All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Nearly every Tory MP I have spoken to this morning has used the word ‘exhausted’ to describe their mood. They are tired of this scandal and worried about how long it may have to run. Their general view on yesterday was that Boris Johnson did ‘enough to get through’. But there are, as Katy notes,
This time last year, Netflix was fêted as the future of television. Its subscriptions grew by 30 per cent over 2020 as people bought in entertainment during lockdown. Netflix always warned that its growth would slow afterwards and the market seemed to accept that. But its shares have halved since their mid-November peak after a radical
Boris Johnson last night addressed the 1922 committee, ahead of Thursday’s crunch vote on whether to conduct a parliamentary investigation into his handling of partygate. The Prime Minister received a warm reception from Tory MPs but many are still refusing him to back him publicly. Of the 357 Conservative MPs in the House, fewer than
It has been a truism since the nineteenth century that international affairs do not decide French elections. Yet last week, only three days into the run-off campaign, Marine Le Pen gave a press conference setting out her foreign and defence policy vision. At heart, it’s a classic Gaullist project. Even if she loses, it could
After Boris Johnson faced a hostile response in the chamber from opposition MPs over his partygate fine, on Tuesday evening the Prime Minister addressed his own MPs in a meeting organised by the government whips. Ahead of the meeting, Johnson had been dealt a blow when former chief whip Mark Harper said he no longer had
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Boris Johnson faced MPs today for the first time since he was issued a fine for breaking lockdown rules. He apologised in the Commons, but maintained that he did not know he was breaking any rules at the time. Is that enough? Katy Balls speaks to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth.
Boris Johnson bundled his Commons apology for breaking Covid laws together with an update on Ukraine because he wanted to try to draw a line under the matter. He spent a couple of minutes reiterating his apology that he’d already given in response to his fixed penalty notice, before performing a handbrake turn and saying:
The Tory party has always had an ‘awkward squad’ of MPs ready to stir up trouble against their party leadership at the slightest pretext. Its members used to be right-wingers marked out by their penchant for extravagant attire – stripey blazers and bow ties loomed large – and their failure ever to get near a career
It never rains for No. 10 but it pours. After both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were last week fined in recess for breaching lockdown laws, the Prime Minister returned to parliament today to atone for his sins. And it’s not been a happy afternoon for Johnson as opposition leader after opposition leader denounced him
Colombo, Sri Lanka Some 13 years after the end of a civil war that saw 100,000 deaths, Sri Lanka is once again on the cusp of serious violence. Earlier today, the police opened fire on protesters in the town of Rambukkana. One person has died and at least ten people are said to be in
Why is Priti Patel trying to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda? Is it to stop so many of them drowning in the Channel after their people smugglers’ inflatable boats have sunk? Is it to help develop the Rwandan economy? Or is this purely a political move? The Home Secretary naturally claimed the first two
All eyes are on the Commons this afternoon for Boris Johnson’s imminent statement on partygate. But before the fun starts at five, Priti Patel offered up an appetiser to whet the appetite, appearing before MPs to justify her new-fangled Rwanda immigration policy. The Home Secretary was in a buoyant mood, calmly rebutting the attacks of
For some time now Mr S has been concerned about the assorted dregs gathering around the House of Commons. Badly dressed, often heckling, always angry and rarely lucid. No, not the SNP’s parliamentary party but rather the various bands of demonstrators who seem to congregate outside the gates of the Palace of Westminster to protest a smorgasbord
Belfast, Northern Ireland Phillip Brett was just nine years old the night a neighbour called to say his brother, Gavin, had been shot. Their father raced through the streets of their Belfast estate, arriving just in time to cradle his eldest son as he died. The teenager had been celebrating a friend’s birthday at the
The Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has just confirmed that MPs will be able to debate a motion on whether Boris Johnson misled parliament over whether Covid laws were broken in Downing Street. Lindsay Hoyle said that Keir Starmer will be able to table the motion for debate on Thursday, but it is not clear yet what that
It’s a fact of life that at any given time, a woman’s social media messages will be filled with three things. Young Ponzi schemers asking if you want to earn £500-a-month from the comfort of your own sofa; an unknown jewellery brand with 15 followers begging you to be their new ‘brand ambassador’; and blurry photos
