All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Farming is hard, and sheep farming especially so. Sheep are endearing but awkward creatures, generally looking for the most inconvenient way to die. The weather is usually miserable. Lambing is an annual torment. The government is always dreaming up new ways to make things harder. In a real sense, I’m writing this because sheep farming
On both sides of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea, loudspeakers blasting news, music, weather reports, wailing sounds, or anti-DPRK messaging have formed a regular part of life along one of the world’s most militarised borders. Yet the South Korean government’s decision to remove these loudspeakers, which commenced on Monday, sets a
It was a hairy situation. At a drab corporate dinner in a posh hotel basement, one of my fellow diners grew increasingly prickly. My publication had committed some slight against him – perhaps passing him over for one of our phoney awards, more likely misspelling his name. Unassuaged by my non-apologies, the fur was beginning
In the UK today, hold the wrong view and you’re cast as beyond the pale. Brexiteers are bigots. If you oppose mass immigration, you’re a far right racist. Among parts of the political class and commentariat, these labels are considered the consensus. The political and media establishment have crafted a narrative in which dissent from
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has posed a fascinating counter-factual question about our Prime Minister: what if Keir Starmer rather than Winston Churchill had been Prime Minister in World War Two? Huckabee’s characterisation of him as the arch appeaser may be a little harsh, but it does have the ring of truth The
It is generally agreed that Britain needs to improve its China capabilities. That a greater understanding of Chinese culture, history and language is needed in the UK was one of the few tangible findings from the government’s ‘China audit’, the bare bones of which were published earlier this year. But what happens when institutions responsible
My Oxfordshire taproom used to sing on Fridays: carpenters, teachers and office clerks, knackered from the week’s graft, would elbow for pints in a natural democracy of nods and grins. The bar was a grand leveller – toff or tiler, all waited their turn and banter stitched the room together. Post-pandemic, that tune has gone
The first Cold War thriller I ever read – before MacLean, before Le Carre, before Clancy – was Biggles Buries a Hatchet, from 1958, in which James Bigglesworth MC, DSO, of the Air Police, heads for Siberia to spring his nemesis Von Stalhein from a Soviet prison camp. The wily old German had first crossed
I may be the last person in the UK to have seen the 1999 film Human Traffic (rereleased last month). Justin Kerrigan’s inspired, low-budget comedy – which I watched this week – is about a group of clubbers and ecstasy-heads out for a night’s fun in Cardiff. Starring actors like John Simm, Shaun Parkes and
The golden era of flying is over: rowdy passengers, greedy airlines and miserable airports make travelling nowadays rather grim. The Air India crash in June, which claimed the lives of all but one of the 242 people aboard and 19 others on the ground, has also made many passengers rather jittery, not least because questions
17 min listen
Does – or did – Nigel Farage have a woman problem? ‘Around me there’s always been a perception of a laddish culture,’ he tells political editor Tim Shipman, for the cover piece of the Spectator this week. In last year’s election, 58 per cent of Reform voters were men. But, Shipman argues, ‘that has begun
You truly could not make it up. Kneecap, who spent the past three months whingeing and complaining about their gigs being cancelled because of their views on Gaza, have signed an open letter demanding a small community festival be shut down. All that guff about the sanctity of free speech and artistic expression. It was
Another day, another scandal in Britain’s collapsing public sector. Today’s concerns the country’s courts. A BBC investigation has turned up an internal report, not for public circulation, from HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) about an IT bug that deleted or hid information on hundreds of pending cases. The problem itself was bad enough: Britain’s state
28 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to podcast host and commentator Candace Owens about her story investigating whether Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte is a man, why she remains firm on her views about Gaza, and how Trump is doing in his presidency.
