All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Sir Keir has changed his tactics. At long last. Today marks a year since the first Covid measures were introduced to parliament and the Labour leader has finally realised that the pandemic doesn’t work for him. Even the most brilliant ambush will be dismissed as opportunistic and unpatriotic. So he dropped the superbug altogether. And
There is no point denying it — The Trump Show, the craziest comedy the God of TV has ever produced, has been fizzling out. Yes, the ‘Storming of the Capitol’ episode was a dramatic denouement. The absurd sight of ridiculously dressed QAnoners stumbling into an accidental attempt at a government coup was shockingly hilarious. But the
Oh dear. Since Dilyn the dog entered 10 Downing Street in 2019, the rescue puppy has fallen victim to a number of brutal briefings. First, it was reported that he was rather unpopular in the building on account of his noisy antics — a claim furiously denied by Boris Johnson’s fiance Carrie Symonds. Then after the Vote Leave faction departed
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At PMQs today, Boris Johnson said the public would need to ‘get used to the idea of vaccinating and then revaccinating in the autumn, as we come to face these new variants.’ The government’s contract with the Wrexham factory that helps make the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been extended to August 2022 at the earliest, so
Despite Keir Starmer’s attempts to coax Boris Johnson into committing to a variety of economic measures, Prime Minister’s Questions brought with it little clarity on what will be in next month’s Budget. However, Johnson was more forthcoming when it came to vaccines. Vaccine orders go well beyond the number of doses required to vaccinate the entire adult population
As non-apology apologies go, it was right up there with the best of them. Speaking to MEPs today, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen accepted that some ‘mistakes had been made’ in the procurement of vaccines against Covid-19. Apparently the Commission had been a little too late authorising some of the
Reports have filtered through this morning about Public Health England’s assessment of the efficacy of the two vaccines so far administered to the public. The results have not yet been published, but the efficacy rates quoted in the Sun suggest that the Pfizer vaccine has proved to be between 79 and 84 per cent effective at
Nobody has done much travelling this winter apart from Instagram influencers travelling to Dubai to pose with baby tigers. But the United Arab Emirates is now on the government’s red list. Should the influencers wish to return home they face a dilemma: spend £1,750 to be locked up for ten days in a Slough Premier
There’s a movement in the UK that is trying to block the building of essential new council housing. It is also agitating to stop the opening of a new coal mine, which would deprive working men and women of a good, honest way to make a living. What is this movement? A neo-Thatcherite organisation, perhaps, hell-bent
Talk to anyone for long enough about the UK’s building safety crisis and you soon will be asked: why are we in such a mess? Why, in one of the wealthiest countries on earth with a functioning planning and regulatory system, are thousands of people currently trapped in homes built with dangerous and combustible materials?
The United Kingdom has an opportunity to become a more significant player in Latin America while setting an example for other European countries. Venezuela is an important test case of how truly ‘global’ post-Brexit Britain wants to be. Latin America has not seen a meaningful British presence in over 100 years. In colonial times, Britain
Since the new chief of staff Dan Rosenfield arrived in Downing Street, there has been a renewed effort to reach out to the parliamentary party. Each week, a member of the No. 10 team hold a Zoom call with Tory MPs — with attendance usually upwards of 50 MPs. Some have likened the Q&A to therapy sessions —
This keeps me up at night. Have you come across this expression of pained anguish lately? This isn’t about conversations with friends or loved one’s on Covid, returning to work or never working again. I’m talking about news stories on national security and terrorism, where experts and counter-terrorism officials are interviewed and feel duty-bound to
In these chill winter days it’s good to know that at least one old lady is warmly wrapped up. The announcement that the BBC licence fee will rise in line with inflation is another modest, but comforting, layer of financial insulation wrapped around Auntie’s well-padded frame. The new cost will be £159, up by about
Scottish Widows is committed to net zero alright. For years, the endowment policy I had with it was worth pretty well just what I had paid into it. Although, on second thoughts, maybe Maria Nazarova-Doyle, head of pension investments at Scottish Widows, wasn’t referring to the returns on its policies when she said this week:
Labour is demanding that Matt Hancock apologise to NHS workers for a ‘disgraceful attack’ on the NHS. In a letter to the Health Secretary, the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner says Hancock must distance himself from a claim that ‘there is nothing special about the NHS, neither during this pandemic nor at any other time’.
