All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The takeaway moment from today’s PMQs came not in the main exchanges between Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer but later in the session. Labour MP Fabian Hamilton asked about a just-published photo of the Prime Minister with an open bottle of prosecco alongside staff wearing tinsel at a Downing Street Christmas quiz. At the
Parliament’s work and pensions committee isn’t normally where the fireworks fly, but all that changed this morning. Labour backbencher Neil ‘Carling’ Coyle tried to take a pop at Thérèse Coffey, the closest thing 2022 has to a modern Barbara Castle. After Coyle became frustrated with the answers he was getting from the karaoke-loving Cabinet minister, he
Priti Patel likes to talk a good game on foreign crooks. In numerous tweets and briefings, she’s railed against those who ‘poison our communities, ruin lives and cash in on vulnerable people,’ as part of the Witham MP’s war on crime. But when it comes to deporting those convicted of crimes, it seems that the Home Secretary’s record doesn’t
A penny for the thoughts of Vladimir Putin on Monday as he stared at Emmanuel Macron from the end of a very long table. If the Russian leader has a sense of irony he might have been struggling to suppress a smirk as he welcomed the President of France to Moscow to discuss the situation
Adele’s triumph at the Brits last night is splashed all over the internet. She won best song, best album, and best female artist. Officially however, she was just the best artist. The male and female categories are now genderless in order to include Sam Smith and other self-proclaimed non-binary musicians. But Adele’s acceptance speech for best artist perfectly
Last year I finally received an apology from the police after I was violently strip-searched in 2013. Video footage subsequently emerged of officers at Stoke Newington police station using ‘sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language’ to discuss my ill-treatment. I was arrested after attempting to hand information to a black 15-year-old about his rights during a stop
One of the great disappointments of devolution has been the failure of the Scottish parliament to pursue novel ways of fixing political problems. Whether on educational attainment, health indicators, waiting times or economic development, it’s difficult to argue that Scotland under devolution is fundamentally different from how it would have looked had the country voted
I see the establishment has a new sport: mocking Nadine Dorries. They really do hate her. Or rather, they love taking the mick out of her. She looks drunk! She only has one book on her shelf! She gives car-crash interviews! She wouldn’t know culture if it bit her on the behind! You don’t need
15 min listen
A mini reshuffle has happened, but this time nobody has been fired. Is this a sign of Boris Johnson being strategic? Or is it more an advertisement of the little room he has to manoeuvre?Also on the podcast, James and Isabel discuss the NHS backlog. Today the Health Secretary was forced to admit to MPs
Sajid Javid is having a bit of a tough time at the moment. Under pressure from Labour’s new golden boy Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary was forced to admit to MPs today that the NHS waiting list in England, which already stands at a record six million, will keep on growing for another two years.
Well I don’t know about you, but I definitely heard a nasty slur flung from one leader to another during the parliamentary debate on the Sue Gray report. Not Boris Johnson’s claim that Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile while he was Director of Public Prosecutions. That was merely a pathetic, unbecoming, unwise
Never before have the participants in a major sporting event been so closely monitored as in this Winter Olympics in Beijing. The 1980 Summer Olympics in Soviet Moscow were nothing in comparison. Athletes are competing under a blanket of observation, ostensibly to keep Covid at bay, yet imposed by a paranoid Communist party for whom
It’s by-election day in Parliament. No, not another chance for voters to give Boris Johnson a bloody nose over ‘partygate’; but rather the opportunity for one of Britain’s blue-blooded families to take their place in the Upper House. For this contest is fought in the Lords, not the Commons, with votes limited to Tory peers
Boris Johnson’s attempted reset is underway, with a mini-reshuffle announced this afternoon. The Prime Minister has made a number of changes to his top team as part of his efforts to signal to Tory MPs that he has taken on board criticism of his operation and will improve it. The most striking aspect of this reshuffle is
In the long history of British democracy, politicians have from time to time been heckled and abused by rowdy loons on their way to the House of Commons. It was Keir Starmer’s turn yesterday, again, as a gaggle of hooligans shouted unpleasant remarks at him. When these things happen, it’s seldom an edifying spectacle. But
Look up this year’s performance of the shares and bonds which make up your pension fund and you will see that BP and Shell are the rare chinks of light. BP is up 15 per cent and Shell up 20 per cent, with both enjoying bumper profits on the back of high oil and gas
