All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
So the economy has defied the predictions of doom once more. The latest figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning show that the economy grew by 0.5 per cent in June, more than countering a 0.1 per cent fall in May, widely attributed to the extra bank holiday for the coronation.
The first time Mohamed Bazoum came to the attention of the European media was in the aftermath of the Great Migrant Crisis of 2015. The man who was, until a fortnight ago, the president of Niger, was at that time the minister of the interior. The shockwaves of a war in Niger would be
In the last few weeks, words like ‘slow’, ‘grinding’ and even ‘failure’ have been used to describe the long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive. The fact that Ukrainian forces have not broken through Russian lines and indeed have only liberated a relatively small amount of Ukraine’s occupied territory after seven weeks (though to be fair, they’ve taken about
Yet another suspected Russian spy has been arrested in Germany – the third such case in recent months. The suspect – named only as Thomas H. by the Geman media for legal reasons – is an employee of the department of Germany’s army, the Bundeswehr, responsible for procuring defence technology. The country that produced the
To say the SNP have a disastrous record on transport would be putting it lightly. The ferries don’t run on time (if at all), the mystery of the motorhome remains unsolved and the nationalists still haven’t dualled Scotland’s most dangerous road. Perhaps then it’s no surprise to hear that former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and
The data breach at the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which has seen the personal details of all serving officers and just under 2,500 civilian staff accidentally released as part of a response to a Freedom of Information request, is the sort of grotesque, IT foul-up normally reserved for the realms of satire like The Thick
It will be harder to pick up a last-minute light bulb. You might have to rely on Amazon Prime for a quick delivery of new tea towels. And your local shopping centre will look even more dismally empty than it already does. There will, in fairness, be some disadvantages to the hardware chain Wilko disappearing.
For once we are having an old-fashioned silly season, with no pandemic, no insurgency by the Taliban, no leadership election in the Tory party and no energy crisis – with the result that a few migrants moving onto a barge has become the main story of the week. Or at least we didn’t seem to
Anyone reading the news over the past two days could be forgiven for feeling a certain sense of déjà vu. Senior figures in government, including an unnamed cabinet minister, have suggested that if Rwanda flights removing asylum seekers are blocked by the courts, Conservatives would ‘inevitably’ back moves to leave the European Convention on Human
Yet another of Rishi Sunak’s five targets looks to have slipped out of reach. Waiting lists for NHS treatment in England have climbed to another record high and now stand just shy of 7.6 million. There was a slight improvement for the longest waits: those waiting more than a year dropped slightly but still stand
Every few weeks I write a ‘Why isn’t Scottish Labour ahead in the polls yet?’ piece. Here is the latest instalment and the take away is: Labour still hasn’t sealed the deal but it continues to close in on a vulnerable SNP. New polling from Redfield and Wilton shows the SNP retaining its three-point lead
When 20-year old Mhairi Black was elected in 2015, she became the youngest MP for over 300 years. Eight years later, it seems that the ‘baby of the house’ has yet to grow up. Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Black has likened gender critical campaigners to white supremacists, and suggested that they were funded
Move over Nicola Sturgeon, there’s a new sheriff in town. The former SNP leader has faced criticism this week, after it emerged that her government splurged just under £10,000 on VIP airport services for her and her staff – despite foreign affairs being a reserved power. When it comes to taking the mickey out of taxpayers
It’s ‘stop the boats’ week in 10 Downing Street as part of government plans to avoid a news vacuum over the summer recess. There have been a range of announcements – from new measures against businesses that knowingly employ illegal migrants, along with plans to crackdown on ‘lefty lawyers’. However, Rishi Sunak’s problem can be summed
Plain old Harry Windsor, as he is now, is in Japan for the International Sports Promotion Summit and a few low-key engagements before moving on to Singapore for a polo tournament fundraising for AIDS. The relaxed and happy looking former prince was welcomed with enthusiasm and characteristic courtesy by well-wishers as he arrived alone, wearing
Is Diane Abbott OK? A day after the independent MP hit out at Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson for his foul-mouthed comment about migrants, Abbott has again waded into the subject. This time, however, it is Abbott who is guilty of using a rude word: Abbott subsequently deleted the tweet, which was a reference
Oh dear. It’s ‘Stop the Boats’ week in 10 Downing Street as the government tries to set the news agenda over the long summer recess. There were early signs of success as Suella Braverman’s pledge to target ‘crooked‘ immigration lawyers ran across various news outlets along with plans to crackdown on migrant traffickers in Turkey.
