All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The announcement by Ben Wallace that he will stand down as Defence Secretary at the next Cabinet reshuffle and then give up being an MP at the general election hardly counts as a sensational turn of events. There are at least a dozen happenings at the top end of the Tory party from the past
If during the 80s and 90s you were any kind of book lover, Milan Kundera – who died this week aged 94 – was one of that small clutch of modern novelists you absolutely had to read. In the late stages of the Cold War, the Czech-born Kundera not only gave us news about what was
The Labour party should be experiencing its best time in recent politics with victory very much expected at the next election. Yet it’s not all plain sailing at Labour HQ. Not only does the party still lack a convincing agenda, there is disquiet about the nature of the Starmer leadership, in terms of what it
Last week, Jeremy Vine shared a video of a motorist being abusive to a cyclist. Nothing new there, I hear you say. After all, the light-footed BBC presenter is famous for cruising around London with a sophisticated camera rig on his head. But on this occasion, it was very much the cyclist who was at
Voters in Spain’s general election on 23 July have a clear-cut choice. They can choose to continue with the left-wing coalition currently in power or they can replace it with a staunchly right-wing government. Since 2019 Spain has been governed by a minority coalition consisting of PSOE, Spain’s main left-wing party, with 120 seats, and Podemos, further to the left, with 35.
Seven years ago on Friday, a 31-year-old man got behind the wheel of a 19-tonne lorry and purposefully drove it down Nice’s Promenade des Anglais at speed as crowds celebrated France’s Bastille Day. Eighty-six people were killed, including 14 children, the image of an infant’s corpse wrapped in foil beside a toy shocking a country
In April this year, a sombre looking Vladimir Putin attended a midnight Orthodox Easter Service in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral. Holding a lit red candle, the Russian President crossed himself several times during the ceremony, known as the Divine Liturgy. When Father Kirill declared ‘Christ has risen’, Putin duly responded with the congregation: ‘Truly
Ben Wallace has announced that he will be leaving frontline politics at the next cabinet reshuffle. In an interview with the Sunday Times, the Defence Secretary confirmed reports in the media that he will be stepping down at the next election – and also bowing out of the a cabinet ahead of polling day: ‘I’m not
I have been playing a game with myself recently: asking just what would it take for me to vote Labour at the next election? The gossip out of No. 10 has answered it for me: if, as rumoured, the Prime Minister toys with the idea of abolishing inheritance tax – at a time when the
Angus MacNeil’s attempt to hold the SNP to ransom on the matter of independence has played out both predictably and rather entertainingly. After the SNP MP was suspended for a week over an unseemly public spat with Chief Whip Brendan O’Hara, MacNeil announced he would not consider seeking readmission to SNP ranks until October. Once
The Conservative party, over the course of its lengthy history, has been defined by two particular traditions. One emphasis the duty of care to the past. It nurtures a suspicion of grandiose and ill-founded schemes. It never forgets that the responsibility of a conservative is ultimately to conserve. Then, parallel to this, there is a
Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne, certainly leads a charmed life. He spent several days in Paris last month meeting the French president Emmanuel Macron. This has now been followed up with a reported invitation from Rishi Sunak to visit Britain this autumn. It would be the first such high-level diplomatic trip
It is not pleasant to think of a poor bunch of creatures in distress, but the passengers who visited the Faeroes last Sunday aboard an Ambassador cruise liner have at least received an apology for their upset. Some 78 pilot whales were driven into a bay and slaughtered in front of them in a traditional
Mao Zedong had a big thing about contradictions. They were the basis of life, driving it forward, the old despot once mused. But even he might have struggled to understand today’s Communist party – which is desperately trying to drum up foreign investment while simultaneously hounding foreign companies out of the country. The latest figures
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Advanced economies are not seeing the economic growth that they once did, and none more so than the UK where there has been little productivity or real wage growth since 2008. What factors have contributed to this? Which industries will be at the forefront as we chart a path towards a high-growth British future? Kate
In his new career as a Daily Mail columnist Boris Johnson has a fraction of the responsibility placed upon his shoulders as prime minister during the Covid pandemic. Nevertheless, in his very first column for the paper he managed to recommend a ‘wonder drug’ appetite suppressant without warning his readers that it is being investigated
