All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
17 min listen
Joe Biden is well ahead of Donald Trump in the polls, but few are willing to say that the three-time presidential hopeful will win November’s election. Are commentators underplaying the Democrat’s chances? Freddy Gray speaks to Tim Stanley, historian and leader writer at The Telegraph.
The Labour MP for Chesterfield caused a rush of sniggers in the Commons this afternoon when he told colleagues that: People don’t generally go to the pub in order to meet their own wife, they will go to the pub to meet with other people… Little wonder fellow MPs started laughing given Toby Perkins’s own love life…
Boris Johnson has just set out a new three-tier Covid alert system. Much of England will be on ‘medium’ alert, which means measures like the rule of six will be enforced. But those areas including Liverpool will be placed on a ‘very high’ alert, meaning that pubs, bars and betting shops will shut. Here is the full list of
Today’s statement by Boris Johnson was a reminder of how difficult the politics of this second wave is going to be. In the first 50 minutes, there were only two Tory soft balls to the PM. The other questions from his own benches all had a degree of scepticism in them, and some were clearly
After weeks of speculation over the government’s new Covid restrictions grading system, the Prime Minister today announced the details. Addressing MPs in the Commons chamber, Boris Johnson confirmed that his strategy was entering a new phase with a three-tier system. Rather than a traffic light system with a green for go, the regional categories are
Sancho Panza’s long-cherished ambition was to become a politician. He wanted to be installed as governor of an island; Don Quixote had led him to believe that this was the reward a loyal squire could expect to receive from the knight errant he had served. Attractive opportunities to move into government increased dramatically for Spain’s
The new three tier ‘Covid alert levels’ unveiled by the PM are supposed to help all of us better understand how and why our freedoms are being restricted, and improve compliance, at a time when both infection levels and suppressive measures are significantly different across England and across the UK. But it is not clear
Most of us are familiar with the climate of censure and censorship we now live in. People are ‘cancelled’ and ‘no-platformed’ for having inappropriate opinions on matters of race and gender, and reprimanded for using the wrong pronoun when referring to transgender men and women. But there are worrying signs that this tendency to shut
It’s clear now that Covid is going to be with us for the long haul. Most sane voices are talking about the remainder of the crisis in terms of years, not months. Yet the government has still not been able to take itself out of short-term mode. They seem to be holding out for a
A ‘story’ covered by several outlets today about a ballerina and a government skills campaign is the latest evidence of how Twitter is making us all more stupid and should generally be ignored. The ‘story’ in short summary: a government campaign to encourage people to consider training to develop skills in ‘cyber’ is using images
Shortly after booking a train ticket from London to West Yorkshire to accompany my mum to the doctor, I received a letter explaining that due to Covid-19 the appointment would now take place over the phone. Having booked the time off work, I decided to visit her anyway – despite the fact she and my
During his regular LBC phone-in, Keir Starmer was asked by one listener for his thoughts on the latest free speech saga. According to reports in the Telegraph, the Brexit activist Darren Grimes has been called in for questioning by the Met police over comments David Starkey made on his podcast. Starmer responded with characteristic indecision when asked whether Starkey’s
12 min listen
A three-tier system of coronavirus restrictions is set to be announced today, but the government is still locked in negotiations with local authorities over the financial support they will receive if they are placed at the highest level. With a growing number of Tory backbenchers coming out against harsher measures, could the new system backfire
It says much about the covid ‘traffic light’ system to be announced by the Prime Minister later that the three alert levels are expected to be labelled ‘medium’, ‘high’ and ‘very high’. It is a bit like condom sizes which start at ‘large’, move onto ‘extra large’ and ‘extra, extra large’. It is all very
Friday’s announcement that biological males should not play women’s rugby may be sound like common sense, but it has already provoked a furore. The new guidelines published by World Rugby, organisers of the Rugby World Cup, apply to the elite and international levels of the game. In their statement they explained, ‘As with many other
As Boris Johnson prepares to unveil a new three tier restrictions system, the PM and his ministers are already coming under fire from Tory MPs and local leaders for confusion and a lack of evidence-based decision making. But what of Keir Starmer? The Labour leader has amassed plenty of praise of late. With Labour and the
