All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
So much for price-fixing. The energy price cap is finally set to fall, with the result that the average household should have to pay no more than £2,074 a year for its energy from 1 July. The price cap itself has fallen from £3,280, but bills were in practice limited by the government’s other great
Free tickets to Disney World: maybe that’s what Ron the aspiring Don should give to the clever staffer who thought of having him announce his candidacy for POTUS on Twitter Spaces. It was only the official announcement, of course. But having him unfold the bulletin on Twitter Spaces, in an unscripted chat with Elon Musk, was supposed to
Talk about a power failure. Ron DeSantis finally unveiled his long-awaited 2024 bid to become president last night in a glitch-riddled Twitter announcement plagued by technical difficulties. The Florida Governor filed a declaration of candidacy with the US federal electoral commission on Wednesday and then announced his move in an online chat with Twitter head
The government is delighted with today’s inflation update. Rishi Sunak released a clip this afternoon, talking about his government’s efforts to ‘halve inflation’ by the end of the year. ‘I know it’s still tough’ he says, but ‘the plan is working, and we are delivering.’ The problem is that it is not in his gift
The number of Britons turning to private healthcare has risen by a third since the pandemic. The figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network aren’t a surprise: they show that there were more ‘self-pay’ admissions for treatment in 2022 than in any other year the organisation has data for. If long waiting lists remain, then
Strange tactics by Sir Keir at PMQs. He raised the issue of broken promises on immigration, which gave Rishi Sunak a chance to sound tougher than Labour. ‘How many work visas were issued to foreign nationals last year?’ asked Sir Keir. Rishi dodged the question and blamed the unexpectedly large influx on the Ukraine war.
The decision by the Cabinet Office to refer Boris Johnson to the police after his ministerial diary revealed visits by friends to Chequers in Buckinghamshire during the pandemic is being felt in Westminster today. Allies of the former prime minister say Johnson is considering taking legal action against the government (taxpayer-funded lawyers for Johnson –
Any uncertainty about the extent of the damage inflicted on the SNP by the criminal investigation into party finances can be safely disregarded. An extensive poll by YouGov suggests that those scenes of a police forensics tent outside Nicola Sturgeon’s Glasgow home, and the arrest of her husband, the SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell, have
Is there anything that might cause the much-predicted crash in UK house prices? Not – evidently – a pandemic (which perversely caused prices to surge). A sharp, upwards jerk in the Bank of England’s base rate to 4.5 per cent didn’t do it either. The latest edition of the Office for National Statistics’s UK House Price
Another week, another angry ticking off in the House of Commons by speaker Lindsay Hoyle. Today it was Conservative MP Paul Bristow who felt the full might of Hoyle’s wrath after being singled out for heckling Labour leader Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions. Standing at the despatch box, Starmer had challenged Rishi Sunak’s grip
What is the real difference between the two main parties on immigration? Not much, if today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was anything to go by. Both parties say they want to drive net migration down, both accuse the other of not really wanting to do this and of letting things get out of control, and both
Joe Biden became America’s president in 2021 because the alternative was four more years of Donald Trump. If Ronald Dion DeSantis, who has announced his candidacy on Twitter today, wins the Republican party nomination next year, it will also be because the alternative is you-know-who. Trump fatigue is a real phenomenon: even many Trump supporters
12 min listen
Isabel Hardman speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews about the ongoing case of Suella Braverman’s speeding saga. And now Boris Johnson has returned to the spotlight over reports he broke more lockdown rules. Does the energy around these stories say something about the culture of Westminster? Also on the podcast, Kate Andrews takes a
Rolf Harris, the disgraced entertainer and sex offender, is dead. Harris’s death was confirmed yesterday – but his death certificate showed that he passed away at his home in Bray, Berkshire, on 10 May. This confirmed what many journalists already knew: a fortnight ago, a private ambulance was photographed backing into the doorway of his
The vicious racist abuse of Vinícius Jr – the Real Madrid and Brazil star – points to something rotten at the very core of Spanish football. La Liga, marketed worldwide as the glamorous pinnacle of club football, is riddled with racism and racist attitudes at every level of the game: from the pitch to the
As Tony Blair once remarked, British politics has become a game of Gotcha. I am, to put it mildly, no fan of Suella Braverman, but for the life of me I cannot get excited about this latest piece of nonsense to do with her speeding ticket. It is certainly no resigning matter. When I have