Jordan Henderson is set to become the latest high-profile veteran to join the rapidly burgeoning Saudi Arabian Professional league. The 33-year-old Liverpool and England player is reportedly close to inking a deal to join Al-Ettifaq, where he would rejoin his one-time teammate Steven Gerrard, who is coaching the club. The wages are mind boggling, even
Despite winning a majority in the region of 80 in the 2019 general election, the Tories’ working majority currently stands at 60. After next week’s triple by-election it could be reduced even further. On Thursday voters will go to the polls in three seats currently held by the Conservatives: Selby and Ainsty (20,137), Somerton and
Boris Johnson’s post-premiership crusade continues. The former PM has today attacked Nato for being too soft on Ukraine’s accession. The alliance decided earlier this week that any invitation would be handed out only once ‘conditions are met’ (Svitlana Morenets has more here). Johnson writes in his Daily Mail column: No country is in greater need
Gitanas Nauseda stood outside his palace and checked his watch. The Lithuanian President’s guests – the leaders of the other 30 Nato countries, VIPs from Europe and Asia, Volodymyr Zelensky – were an hour late for dinner. Nauseda idled on the red carpet with his wife, and the couple stared at the setting sky. An
In the days since the Huw Edwards scandal broke, the television broadcaster’s wife has been praised for a dignified statement citing her husband’s mental health struggle – with the presenter currently in hospital. Meanwhile, the police finding of no evidence of criminal behaviour means that the BBC is allowed to resume its original investigation. Some staff
Three weeks after marching on Moscow, the Wagner Group has seemingly been withdrawn from the battlefield in Ukraine, according to the Pentagon. Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder said there was evidence to suggest that the 25,000-strong mercenary group was not ‘participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine’. The Pentagon’s statement
It is Bastille day in France but few people are in the mood for festivities. The riots of a fortnight ago have left physical and psychological scars that won’t heal anytime soon. It is Emmanuel Macron’s seventh Bastille day as president, and his special guest this year is Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India,
Huw Edwards is in hospital. That shocking news, in a statement from his wife, Vicky Flind, delivered an icy blast of reality to a news story that had bubbled out of control for six days, dangerously so for the BBC. Although reporters in its News division, where I worked for 31 years, had covered the
Despite the inevitable and performative expressions of anger, regret and dismay following this week’s Nato summit, Moscow feels it has reason to be moderately content with its outcome. It has seen Ukraine frustrated in its failure to secure Nato membership – and fractures emerge between Kyiv and the West. Moscow’s contentment, however, may well be
Sometimes there is a problem so glaring that you wonder why no one is addressing it. Sooner or later, the government is going to have to deal with the black hole that will appear in the public finances as a result of the switch to electric cars. True, Jeremy Hunt has announced that electric cars
In January this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak outlined his five priorities for Britain against a hazy timetable. Meanwhile in France, after months of parliamentary opposition, strikes and demonstrations against his pension reforms, President Macron’s legislation gained assent by a constitutional sleight of hand. To appease the country’s heightened state of tension in May, Macron
The sad thing about the BBC’s dedicated Scottish channel, which has suffered another collapse in viewing figures, is that it’s actually rather good. Their flagship news programme The Nine, broadcast from BBC Scotland’s cavernous HQ at Pacific Quay on the Clyde, is very professional. It is presented by the excellent Martin Geissler, whose name you won’t find on
China is engaged in a ‘whole of state’ assault on the UK and the government’s approach has been ‘completely inadequate’. That is the devastating verdict of today’s long-awaited report on China by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. The committee accepts that Chinese influence and interference activities may be difficult to detect, but questions whether the
That Rishi Sunak chose to announce his decision to give public sector workers a 5 to 7 per cent pay rise with a press conference tells you everything you need to know. There is no requirement for him to be anywhere near a pay announcement: indeed, it was chief secretary to the Treasury John Glen
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It looks like the summer could be about to get a whole lot easier after the government announced that millions of public sector workers will get a pay rise between 5 and 7 per cent. In a press conference this afternoon, Rishi said this was the governments ‘final offer’ and the result of consultation independent pay review