I have a few points to make about the new three tier system to be announced today for restricting our lives and businesses, to suppress Covid-19. 1) Last Wednesday, the government was so worried about the spread of coronavirus in the north of England that it was planning to impose new restrictions on places like
When The Spectator returned furlough money during lockdown, we set ourselves a new target. Rather than take the taxpayer subsidy, we decided to try to grow our way of this mess by hitting sales of 100,000. For a magazine that finished last year averaging 83,020 weekly sales, it was ambitious. But in times of crisis, we thought,
It is little surprise to see the International Air Transport Association (IATA) claiming that the risk of catching Covid-19 on a plane is incredibly low. No industry has been as devastated by the pandemic as the airline industry and there is desperation to get planes flying again. But is IATA’s claim that just 44 out of
In July 2018, Elizabeth Denham – the woman in charge of enforcing the UK’s laws on data protection – appeared on the Today programme, and made a stark allegation. ‘In 2014 and 2015, the Facebook platform allowed an app… that ended up harvesting 87 million profiles of users around the world that was then used
Robert Jenrick – ‘None of us’ want to return to national lockdown This morning Andrew Marr interviewed the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, amid news that the UK’s ‘R’ number (the rate of transmission of the coronavirus) is now estimated at between 1.2 and 1.5, remaining stubbornly above the critical number 1.0. With the Prime Minister
Matt Hancock broke his own 10 p.m curfew to continue drinking at a parliamentary bar, according to reports in the Mail on Sunday. A senior Tory MP told the paper that the Health Secretary continued to nurse a large glass of white wine until at least 10.25 p.m. during a late night tipple that saw Hancock mock the government’s
Another week has passed with more restrictions piled on – but as lockdown measures become ever more restrictive, the demand for evidence grows. Sir Keir Starmer, for instance, has asked to see evidence for new lockdown measures. In mid-August, Andy Burnham called on the government not to put Oldham into lockdown as Sir Richard Leese,
Replacing Islington’s Jeremy Corbyn with Camden’s Keir Starmer never seemed like the most obvious way for Labour to win back its lost northern heartlands. True, Starmer was not such an extremist as Corbyn, but his classic leftie London lawyer mindset was surely destined to go down like a lead balloon out on the Blue Wall.
18 min listen
John Connolly, Katy Balls and Patrick Maguire discuss Sir Keir Starmer’s shift in approach to the government’s Covid measures.
Britain is often said to be two weeks behind France in the new Covid wave — so how bad are things in France? Lille, Grenoble, Lyon and Saint-Étienne have switched to maximum alert, with two thirds of regions on ‘enhanced alert’. Things are at their most worrying in Paris, where hospitals have been given permission
When the Scottish government made the decision this summer to do a U-turn and award teachers’ predicted grades instead of exams, it was inevitable that England and Wales would follow. Now that Scotland has cancelled National Highers next summer, the question is: will GCSEs again follow suit? With less than 84 per cent of secondary
Once upon a time, a long time ago, this country was consumed by the matter of Brexit. Everywhere you turned, in every medium, even among friends and colleagues, you couldn’t get away from the subject: everyone was talking about Brexit. We were obsessed by it. From 2016 to 2019 there was no escape. All of
There was a time when the announcement of new Treasury spending tended to spell good news. However, these days it usually means that something has gone wrong on coronavirus. This afternoon, the Chancellor confirmed a shift in policy — new support packages for workers. Employees at UK firms that are forced to shut by law will now be
Keir Starmer’s political position is stronger than people would have expected a few months ago. The improvement in Labour’s poll position is giving him more personal authority within the party, allowing him to move on from the Corbyn era faster than expected. ‘The Labour party has the smell of power in its nostrils now and
Since the general election, many members of the cabinet besides the prime minister have been prevalent in the media. Rishi Sunak has become an out and out superstar, even occasionally lauded by portions of the centre-left media. Matt Hancock, for good or ill, has become a constant presence throughout the crisis. Yet it’s amazing how
August should have been a relative boom for the British economy: restrictions were the most relaxed since the Covid crisis began. Businesses in the hospitality and leisure industries were largely allowed to reopen by this point, and public transport guidance changed to allow non-essential workers to return to the office. On top of these liberalisations,
