All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Back in February, Olaf Scholz gave one of the most important speeches in his country’s post-Cold War history. In it, the German Chancellor announced that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had produced a zeitenwende, or turning point, and that German policy must adapt. No longer could his nation live on the so-called peace dividend that the West has
The Bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, has come out in favour of gay marriage – the first senior bishop to do so. He has apologised to gay Christians that the Church has dragged its feet, and that his own views have been slow to change. He is right to call for change. But I don’t
We can be grateful for small mercies. 4 November 2022 will go down as the day when a presenter on the Today programme finally challenged a dodgy statistic trying to blame economic collapse on Brexit. The statistic in question was put forward by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney in an interview with the
The new series of I’m a Celebrity airs on Sunday and the producers have done a decent job of making sure all of Westminster will be watching. Some contestants bring laughter to the jungle; others have star power. Matt Hancock though will be bringing his humility, judgement and expertise in national humiliation when he appears
A friend of mine works in a surgery in London where lots of asylum seekers go for treatment. The caseload is a snapshot of current trends in illegal immigration, and at present that means lots of Albanians. Yep, that’s the migrant influx across the Channel we’ve been hearing so much about, and which the Albanian
Oh dear. It seems that another hard-of-thinking Corbynista has shown themselves up again. Labour has been enjoying the chance to make political capital out of Suella Braverman’s current woes, with the Home Secretary on the ropes amid an avalanche of questions about her judgement and competence. But never doubt the ability of Sir Keir’s barmy
At the end of August I warned in The Spectator that, in Pakistan politics, ‘death by assassination is always a risk.’ And so yesterday’s attempted assassination of Imran Khan – while shocking – should have come as no surprise. Perhaps the bigger surprise was that he survived. As Imran himself stated immediately afterwards, ‘Allah has given me
The Online Safety Bill became a lightning rod for criticism during the Conservative party leadership contest over the summer. A wide array of candidates, from Kemi Badenoch to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, promised to take another look at how the legislation, and its attempt to crack down on online harms, could interfere with free
Anyone with a mortgage will be in serious trouble. Small businesses will go to the wall. Demand will be hammered. And the cost of government debt will soar. After the Bank of England upped interest rates yesterday to 3 per cent, the highest level in more than a decade, there was one point on which
Another day, another success in the courts for Dutch environmentalists. This week, the country’s highest court, the Council of State, decided that building is no longer exempt from EU environment protection rules. In one of the world’s most densely-populated countries, where new homes are badly needed – and a 900,000 home building spree had just been announced – this spells trouble: within hours, building
Some rare cheer: millennials are divorcing less than their parents. This might be cause for celebration if the long-term prognosis for marriage wasn’t so poor. Last year, divorces spiked by ten per cent: 113,505 couples broke up in 2021, compared to 103,592 divorces in 2020, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. Divorce
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Alongside an interest rate hike of 3 per cent, the Bank of England have today warned the economy will ‘be in recession for a long period’. How much of the blame can we place on Truss’s economic policy? What will this recession look like? Also on the podcast, Rishi Sunak plans to remove the ‘legal
Alongside a rather defensive interest rate hike today, the Bank of England unveiled some alarming forecasts for economic growth. The BoE predicts the economy will be in ‘recession for a long period’ – until mid-2024 – with inflation peaking around 11 per cent. While the Bank is predicting that the recession will be shallower than
This afternoon, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz goes to China. His one-day visit to Beijing is the first by a democratic leader since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic nearly three years ago. But before he has even touched down on Chinese soil, Scholz’s trip is going down badly back home. ‘It’s the wrong visit at
Is oil extraction a form of environmental vandalism which threatens life on the planet, or a source of revenue which could propel Scotland and its people to new levels of wealth? It is little use asking Nicola Sturgeon: she appears to believe it is both. Three years ago, when striking schoolchildren and Extinction Rebellion were
After yesterday’s fourth consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate rise from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England has finally decided to follow suit. This afternoon the BoE announced a rate hike of 0.75 points too, the first rise of this size in 33 years. This takes UK interest rates from 2.25 per cent up to 3