A uniformed group of volunteers is planning to patrol the mean streets of Bournemouth in response to a recent surge in crime in the once sleepy south coast retirement haven. More than 200 have signed up so far, including ex-forces personnel. They will be equipped with radios, stab vests, and body cameras and have promised
‘Spain is and will be forever the land of Christian people’. These are not, as you might think, the words of a marauding conquistador, but of a spokesperson for Spain’s right wing Vox party. They were posted on X this week, in response to a ban on Muslim religious celebrations in the southeastern town of
18 min listen
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has given a wide-ranging interview to the BBC’s Amol Rajan in which she touched upon her Nigerian upbringing, her feeling of identity and she even revealed she called out a peer for cheating at school. But perhaps her most interesting comments came when she revealed how she lost her belief in
If you hadn’t heard of Rushanara Ali until her resignation yesterday, then good for you. If you still hadn’t until now, even better. With her departure British politics is robbed of one of its most promising minnows. With Ali’s departure, British politics is robbed of one of its most promising minnows The former homelessness minister
First came the Starmer-Macron handshake, sealing the UK-France migrant treaty. Following that was a series of Home Office stories about crackdowns on illegal working and smuggler gang adverts, filling the sleepy summer news pages. Then, the 21-page treaty itself was unveiled. And, finally, on Thursday morning Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, sombrely declared that the
Hans Christian Andersen didn’t write a fairy tale called ‘The Ugly, Pornographic Duckling’, yet his stories often feature alienation, exile and the struggle for acceptance. ‘Ugly and pornographic’, meanwhile, is how Politiken newspaper’s art critic, Mathias Kryger, has described the ‘Big Mermaid’: a 14-ton, 13-foot tall, notably buxom statue which between 2006 and 2018 stood on
Data published yesterday has piled yet more pressure on the government to change its asylum policy. Analysis by the Telegraph has shown that 211 people living in asylum seeker hotels have been charged with crimes since the beginning of the year. This includes eight who have been charged with 12 sex offences against children, 32 sexual
As the issue of immigration continues to assert itself as one of the top concerns facing the country, Brits are increasingly concerned about small boats crossings in the English Channel. So much so that some people have started seeing migrant crossing where there, er, aren’t any at all. Take for example ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe,
Will yesterday’s cut in interest rates bring relief to the government in its economic problems, offering a breather to people who feel that their living standards are declining? That is unlikely for two reasons. Firstly, people buying homes with mortgages – the most obvious beneficiaries of a cut in interest rates – are more likely
When I joined the House of Commons Clerk’s Department 20 years ago, there was a helpful list of formerly common phrases which were no longer to be used. Among them was ‘Spanish practices’, that arch description often applied to irregular or restrictive workplace arrangements, which I suspect had hardly been spotted in the wild for
In a decision of historic weight, the Israeli government has formally approved a plan to expand its military operation and establish full control over the Gaza Strip. This has come despite the opposition of Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, who raised pointed warnings during a meeting that began at 6:00 pm Israeli time last night
Kate Forbes’s announcement on Monday that she would be standing down as an MSP next year caught most people – her political allies, former backers, current colleagues – by surprise. She decided to make her intentions clear a few days prior to her attendance at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, where she was set to be
Britain is in a terrible state (you may have noticed). We have a busted economy, a broken social contract and also what are euphemistically known as ‘community tensions’. But Reform is riding to our rescue. Apparently. Now if I’m drowning I’ll grab gladly at any piece of passing driftwood, however unpromisingly flimsy. But I’m afraid
A relatively quiet recess has been enlivened by a government resignation. Rushanara Ali quit as Homelessness Minister after accusations of hypocrisy by the i newspaper over how she handled rent increases on a house she owns in east London. Ali ended her tenants’ fixed term contract to sell up but then re-listed the house for
The problem of evil has stumped some of the greatest thinkers in the history of human philosophy and theology. It was, however, a cinch for Kemi Badenoch. In an interview designed to make the sometimes aloof Leader of the Opposition seem more relatable, Mrs Badenoch described how the case of Josef Fritzl made her ‘reject
There’s no rest, they say, for the wicked. Nobody, however, ever deigns to inform us what amount of downtime will be allocated to the incompetent. If the presence of Rachel Reeves in Wales this afternoon is anything to go by, they don’t get a great deal of rest either. In the midst of the summer
It wouldn’t be recess without a sleaze scandal, eh? Now Sir Keir Starmer’s wife is in the limelight, after it transpired that she has accepted yet another set of freebies. Victoria Starmer accepted free tickets to Royal Ascot worth hundreds – almost exactly a year on from when Lady Starmer and the Prime Minister were
15 min listen
Some excitement on Threadneedle Street today after the Bank of England cut interest rates to 4 per cent. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has just voted five to four – after a revote – for what is the third cut this year. This takes interest rates back down to levels not seen since the