comes after being pictured embracing Sinn Fein leader Michelle O’Neill and then making a wager with Piers
‘Apologise!’ This was the bogus battle-cry that rang out repeatedly at today’s PMQs. Rishi Sunak was asked to genuflect to his enemies and show contrition for fictional sins. The trouble began when Sir Keir Starmer told us that the mother of Brianna Ghey, a transgender girl killed in February, was present in the public gallery.
Schools dramatically change a child’s life chances, as I’ve seen in my 24 years of teaching. How we measure their performance couldn’t be more important, but in recent years it’s gone wrong. The key metric that secondary schools in England are judged on is called ‘Progress 8’. It looks at the progress that students make
Back in the far-flung days of 2019, the Tories won plaudits for their unconventional use of social media in their landslide electoral triumph. Five years and two leaders on, it’s looking like a tough ask to turn it around this time. But in Rishi Sunak, the party at least has a leader who has never
When Javier Milei visited Israel and announced that he would be moving Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem, I suppose that was terribly ‘populist’ of him. Try as I might, I can’t find it in me to be appalled by Milei’s pronouncement, and not because he already floated it during his election campaign. For one thing, it must be
Rishi Sunak’s transgender jibe at Prime Minister’s Questions has riled Labour and Lib Dems MPs. The PM mocked Keir Starmer for not knowing what a woman is, just moments before Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered trans teen Brianna, came into the Commons. ‘Of all the weeks to say that when Brianna’s mother is
The BBC just can’t seem to stop itself trying to frighten people over climate change. On Tuesday morning it was the turn of Radio 4’s Food for Life by King’s College London professor Tim Spector. The show began with an extraordinary claim: ‘Most predictions concur that if we don’t change our habits fast, by 2050 the Earth
Following weeks of stagnation in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a deal for the release of Israeli hostages, Hamas has finally responded. Perhaps unsurprisingly though, the terms they have proposed are unacceptable to Israel. Hamas is demanding a long ceasefire, lasting four-and-a-half months, that would lead to a permanent truce. Their terms include
All power to Elliot Colburn, who used today’s Prime Minister’s Questions to talk about surviving a suicide attempt in 2021. The Carshalton and Wallington MP told the chamber: In recent years, something like 6,500 people in the UK die due to suicide. And in 2021, I was nearly one of them. Luckily, my attempt failed,
Today’s lethargic PMQs session was brought to life by a furious row over comments made by Rishi Sunak about transgender people. Labour leader Keir Starmer began the exchange by paying tribute to Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna. He then moved on to NHS waiting lists which Sunak had previously promised would
Rishi Sunak’s £1,000 bet with Piers Morgan continues to cost him more than the wager itself. It dominated today’s PMQs, with both Keir Starmer and Stephen Flynn attacking him on it. The Labour leader also gave a striking retort to one of Sunak’s regular lines mocking him on not knowing what a woman is. When
Once again Labour’s internal debate over its £28 billion green spending pledge is playing out publicly. On Friday there was some talk of clarity following a report that the headline figure would be ditched – with the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones then going out on the media where he appeared to
In this most eventful of weeks for the Royal Family, the unanticipated return of Prince Harry to Britain has created new drama. Indeed, so unexpected have the tidings of the last few days been that the sudden arrival of the Duke of Sussex at his father’s side yesterday – a seismic and unprecedented event, given the current
The rise of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has set off one of the largest waves of protest in modern German history. Half-a-million or so demonstrators took to the streets last weekend: they were a mixed bunch of all ages and ethnicities; politicians also marched alongside members of the public. All were united in their desire
They say politics is show business for ugly people. But at yesterday’s right-wing rally, one celebrity singer managed to disprove that maxim and truly put the ‘pop’ in ‘PopCon’. For Holly Candy – formerly Holly Valance of Neighbours fame – was among those who rocked up to the shindig, alongside her husband, the billionaire property-developer
