All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
On April Fool’s Day, it is all too appropriate that the latest announcement from the Duchess of Sussex has the grim air of a not particularly funny joke. Yet in her newsletter – her newsletter – Meghan has let it be known to her adoring public, or at least the Sussex Squad, that they, too, ‘can mimic the
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Britain’s real economic pain starts today. Overnight, the cost of living has jumped once again: energy, water, broadband, public transport, TV licences – all up. So too are council tax bills, capital gains, and vehicle taxes. And that’s before we even get to the slow stealth march of fiscal drag and the impact of World
The Liberal Democrats launched their local election campaign yesterday in what has become their fashion: not with a serious speech delivering a flurry of policies designed to change the country, but with Ed Davey riding around on a wooden horse, while jumping about on a toy horseracing track. Just another one of Davey’s stunts, designed
The UK should have been doing everything possible to secure an exemption from Trump’s tariffs. We could have scrapped the digital services tax that is largely levied on the American tech giants. We could have opened our agricultural markets – even to chlorinated chicken. Heck, we could have offered President Trump his own apartment in
Beware the words ‘liberty’ and ‘liberation.’ There are no end of evils committed in their names. Wednesday, according to Donald Trump, will be America’s Liberation Day, as citizens are freed from the yoke of free-ish trade. That is the day that importers who have been showering US consumers with cheap goods will be slapped with
‘Every single political group, every single national delegation, has violated the same rule that Ms. Le Pen did – the employment of staff to work on non-EP related affairs.’ That was the reaction of Connor Allen, a former Parliamentary Assistant in the European Parliament, following Marine Le Pen’s disqualification from the French presidential race. Allen is
The members of the Sentencing Council have been pushed into a humiliating climbdown – but it may well be too late to save them. The pressure rose over the weekend, with the Lord Chancellor and Prime Minister stating that they were considering emergency legislation in order to prevent the Council’s new, ‘two tier’ guidelines over Pre-Sentence
Britain’s real economic pain starts today. Overnight, the cost of living has jumped once again: energy, water, broadband, public transport, TV licences – all up. So too are council tax bills, capital gains, and vehicle taxes. And that’s before we even get to the slow stealth march of fiscal drag. Last week, the Office for
In bleak times, Brits could rely on light entertainment to get them through. George Formby and Vera Lynn made the Blitz bearable. Slade and T Rex got people through the three-day week and power cuts of the 1970s. In the good times of the money-in-your-pocket 1990s, we had equally cheery, cheeky media like The Fast
It was not quite at the eleventh hour – but it wasn’t too far off. The Sentencing Council has tonight decided to delay the introduction of so-called ‘two-tier guidance’ after being threatened with emergency legislation to block it by the government. The new guidelines, which had been due to come into force on Tuesday, would have
In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s Eid. But of course you noticed. You’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware that today marked the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. That’s because nearly all public bodies, along with a plethora of private institutions, have been busy on social media
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This week will see ‘World Tariff Day’ – as those in Westminster are not-so-excitedly calling Wednesday – when Donald Trump will announce a wave of new tariffs. Trump is expected to reveal plans for reciprocal tariffs aimed at addressing what he sees as an ongoing trade imbalance between the US and other countries. He argues
This morning’s local elections launch was everything we have come to expect from the Liberal Democrats. In leafy Henley, Ed Davey galloped around on a hobby horse, while gamely activists lustily cheered him on. Infantile? Yes. But such tactics are effective too. Sir Ed is clearly happy to reprise his role as the Mr Tumble
Justin Welby has form when it comes to defending disgraced public figures. In 2022, he had a crack at supporting Prince Andrew, arguing that he was ‘seeking to make amends’ and we should learn to be a more forgiving society. The public pushback against the then Archbishop of Canterbury was notable. This weekend, it was
When it comes to defence procurement, there are no minor decisions. Complex technology, long time frames and staggering sums of money mean that any acquisition is a significant commitment. Sometimes, though, events conspire to turn that decision into a microcosm of the hard questions facing overall defence policy. The Royal Air Force is about to
The Spectator runs the UK’s only double-blind internship scheme. We don’t ask for a CV, we don’t use your name. We don’t care where (or whether) you went to university, we anonymise your application. We give each applicant a city name, mark out of 100 and give offers to the best ones. You’ll come in for
When the Ministry of Justice announced that the government would introduce emergency legislation this week to stop ‘two tier’ Sentencing Council guidelines being implemented, the Lord Chancellor may have hoped that her swift action would bring this story to a close. But today the debate over ‘two-tier’ justice has widened, with the Telegraph reporting this
