All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Nothing much happens in South Dakota. It is a long way, in almost every sense, from the bright lights of New York, which was the epicentre of the spring coronavirus outbreak in North America. Now, however, the midwestern state, which was previously hailed for taking the ‘Swedish approach’ to coronavirus, is facing a virus rampaging
It is nearly a year since one of the Labour party’s worst ever election defeats; and just over six months since Keir Starmer became its leader. Starmer has acknowledged that his party has a mountain to climb if it is to win the next election, but that is his target. Most opinion surveys suggest he
Pfizer has come up trumps. Now that a vaccine for Covid-19 is more than just a possibility, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief. But before we relax too much, a new problem arises: will people actually take it? A third of people in the UK – and half of people in the United
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Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but was support from social and legacy media the reason why? Freddy Gray speaks to Allum Bokhari, author of #Deleted, about whether Big Tech swung the result.
After a week of infighting in Downing Street which saw the resignation of Director of Communications Lee Cain and senior aide Dominic Cummings, both men have left the building for what government aides believe will be the last time. Although Cain and Cummings intended to continue their work until mid December, the suggestion is that they will
How much has this week’s ructions in Downing Street been influenced by the Prime Minister’s decision, two weeks ago, to call for a new 28 day lockdown – and the subsequent questions asked of the data to justify it? On the one side are the 50 or so Conservative MPs who have joined the Covid
If it was not for the drama in Downing Street, Brexit would be dominating the news right now. Next week is regarded as a crucial week for the negotiations. If they don’t make progress, then the UK leaving without a trade deal will become the most likely outcome. The geopolitical consequences of this failure would
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Boris Johnson’s chief aide has said that he’ll be gone by Christmas – so what does that mean for Downing Street operations? Katy Balls is joined by Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
Peter Sutcliffe, the ‘Yorkshire ripper’, is dead. What is his legacy? He of course leaves behind the countless relatives and loved ones of his victims, whose lives have been torn apart and exist in a fog of pain and torment. The women Sutcliffe killed had no dignity except in the minds of those that knew
Yesterday I wrote here that the shenanigans of special advisers weren’t very important and shouldn’t get so much attention. And then Dominic Cummings resigned, and the world shifted on its axis, so what sort of idiot am I, eh? It’s important that when journalists get things wrong, they say so. But this isn’t a mea
Greg Clarke, the chairman of the Football Association, stood down this week after saying some politically incorrect things. Chief among his offences, it seems, was his use of the word ‘coloured’, when referring to black players. On the Today programme, an interviewee explained that this term was deeply offensive to ‘people of colour’, as it reminded
On 24 July last year, I wrote that the government of Boris Johnson was being taken over by Dominic Cummings and his Vote Leave team. That was not hyperbole. Since then, both the reality of Cummings and the myths about him, have defined Johnson’s first 16 months as Prime Minister. Which is why, as one Downing
Dominic Cummings’s departure has been described as a big loss to Boris Johnson. There is no doubt that his top advisor played a significant role in the Tories’ thumping election win a year ago. But his time in Downing Street has been less successful. So could Cummings’ departure actually help Boris? His Christmas resignation –
Dominic Cummings didn’t angle for this job: Boris Johnson begged him to take it. The Tories faced extinction after the Theresa May debacle. Boris needed purpose, direction and miracles – which Cummings had a track record in supplying. He brought with him into No. 10 both Vote Leave staff and its modus operandi: a fixed
Dominic Cummings will leave Downing Street at the end of this year, the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg is reporting. Cummings is one of those rare individuals who has bent the arc of history. He has been crucial, if not indispensable, to several key moments in this country’s recent past. His work at Business for
There may be a pandemic on but that’s not going to stop Downing Street staff briefing against one another. Tensions came to a head this week after Boris Johnson’s director of communications, Lee Cain, announced his resignation. The row began after it was reported in the Times and Daily Mail that Cain – a former Vote
Why is the government refusing to allow clinically vulnerable MPs to take part in debates on legislation? This row has been rumbling on for months, with no apparent enthusiasm from ministers to change the current situation. Today, senior MPs have told Coffee House they believe the government’s actions would be in breach of the Equality
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Downing Street has seen a day of backstabbing and counter-briefings after Dominic Cummings ally Lee Cain resigned as Boris Johnson’s director of communications. John Connolly talks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.
