All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Did the Johnson clan breach lockdown rules last December? That’s the question being asked in Westminster today after a profile in Harper’s Magazine of Carrie Johnson reported that her close friend Nimco Ali spent Christmas in 10 Downing Street with the couple, despite pandemic restrictions on holiday gatherings. At the time, London was under Tier 4 Covid rules
This afternoon MPs are paying tribute to Sir David Amess, the long-serving parliamentarian who was murdered on Friday. It began with a minute’s silence, impeccably observed, in a chamber packed with members from across the House. The Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, told MPs that he was ‘sorry the House is returning in such
In the summer of 2020 the French Senate published a report on the ‘Development of Islamist Radicalisation and the means of combatting it.’ It was a wide-ranging review which included contributions from academics, writers, Muslim associations and politicians. Among those interviewed by the commission were the ex-security advisor Alexandre del Valle, Zineb El Rhazoui, a
Once the popularity of politicians was judged by how many babies they were asked to kiss – now it’s by how many kids are named after them. The Office for National Statistics has today revealed the most popular baby names for 2020, with Oliver and Olivia remaining the most popular names for boys and girls in England
My first full-time job, at the age of 18, was working for an MP. In the following 27 years, almost my entire career has been spent in or near Westminster. I know and have known lots of MPs. To coin a phrase, some of my best friends are members of parliament. This, of course, means
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Parliament meets today to pay tribute to David Amess MP who was stabbed to death at his constituency surgery last week. But what have we learnt about the suspect currently still in police custody? And going forward what can be done to keep our representatives safe? Katy Balls is joined by Isabel Hardman and James
Every decent person was horrified by the senseless slaying of David Amess. And everyone will want to know what can be done to prevent similar atrocities from occurring in the future. But I fear that in the haze of anger and concern that has descended on the country following Amess’s death, we are coming to
Imagine you run an independent store on the high street. Your business has already been ravaged by repeated lockdowns, which boosted the likes of Amazon at your expense. You are already at a huge disadvantage to online retailers because of your fixed costs. At great risk, you have invested in setting up your own online
The last two contributions that Sir David Amess made in the Commons were to call for a debate on animal welfare and to express disappointment that he had not been asked in the reshuffle to become minister for granting city status to Southend. They were two subjects close to his heart, which he seldom missed
Success is hard to come by in the Season 3 premier of Succession, which aired last night. As the media and the Department of Justice circle the doomed, dysfunctional Roy family, and patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) continues to waffle over his replacement, the Roy progeny are busy preening and plotting against each other, in increasingly
The speed with which tragedy turns into farce these days is quite something. Within minutes of Sir David Amess’s death being announced, social media was filled with sizzling hot takes. The back-and-forth centred on whether the decline in ‘civility’ and the use of dehumanising language in politics was to blame for the murder of an
Delicious. Christopher Steele, the single most discredited actor in the entire Trump-Russia collusion nonsense, is set to be interviewed on Monday by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the single most pompous of all the brood of lying, self-important American talking heads. I know that there is stiff competition for that first title. After all, Steele had to beat
Béziers It’s a book tour, mais pas comme des autres. Last night, Eric Zemmour, rising star of the French right and undeclared candidate for the presidency, rocked up in Béziers to promote La France n’a pas dit son dernier mot (France hasn’t yet had its final say), his book which has sold 250,000 copies in
Following the murder of Sir David Amess on Friday, there has been much discussion about the level of security for MPs and their staff. Amess was the second parliamentarian to be murdered in five years while out meeting constituents, following the assassination of Jo Cox in 2016, the attack on Stephen Timms MP in 2010 and the
Priti Patel – Sir David Amess ‘touched so many lives’ Tributes have continued to pour in this morning for the late Sir David Amess MP, who was murdered while hosting a constituency surgery in his Southend seat on Friday. The attack, which is being treated as a terrorist case, has shaken Westminster to its core,
It is no huge surprise Ali Harbi Ali, the man arrested on suspicion of the murder of David Amess, had reportedly been referred to the anti-terrorism ‘Prevent’ programme some years ago. We don’t yet know if he was a ‘lone wolf’ type made psychotic by cannabis use and then radicalised online, as the new generation