For some time now, The Spectator has been highlighting the danger posed by the so-called Online Safety Bill which would order social media firms to censor content regarded as ‘legal but harmful’. This was, in effect, a censorship diktat. Rather than have Orwellian figures employed by the government to censor articles, the Online Safety Bill
Tory MPs often like to talk a tough game on China – but is it Labour who are now making the running? While the Conservatives are often at pains to wrap themselves in the flag and bang the drum for King and country, Mr S can’t help but notice in recent weeks how frequently members
The new Prime Minister has said this week that NHS funding will be ‘prioritised’ when it comes to spending decisions, while NHS bosses seek up to £7 billion in extra funding. That is wrong. In 2000, government health expenditure in the UK was equivalent to about 14 per cent of total public spending. By 2009, as the Labour government
Europe is lost in space. Ever since the Soviets orbited Yuri Gagarin and America landed men on the moon, Europe has proclaimed the ambition to compete on the final frontier. More than half a century later, Europe is unable to compete even with India, as in October it became incapable of launching its own payloads
Israel’s longest serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is back. His return confirms once again an iron clad rule of Israeli politics: never write Bibi off. A few years ago, his opponents briefly thought they had vanquished him for good. Netanyahu lost an election in 2021 and two great American supporters, the late media tycoon Sheldon Adelson
Since being helped out of the Great Hall of the People at the end of the 20th Party Congress, Hu Jintao has not been seen in public. Nor is he likely to be. Retired senior party officials rarely are. Apart from at congresses and big party or state occasions, such as the 100th anniversary of the founding
What’s the most important story in Britain over the last 25 years? The financial crisis? Brexit? These events both changed our country dramatically. But neither has had such a big impact on the make-up of Britain than immigration. In 1991, Britain’s foreign-born residents made up 6.7 per cent of the population. In 2021, one in six people (16.8 per cent) living in England and Wales were
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Rishi Sunak has said that he will now attend the Cop 27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, which begins on Sunday. What’s behind the U-turn, and should we expect more policy reversals from the new PM? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth. Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Max Jeffery.
Some people accuse millennials of being ungrateful and entitled. Sadly, many of our celebrities do little to disabuse the public of this notion. Take the young cast of the Harry Potter films. Despite being, let’s face it, an assemblage of rather ropey talents who would be nowhere without the series, they have taken in recent
Labour MP Chris Bryant could not have been clearer: the ugly scenes that unfolded last month in parliament during the vote on fracking amounted to bullying: ‘I saw members being physically manhandled into another Lobby and being bullied. If we want to stand up against bullying in this house, of our staff, we have to stop
The small boats have landed. PMQs was dominated by the migration issue and the flotillas of dinghies struggling across the channel each day. So far this year over 40,000 doughty oarsmen have braved the seas in inflatable rafts. And they’re not just desperate to flee France with its rude waiters, pretentious language and over-complicated cheese
There is no such thing as free money. This was learned the hard way last month, when investors made clear after Liz Truss’s mini-Budget that the era of cheap money was over. Mass borrowing for day-to-day spending was going to have a big premium attached: a bill so large that no government would want to
Short questions are always best at PMQs – and Keir Starmer’s first one was very short indeed. He asked Rishi Sunak if the asylum system is broken as the Home Secretary had said – and if so, who broke it? (I wonder if Starmer got the idea from Nick Robinson’s interview with Sunak over the
Whoever Rishi Sunak is taking his advice from, evidently it isn’t me. Last Friday I wrote here supporting his decision to skip COP27 in Egypt, arguing that it is futile trying to persuade the big carbon emitters like China and the US to follow our example and make a legal commitment to eliminating net carbon
A report published today by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services for England and Wales should come as no shock to those of us that campaign to end male violence, such as rape and domestic abuse. The report was commissioned following the case of Sarah Everard who was kidnapped, raped and murdered
Just over a week into Rishi Sunak’s premiership and the new prime minister has performed his first government U-turn. After Downing Street initially said Sunak would not attend the COP27 climate summit as he was too busy preparing for the 17 November Autumn statement, he will now go. Announcing the decision on social media, Sunak
Could it really be over? As Israeli political reporters stand before their cameras or hunch over their keyboards, their brains screaming with caffeine, that is the one question they’re asking. As are millions of voters, who remarkably turned out on Tuesday in impressive numbers, despite their election fatigue. As I write this, there are still