All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
British prime ministers like to deploy the armed services in civilian life because doing so is one of the few levers they can pull that seems to be attached to something that makes an actual difference. While billions extra can be thrown at the NHS with no discernible change or poured into failing public services
10 min listen
Tory MPs have just returned from their constituencies after a weekend of persuading voters to support their party in the May local elections. It’s not just the public that is angry, the local associations are equally outraged at the scandals that have marred the first month of 2022. Those around Boris Johnson are planning ‘Operation Red Meat’ which
There’s a fevered atmosphere within Parliament at present as MPs gather to debate Boris Johnson’s future. The triennial game of ‘pass the crown’ is on again as revelations continue to emerge about what went on at Fabric No. 10 throughout the pandemic. Rumours abound as to whether Tory whips have posted sentries to watch Sir Graham Brady’s
22 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Maureen Callahan of the New York Post about the runners and riders for the 2024 presidential election, including if her prediction of a Trump/Clinton rematch will come true.
Tory MPs return from their constituencies today to Westminster after canvassing opinion about the ongoing partygate row. The good news for Boris Johnson is that only one of the party’s MP has come out over the weekend to call for him to resign. Tim Loughton – the MP for East Worthing and Shoreham – said he had received
As you might have guessed, it hasn’t been the calmest, quietest weeks in the Johnson family, and lots of broadcasters – the BBC among them – have asked me to contribute on events across Westminster, and, of course, the repercussions across the country. I didn’t see much of the Prime Minister and his family during
It’s easier than ever for Tory MPs to attack the PM. Whereas once media was the preserve of four channels and dominated by a handful of national papers, platforms like Twitter have made it quicker than ever before for Conservative backbenchers to issue stinging criticisms. And indeed many have made the most of such sites in recent weeks, as
Elsewhere in England this weekend, grimly sweating middle-aged men were planning Operation Save Big Dog, Operation Red Meat and Operation Decommission Shopping Trolley. In our house, though, the only game in town for grimly sweating middle-aged men was Operation Racing Car. My son Jonah had received his Covid-postponed eighth birthday present from his cousins and
Ping! An email lands in Steerpike’s inbox. It’s been a while since we heard from Dominic Grieve, the Francophile Beaconsfield barrister who quit the Tory party in October 2019. Since losing his seat by 15,000 votes at the last election, Grieve has largely contented himself with minor academic sinecures and occasional swipes at his old nemesis
Shortly after his abdication in 1936, the now-Duke of Windsor wrote a series of letters while in European exile, in which he complained vociferously about numerous perceived privations that he faced. Chief amongst these was the provision for their security. The British government saw this as now being the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s responsibility,
This week, the UK has been coming to terms with the influence of foreign spies, after MI5 warned about a ‘Chinese agent’ who had infiltrated parliament. The United States has been dealing with foreign agents in its midst too, following the arrest in New York last week of an Egyptian-American accused of spying on exiles
Keir Starmer – I think Boris broke the law and lied about it To preside over one lockdown party might be seen as a misfortune. Two begins to look like carelessness. Imagine then, the Prime Minister’s incredulity if even half of the alleged Downing Street parties are indeed found to have taken place by the
This week it was confirmed that a Hungarian general election – framed as a referendum on Viktor Orbán’s leadership – will take place on April 3. As the campaigning descends into acrimony and with cracks appearing in the previously smooth facade of the country’s United Opposition, Orbán – the Fidesz leader and scourge of Brussels
With just three weeks until the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Covid-19 is creeping ever closer to the capital. The Communist party is seeking to isolate Beijing from the rest of the country to keep the virus at bay and the games on track. But its zero-Covid policy, a desperate game of Whac-A-Mole
I like to think of myself as a latter-day Mother Shipton. I may not live in a cave in the north of Yorkshire, but I do occasionally dabble in prophecy. And, like Mother Shipton, I am accurate approximately roughly one per cent of the time. And I can prove it. In a diary piece for
As an outsider looking in, it is curious to note just how loyal some remain to Boris Johnson. Not the payroll vote or even the backbenchers keeping their heads down, but the grassroots, the rank-and-file members and Tory voters both lifelong and more recent. Boris is a man who has never given loyalty and has
‘Deaths could hit 6,000 a day,’ reported the newspapers on 17 December. A day later documents for the 99th meeting of Sage were released which said that, without restrictions over and above ‘Plan B’, deaths would range from 600 to 6,000 a day. A summary of Sage advice, prepared for the Cabinet, gave three models of