There’s a growing tension in the European bloc between those unhappy with Brussels’s increasing interventionism and by those who feel the EU does not intervene enough. The biggest casualty in this escalating conflict could well be the centre-right which, until now, has largely held the fractured bloc together. It’s been a tough few weeks for the
Being sanctimonious about foreigners and their cruelty to animals has long been a British tradition. The taste for dog meat in parts of Asia seems to incense many who perhaps should have matters closer to home to worry about – such as our collective addiction to cheap, factory farmed meat. When I was a child
I often joke that when I became an MP in 2019, after being a charity chief executive, I went from saint to sinner in the mind of the public. When you work for a charity, people assume you’re one of the good guys: honest, principled, in it for the right reasons. Too often politicians are
The news that Labour and the Liberal Democrats will not contest the by-election caused by David Amess’s murder is not a surprise; the Tories and the Liberal Democrats took the same approach in Batley and Spen in 2016. (It should give us all pause that there is recent precedent for how parties should behave in
On 12 October this year, Columbus Day, a statue of the Italian in Belgrave Square was vandalised by activists from Extinction Rebellion who described Columbus as ‘father of the slave trade’. Entirely ignorant of his life and ambitions, Columbus’s critics frequently turn to the searing denunciations of Bartolomé de Las Casas who excoriated the Spanish
Amongst the many appalling details from the murder of Sir David Amess, one detail jumped out at me in yesterday’s reports. Father Jeffrey Woolnough, a Roman Catholic priest, arrived at the police cordon stretching across Eastwood Road North offering to administer the Last Rites to the MP, whom he knew to be a practising Catholic. But
Sir David Amess’s backstory tells you much about his commitment to constituency politics that led to his cruel murder yesterday. He was born and grew up in a terraced house in London’s East End. There was little money. His dad was an electrician, his mother a tea lady and seamstress. In short they were not
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As the temperature starts to fall, the question for the global economy is: how long will energy prices remain high? Industrial production has already started to feel the energy-related price pressures. Many more suppliers are unlikely to make it through the winter. But with the governement divided over bailing out businesses, who should be absorbing
When Pope Francis was asked last month how he was doing after surgery on his colon in July, he replied: ‘Still alive, even though some people wanted me to die. I know there were even meetings between prelates who thought the Pope’s condition was more serious than the official version. They were preparing for the
Picture German troops marching in front of the Reichstag in Berlin. Their polished black boots hit the ground in rhythm with the drums. Night has fallen and the soldiers are carrying burning torches that cast an eerie glow over the spectacle. But these aren’t Nazis. This ceremony was held last Wednesday in honour of Germany’s
Why does every government department and agency seem to feel it hasn’t done its job unless it has expressed some hysterical reaction to the threat of climate change? Launching the Environment Agency’s latest report on its plans to prepare for possible changes in England’s climate over the next century, its chair Emma Howard Boyd said:
I have often criticised BBC journalism on the issues of sex and gender because that journalism has often been quite bad. So it’s all the more important to for me to highlight instances when the Corporation does good journalism here. Stephen Nolan of the BBC has done that this week, and more. You might not
There are two ways Number 10 can look at new polling which shows only 14 per cent of Britons understand the slogan ‘levelling up’. The first: the government has utterly failed to communicate its signature policy. The second: at least they didn’t poll the Cabinet. The findings, which come in research by Redfield & Wilton
Sir David Amess was killed in the line of duty. He was doing one of the most important – and vulnerable – parts of an MP’s job, and he was killed while doing it. Most of the week, MPs go to work in a palace under armed guard. They live in houses with CCTV, panic
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David Amess, the MP for Southend West, has died after being stabbed at his constituency surgery. Essex Police say that a 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Amess had been an MP since 1983, and represented Southend West since 1997. Fraser Nelson speaks James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.
Sir David Amess has died at the age of 69 after being attacked with a knife at a constituency surgery meeting. He spent 38 years in the House of Commons, serving first for the constituency of Basildon between 1983 and 1997 and subsequently for the Southend West seat. Tributes have been pouring in for him ever
David Amess, the MP for Southend West, has died after being stabbed at his constituency surgery. Essex Police say that a 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Amess had been an MP since 1983, and represented Southend West since 1997. He was a genial parliamentarian, a diligent constituency MP and a doughty