Suella Braverman will not face an investigation into whether she broke the ministerial code over her handling of a speeding offence. Following claims that the Home Secretary asked civil servants to arrange a one-to-one speed awareness course for her, after being caught speeding in 2022, Sunak consulted with both Braverman and his independent ethics adviser,
Since the start of the year, politicians and central bankers have been promising a collapse in the inflation rate. But monthly data kept rolling in, and the rate remained in double digits. This put even more pressure on the data this morning, published by the Office for National Statistics, with the Bank of England (BoE)
British political discourse has barely progressed since David Cameron told voters in 2010 that he represented the ‘party of’ our revered healthcare service. Over the past few weeks we’ve heard pledges – all clearly with an election in mind – ranging from the inconsequential to the ridiculous. Tired promises about community-led treatment. Receptionists-turned-‘care navigators’. School leavers
In power, Alex Salmond was, according to the senior lawyer who successfully defended him against a series of sex charges, ‘an objectionable bully’. Out of power, he breezed into a new career as a presenter on the Kremlin-funded propaganda channel, RT. He maintained his relationship with the broadcaster until the day of Russia’s invasion of
Ron DeSantis is expected to announce his 2024 presidential bid during a Twitter Space with the app’s ‘chief Twit’ Elon Musk in the next few hours, according to NBC News. At 11 p.m. UK time Wednesday, DeSantis will appear in a discussion with Musk – perhaps part of a bid to make the governor seem less
These days, it would be news if the Scottish nationalists were actually getting along. The latest row today is part of an unfolding scandal about former SNP North Lanarkshire Council leader, alleged ‘sex pest’ Jordan Linden, who quit his position in July after accusations emerged that he had groped and assaulted a teenager at a
Just when Boris thought the worst was over with Partygate. The former Prime Minister has today been referred to the police by the Cabinet Office over fresh claims that he broke Covid lockdown rules. According to the Times, Johnson’s ministerial diary from 2020 and 2021 has revealed visits by friends to Chequers during the pandemic.
You could almost hear the groans from Scots hard hit by the cost of living crisis when Humza Yousaf this week announced another ‘summer of independence’. The FM is promising to bring the campaign ‘to every corner of the country’, setting up ‘regional assemblies across Scotland to bring together and harness the energy of our
I have never felt such a strong desire to buy a man a pint as I did when I watched that builder clear Just Stop Oil protesters off the road. The clip has gone viral. We see an irate bloke take direct action against doom-mongering posh irritants. They were doing one of their funereal marches
15 min listen
Paul Goodman, editor of Conservative Home joins Katy Balls and James Heale to discuss the most recent victims accused of breaching the ministerial code. The code covers things like telling the truth in Parliament, keeping cabinet discussions secret and not allowing conflicts to arise between public duties and private interests. But is it fit for
After a traumatic night which saw rioters torch cars, volley fireworks at police, and indulge in nine hours of mayhem, residents of the close-knit Ely, in Cardiff, are left to deal with the reality of what a rumour can do in the social media age. It started on Monday evening. A tragedy which would usually
Once it was David Gauke, then it was Michael Ellis. Now it is Jeremy Quin who bears the honorary title of ‘minister for sticky wickets’. The Paymaster General was called upon to answer an Urgent Question in the House this lunchtime on – what else? – the allegations about Suella Braverman’s speeding fine. He confirmed
We learned this morning just how much the government is struggling to keep its promise to bring down the national debt. But news from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be lifting spirits in No. 10. Perhaps it can make good on another pledge: to grow the economy. The IMF has once again revised its figures for
Today, Prince Harry lost a court case. If the law of averages is to be believed, he has involved himself in so many that it was inevitable that at least one was not going to go his way. Still, this particular defeat is likely to be difficult for the Duke of Sussex to take, as
It is difficult for Scotland’s Conservative and Unionist party to know whether to laugh or cry these days. The last few months have been dominated by the SNP’s implosion – yet the decline of Humza Yousaf’s party could ultimately backfire for the Tories. For now, though Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, has never looked
Last week it was President Macron who was rowing back on green measures. In a speech he asserted that Europe has, for now, gone far enough – if it introduces any more regulations without the rest of the world following suit then it will put investment at risk and harm the economy. This week, the