All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
12 min listen
Keir Starmer put in a weak performance in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Isabel Hardman says on today’s podcast. Is Labour’s fence sitting and vagueness on the strikes starting to hurt them? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Cindy Yu.
Keir Starmer had an unusually weak Prime Minister’s Questions today. He chose to attack Rishi Sunak on the nurses’ strikes, insisting that the Prime Minister could avert the walkouts, which begin tomorrow, by having a meeting with the nurses. ‘All the Prime Minister needs to do to stop that is to open the door and
If an election were held tomorrow, not only would Labour win, they would bury the Tories with a landslide majority of 314 seats, leaving the Conservatives with a forlorn rump of just 69. That’s the verdict of an opinion poll from Savanta. Even for an embattled Tory party, the verdict is notably grim. According to
The Scottish Government has courted controversy with its social policy agenda: sweeping hate crime legislation, and gender recognition changes that undermine women’s rights. But what’s coming down the tracks at Holyrood looks even more troubling. In fact, the next item on the agenda could be one of the most controversial seen since devolution. Following activists’ demands, politicians’ promises
Has inflation peaked? The Consumer Prices Index fell to 10.7 per cent last month, down from 11.1 per cent in October. This follows predictions that October would be the month in which inflation peaked – so this morning’s figures from the Office for National Statistics will raise hopes that the worst may be behind us. This
I hope that the Argentinian national team (also known as Lionel Messi) will win its third (or first?) World Cup on Sunday. But even if it doesn’t, the team’s legendary number ten has surely achieved that rare and precious accolade – earned by Pele in 1970 and Maradona in 1986 – of so dominating a
The latest Twitter Files revelations are the most disturbing yet. They show how the employees of this private company, not voted for by a single American, conspired to censor the democratically elected President of the United States. It was nothing short of corporate tyranny, a sinister assault on public life by social media suits most
15 min listen
Rishi Sunak today revealed a plan he says will tackle illegal immigration. ‘Enough is enough’, he said. The asylum backlog of 150,000 will be cleared by the end of next year, and the government will do a deal with Albania to return people from the country. Will it work? Max Jeffery speaks to Fraser Nelson
Trains, hospitals and schools – there are few aspects of British life left untouched by the winter of discontent. And now Steerpike hears rumblings of industrial discontent at the heart of British democracy itself: in the Houses of Parliament itself. Long-suffering staffers have had to endure months of vermin-infested kitchens, crumbling masonry and asbestos aplenty.
The corruption scandal embroiling the European parliament and the European Union’s institutions at the highest level is shaping up to be its biggest to date. Belgian police have arrested Eva Kaili, a vice-president of the parliament, and three others in an investigation into alleged bribes involving spectacular sums in cash, allegedly from Qatar, to influence EU
Rishi Sunak today gave a potentially game-changing statement in the Commons, finally committing the Conservatives to effective action when it comes to combating illegal immigration. The five-point plan unveiled by Sunak for addressing the issue of the Channel boats in the short-term will garner most of the headlines, but it is small beer compared to
Rishi Sunak’s latest promises on asylum and immigration suggest the PM has learned very little from his Tory forebears. Ken Clarke used to compare eurosceptic right-wing Tories to crocodiles circling the prime ministerial boat. Most Tory leaders chose to feed the crocodiles buns to keep them happy. But what happens when you run out of buns? David
It will come as no comfort to those who have already lost fortunes, but it is remarkable how resilient the crypto currency market has been this year, especially following the collapse of the FTX exchange in November. But if the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas and the request by US authorities for
Is unemployment beginning to bite? Or are the workless trying to rejoin the economy? That’s the key question after the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 per cent today. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics this morning reveal that even though unemployment is up, ‘economic inactivity’ is starting to fall, having previously grown by
Jacinda Ardern’s political philosophy is simple. When the New Zealand PM was asked to explain the qualities that led to her success, she said she valued: ‘Kindness, and not being afraid to be kind, or to focus on, or be really driven by empathy’. But does Ardern practise what she preaches? Not so if a
Have you heard about the British citizen facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in a Chinese prison? Perhaps not, because the case – the cause, indeed – of Jimmy Lai has not attracted quite the level of attention in this country that you might expect. Last week, Lai – founder of