Few people in Britain will have heard of the draft Online Safety Bill. Fewer still will oppose it. Protecting children against harm and exploitation online is an entirely rational goal in modern-day society. And when the Culture Secretary is boldly promising, as Nadine Dorries did at the weekend, to ‘bring order to the online world’
When politicians take to preaching, we feel uncomfortable. When bishops take to politics and managerialism, the sinking feeling gets worse. Now it seems we should brace ourselves for more pulpit politics: a Church of England proposal suggests that church leaders could be appointed to full-time cabinet-style roles such as ‘Brexit bishop’ or ‘Covid bishop’. These
Clashes between special advisers and civil servants have become a fixture of the Whitehall landscape in recent years. Who can forget the Cabinet Office tweeter who fired off the ‘arrogant and offensive’ message in the middle of Barnard Castle-gate? But now it seems the Sir Humphreys of SW1 are content to leave direct confrontation aside
The No. 10 operation’s decision to double down on the Starmer/Savile row after the Labour leader was accosted in the street by anti-vaxxers shows us how limited the options are for Boris Johnson as he tries to recover from the turmoil of the past few weeks. The line from his allies and aides is that
Whether it’s online, print, radio or broadcast, it seems we can’t get enough of politics these days. And not content with traditional forms of media, an ever-expanding number of MPs are branching out into podcasts to share their thoughts with the wider world. Around half-a-dozen have launched their own shows in recent months, following in
An uneventful Monday was enlivened this evening by some rather unappealing scenes outside parliament. Walking back from a Ministry of Defence briefing, Sir Keir Starmer was surrounded by a group of foul-mouthed anti-lockdown protesters who yelled he was a ‘traitor,’ forcing the Labour leader to leave with a police escort. Starmer had to be bundled
Just about two months ahead of the French elections, a first poll for Le Parisién suggests that Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour are at the same level: 14 per cent. This is one out of many polls, most of which still show Le Pen ahead. But polls have been bad predictors in the past,
An event took place in Cambridge last week that was rare enough to reach the national press: a public hearing by the Diocese of Ely Consistorial Court in Jesus College chapel. It was brought about by a group of alumni who were opposing a move by the Master and Fellows of the College to remove
This week, the United Kingdom is celebrating 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II on the throne. The Spectator has come across this fascinating article, written by a young Margaret Thatcher, celebrating her accession. It was published in the Sunday Graphic on 17 February 1952. Thatcher just a few months older than the Queen. As Margaret Roberts,
Boris Johnson’s new No. 10 hires have given him a chance to catch his breath, very briefly, from the turmoil of the past week. But it’s worth noting that the plot has always thickened as a result of something the Prime Minister himself has done, rather than the mistakes or otherwise of his team. Guto
Oh dear. It seems that the most illiberal party in Great Britain is at it again. In the nationwide haste to condemn the comedian Jimmy Carr for his remarks about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community in his Netflix special, an elected councillor from (who else?) the SNP has called for prosecutions. Not just for Carr
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On Saturday night, No. 10 announced two new appointments: Steve Barclay would become chief of staff, and Guto Harri would become director of communications. Will Downing Street’s reshuffle improve the mood of Tory MPs? And what else does Boris Johnson have to do? Katy Balls talks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about the new faces
The publication of extracts from a biography of Carrie Johnson this weekend is another stark reminder that we need a serious look at the over-use of anonymous sources in journalism. I first began to worry about the problem when extracts from another Lord Ashcroft biography – this time of David Cameron – were published. When
In the Spring of 1988, the body of Britain’s most notorious Cold War spy was lowered into the ground at Kuntsevo cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow. Kim Philby’s defection to the Soviet Union, a quarter of a century earlier, had rocked the world of espionage. Western spooks were left scrambling to work out just
The end of Covid has brought with it the long-overdue restoration of liberties. And few know that better than thirsty MPs and their staff on the parliamentary estate, with the reopening last week of the famous parliament’s Sports and Social bar. On the night in question, Mr S was one of those piling into the
If Boris Johnson thought his new No. 10 hires would be less high-profile than their predecessors, he might want to think again. Not content with taking a side-swipe at Dominic Cummings on Twitter, it appears that Guto Harri decided to do an interview with the Welsh media prior to taking up his post as Downing