12 min listen
This morning the UK’s electoral watchdog The Electoral Commission said that it had been the victim of a ‘complex cyber attack’ by ‘hostile actors’. What do we know about the attack? The cyberattack has been a distraction from what was meant to be the government’s small boats week. We’ve had migrants refusing to board the
It’s no great secret that the events of the past few years have delivered a serious economic blow to the UK. But just how many years has the country been set back? This morning the National Institute of Economic and Social Research has published its updated ‘Economic Outlook’ which digs into some of these figures, erring on
The hacking of the Electoral Commission’s databases highlights the way that in the interconnected modern world, ‘warfare’ can be as much about undermining faith in a country’s institutions and disrupting its political processes as anything else. The Electoral Commission has admitted that ‘hostile actors’ penetrated their systems in August 2021, in a ‘complex cyberattack’ that
Prison and probation staffing is approaching dangerously low levels’ said the Ministry of Justice in a document they published by mistake this week. It’s hardly surprising to those of us who know about our failing prison system. In June, the Justice Select Committee published the results of a detailed survey of prison staff showing that half of
Even in her absence, Nicola Sturgeon dominated Iain Dale’s discussion with Alex Salmond and David Davis at the Edinburgh festival. Dale invited them both to comment on George Galloway’s suggestion that Sturgeon is ‘Mrs Thatcher in a kilt.’ Salmond flatly rejected this caricature. (Evidently he knows that criticising her in public will do him no
It hardly takes a genius to work out that whoever is in charge of the government’s media grid over the summer parliamentary recess has designated this as ‘illegals week’. Not only has Home Office floated the eye-catching idea of building a holding centre on Ascension Island, but the Bibby Stockholm has finally seen its first
Emmanuel Macron was the recipient of a letter on Monday from nearly 100 senators from across France’s political spectrum. The signatories lamented the ‘failures and setbacks’ of the Republic’s policy in Africa in recent years and called on the president to rethink French strategy on the continent. Listing some of these failures – the rejection
Another day, another ridiculous revelation emerges about the Scottish government. This time, it’s civil servants who are in hot water for splashing taxpayers’ cash on laser tag, Swingers (no, not that kind) crazy golf and a trip to Edinburgh Zoo. Public cash was also used to foot a £375 bill at Brewhemia, dubbed Scotland’s ‘beer
‘My breasts were taken away from me (and) the tissue was incinerated.’ Every word of destransitioner Chloe Cole’s testimony to the US Congress was harrowing. But it was her calm, frank description of a doctor’s destruction of her breasts when she was just 15 years old that haunts the mind. Such a sinister violation of
It looks like trimming the fat isn’t going too well at the civil service, despite the government’s middling efforts. Between 2016 and 2018 the government capped pay rises for mandarins – and froze salaries entirely in 2021 to bring down the costs of the bloated public sector. New analysis from the TaxPayers’ Alliance though shows that
I have an idea for the Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth. My idea is for a Mary Rose Ultimate Experience – a funfair ride which replicates the experience of those 500 young boys and men as they sank with the great Tudor warship. There’ll be no need for expensive visuals because it would have been
Electric cars made in China could be turned off remotely, immobilising them instantly and crippling the West. That terrifying prospect was highlighted by Professor Jim Saker, president of the Institute of the Motor Industry. ‘The car manufacturer may be in Shanghai and could stop 100,000 to 300,000 cars across Europe thus paralysing a country,’ Saker warned.
Is France at war? Alain Finkielkraut, one of the most popular and respected – if controversial – intellectuals in France, appears to think so. Finkielkraut recently made further enemies by joining a growing set of French intellectuals, writers and politicians who say that France is in the midst of a desperate battle. To Finkielkraut, the
17 min listen
Freddy Gray sits down with The Spectator’s Washington editor, Amber Athey to discuss the US women’s soccer team defeat in the World Cup and why some are fed up with their politics.
We must hope Nicola Sturgeon’s remaining supporters are, right now, judging her. That’s what she wanted, after all. In a speech back in 2015 — the year she led the SNP to its third Holyrood election victory — Sturgeon said education would be her priority during her time in office. ‘Let me be clear,’ she