All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Remember Eric Pickles? The larger-than-life Coalition mainstay who inspired such legendary headlines as ‘I did not spend £10,000 on extra biscuits.’ These days Lord Pickles is chairing the Cabinet Office watchdog Acoba, which vets appointments for senior civil servants and ministers upon leaving government. The agency is currently somewhat overworked, with onetime appointees from the
The Prince of Wales has announced that homelessness will be his charitable focus while he awaits his eventual succession to the Crown. In an announcement this week, he pledged £3 million as the start of a lifelong commitment to tackling the issue, which will begin by funding ‘housing first’ schemes in six areas, taking the
‘The left is sweeping to power across Europe,’ suggested the headline in the Independent in September 2021. The newspaper called on the analysis of Denis MacShane, the former Labour MP, to explains to its readers why this was so. MacShane posited that the election of Joe Biden as US president had reinvigorated the left-wing electorate
Trailed as an historic address to the nation following the weekend’s Wagner rebellion, Vladimir Putin’s short speech on Monday night was instead an unconvincing condemnation of everything generally and nothing much specifically. If the speech was historic, it was only because of the way the president brought up Russia’s historical betrayals and revolutions. No amount of snarling and
In his most recent column for the Mail, Boris Johnson fires a shot at, among other things, ‘the leftie twittersphere’. Lest we forget, that would be the same Boris Johnson that, during his time as prime minister, told us there was ‘nothing wrong with being woke’; who seemed remarkably unbothered about mass illegal immigration; who
Drama tonight at the latest hustings for the Tory mayoral candidate. The Conservative Environment Network were putting the final three candidates through their paces when a story from the Times broke accusing Daniel Korski – one of the favourites in the contest – of sexual misconduct. Daisy Goodwin, the former head of a TV production company, claimed
What’s the point of the government’s flagship Rwanda deportation scheme if it isn’t going to save money for the taxpayer? That’s a reasonable question to ask after the Home Office finally published its impact assessment on the plans – as yet unrealised – to deport asylum seekers to the East African country. That document revealed
Will Partygate claim yet more scalps? For a fortnight now, Sir Bernard Jenkin, the Privileges prober-extraordinaire, has refused to comment on claims that he attended a lockdown-breaking bash for his wife in December 2020. But will that silence continue to hold, given fresh revelations from the Guido Fawkes blog about other attendees at the aforementioned
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has released an 11-minute audio message after leading a march on Moscow. Here is an edited transcript of what he said: The Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) is probably the most experienced and combat-ready unit in Russia, and possibly in the world. (It is made up
Even for those of us who are not well disposed towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, it is hard not to wish – occasionally – that they might catch a break. Yet apart from Harry’s well-judged and unostentatious appearance at the coronation, things have gone from bad to worse over the past six months
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As mortgage rates surge and a new Opinium poll finds Labour’s lead has jumped to 18 points, Rishi Sunak appeared on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC show to insist that his plan is the right one. But was his slightly cranky reaction to some of the questions a reflection of how the party is really feeling about
After a bruising week, perhaps Andrew Bailey could take some solace in Rishi Sunak’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg this weekend. For a start, the Prime Minister threw his support behind the Bank of England governor, after senior figures within the Conservative party accused Bailey of being ‘asleep at the wheel’. But it was also a
It’s a sign, possibly, of my increasing age and bad temper that I find myself harking back to an imaginary past in which tradesmen could be relied upon to know what they were about. A time when people took pride in their work. You know the sort of thing: back in the good old days a plumber
Orcas – killer whales no less – are on the attack. They have declared war on humanity. They are systematically destroying boats in uncannily coordinated attacks. They are taking revenge because White Gladis, an orca matriarch, was traumatised after being hit by a ship. The attacks began in the seas off Spain and Portugal but
Breaking: Sadiq Khan is a big fan of grass – and not the kind you can decriminalise. The Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority have been forced to shell out a whopping £200,000 to re-turf Parliament Square Gardens – a site often favoured by the unwashed masses of eco-protestors like Extinction Rebellion. City
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against the Russian military and political leadership may have stopped some 200 km short of Moscow, but its reverberations will be felt in the Kremlin for a long time. The march, and the images of people in Rostov cheering Wagner fighters and hissing at the police, was a rare and unwelcome insight into
The inevitable is at last beginning to dawn on Emmanuel Macron. The extravagant spending spree initiated after the violent and year-long 2018 ‘gilets jaunes’ protests will have to be reversed. With the coffers empty, France is not only at the mercy of international finance, she is now highly vulnerable to the next social or political
