All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Boris Johnson formally resigned as an MP yesterday – but don’t expect theformer PM to throw in the towel any time soon. After a pretty unedifying slanging match with Rishi Sunak in the press about his resignation honours’ list, Johnson stepped down from his role as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. But, Boris wasn’t quite done torpedoing Sunak’s desperate efforts to preserve the fragile Tory peace since becoming leader last
As Russia frantically attempts to hold on to its territorial gains in the face of the much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, there are early signs that it is also failing to retain its diplomatic and foreign policy advances. The anti-Western energy alliances it had constructed around the world with many of the leading oil and gas producers,
Silvio Berlusconi should be remembered for more than just his passion for football and sex. He was the first European leader this century to identity illegal immigration as an existential threat to the stability and cohesion of the continent. Ironically, the former Italian prime minister’s infamous ‘Bunga-Bunga’ parties reportedly owed their name to a joke
On 12 June, Carla Foster, 44, was sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment at Stoke on Trent crown court for aborting her unborn baby using abortion pills after the legal cut-off point of 24 weeks. Here are the remarks made by the judge, the Hon. Mr Justice Pepperall, during her sentencing:
Parliamentary select committees can, on occasion, be wise, impartial and dispassionate. Unfortunately they are also vulnerable to being taken over by an unholy combination of those with an axe to grind, and members of the great and the good unwilling to rock the liberal boat. This is essentially what has happened to the Joint Committee
Wages are slowly closing the gap with inflation, up 7.2 per cent in the year to April versus inflation of 8.7 per cent. It adds up to a real-terms decrease. It’s the 18th real-terms fall in a row – though the fastest nominal rise on record outside the pandemic. The new minimum wage (up nearly
The beautiful Siwa Oasis in the far western deserts of Egypt is a remarkable place, for multiple reasons. It’s probably been inhabited, continuously, for 12,000 years. Alexander the Great came here to consult the already renowned Oracle of Amun-Ra in 332BC (some say he is buried here, as he loved Siwa so much). You can swim in Roman cisterns fed
Get ready for another 48 hours of Boris drama. The Privileges Committee is expected to publish its findings tomorrow into whether Johnson knowingly misled the House, some 14 months after the Commons voted for an inquiry into his statements on Partygate. The former PM claimed that he was advised by senior officials that both Covid rules and
You may have missed it amid all the other news of the last few days, but the aliens have apparently landed. In fact, they’ve been landing – or more commonly crashing, the clumsy green scatterbrains – for decades. And just like in the movies, secret military departments around the world have been scooping up the
Despite calls for Sturgeon to be suspended from the party, Humza Yousaf has said today that he will not do so, telling BBC Scotland that he sees ‘no reason’ to suspend a party member who has been released without charge. Not all SNP politicians agree with him, though. Angus MacNeil, the MP for Na h-Eileanan
As the second world war entered its final months, Anglo-American forces advanced into Nazi Germany to finish off Hitler’s Reich. In the East, the Red Army attacked up the Danube toward Vienna. Meanwhile, at the Yalta conference in February 1945, Stalin moved to cement his post-war political control over Eastern and central Europe. Germany’s defeat
There’s an irony in the timing of Silvio Berlusconi’s death at the age of 86, coming on the same weekend that saw the (at least temporary) exit from politics of Boris Johnson. For in many respects, the Cavaliere (‘Knight’) as he was universally known in Italy, was an even more flamboyant role model for our
Cast your minds back, to a simpler time. It was many moons ago in, er, February of this year, back when the blessed Nicola resigned as First Minister of Scotland. Back then, she was hailed by self-regarding sensibles across the land: a decent, rational progressive who got Covid right (even though England and Scotland’s death
Sound the trumpets! Get out the pitchforks! CCHQ is – allegedly – at it again! There is a great hue and cry this morning from London Tories at the final shortlist of names to run for City Hall. Members must pick from one of Daniel Korski, Susan Hall AM and Mozammel Hossain KC to be
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This morning Rishi Sunak has delivered a direct rebuke of Boris Johnson over the resignation honours row, during an interview at London Tech Week. Is this the Prime Minister going into fighting mode? Do his comments go some way towards heading off a Johnson-led rebellion? Also on the podcast, Nicola Sturgeon was released from custody
Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest by police investigating the SNP’s finances would seem to be a gift to her opponents and those of her party. Labour, in particular, saw the weekend begin with the resignation of Boris Johnson, the man who drubbed them so thoroughly in 2019, and ended with police questioning the woman who seized almost
Silvio Berlusconi, who had three spells as Italian prime minister, has died at the age of 86. Boris Johnson, at the time editor of this magazine, and Nicholas Farrell were summoned to interview him in 2003. It is twilight in Sardinia. The sun has vanished behind the beetling crags. The crickets have momentarily stopped. The