Britain’s railways have ground to a halt for a second day running – but this time it’s strike action, rather than snow, that is causing the chaos. Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), has been out on the airwaves again justifying why workers are right
If you’ve managed to avoid the dimly-lit pictures of people’s back gardens, count yourself lucky. Yes: snow has arrived in the capital. The Foreign Secretary made a point of thanking London-based diplomats for showing up to his speech in Westminster yesterday – or, as he put it, ‘battling through’ two or three inches of snow
‘All my life,’ Elton John told the Twittersphere last Friday afternoon, ‘I’ve tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world. I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish
Poor old King Charles has had a tricky start to his reign. Harry and Meghan’s tell-all Netflix show, in which they drop various ‘truth bombs’ about their time as serving royals, continues to dominate the headlines. The Royals are also recovering from the fallout from the drama sparked by Lady Hussey, the Queen’s long-serving lady
Finally, good news on the strike front: NHS staff in Scotland have decided against walking out after voting to accept an improved pay offer from the Scottish government. The deal means healthcare workers will get pay rises ranging from £2,205 to £2,751. But this isn’t an offer to end all strike threats yet – nurses
Oh dear. It seems that Matt Hancock has been called out on his Covid record, again. In his newly-published ‘Pandemic Diaries,’ the former Health Secretary appears to pin the blame on the National Archives in Kew for the late publication of restrictions introducing the ‘rule of six’ on 13 September 2020. Hancock suggested that the
10 min listen
Rishi Sunak has now served as prime minister longer than his predecessor Liz Truss, but that doesn’t mean that it’s all plane sailing. Former Home Secretary Priti Patel has backed a campaign to ‘restore democracy’ in the Conservative party. Should the government be worried? Also on the podcast, as Rishi prepares to set out his
A right royal row blew up this year over which of the great and the good were eligible to attend the Accession Council to confirm Prince Charles as King. According to the Mail on Sunday, in April Richard Tilbrook – clerk to the body of the Monarch’s advisers – ‘sparked fury’ by revealing that only
Four people associated with the European parliament have been arrested in what seems to be the beginning of a major corruption scandal. The political career of Eva Kaili, a Greek politician and one of the vice presidents of the European parliament, has already been derailed. She has been suspended from office by the parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola –
I have spent many, many years dutifully squeezing into pubs full of rapt, drinking men giving excessively loud voice to their feelings of either atavistic triumphalism or atavistic rage – all accompanied by the odd rattle of broken glass and flare-ups of intra-man hostility. But last weekend, as I dutifully prepared to leave my warm
The first part of the Harry and Meghan show on Netflix was something of a let down. Over three tedious hours, there was a lot of sentiment and half-veiled digs at the Royal Family, as well as some philosophising about racism and Brexit, but millions of viewers got to the end of the third hour
Earlier this month, the Rother Valley Labour party made its pick for the next election, selecting Dominic Beck as its candidate for the Tory-held seat. Who he, you might ask? Well thanks to the work of GB News’ documentary-maker Charlie Peters, we now know. Beck is a local politician who has served on Rotherham Metropolitan
Oxford councillors are feeling rattled by opposition to their proposal to divide the city into six districts and to limit the passage of road traffic between them. The city and county councils put out a press release last week accusing residents of spreading ‘misinformation’ about the scheme. It complained of abuse received from members of
Christmas is just two weeks away, and with it comes an inauspicious anniversary. It will be three years since the Boxing Day massacre, when the kimono-wearing, baseball-bat wielding KC Jolyon Maugham brutally beat a fox to death, incurring much mockery and the opprobrium of the RSPCA for his boastful tweets about the slaying. Maugham –
Two weeks ago, like most people, I hadn’t so much as heard of ChatGPT. By last week, I was hearing of practically nothing but. After OpenAI released its large-language model chatbot for the public to play with, it passed a million users in five days flat. Hype poured in. Columnists asked it to write the opening paragraphs of their columns about ChatGPT –
Have the prospects of a recession been overstated? That would be the most optimistic reading of this morning’s update from the Office for National Statistics, which released the latest set of monthly GDP data showing 0.5 per cent growth in October. This is the biggest monthly rise since January, when the economy was bouncing back