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The government has managed to delay a backbench rebellion on the so-called ‘genocide amendment’ today, using what Iain Duncan Smith called ‘arcane procedural games’. The Trade Bill amendment, which would have seen courts given the power to designate abuses as a genocide, was expected to have a significant number of Tory backers. Katy Balls discusses
Should it be illegal to be a moron? That’s the question we really need to be asking ourselves in the wake of the arrest of a man in Scotland over a vile tweet about the death of Captain Tom Moore, the Second World War veteran who became a national treasure in 2020 for his NHS fundraising.
Imagine my surprise to wake up this morning to be told that Readings book store in Melbourne had posted an abject apology on its blog yesterday about hosting an event with me back in 2018: ‘Readings prides itself on ensuring everyone in our community feels safe, respected and considered. We apologise for any hurt caused
Schools in England, it seems, will reopen fully on 8 March at the earliest – a full two months after they closed. The Prime Minister has declined to bring this forward, in spite of new Covid cases falling at a rate of 25 per cent per week. The Scottish and Welsh governments have both said
The search for the right balance on border policy continues, as Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced this afternoon a host of new measures that travellers coming to the UK will face. From Monday, all arrivals will need to take two PCR tests: one on day two and another on day eight of self-isolation. This will apply
At 6.20 p.m. on Friday evening, Scarborough Beach, an oceanside suburb of Perth, looked like it always does: families picnicked on grassy dunes overlooking the Indian Ocean, queues were forming outside bars lining the shore, and inside restaurants, groups chatted casually over cold beers. Given the bustle, it’s hard to believe a city-wide lockdown ended
You have to admire Hungary’s chutzpah. Not only has it bypassed Brussels to pursue its own vaccine procurement strategy, it is also backing two of the most controversial horses in the race: Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm jab. It has just secured enough Sinopharm doses to vaccinate 250,000 people a month while its Sputnik
There’s something deeply pleasing for fans of cosmic jokes everywhere about the world’s richest man personally taking the time to sell you a pup. Or a pup-related crypto-currency, at least. In between lobbing rockets at the moon, singlehandedly revolutionising the car industry and raising a ten-month old child, Elon Musk has recently been using Twitter
It’s easy to forget that your BBC licence fee does not only fund content that you and your family consumes. In addition to the output aimed at domestic audiences, your annual payment of £157.50 funds a host of foreign language services aimed at projecting British impartiality and soft power overseas. The largest of these is
The House of Commons was due to vote on the so-called ‘genocide amendment’ to the Trade Bill later today. The proposal gives British courts the right to decide if a country is committing genocide and was on course to trigger a major Tory rebellion — with China hawks ready to take a stand. However, that plan has been
‘Vaccine diplomacy’ is playing an increasingly important role in the geopolitics of the Covid-19 pandemic. Countries like China and India are attempting to bolster their credentials and earn some goodwill, by donating or selling their surplus vaccine supplies to low-income countries, or nations with longer term partnership potential. China has already donated half a million
In the aftermath of the financial crash, two ‘Super Marios’ came to Italy’s rescue. Mario Draghi, then president of the European Central Bank, and Mario Monti, an economics don turned politician, both helped steady the ship. Now, more than a decade on, one of those Marios is back. But is he the man Italy needs in
Everyone wants to be an influencer. Even for hobbyists like me there’s a strangely addictive quality to the upward crawl of the follower count on the three big beasts: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Now, influencers have their eye on a fourth. Clubhouse is a new, invite-only social network beloved by the likes of Elon Musk and Mark
It has taken the Conservatives an entire decade to recover from their last attempt to legislate for a reorganisation of the NHS. Now, they’re proposing to unpick some of what’s left of that Health and Social Care Act. Details of a Health and Care White Paper leaked to the excellent Andy Cowper at Health Policy
After a day of worrying headlines over the potential risk of the South African variant, the takeaway of Monday’s press conference was clear: don’t panic. Both Matt Hancock and deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam were at pains to reassure the public over the threat the new variant presents. With a small sample study suggesting the Oxford
Sovereignty, that old-new friend, is in vogue again thanks to Brexit and the advances made by nationalists across Europe and the United States. Those of us who lament these developments should not regret the reassertion of national sovereignty, for it is intimately linked to democracy and self-determination and provides domestic legitimacy for the kind of
Last month, a 15-year-old boy called Yuriy was beaten senseless by a gang of youths in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. The attack made national headlines for three reasons: it was caught on camera; the victim was white; the 15th arrondissement is not usually the setting for such violence. The political, celebrity and media elite