All bets were off at the Hippodrome casino last night as London’s nerdiest politicos piled into Leicester Square to watch the first For the Many live recording. For those unfamiliar with this Westminster institution, it is nothing but an hour of smut and innuendo masquerading as a political podcast. Carry On Up The Commons, if you will. And hosts Iain Dale
Tulagi, a 1.5 square mile island in the South Pacific’s Solomon Islands, is perhaps the most remote place on the planet to have a repeat role in world history. On 4 May 1942, Emperor Hirohito’s Japanese forces landed on Tulagi – then the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate – to attempt to cut
Much has been made of what Putin has in common with Stalin. Both leaders brook no dissent: they subordinate truth to ideology and preserve their lies through terror. Yet such obvious parallels between these Russian leaders, past and present, matter less than their differences. Indeed, when trying to work out what makes Putin tick, there’s
Boris Johnson will face his party today for the first time since he was issued with a fixed penalty notice by the police for breaching Covid rules during lockdown. As MPs return to parliament following the Easter recess, the Prime Minister is due to give a statement this afternoon updating the House in which he
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen clash tomorrow evening in an eagerly anticipated live television debate. The president has been accused of dodging the presidential campaign but it doesn’t seem to have harmed his chances of re-election, with the latest poll giving him a handsome ten point lead over his rival. If Le Pen is
It had been, for a change, a good few days for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Not only have they managed to make an atypically low-profile and successful visit to Windsor Castle for an air-clearing meeting with the Queen – which, unlike virtually ever other appointment they have had in recent years, appeared in
We have yet to see the first sample papers for the new GCSE in natural history to be announced by education secretary Nadhim Zahawi this week, but the fact that it has come about after lobbying by Caroline Lucas, Chris Packham and other green activists is a pretty good guide as to what might be
Easter Sunday. I went to church for the first time in ages. The little parish church has stood for 900 years in a village near where my parents live. It’s where my father James, who died last week aged 75, will be buried. It was a friendly, pomp-free service of the pragmatic sort – dogs
The blessed Nicola has been out on the campaign trail in recent days, spreading the good news and decrying that wicked Boris Johnson’s non-believing band of heretic Tories. The bad king’s woes down in London have proved a godsend to Saint Nicola the nationalist, ever eager to lead her people to that land of milk and
Is the tank still the ‘king of the battlefield’? The sight of burnt out Russian vehicles littering the highways outside of Kyiv has led some to question their effectiveness in modern-day warfare. But don’t be deceived: the death of the tank has been greatly exaggerated. There is a reason, after all, why Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is pleading
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter sermon was quite something; forcefully delivered, arrestingly put. At the heart of it was his corruscating criticism of the Government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda; it was framed to capture the news agenda and released in advance of its delivery. ‘The details [of the plan] are for politics
A shoot-out in downtown Sacramento, California, at two in the morning on Sunday, April 3 left six people dead and injured at least 12. It might or might not have been gang warfare. The facts are still unfolding. One of the suspected shooters, Smiley Martin, 27, was out of jail on early release against the
On the eve of Ramadan at the start of this month, the epic Waaheen market at the centre of Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, caught fire. The flames engulfed the entire market and took 12 hours to put out. There were no fatalities—it was Friday, the holy day of prayer for Muslims, and the market
It was a day of protest in Paris on Saturday and I made it to four of the five demonstrations. I missed Extinction Rebellion’s morning outing to the boulevard Strasbourg Saint-Denis in the centre of the city. Once there hundreds staged a sit-in and blocked traffic with bales of hay for most of the day.
A common theme among America’s spree killers is a fondness for rambling online. Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger griped about his inability to get a girlfriend. Troy Sesler made videos about anime that grew increasingly dark before he flipped out and killed his family. Randy Stair made numerous sketches and vlogs detailing his fondness for
A world away from the stupendous horror perpetrated by Russian forces in Bucha and Kramatorsk, a parallel conflict is being grittily fought in quite other theatres. La Scala and The Metropolitan Opera are two of them. Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Putin’s most favoured conductor, is at the heart of the crossfire. His overseas contracts went up