A common stereotype about Germans is that they love to complain – and there is certainly a kernel of truth to that. Grumbling is part and parcel of everyday German life, often with complete strangers. But on my recent trips to Germany, I felt that general expressions of dissatisfaction have acquired a new sharpness. Whole communities
Both Vladimir Putin and the mercenary Wagner Group have been dramatically weakened by yesterday’s attempted coup. Wagner’s nominal leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, goes into exile while his group will no doubt lose its privileged status. Putin, meanwhile, has been publicly and massively humiliated, a dangerous position for an autocrat. Firstly, Putin’s famed security forces proved completely
As rebel tanks trundled up the highway towards Moscow yesterday morning, Vladimir Putin labelled the mutinous mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin a ‘traitor’ – and vowed to crush him. But hours later Putin capitulated, allowing Prigozhin to retire to an honourable exile in Belarus and pardoning the 25,000-strong Wagner force which had spent the day in
Another day brings with it another difficult morning with Rishi Sunak. With Labour’s lead now stretching to 18 points, the Prime Minister did a tetchy interview with Laura Kuenssberg saw the pair clash over inflation and mortgages. And Sunak will no doubt be delighted to know that the person whose reaction which Kuenssberg sought straight
As mortgage rates surge and a new Opinium poll finds Labour’s lead has jumped to 18 points, Rishi Sunak appeared on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC show to insist that his plan is the right one. The interview was pre-recorded in the Downing Street garden yesterday, with Sunak commenting on the – now failed – attempted coup
What to make of the strange Prigozhin interlude? The putsch that was and wasn’t. The facts are simple. After an alleged attack on Wagner troops by the Russian army ordered by defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov, Prigozhin’s private army of 25,000 took control of the garrison town Rostov-on-Don and
As soon as the Wagner coup started, Ukrainian social media was full of memes of Vladimir Putin saying ‘I don’t need ammo, I need a ride’ – the inverse of Volodymyr Zelensky’s quip when tanks moved towards Kyiv. But is there any truth in it? Did Putin – or his allies – flee Moscow at
Ah, the perils of hosting an international jamboree. You know what it’s like: you stump up for the hotel rooms, roll out the red carpet, shake hands with an assortment of autocrats, only for your own unappreciative electorate to let you down once again. Such misfortune befell Emmanuel Macron this week, when he invited the
Up until this point, it was possible to believe that Putin was tolerating, or even orchestrating Yevgeny Prigozhin’s increasingly outspoken attacks on the military leadership and ‘the elites’ in Moscow. Vladimir Putin himself didn’t seem especially pleased with his generals. Only a few days ago, he turned his back on his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu,
During her eight years as Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon perfected the art of false promises. She consistently told SNP supporters that a second independence referendum was within reach, but the truth was that she had no power to deliver one. All Sturgeon was able to do was lead her troops halfway up the hill
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Fraser Nelson is joined by Svitlana Morenets and Mark Galeotti as Vladimir Putin faces an armed insurrection from the Wagner mercenary group – what could happen next?
Civil war broke on Russia like a thunderstorm, replacing weeks of mounting political heat with a deluge of fire and fury. The sound of rifles and mortars echoed around Rostov-on-Don hours after mercenaries of the Wagner private military company took over the headquarters of the Russian Army’s Southern command. Wagner troops were filmed placing anti-tank
British rule over South Africa ended in 1910, but now parliament is busy with legislation that could have a devastating effect on its old colony. A landmark law to ban trophy hunting imports is making its way through the Lords. The Hunting Trophies Bill would prevent tourists importing animal skins, severed heads and carcasses of certain animals
The scene in the German port was like a vision of hell. As the incendiary bombs rained down on Hamburg that hot summer evening, the centre of the city was engulfed by a conflagration so intense that it seemed to herald the Apocalypse. Trees were uprooted, buildings demolished, trains ripped from their tracks, roadways turned to
As famous capital cities of world-straddling superpowers go, Washington DC is somewhat disappointing. The grandiose urbanism is surely meant to resemble the boulevards of Paris, with the parks of London, but in reality the dreary post-modern/neo-classical bombast makes it looks like Tashkent married to Milton Keynes. A city that is planned to project power actually
It’s finally here. The SNP independence convention has been in the works for quite some time – it was initially supposed to be Nicola Sturgeon’s de facto referendum conference – so you’d think that its execution would be slick, its planning well organised. Think again. It will come of no surprise to readers, Mr S
It took a characteristically long time for Vladimir Putin to respond to the coup-that-dare-not-speak-its-name launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin, but when his statement came, it was steeped in bitterness. And no wonder, for Prigozhin was essentially Putin’s creation, and we know that Putin’s greatest venom is reserved for those he considers traitors. An ex-con who moved