All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
It doesn’t look like the Chancellor will hit her target for turning the UK into the fastest-growing economy in the G7. Nor has ‘stability’ unlocked a wave of foreign investment. Instead, it has plunged. As for Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules, they have been missed almost every month since they were announced. Now there is more
Well, well, well. It transpires that in plans to make Whitehall more working class, civil service internships will only be offered to, er, students from low income families. The Cabinet Office has said that only those from ‘lower socio-economic backgrounds’ will be able to apply to Whitehall’s internship scheme – with eligibility based on, um,
The government desperately needs to save the justice system, and it believes that technology might be part of the solution. The Ministry of Justice has announced that it will be using AI to ‘stop prison violence before it happens’. The need is urgent. There were over 30,000 assaults in prisons during the 12 months to
Maybe Trump doesn’t always chicken out after all. Rapid trade deals with the UK, Japan, the EU and others in recent weeks may have given the impression that the trade war was essentially over. Today, though, comes Trump’s Ardennes offensive, with immediate tariffs of 35 per cent announced for Canada. Other countries have been given
Up until yesterday, I was beginning to feel cautiously optimistic about the new James Bond film. After a long hiatus in which the franchise’s new owners Amazon and the previous Bond producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, seemed unable to compromise, the matter was settled. Broccoli and Wilson were paid a Jeff Bezos-sized ransom,
The centre-right government of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon voted this week to overturn the previous Jacinda Ardern-led administration’s Starmeresque prohibition on new offshore oil and gas exploration. The earlier ban, enacted in 2018, was a major part of Ardern’s idealistic plan to shepherd the country of five million into a bright and limitless
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Wednesday that his Liberal government will recognise the state of Palestine at the United Nations in September, following the recent trend set by France and the UK. The decision to recognise Palestine at a time when the bloodthirsty terrorist organisation Hamas is firmly in control is abhorrent, especially
It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally realised the purpose of the Charity Commission. I’d always thought its role was to regulate charities – to check that they comply with their charitable aims (and with the law) and then to take action if they don’t. But it’s finally dawned on me that the real
Foreign relations are among the most political functions of a government. Ministers favour or disfavour other states based on calculations about which relationships might better serve the national interest. Human rights violations are condemned here, while a blind eye is turned there. Dictators are treated as democrats and democrats as dictators depending on the diplomatic
Last week, the Ukrainian parliament voted to destroy two key anti-corruption institutions. Outrage followed, and now lawmakers have been forced to cut short their summer holidays and return to Kyiv to reverse the law. More than a thousand demonstrators shouted ‘Shame!’ as the MPs drove past them to the Verkhovna Rada. In two rapid back-to-back
For the country known as the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’, the sun is only just still shining on the prime ministership of Shigeru Ishiba. When will it set? The recent legislative elections will go down in history for all the wrong reasons, marking the first time in 70 years that Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic
Wes Streeting was recently revealed to have said in private that junior doctors (or resident doctors, as they now like to be called) must be made to ‘feel pain’ for going on strike – for fear of encouraging other public sector workers to copy their example. Today comes a reminder of why he said it:
Freddy Gray speaks to Christopher Mondics who is a legal affairs writer about how the left-wing orthodoxy has destroyed Protestantism in America. They discuss the mainline denominations in America, how ‘wokeness’ infiltrated the churches and why, despite some drop off, religion is still so present in America.
