All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
South Korea is one of the world’s success stories for tackling coronavirus and president Moon Jae-in’s approval ratings have soared to a high of 71 per cent as a result. Yet North Korea has still claimed victory over its South Korean rival when it comes to dealing with this disease. According to the highly secretive regime-state, there
Imagine you have a child who says they believe they were born in the wrong body, describing what amounts to a fundamental and painful mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity. Imagine the child you see as your daughter declaring that they are in fact a boy. Where would you turn for information?
Not so long ago, I was walking opposite Whitechapel Gallery in London in what’s now known as Altab Ali Park. It has been refashioned and turned into a wonderful little museum dedicated to Bengali culture and arts. There are statues, a poem by Tagore and so on. And even a photo shoot for a fashion
What exactly is an apprenticeship guarantee? That’s the major question to come out of Wednesday night’s Covid press conference after Boris Johnson committed to offering an apprenticeship to all young people: I think it is going to be vital that we guarantee apprenticeships for young people. We will have to look after people across the board,
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As America continues to burn, Freddy discusses with Jacob Heilbrunn what the protests mean for Trump’s chances for re-election.
Boris Johnson is in the firing line today over his government’s plan to impose a two-week quarantine for anyone arriving in the UK from Monday. The Prime Minister’s policy was criticised by both Labour and Tory MPs during PMQs. When Home Secretary Priti Patel confirmed the details in the Chamber this afternoon, former ministers Liam Fox, Theresa Villiers, and
A testy, ill-tempered PMQs. Sir Keir Starmer accused Boris of presiding over a corona-shambles. The PM fired back and asked the Labour leader to show ‘signs of co-operation’ with the government’s efforts. Sir Keir was able to cite a ‘sign of co-operation’. A letter written to the PM two weeks ago about helping to reopen
When this chapter in America’s history of its struggle against racism is written, two names will stand out among all the others: Ben and Jerry. Or at least that seems to be what the ice-cream company hopes, given the somewhat bizarre statement that it issued this week. In response to the brutal killing of George
The clashes between Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer are becoming increasingly bad-tempered. Starmer’s strategy is to ask Boris Johnson a series of questions to which there are no good answers. Boris Johnson, informed by focus group research showing that voters don’t want to see a return to partisan politics, responds by accusing Starmer of not
Was Boris Johnson wearing an earpiece during PMQs? Of course not. But that didn’t stop some of those who should know better suggesting otherwise. Former media editor of the Times Raymond Snoddy shared a claim that ‘it seems entirely possible the PM is in fact having radio prompts to attempt to make him appear competent’.
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The time for constructive opposition is over, as Keir Starmer picks up a new tone in his interview to the Guardian, which he continued in PMQs. Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about this strategy; and other issues of proxy voting, Scottish care homes, the BAME impact, and a new testing target.
You might have thought that of all people, leaders of teaching unions would be concerned about the effect of lockdown on children’s education and, in particular, on the gap in attainment between children from the wealthiest and least-wealthy households. From the beginning of lockdown in March, it became clear that children were going to have
In my capacity as the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, I wrote to the chief executive of Ofcom, Dame Melanie Dawes, on 24 April to complain about its reprimand of Eamonn Holmes. According to the regulator, the breakfast television presenter had said something that ‘could have undermined people’s trust in the views being
The fourth round of official Brexit negotiations resumed on Tuesday, screen-to-screen. They will determine whether the stalemate can be broken and a trade deal sealed by the end of the transition date of 31 December. By mid-June, a high-level ‘stock-take’ between Boris Johnson and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will assess whether sufficient progress has
Coronavirus is devastating Brazil. 31,000 people have died and the country has 558,000 confirmed cases (the actual toll is believed to be much higher). But even in the midst of a global pandemic, the state’s war on the favela drug gangs continues unabated. It was six o’clock in the morning on May 15 when Tiê Vasconcelos
After spending Tuesday afternoon queuing in a socially distanced conga line across the parliamentary estate, many MPs found themselves in a bad mood. Even Conservative MPs who backed the government’s plan to change to a system of socially distanced physical voting were complaining. Speaking to Coffee House afterwards, Tory MPs complained the process was ‘humiliating’, a ‘clusterf–k’
