All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Lucy Letby this week became only the third woman alive to be handed a whole-life jail term after being sentenced for murdering seven babies and trying to kill another six. But for an outraged British public it seems that sentence is not enough. A new poll for The Spectator by Redfield & Wilton show that
In retrospect, the computerised boat in the movie Titanic looked more believable than the one Nicola Sturgeon stood in front of the day she ‘launched’ the Glen Sannox ferry, almost six years ago. With its famously painted on windows and oddly delicate looking bulbous bow – one of many parts subsequently replaced as it was
As the first reports came in that Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed, I spoke to Marat Gabidullin, who was a senior commander in Prigozhin’s mercenary army and for a time his personal assistant for military affairs. Gabidiullin is living in exile in France and well known as a bitter critic of Prigozhin – he was
When your wife is worth £500 million, it can be tough to keep remember all her interests. Back in April, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, announced a probe into Rishi Sunak. It followed a Liaison Committee meeting in which Sunak did not mention the shares Akshata Murty held in the company Koru Kids,
For the first time in 27 years, I have no personal stake in the GCSE results that are released this morning. I did not teach Year 11 last year, so I will not be poring over statistics to explain the performance of my class to my superiors in school. Sadly, statistics, ‘value added data’ and
One of the reasons that Donald Trump is so despised by the beautiful people of America – the people that the New York Times columnist David Brooks memorably evoked when he began a tweet ‘We in the educated class…’ – is that he consorts with so many unbeautiful people: not just working stiffs but B-list entertainers, Nascar
I won’t be joining the consultants who are striking today. Though I fully support the legitimate concerns of my colleagues in the medical and other health professions taking part in industrial action across the NHS, I feel the toll this is taking on patients is unjustifiable. This is not a decision I take lightly. When
So much is still unclear about the fate of Wagner group head Yevgeny Prigozhin, from whether he really did die in the private jet that plummeted to the ground in Russia’s Tver region to what caused the crash. In today’s Russia, after all, ‘mechanical problems’ could be anything from maintenance issues to the difficulty in
The first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin wrapped in the early hours of this morning. Here is the definitive list of the evening’s winners and losers. Winners Vivek Ramaswamy Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is the only candidate on the stage who spoke to an issue larger than partisan politics: a lack of American identity and
Yevgeny Prigozhin died, as Macbeth almost said, as one that had been studied in his death. In the last three minutes of its existence, Prigozhin’s private Embraer Legacy jet climbed fast towards the sun, reaching the giddying height of 8,800 meters before parabolically returning to earth, spinning slowly in flames before hitting the ground at
From the moment Yevgeny Prigozhin aborted his march on Moscow it was a question of when and how – not whether – he would end up dead. Yesterday we saw a video of him for the first time talking about Wagner promoting Russia’s interests in Africa. Now, two months to the day after that coup
After more than two years of deliberating, the Department for Education has finally approved a batch of new free schools, including three sixth-form colleges that will be funded and mentored by Eton. This trio of academies will be opened in Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham – areas which contain some of Britain’s most deprived boroughs. The Times has previously revealed that these colleges will
Very few people came out well of the Nigel Farage banking scandal – which saw the former Brexit party leader lose his Coutts bank account over his political views. In the end, Farage managed to claim two scalps over the affair, with both NatWest’s and Coutts’ CEOs forced into humiliating resignations. Still it may be that
The Scottish Green party are often accused of promoting ‘student politics’ so it is perhaps no surprise they are fielding a 20-year-old social policy student, Cameron Eadie, in the forthcoming Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election. What is a surprise is that they are standing at all. They’ve never stood here before. Indeed, Greens tend to
After Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Brics global summit in South Africa, there can be no doubt that the Russian president has set his sights set on wooing the nations of Africa. In an effort to present Russia as a cooperative ally to, and leader of, the Brics bloc (currently made up of Brazil, Russia,
The trade secretary Kemi Badenoch will be in India this week for a meeting of G20 trade ministers. The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be visiting the country in September. With so many ministers on hand, it might seem the perfect moment to unveil the long-awaited UK-India trade deal. After all, the former PM Boris
Hurrah. Housing is now more ‘affordable’ for first-time buyers than it was a year ago. Or so says Halifax, which has produced figures this morning showing that the average home now costs 6.7 times the earnings of the average worker, down from 7.3 times a year ago. This is thanks to two opposing trends. The