To read some of the coverage of No. 10’s parties, you’d have thought Boris Johnson’s government was a uniquely mendacious, duplicitous and scandalous regime. Fortunately, just north of the border, Nicola Sturgeon’s administration is doing its bit to prove it’s every bit as secretive, flawed and contemptuous of standards. Today’s Scotsman on Saturday reveals that
Boris Johnson has gone into the weekend with his fate in the hands of Tory MPs. Since the Prime Minister apologised in the Commons chamber for attending a drinks party in the Downing Street garden during lockdown, there has been a concerted effort to shore up his position. Members of the Cabinet have come out to
On Wednesday at De Kleine Komedie, the oldest theatre in Amsterdam, the sound of comics on stage will be interspersed with the snips of scissors. Unable to open as a theatre due to the coronavirus restrictions, the comic actor Diederik Ebbinge is defiantly converting the venue into a hairdressers for the day with customers able
It’s been a pretty dreadful week for security at the Palace of Westminster. First, there was the admission that a Chinese spy suspect, Christine Lee, had donated thousands of pounds to Barry Gardiner’s office where her son, Daniel Wilkes, was employed as a member of staff. His access to the parliamentary estate was not revoked
The Australian government’s decision to cancel the world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic’s visa was inevitable in the end. Things started well for Djokovic. On Monday he won his initial match in the law courts when his QC-led legal team successfully challenged his visa cancellation as a breakdown of procedural fairness. After this utter
20 min listen
Five Tory MPs have publicly said that Boris Johnson should resign. After a torrid week in Downing Street, which finished with the Prime Minister having to apologise to the Queen for a party being held on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, could we soon see a leadership contest? Katy Balls, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson
American foreign-policy strategists used to promulgate doctrines. Now they dream up slogans. ‘America is back’ is the jingle under which the Biden administration has been conducting — or marketing — its post-Trump, post-Covid diplomacy, much as ‘Go big’ has been its jingle in domestic matters. The problem is, being ‘back’ can mean a number of
Salzburg, Austria Across Austria, the streets are alive with the sounds of drums and cow bells. Ever since the Austrian government announced a vaccine mandate in November 2021, with vaccine refuseniks set to face fines, potential bankruptcies and possible prison sentences from February this year, demonstrations against the proposed measures have not ceased. You can
The life-or-death question for the Prime Minister is not whether Downing Street and Cabinet Office parties were illegal and should result in criminal prosecutions. Nor is it whether all or indeed any of the parties were actually organised by him. No. What will determine his survival is whether he has the faintest chance of persuading
It is often said that there are few convinced ‘Boris-ites’ to be found among the ranks of Conservative MPs and that this lack of a praetorian guard of diehard supporters is a major weakness for the Prime Minister. But a much bigger weakness is the rapid ebbing away of the ranks of Boris-ites among the
It was easy to get the sense in 2020 that the government didn’t want the lockdowns to end. Now we all realise why: everyone in No. 10 was having an absolute whale of a time. Less than 24 hours after the Telegraph revealed No. 10 held two parties the night before Prince Philip’s funeral (classy), the Mirror
13 min listen
It’s been revealed that two more parties took place in No. 10 during the pandemic. This time, on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral. While the Prime Minister was not at this event, is No. 10’s party culture coming straight from the top? Max Jeffery is joined by Katy Balls and James Forsyth.
Oh for heaven’s sake, come off it. British politics has long had a comfortable relationship with the absurd but this week – not yet over, its revelations not yet exhausted – takes a very pretty biscuit nonetheless. I do not imagine that ‘Downing Street apologises to the Queen for party revels’ is quite the kind
There’s an inherent contradiction at the heart of liberal thinking that perpetually raises its head. It’s one which has become ever-more pronounced in our age of ultra-progressive politics: the tension between equality and liberty. Many progressives think you can have both. Alas not. You can only have either, or a greater emphasis upon one at
‘We failed’. An editorial in Ekstra Bladet, Denmark’s leading tabloid, berates the Fourth Estate – including itself – for failing to hold ministers to account during the pandemic. Worn down by repeated warnings of ‘the dormant corona monster under our beds’, Ekstra Bladet claims Danish journalists mostly took the government line. ‘We have not been vigilant enough
The UK has long been aware of the risk of cyber-attacks emanating from China. Back in 2007, the head of MI5 Jonathan Evans warned hundreds of British businesses about Chinese cyber-operations targeting the UK. Yet the risk from Chinese spies operating in the UK is less well understood. This is why it came as such a shock