All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Where have all the Bad Girls gone? They used to rock up regularly at the Love Island villa – now in its eighth and rather underwhelming season – only to find themselves on the EasyJet back to Blighty after having full sex on prime time TV. (One of them, Zara Holland, being stripped of her
Since the outbreak of war in February there has been an overwhelming focus on the historical links between Russia and Ukraine, partly to counter Putin’s grand assertions that Kyiv belongs to Moscow. But this spotlight on Russia has meant the important history of Poland and Ukraine has been fatally overlooked. Ukraine was part of the
The Church of England has been displaying distinctly masochistic tendencies of late. The Church has previously tried to return its tainted Benin bronzes, even though their specimens were crafted 80 years after the Kingdom of Benin succumbed to British forces and its palaces were looted in 1897. This week the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice
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Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson about Nicola Sturgeon’s latest plans to hold a referendum on Scottish independence on 19th October 2023, and whether they will even get off the ground.
The Queen rarely – if ever – accepts invitations to dinner at private houses, no matter how grand. But in the summer of 2014 the oil and gas rich Gulf state of Qatar became the first ‘official partner’ of Royal Ascot and secured branding rights for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II stakes. The Qataris
Downing Street has come up with another cunning plan to fix the housing crisis: 50-year mortgages, passed from parent to child. No longer will your ability to afford a home be dependent on your earnings. Once the scheme is in place, you will be able to borrow against the incomes of your future children, in
In the week since Roe vs Wade was overturned, you’ve hardly been able to switch on the news or open a paper without hearing British politicians and commentators decrying the decision. Almost every woman I know was furious after hearing the news; I’m sure I wasn’t alone in failing to hold back a few tears
During Pride month this year a banner has been emblazoned across the BBC’s internal staff website used by every single employee. It features the following text: ‘BBC Pride 2022: Bringing together LGBTQ+ people of all genders, sexualities and identities at the BBC.’ Most people who work at the BBC aren’t concerned about this. But the
Much has been made of the decision to place the Metropolitan Police in what is often referred to as special measures, where it joins five other forces from England and Wales. The many ways in which the Met has fallen short have also been amply aired, from the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving
In the last few minutes, Chris Pincher has had the Conservative whip suspended after he resigned this morning over allegations he groped two men earlier this week. The Tory chief whip has announced that the former deputy chief whip will now lose the whip while an investigation into his behaviour takes place. A spokesman said: Having heard
Just what is up with Ben Wallace? The Defence Secretary is widely thought to have had a ‘good war’ in Ukraine, receiving much praise within parliament and outside it for the way he’s handled Britain’s response. Yet Mr S can’t help but wonder about some of the Lancashire MP’s recent rhetoric. Just this week he
Another glorious day for our great democracy. Chris Pincher’s resignation has unleashed a deluge of anger, despair and frustration in the Tory WhatsApp groups today. One backbencher texted Mr S to remark darkly of Dowden and Pincher that ‘at least they’re freeing up jobs for the reshuffle.’ Another asks ‘How on earth was he put
The Tories are in crisis, standards are in peril. So who do you turn to for ethical advice? Step forward Neil Parish, the tractor-loving, porn-perusing former MP for Tiverton. Parish, whose constituency is now, er, represented by a Liberal Democrat thanks to his resignation, was asked for his views this afternoon on Christopher Pincher. Barely
Tony Blair was the headline act at his day-long talking-shop in London yesterday. The crowds attending the Future of Britain Conference had to sit through hours of speeches and panel discussions before the old groover himself popped up at 4pm for a 30-minute chat with Jon Sopel. ‘I’m so grateful to everyone for hanging about
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Last night Chris Pincher resigned from his role in the government – after ‘drinking far too much’ and ’embarrassing himself’. Witnesses reportedly saw the deputy chief whip ‘groping’ men at the Carlton Club in London. Also on the podcast, today is the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China. Can the government
The Chris Pincher situation is much worse for the government than the Neil Parish one was. Parish was a backbencher, Pincher was – until his resignation – the deputy chief whip and had played a key role in the shadow whipping operation which shored up Boris Johnson at the start of the year. Given the nature of
As inflation rips into living standards, everyone is feeling the pinch and many are looking for help. Some people are asking for more from the state. That really means help from their fellow taxpayers, because sooner or later, that’s where public money comes from. We all have our own views about which groups merit that
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Freddy Gray speaks to the author F.H. Buckley, who outlines the case made in his latest book Progressive Conservatism: How Republicans Will Become America’s Natural Governing Party.