Eurocrats don’t naturally do compromise, but Brussels may have to learn to compromise quite fast if it is to have any hope of avoiding a bruising showdown with eastern Europe. As often happens the backdrop is formed by events in Poland, where the ruling PiS party under Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki faces a crucial election
India – or, to be more precise, its leader Narendra Modi – wants to conquer space. That is why the success of the country’s latest moon mission matters so much. Only three countries – the United States, the former Soviet Union and China – have completed a successful landing on the lunar surface. No country
The timing could not have been worse for Rishi Sunak. Just days after it was confirmed by Downing Street that the Prime Minister would host Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in the autumn, a human rights organisation published an extensive report accusing Saudi Arabia of the ‘mass killing’ of migrants at its border with Yemen. The
It’s hard not to be shocked by the distressing clip shared online, allegedly featuring the Manchester United footballer Mason Greenwood. In the clip a woman can be heard trying to stop a man forcing her into having sex. The audio was uploaded in January last year alongside images of the alleged victim looking bruised and battered,
Oh dear. It seems that, in their earnestness to make capital out of tragedy, Labour have slipped up again. The party yesterday sought to exploit Lucy Letby’s refusal to attend her sentencing, tweeting that ‘Rishi Sunak has dragged his heels over changing the law to make criminals attend their court sentencing. We believe victims deserve
News of a ‘large-scale disturbance’ at a Kabaddi tournament in Alvaston, Derby over the weekend has left a community in shock. Four people ended up in hospital, and four men were arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm and violent disorder. Video footage of the disorder has been widely shared on social media –
Rab Butler spoke of the art of politics but the politics of art is quite another matter. The summer recess will find many of Britain’s politicians perusing the world’s museums and art galleries. So as a treat to his readers Mr S can now reveal, via a Freedom of Information request, the treasures from the
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If Labour wins the next election, will Keir Starmer have any money to spend on his programme of government? In a piece for the Times yesterday, journalist Philip Collins says it won’t, and he thinks Labour is suffering because of this constraint. How can Labour be intellectually interesting if the government purse strings are so tight? Fraser
News of a troubling case reaches Steerpike. Earlier this month the Administrative Court handed down judgment in the case of R (AI) -v- London Borough of Wandsworth and Secretary of State for Education [2023] EWHC 2088 (Admin). It’s a complex ruling on a complex case, not likely to catch the attention of the public. But
Keir Starmer reckons that under today’s economic conditions and policy framework, he would not have gone to Leeds University when he left school in the early 1980s: ‘It was a financial stretch then; if I were a student today, I wouldn’t be able to go.’ I’m not completely convinced this is true, but I have a
Scotland continues to suffer drug deaths at levels unseen anywhere else in the UK or Europe. Three Scots die as a result of drugs every single day. That is nearly three times worse than any other country for which records exist. This scandalous figure has just been updated, and shows that, although the number of
They are the Odd Couple of the United States Senate. She is a progressive Democrat and senior senator from true-blue Massachusetts, he a nationalist Republican and junior senator from ever-reddening Ohio. She has a 100 per cent rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League; he is ‘100 per cent pro-life’. She wants a path to citizenship for undocumented aliens;
So, the Manchester United footballer Mason Greenwood has not been found guilty of the offences of attempted rape and coercive behaviour that he was accused of, but he’s still very sorry for unspecified behaviour that he did engage in. Have you ever read anything more confusing than the following? ‘In a statement, Greenwood accepted he
Personally I find TV panel shows pretty unbearable. They’re like being at a student party full of lairy smartarses you don’t know, and probably wouldn’t want to. But now a clip from one has, in the journalistic parlance of our time, ‘resurfaced on social media’. It is never a good thing for the people involved
The Office for National Statistics reports this morning that public sector net borrowing in July came in at £4.3 billion. This is the fifth-highest July borrowing month since records began, with an additional £3.4 billion being spent to fund the government’s spending pledges compared to July last year. Still, there is fast talk of room for manoeuvre
It’s time to acknowledge the obvious truth about 2024: it’s going to be an election about who Americans want to go to the White House – and who they want to go straight to jail. There are, of course, all the normal caveats about unexpected crises, and typical issues like the economy, Ukraine, abortion, China
It’s great to see Philip Collins back in the Times: you may agree or disagree with him as a columnist but his writing is always elegant and thought-provoking. Today’s column looks at the conundrum facing Keir Starmer. ‘In all honesty I don’t think anyone involved can really say they know what it means to be a Labour government
