All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
It’s an unlikely face off: the First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf against Twitter/X chief Elon Musk. The pair are currently engaged in an online spat after Musk labelled Yousaf a ‘racist’. There’s never a dull moment with him at least… The row came about last night after Musk saw a clip of a parliamentary
There are signs that woke capitalism is on the way out. Unilever, purveyor of the most right-on brand of the moment, Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, will no longer ‘force fit’ all of its brand with a social purpose, following a backlash over the company’s ‘virtue-signalling’. Hein Schumacher, who became Unilever’s chief executive in July, has
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Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure from his party to back a call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict. The week began with the Labour leader correcting comments he made on LBC that Israel had a right to defend itself. But now, politicians to the left of his party are campaigning for a ceasefire.
He’s back! Since the Privileges Committee probe earlier this year, Boris Johnson has been unusually quiet by his colourful standards. But today the former Prime Minister has hit the headlines once more today with the announcement that he is going to be joining GB News as a ‘presenter, programme maker and commentator’. According to a
Sexism struck early in Rachel Reeves’s life. Last night the shadow chancellor gave a talk about her new book on female economists, and she recalled an early brush with toxic masculinity. Aged eight, competing in a public chess tournament, she faced a little boy who foresaw a swift and easy victory. ‘Lucky I’m playing a
Political deaths in China always carry the risk of social unrest. It was premier Zhou Enlai’s death that triggered the ‘democracy wall’ movement of the late 1970s, a student protest that was the precursor for the Tiananmen Square protest ten years later. In turn, the latter protest was triggered by former Chinese Communist party (CCP)
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel nearly three weeks ago, Vladimir Putin has been torn between who to back. It took the Russian president several days to address the conflict, and even longer to speak to Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, it increasingly appears that he has made up his mind. Yesterday afternoon, at the invitation of
The Autumn Statement could propose offering discounts in stamp duty for homebuyers who take improvement to raise the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of their home during their first two years of ownership. Could this be the beginning of a new divergence between the Conservatives and Labour, where the Tories provide incentives and Labour pursue punitive
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Amber Athey and Daniel McCarthy editor of Modern Age Journal and columnist at The Spectator join the Americano podcast to breakdown the long House speaker battle which has finally culminated in Trumpist Mike Johnson getting selected.
Keir Starmer is losing grip on his party’s position on Israel. So far, over 25 Labour councillors have quit over Starmer’s comments on the conflict following the attack by Hamas on 7 October. The Labour leader angered his party when he suggested in an interview with LBC that Israel ‘has the right’ to withhold power
For the past few weeks, the US House Speaker’s chair has sat empty. Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the position on 3 October amid accusations from some Republicans that he was colluding with Democrats in a ‘secret deal’ to assist Ukraine. While the position has been vacant, critical legislation, including aid for Ukraine, has not been able
Has Patrick Harvie woken up on the wrong side of the bed? On BBC Scotland this morning, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens appeared to take aim at just about anybody he could think of — including his own coalition government. Lashing out at the Scottish nationalists, Harvie slammed their council tax freeze. The Greens
With all due respect to the diligent journalists who revealed it, I don’t think it’s a big deal that some bits of Rachel Reeves’ book about women in economics were copied from Wikipedia. The book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, was launched at an Institute for Government event in Westminster on Wednesday evening. An
Bored with hearing about discrimination towards lesbians and gay men? Having an empathy meltdown when listening to stories of violence, discrimination and prejudice? Don’t much care about lesbians being sexually harassed by men on a night out? Not to worry! We have a new kid on the block, poised and ready to join the unbreakable
Emmanuel Macron has suggested the formation of an international coalition to combat Hamas similar to the one deployed against the Islamic State several years ago. The president of France floated the idea on Tuesday during his visit to Israel. An Elysee source later fleshed out the proposal in more detail. ‘We are available to build a