The British weather is improving – and that is bad news for Labour’s migration efforts. For the past five years, the beginning of spring has coincided with an uptick in Channel crossings; ministers expect the same again this summer. It is a phenomena that has reduced a succession of Home Secretaries to little more than
Is there anyone in the Met Police, I wonder, low-minded enough to think of things in PR terms? “I’ve got a good wheeze, guv,” I imagine some grizzled lifer piping up. “Let’s get tooled up, kick in the door of a Quaker meeting house and chuck a bunch of unarmed young women in the back
Marine Le Pen has been knocked out of the presidential race and disqualified from standing for public office after she was convicted of misappropriating public funds. She has been given a suspended prison sentence, will have to wear an ankle bracelet for two years, is barred from standing for office for five years, and has
Just hours after the US announced last week that it had reached an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to stop the conflict in the Black Sea, Moscow presented its conditions for this partial truce. Moscow said it would comply with the truce only when these stipulations are met. This list of demands Russia presented to
Marine Le Pen’s political career ended this morning when a Paris judge found her guilty of misusing EU funds. She was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, two of which are suspended and two will be served under an ankle bracelet. She was also fined €100,000 (£84,000) and disbarred from politics for five years. Few anticipated
Marine Le Pen has been declared ineligible to run for president of France. She has been given a suspended prison sentence, she will be barred from standing in elections for five years, and she will have to wear an ankle bracelet for two years. She will also have to pay a fine of €100,000 after
Sooner or later, it is going to dawn on the owners of electric cars that they have been enjoying one of the longest introductory free offers in history. The moment of realisation may even come tomorrow. That is when, for the first time, electric cars (EVs) are going to become liable to pay road tax.
Zut alors. The trial of the decade is concluding in France today, with major ramifications for the next presidential election in 2027. This morning Marine Le Pen and eight MEPs were found guilty of misappropriation of public funds. The case revolved around the alleged embezzlement of EU funds to pay RN staff for party work.
The Reform Party’s local election campaign launch in Birmingham was more rock concert than political rally. Thousands of the party’s supporters packed out the 10,000-seat arena on Friday. The Tories – and indeed the other parties – could learn a thing or two about inspiring their party faithful. The contrast between Reform’s local election campaign
Could Idris Elba, the film star and anti-knife crime campaigner, be in the running to be Labour candidate for London mayor? He is rumoured to be the party’s top choice to replace Sir Sadiq Khan, who is expected to stand down ahead of the next London mayoral election, likely to take place in 2028. Could he?
Labour MPs are still reeling from last week’s Spring Statement in which the Chancellor slashed welfare spending and made further cuts in a bid to calm both the markets and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Yet this week could prove even more seismic when it comes to the state of the public finances. On
A series of striking videos have emerged from the Gaza Strip over the last week. Crowds of Palestinians, chanting slogans against Hamas, have taken to the streets in a rare public display of dissent. Some have criticised the mainstream Western media for treating these images with restraint, claiming a missed opportunity to spotlight what could
Perhaps Donald Trump is not quite the chump the Kremlin has taken him for. Trump is ‘pissed off’ with Russia over its foot-dragging over a ceasefire in Ukraine, he told NBC’s Kristen Welker. More, Vladimir Putin’s demands that Ukraine’s government be replaced with a transitional one as the price for peace negotiations made Trump ‘very
Has a generation ever been so minutely poured over as today’s young people? From Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, his bestselling social science book detailing the impact of social media on children, to Netflix’s Adolescence, the terrifying drama depicting the impact of the manosphere on teenage boys, youngsters are under the microscope. A Channel 4
So Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, is in favour of building airports now? That’s a turnaround. In January she railed against Labour party leader Keir Starmer when he dropped his opposition to a third runway at Heathrow. To execute such a U-turn in the midst of a ‘climate emergency’ is ‘reckless, short-sighted and
A decades-long failure to take Vladimir Putin’s warnings at face value has proven dangerously counterproductive. Putin has made it clear that Nato’s eastward expansion is perceived as an existential threat to Russia, using it as justification for his invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, Keir Starmer persists in advocating for Nato peacekeepers in Ukraine – a
Justin Welby says he forgives serial abuser John Smyth On the BBC this morning, former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby gave his first interview since resigning in November last year. He told Laura Kuenssberg that he was ‘profoundly ashamed’ of his speech in the House of Lords in which he had joked that ‘there is