Rishi Sunak has just delivered a direct rebuke of Boris Johnson over the resignation honours row. Sunak used an interview at London Tech Week to hit back at Johnson, following the omission of Nadine Dorries from Johnson’s honours list. That decision kickstarted a chain of events that led to Dorries, Johnson and Nigel Adams quitting
With festival season just around the corner, it is fitting that Prince Harry’s Worldwide Privacy Tour is coming to a climax. The Duke played to a jam-packed High Court crowd last week. They were keen to hear the latest solipsistic stream-of-unconsciousness of our tormented troubadour. For two years now, Harry has – sometimes with his
Years of exposure to their arrogance, illegality and sense of entitlement has shown me that Italy’s cyclists are a public menace. So the news that Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has announced a crackdown on them brought a smile to my face. Transport minister Matteo Salvini told parliament that cyclists could have to wear helmets, get
Boris Johnson has always been an enthusiastic proponent of the long unfashionable ‘great man’ theory of history. As he argued in his short biography of Winston Churchill, Churchill was a living refutation of the notion that great men and women are just ‘meretricious bubbles on the vast tides of social history’, a ‘withering retort to
The arrest of Nicola Sturgeon by police investigating allegations of fraud within the SNP was hardly unexpected. After all, her husband – the party’s former chief executive, Peter Murrell – and the SNP’s past treasurer, Colin Beattie MSP, have already spent time helping officers with their enquiries. It was only a matter of time until
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Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the probe into SNP finances.A spokesperson for Nicola Sturgeon confirmed: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has today, Sunday 11th June, by arrangement with Police Scotland, attended an interview where she was to be arrested and questioned in relation to Operation Branchform. Nicola has consistently said she would co-operate with the
There was an air of inevitability about the arrest today of Nicola Sturgeon. The SNP had been braced for it. But that doesn’t make the sight of the former first minister of Scotland being taken into police custody any less extraordinary and, to many SNP observers, any more justified. Hadn’t her successor in Bute House,
Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the probe into SNP finances. A spokesperson for Nicola Sturgeon confirmed: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has today, Sunday 11th June, by arrangement with Police Scotland, attended an interview where she was to be arrested and questioned in relation to Operation Branchform. Nicola has consistently said she would co-operate with
As the chairman of the standards committee, Sir Chris Bryant doesn’t always demonstrate the highest standards. Whether it’s making false claims in the Commons about Nigel Farage or accusations about unparliamentary language, the winner of the 2022 ‘Civility in Politics Award’ can sometimes falls short of what he demands of others. An excellent demonstration of that
Shapps – ‘the world has moved on’ from Boris Johnson Boris Johnson’s explosive resignation letter has produced further turmoil in the Conservative party this week, with allies supporting his claims that the privileges committee was part of a ‘witch- hunt’ against him. The Secretary for Energy Security Grant Shapps is clearly not part of that
Amid all the excitement about peerages on Friday, it was easy to overlook the fact that, once again, Boris Johnson had managed to upstage the Northern Research Group’s annual conference. Last year it was the Zelenskyy visit; this year it was Nadine Dorries’ shock resignation. And it meant that the words of a jet-lagged Rishi
Such is Boris Johnson’s magnetic draw that his resignation gambit is still being discussed largely in terms of what it means for Boris Johnson: will he be back in the Commons next year? Could he lead his party again? But it is time to ponder what it means for Rishi Sunak, who after all is
Days before Nato leaders descend on Vilnius for the alliance’s annual summit next month, things will be afoot just across the border in Belarus. In a meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko at his summer residence in Sochi on Friday, Putin revealed that Russia will start deploying nuclear weapons to the country on the weekend
Something troubling is happening in Britain’s schools. This week, the government released its findings from the first national survey into pupil behaviour in classrooms. The results are a hard lesson to learn. But, as a teacher who has witnessed chairs being thrown and pupils urinating on teachers’ cars, it doesn’t come as a surprise. Over 40 per cent
‘Cead Mile Failte’, which means ‘a hundred thousand welcomes’, is a sentiment the Irish have long held dear. We pride ourselves on our welcoming nature, our music, our famous pub culture and the fact that the average tourist will be almost overwhelmingly love-bombed by locals who are happy to see a new face and will
Later this year, over two million Muslims will travel to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, for the Hajj, one the five pillars of Islam. Yet the historical basis for the Meccan pilgrimage is far from clear. During Muhammad’s lifetime, Mecca was literally off the map for most of the world. No pre-Islamic source so much as mentions its
Before I went to prison I thought a lot about what it would be like. Almost a year passed after I pleaded guilty to fraud and my sentencing, in February 2020. Informed by TV and film, I expected prison would be violent, dangerous and drug-filled. I was terrified. On 6 February 2020, I arrived at