We have been told by the Government that an effective test, track and trace programme is the key to ‘controlling’ Covid-19, allowing us to further unlock the country and take the economy out of its induced coma. The effectiveness of contact tracing depends on wide ranging factors including how many people have the virus but
MPs tried out Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new voting system for the first time today, as they prepared for a return to the House of Commons and the end of the virtual voting system. The reforms have already proven controversial among MPs, who have complained that the new system will involve long queues, will take at least
Today the House of Commons fully opened its doors to MPs again for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. Members were summoned back to Westminster so they could vote on new proposals to end the ‘hybrid system’, where politicians were able to Zoom into debates and vote remotely. From tomorrow, MPs
Experts have a get-out clause of which politicians can only dream when they are speaking from the podium at press briefings. While ministers are expected to be able to answer questions on any matter, there and then, and have details at their fingertips, advisors can escape most tricky questions with a simple few words: that’s outside
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MPs are back in the House of Commons this week, and Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg wants them to vote physically, but socially distanced. This means a meandering queue through the Palace of Westminster for MPs to file through the lobbies. Will it work?
Professor Neil Ferguson has been a little elusive of late – ever since he was forced to resign after he was revealed to have entertained his married lover at his home, thus breaking lockdown rules. But he did emerge from the woodwork this morning to give evidence to the House of Lords select committee on
Parliament is back. However, its inhabitants are having to adjust to a new way of doing things. While MPs are supposed to be on the estate and are no longer able to intervene in debates remotely, only 50 MPs may occupy the Chamber at any one time and they cannot vote in the traditional manner as the voting lobbies are not
So now we know. All the things said about Dominic Cummings – that he shattered the lockdown, that he thinks it’s one rule for him and another for everyone else – are far truer of those protesting at the big Black Lives Matter demo in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, than they are of Cummings. The
Last month, Mr S did a little digging into Matt Hancock’s claims that he managed to reach 100,000 tests a day – finding that Health Secretary had been fudging his figures by including tests that had merely been posted rather than just tests that had actually been completed. The expert verdict is now in, with the UK
In common with thousands of companies up and down the country, The Spectator magazine group availed itself of government funds to furlough some of its staff during the Covid crisis. We feared the impact of Covid on our finances, especially on our cash flow, as parts of our business slowed or ground to a halt,
It’s kind of amazing. For weeks we have been arguing about the minute details of viral transmission. Can you be outside? How often can you be outside? Can you be with other people? How many? And how much distance should you keep from each other? Then masses of people gather in cities across the world
One of the benefits of the UK exiting lockdown so slowly is supposedly that evidence from other countries can help mould our decisions. If liberalising parts of society in other countries doesn’t cause a Covid-19 flare-up, the UK can proceed with cautious optimism. If lockdown easing leads to a spike in infection rates, the UK
Almost across the political spectrum, people appear to have decided that it is a very good thing that the government may offer Hong Kong citizens with British Nationals Overseas (BNO) status the chance to come and live in the UK permanently. With China having passed draconian security legislation that runs against democratic norms, Home Secretary Priti
Last month, Mr Steerpike wrote about the worrying decision by YouTube to remove a video featuring Karol Sikora, a professor of medicine, from its platform. Sikora appeared to have been targeted because he believed that coronavirus was petering out, and that we could potentially learn from Sweden which did not lockdown to protect itself against
Tomorrow MPs will swap dodgy internet connections and politics by Zoom for a real life journey into the House of Commons. Under government orders, MPs who can are to return to Parliament, as part of the government’s drive to encourage those who cannot work from home to travel to the office. For one group of MPs though, the
The combination of Covid-19 and Brexit is a double whammy. The first was a haymaker that hit Britain from nowhere. The follow up will come when Britain, quite deliberately and with malice aforethought, winds up its fist and punches itself in the face. The economic impact of the virus will be accentuated by the UK