As many as one in 20 Universal Credit payments to working Brits are wrong. Claimants are at risk of destitution when they’re underpaid and accused of fraud when they’re overpaid, as the Department for Work and Pensions has been using a flawed data stream provided by HMRC to calculate Universal Credit payments. This week The Spectator revealed how
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Keir Starmer has had a difficult week, trying to keep his party on message over the war in Israel and Gaza. The official position is that Israel has a right to respond to Hamas’s attacks on 7 October, but a number of Labour MPs are now calling for a ceasefire. Could Starmer have better handled
Former Justice minister Crispin Blunt has tonight confirmed that he is the Conservative MP arrested on suspicion of rape and possession of controlled substances. In a statement posted on Twitter/X, he wrote the following statement: It has been reported that an MP was arrested yesterday in connection with an allegation of rape. I am confirming
What comes around, goes around. The SNP government has never been slow in condemning the Tories for a lack of transparency in the ongoing UK Covid Inquiry. So it was to Steerpike’s amusement then that Humza Yousaf and his Scottish government are now facing criticism for not handing their key messages over to that same probe. Talk
‘Dr Death’ was the nickname bestowed on Rishi Sunak by one scientist during Covid. But ‘Dr Doom’ seemed a more apt sobriquet at certain points during his big speech today on artificial intelligence. The Prime Minister evoked the spectre of humanity ‘losing control of AI completely’ to a ‘superintelligence’ that could result in ‘extinction’. He
Israel is fighting for its life. While the White House remains convinced that it is possible to somehow contain the conflict to Gaza, Israel’s security establishment is nervously looking north to Lebanon, where a second front in the war has already started to open. The 7 October massacre was the first act in a decade-old plan
Shadow chancellor’s Rachel Reeves’s new book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, was meant to put the spotlight on unsung female economists. Instead, the focus has fallen back on Reeves herself – and not for the reason she hoped. Reeves has denied plagiarism after it emerged that the book is littered with passages from other
Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but has Rachel Reeves taken that too far? The Financial Times today reports that the shadow chancellor’s new book ‘has been found to contain examples of apparent plagiarism,’ including ‘reproduced material’ from sources such as Wikipedia, the Guardian and, er, Reeves’s own front bench colleague Hilary Benn. The FT claims to
Brits have, for many years, taken a back seat in the Space Race, but that could soon change. An all-UK team of astronauts could soon be heading into orbit, as a result of a deal signed by the UK Space Agency and Axiom Space, an American company that organises visits to the International Space Station
The Secretary General of the United Nations is conventionally thought of as the world’s most high-profile diplomat, charged with the responsibility of bringing calm and astute leadership to bear at times of war and international crisis. This is a core purpose and mission that appears to have escaped the attention of Antonio Guterres, the UN’s
Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas terror attack has been slow and incompetent. Many of the efforts to house, clothe, feed and transport those in need have been carried out by ordinary Israelis, rather than the government. Leading many of these initiatives are the same loosely organised groups that until 7 October were heading up
If the Israeli public had expected Benjamin Netanyahu to take responsibility for failing to foresee Hamas’s attack on 7 October, for years of neglecting the safety and security of the towns near the border with Gaza and for allowing Hamas to build a substantial armed force – they would’ve been disappointed by his speech on
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Today, Keir Starmer held a long meeting with some Muslim Labour MPs over their concern on his stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, first ignited by comments he made on LBC which seemed to justify Israel’s electricity and water blockade of Gaza. The Labour leader has made huge progress to move his party on from the
A harrowing session at PMQs. Rishi Sunak seemed subdued and de-energised. His fizz had gone flat. The usual hip-wriggling shuffle at the despatch had been replaced with a hunched, anxious pose. Heavy shoulders. Head drooping. The Middle East crisis has snapped his elastic. The issue Sir Keir had ducked was Gaza. Too hot to handle
We have seen many grim images over the past two weeks. Images of the apocalyptic, Isis-style violence visited upon the people of Israel by Hamas. Images of destruction and grief in Gaza as Israel hammers Hamas for its crimes against the Jewish people, as is its right. And yet it is an image from London,
The death of the gangster Dave Courtney – found in his bed with a gunshot wound at the age of 64 – has once more brought to the fore the odd fascination with ‘gangsters’ which certain strange sorts harbour. Call me dirty-minded, but as with the ever-growing fascination with ‘true crime’, I can’t help thinking