The news about the Pfizer vaccine has persuaded Tory MPs that there is now a route out of this crisis, and that this country can avoid being dragged into a cycle of lockdowns, I say in the magazine this week. No. 10 is being deliberately cautious about the vaccine. There are huge logistical obstacles to
Corporations and charities virtue signalling has become a familiar spectacle in everyday life. Sainsbury’s, Virgin West Coast, HSBC, Ben & Jerry’s, Gillette and Nike have all pronounced their various anti-racist, anti-sexist and pro-gay, pro-trans principles. The latest to join in this festival of conspicuous compassion is Barnardo’s, which yesterday pronounced on the matter of ‘white privilege’.
Do you know who Lee Cain is? If your answer is yes, you are unusual, an aberrant departure from the norm. If you know who he is and care a jot about him and his career, you’re a freak. Wall-to-wall coverage of Cain’s departure from Downing Street reminds me why I’m so glad I stopped
Britain’s economy rebounded by a record 15.5 per cent between July and September, reflecting the relaxation of lockdown measures and increased consumer activity over the summer. This is the largest quarterly growth in the UK economy the Office for National Statistics has reported since records began in 1955. Services, manufacturing, production and construction saw big uplifts across
The phrase ‘petticoat government’ has, for reasons that escape me, gone out of currency lately. But it came to mind this morning when the BBC reported that the Prime Minister’s communications chief, Lee Cain, had resigned, even though he’d only just reportedly been appointed as Downing Street Chief of Staff. One reason, the BBC explained
Lee Cain’s departure raises an important question: what is the point of Boris Johnson’s legion of Spads? The government has never been so stuffed with advisors, and yet it has also rarely been so chaotic. We live in an era in which the special advisor has more control over events than ever before; no Spad
What we are seeing with the imminent departure of Lee Cain from Downing Street surely signals the beginning of the end for the notion that the creative vision of a single person can utterly dominate the output of a government. That single person, by the way, is not Communications Director Cain, nor even Boris Johnson, but
Downing Street is a divided place this morning after the resignation of Lee Cain. No. 10’s Director of Communications handed in his resignation last night after a day of briefings and counter briefings between the various factions in Downing Street. The drama began after the Times ran a story on Tuesday evening suggesting the Vote Leave alumnus
A day of explosive disclosures from No. 10 has ended in the resignation of Lee Cain as Boris Johnson’s communications chief. Only 24 hours ago, it was reported he’d be promoted to Chief of Staff, after having threatened to quit last week. Now, he’s gone. Depending on which rumours you believe, Cain had fallen out with Carrie
Lockdowns are designed to temporarily delay the spread of the virus – but at what cost? This was the line of questioning that kicked off yesterday’s evidence session for the Treasury Select Committee, scrutinising the work HM Treasury has conducted in relation to lockdown. Chair of the committee Mel Stride asked Clare Lombardelli, Chief Economic
It has not been a good year for statues. The latest creative controversy now surrounds the newly unveiled Mary Wollstonecraft memorial in Newington Green, Islington. Sadly, this monument to the ‘mother of feminism’ is more pubic art than public art: a tiny, naked female, all shredded abs and bouffant bush, on top of a strange
Ever since I covered the end of the Bush-Gore presidential election in 2000, I have been wary of drawing lessons from US elections about UK politics: America is much less like Britain than too many British journalists tend to assume. But there’s one bit of the US voting last week that intrigues me in the
The clock may be ticking when it comes to the Brexit talks but the news dominating Westminster today relates not to legal texts but personnel changes in Downing Street. Overnight the Times and Daily Mail both ran reports suggesting Number 10’s Director of Communications Lee Cain was in line for a promotion to Chief of Staff. However, shortly