Karolina Shiino, a 26-year-old naturalised Japanese woman originally from Ukraine, has been obliged to give up her Miss Japan title after confessing to an affair with a married man. Shiino, whose parents are Ukrainian and who came to Japan aged 5, was awarded the title just two weeks ago. As the first non-ethnically Japanese woman
Oh dear. Just when Sadiq Khan may have thought he could finally claim victory over the Ulez scheme he rammed through in London last year, his pet project appears to have landed him in hot water yet again. The London Mayor has been scolded by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after Transport for London (TfL),
As Donald Trump marches towards the Republican nomination, a question hangs over Europe: how should the continent prepare for a world in which Nato becomes dead letters? For some, the answer is ‘strategic autonomy’; for others, it lies in procuring as much US-made kit as possible to buy goodwill with the future administration. One obvious
The levels of cynicism and disillusionment surrounding the upcoming parliamentary elections in Pakistan – due to take place tomorrow – are remarkable, even for a country with a chequered democratic tradition. Few people believe the vote will be free or fair, with widespread speculation that the country’s all-powerful military has already decided the result and will
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Liz Truss is back! This time with a conference called ‘Popular Conservatism’, bringing together voices in the Conservative party and aiming to ‘deliver popular conservative policies’. But what does the event really tells us about the state of right wing political thought in the UK today, and why were some of Truss’s key allies not
Thierry Breton is, on the face of it, well qualified to regulate Europe’s tech industry. After a brief spell as French finance minister, from 2009 to 2019 he ran the computing giant Atos, one of the champions of France’s IT industry. Yet Atos is now in deep trouble. Shares have plunged more than 90 per
Jacob Rees–Mogg’s speech at the Popular Conservatism launch went down well with the assembled crowd in Westminster, but the Tory MP was forced on to the defensive when he came off stage. Rees-Mogg was asked by News Agents journalist Lewis Goodall, formerly of the BBC, to defend his attack on ‘Davos Man’. ‘How much money
This morning Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor, announced that he plans to step down at the next election. But there is still at least one senior Trussite who plans to fight on. This lunchtime Liz Truss herself appeared at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster to launch her new outfit, PopCon, a grassroots group to generate
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Freddy Gray is joined by pollster and writer Patrick Ruffini. They talk about why the strengthening economy isn’t improving Biden’s numbers, and the other factors that will influence the 2024 election.
Britain’s ruling class are currently conducting an enormous experiment – perhaps not consciously or intentionally, but with great enthusiasm – to discover the effects of extremely high levels of immigration on British society. We will not be sure of the result for some time yet. In the meantime, we need to be doing all we
Happy PopCon day! Liz Truss will this morning launch her ‘Popular Conservatism’ movement in Westminster. The 49-day premier will be speaking alongside the likes of fellow Tory MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson – though, sadly, not Simon Clarke nor Ranil Jayawardena, both of whom dropped out after the former’s ill-fated call for Rishi Sunak
The great ages achieved by King Charles’ mother, the Queen (96), and maternal grandmother, the Queen mother (101), show that the modern British Royal family generally enjoy rude good health. But their royal status and excellent medical care are no guarantee against the illnesses that beset all mortal men and women. In the contemporary era,
Amidst the news of King Charles’s cancer diagnosis, there have been any number of reactions, including the sincere sorrow and compassion felt by most of his subjects. Yet, for all of his wealth and privilege – as a certain sneering part of the internet felt the need to point out, few would envy the King the sorrows and
The Labour party has a problem with Muslims. A new poll suggests that British Muslim voters, who have traditionally supported Labour in huge numbers, are deserting the party over its handling of the Israel-Gaza war. Backing for Labour from the Muslim community has fallen massively since the 2019 general election from 86 per cent to
The circus of American and European diplomats in Moscow loved Dmitri Trenin while he was on their side. Trenin was a former colonel in a Soviet intelligence agency. He became known in the early 2000s for writing books that argued Russia, diminished after the Cold War, should get friendly with the West by joining Nato and