13 min listen
The dispute between the British Medical Association (BMA) – a trade union for doctors – and the government continues, following the five-day strike by junior doctors. Doctors argue that pay is still far below relative levels from almost two decades ago, combined with the cost of study, the cost of living and housing crises, as
There are a number of ways to measure the public’s dissatisfaction with their politicians: party polling figures, favourability ratings and, of course, the result at the ballot box. But a less obvious indicator is baby’s names – and 2024’s most popular list is a damning indictment of Britain’s Prime Minister. It transpires that a grand
Last year, the National Theatre staged The Importance of Being Earnest in a new production by Max Webster. It attracted mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, who applauded its determination to do something new – to re-queer Wilde for a younger audience, if you like – but also dared to suggest that Ncuti Gatwa,
Silly season is upon us, as MPs jet off on holiday (or back to their constituencies) to get a well-needed break from Westminster. Sir Keir Starmer had to cancel his summer holiday last year after riots broke out across the country – but hopefully this year the Prime Minister will manage to enjoy some time
They face higher National Insurance charges, increased business rates, crippling energy costs, and if they hire anyone: crushing employment rights. Still, never mind about any of that. The Prime Minister has today come up with a plan to finally show that he is on the side of small businesses and entrepreneurs. He will crack down
Friedrich Merz may have restored Germany’s diplomatic credibility internationally, but his latest foray into Middle Eastern statecraft shows the Chancellor has fundamentally misunderstood both the nature of the Palestinian project and Germany’s own moral obligations. Like Keir Starmer, by threatening to recognise Palestinian statehood if Israel fails to meet certain conditions, Merz has managed the
On Wednesday at Liverpool Crown Court, Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, one of the two brothers accused of the Manchester Airport attack last July, was found guilty of assaulting two female police officers, as well as a member of the public. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on a charge that Amaaz and his brother,
Yesterday, the High Court allowed Palestine Action to challenge the Home Secretary’s decision to ban it. Since its proscription, under terrorism legislation, it has been an offence to be a member of the group, or to invite support for it. There is absolutely no need for peaceful protestors to associate themselves with a group concerned
Britain intends to follow France, and now Canada, in recognising a Palestinian state in September. I’ve already set out the practical and theoretical problems inherent in such a policy, not least the absence of a functioning Palestinian state to recognise. But we shouldn’t lose sight of another effect of this policy: in recognising a state
The most remarkable thing about today’s air traffic control failure, which has led to at least 45 flights being cancelled and many more disrupted, is how few people are bothering even to question whether this could be the work of hackers employed by a foreign power. In recent years almost every systems failure that afflicts
20 min listen
Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney unveiled his strategy for pursuing a second independence referendum this week, arguing that an SNP majority at next year’s Holyrood elections is the only way to guarantee it. This is seen as an attempt to put Scottish independence back on the table as well as combat the rising popularity of
There comes a moment for many soldiers – and most politicians – when you realise the battle you think you’re fighting isn’t the one your leaders are waging. That moment came for me watching Kemi Badenoch tell Sky News’s Trevor Phillips there are real differences between Reform UK and the Conservatives. She was right. The
Reform UK has today unveiled its latest defector. Adam Holloway served as the Conservative MP for Gravesham in Kent from 2005 until 2024. A former soldier, he focused heavily on military matters in the Commons and served in the Whips’ Office in the governments of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. His decision to switch parties
As anyone who has endured a pointless argument on the internet probably knows, there’s a decidedly useful rule for such situations. It’s called Godwin’s Law. Coined in 1990 by American lawyer Mike Godwin, in its most well-known version it states that in any sufficiently lengthy online row, the first person to invoke the Nazis –
After Reform promised to repeal the Online Safety Act, it didn’t take long for Labour to defend internet censorship. ‘And get rid of child protections online? Madness,’ Labour MP Chris Bryant tweeted. ‘Why would anyone want to grant strangers and paedophiles unfettered online access to children?’ asked Mike Tapp. Science Minister Peter Kyle went one
Watch out, John Swinney – Donald Trump is, it seems, eyeing up your job. During the US President’s trip up north to visit his Turnberry golf course and open his new ‘Mona Lisa’ course in Aberdeenshire, Trump was full of praise for bonnie Scotland and its people, going so far as to single out the
We often think of Sir Keir Starmer as the dull bureaucrat, all at sea in politics – a Prime Minister who is elevated from the concerns of so many of his colleagues, and who just can’t relate to them. Starmer is certainly a leader on the defensive: pushed around by his backbenchers, rather than the man
Back to Gary Neville, the left-wing right-back who has never met a camera he didn’t like. Just when we thought he’d disappeared from our screens for good, the lefty ex-footballer has reared his head again to take a pop at, er, Labour. That’s a turnaround for the books! Speaking to Sky News this morning, the card-carrying
However bad you think the rape gang scandal is, it keeps getting worse. Yesterday, the BBC published a detailed investigation which stated that ‘five women who were exploited by grooming gangs in Rotherham as children say they were also abused by police officers in the town at the time.’ The report, based on interviews with