Preparations for a ‘referendum’ have begun in Kherson Oblast, the Russian-occupied region north of Crimea, according to Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson regional administration and one of Moscow’s puppet governors. ‘Kherson Oblast will never return to an environment of Nazism, debauchery, and cynicism,’ he said. A date for the referendum has not yet been announced,
Boris Johnson has never been afraid of expressing himself but he might well have regretted his verbosity yesterday when he had a rather awkward encounter at the Nato summit in Madrid. As Johnson sat at the summit table, a tall figure loomed over him and gripped the Prime Minister’s back. Johnson turned around to be
It’s been an eventful week for celebrity justice, especially of the entirely predictable kind. First, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years for recruiting and trafficking young girls. Now, the musician and paedophile R. Kelly has received a 30-year prison sentence for sexually abusing girls, boys and women. He was convicted of the offence last
Chris Pincher remains a Tory MP this morning, but how long will that be the case? The Conservative deputy chief whip resigned from the government last night, following allegations that he groped two men at a private members’ club on Wednesday evening. In a letter to Boris Johnson, Pincher said he ‘drank far too much’ and ’embarrassed myself and
A few weeks after Putin’s war against Ukraine began on 24 February, an infamous article was published in RIA Novosti, a leading Russian state mouthpiece. Written by Timofey Sergeytsev, it was entitled ‘What Russia should do with Ukraine’ and was full of ideas. These included ‘ideological repression’ and ‘strict censorship’ for their neighbour country, not
There is a cartoon doing the rounds this week that shows two women having a drink. One says to the other ‘My dream is to travel back in time’. Her friend replies ‘Just book a ticket to the USA’. No doubt the cartoonist had in mind the topical issues of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe
Royal Ascot has come and gone: 300,000 racegoers, men in top hats and tails, women in chic outfits and beautiful, or bizarre, millinery, gathered for the highlight of the racing calendar. But beneath the pageantry, all is not well in the world of horse racing. The sport’s leadership is in disarray. Day-to-day racecourse attendance is
Oh dear. It looks like Pestminster 2.0 is rumbling on. On Thursday, Chris Pincher, the deputy chief whip quit after allegations were reported in the Sun. The newspaper reports that the MP, first elected for Tamworth in 2010, has written to Boris Johnson, claiming that: ‘Last night I drank far too much. I’ve embarrassed myself and
Sir Keir Starmer is very keen these days to prove that Labour can be trusted on defence and foreign policy. Tweets, statements, Union Jacks galore: nothing is too over the top in the party’s efforts to distance itself from its recent Corbynista past. So Mr S was intrigued to see what one of his backbenchers
The disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced yesterday to 20 years for crimes relating to sex trafficking. After three weeks of silence, Maxwell finally spoke, saying she was ‘sorry’ for the ‘pain’ her victims experienced. She told the court that she hoped her ‘conviction’ and ‘incarceration’ would bring ‘closure.’ There was one particular line that
After days of missile strikes, Ukrainian forces have forced Russia off Snake Island in the Black Sea. ‘The enemy hastily evacuated the remnants of the garrison in two speedboats and left the island’, according to the Ukrainian Operational South Command. Russia’s defence ministry appeared to concede defeat, saying that ‘Russian forces have completed the assigned
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After an eight-day world tour, Boris Johnson is back on British soil to face Tory MPs for the first time since the two by-election defeats. Meanwhile, the privileges committee begins with Harriet Harman as its chair. Critics have suggested this inquiry into whether the Prime Minister misled parliament over partygate risks becoming a ‘kangaroo court’.
In what I supposed we should see as a sign of progress, the government has decided not to destroy its own school reforms, by revoking the first 18 clauses of the recently-published Schools Bill. I disclosed two weeks ago in the Daily Telegraph that many ex-ministers were up in arms at what they saw as