All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Even a politician as tenaciously optimistic as Matt Hancock was struggling to put any positive spin on it: the world has woken up to the disappointing news that trials of the Oxford vaccine for Covid-19 had been paused after an adverse reaction in one patient. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was one of seven in Phase 3
Another crucial period has begun in the Brexit saga. Boris Johnson has ruled out extending the transition stage beyond 1 January, after which the UK will no longer automatically take over EU regulations or align with EU trade policy. So the key question surrounding Brexit will finally need to be answered: what are the conditions
The general consensus in the media these days over PMQs is that Keir Starmer is a pro and Boris Johnson verging on incompetent. Today’s exchange saw Starmer once again turn the heat up on Johnson’s government. During a fiery exchange at PMQs, Keir Starmer criticised the government’s track and trace system. However, it was not what
Boris Johnson has described himself as ‘a passionate defender of Israel’ and, what’s more, ‘a life-long friend, admirer and supporter of Israel’. He says the UK ‘has always stood by Israel and its right to live, as any nation should be able to, in peace and security’. That recognition that the Jewish state should be
The reverberations from what Brandon Lewis said yesterday continue. Having spoken to various peers, it is clear that the internal market bill will now really struggle in the House of Lords. Two peers who are far more sympathetic to this government than most in the upper house don’t think that it will pass the Lords
The question for Boris Johnson is why he signed a Withdrawal Agreement that gives the EU the power to decide whether British agricultural products are fit for export to Northern Ireland. There was no secret that this is in the Withdrawal Agreement. It is there in black and white. Critics of the deal cited it from the
Matt Hancock has announced his ‘Moonshot’ project of achieving population-wide mass testing for Covid-19. He should be congratulated for this shift in strategy. The previous strategy of ‘Test, Trace and Isolate’ relied on people with the virus feeling ill and so taking a test. Those who tested positive would then be called by one of
At a solemn ceremony at the Panthéon to mark the 150th anniversary of the (re-)birth of the Republic, president Macron chose a 59-year-old anti-Brexit British expatriate to be one of five newly naturalised French citizens emblematic of what it means to become French. Macron does nothing without gauging its historical and political theatre. Coming just days
There’s significant mounting interest in the increase in detected cases in the UK. However, it’s worth looking at the data to try and understand what is going on. First, it is essential to analyse cases by the date the specimen was taken, as opposed to reported. The second vital thing to do is to observe
As Boris Johnson comes under fire from his own MPs over his potentially unlawful Brexit plans, Keir Starmer has made his first significant Brexit intervention. After keeping relatively quiet on the issue since winning the leadership, the Labour leader has laid out his party’s position on Brexit during an evening broadcast round. Despite previously backing a
The penny seems to have belatedly dropped for Boris Johnson. He can have a no-trade-deal relationship with the European Union – what he calls an Australian-style relationship – or he can have Northern Ireland as a seamless member of the UK’s internal market. But under the EU Withdrawal Agreement that he signed, he cannot have
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As Michel Barnier arrives in London for another round of trade talks, Brandon Lewis today said that government plans to reinterpret the Brexit withdrawal treaty could break international law. Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about what the No. 10 proposals could mean, and whether Tory backbenchers can stomach the move.
When Dawn Butler sent a message of support to Extinction Rebellion protesters who had blockaded newspaper printworks, it wasn’t long before her tweet was deleted. So what happened? It was widely assumed that the order to delete the message came from the top of the Labour party and showed all too clearly that things are now
Following widespread speculation that the UK government intends to renege on the Withdrawal Agreement, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis was summoned to the chamber to answer an urgent question on the issue. Despite government attempts to suggest that intended changes to the Withdrawal Agreement through the new Internal Market Bill were simply to tie up loose
It wasn’t so long ago that Sir Keir Starmer was making headlines as shadow Brexit secretary for his role moving the Labour leadership in favour of a second referendum. However, since taking over the party, Starmer has gone rather quiet on the matter. With a global pandemic dominating the news agenda, that was understandable for a while.
You can tell something about a campaign by the desperation-levels of its fundraising emails. In recent weeks, Team Trump’s digital team has started to resemble a company on the verge of bankruptcy. My inbox is full of emails purporting to be from various members of the Trump family, telling ME in CAPITAL LETTERS how important
Who can we blame for Covid-19? Over in the US, Trump is still desperately trying to make ‘the China virus’ and ‘the Wuhan flu’ stick. There can be no doubt where his finger is pointing. The United Nations, on the other hand, has a different target. The UN’s Twitter account notified the world yesterday that,
After reports emerged on Monday suggesting that Boris Johnson plans to use new legislation to override key parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement relating to the Northern Ireland protocol, government ministers sought to play down the changes. Environment Secretary George Eustice suggested that any changes to be laid out in the internal market bill were aimed at simply
There is no region of the UK where Labour has dominated more – both politically and culturally – than Wales. Since 1922, the party has consistently won general elections there, and has ruled Cardiff’s devolved government relatively unchallenged since it was established in 1999. But Keir Starmer would be wise to keep his eye on
The last year has seen a litany of corporates bend the knee to the mighty Chinese Communist party. From HSBC’s ringing endorsement of China’s controversial national security law, to the NBA choosing to denounce a pro-Hong Kong coach, big business has decided that, when it comes to China, profit trumps principle. But Disney’s latest film release, Mulan,
You’ve probably seen the graphs, cases are way up in France, even higher than the first wave, and yet deaths hardly seem to be up at all. Yet if you compare the latest number of deaths recorded, 130 for the week ending 3 September, they’re slightly higher than the 123 deaths in the week in
As a doctor working in the NHS, I’ll never forget the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. There was a tide of death rolling over Europe from northern Italy, inexorably getting closer and closer to us every day. The media was full of scenes of Italian panic; ventilators in corridors, people left to die and
The government is to significantly reduce the threshold for lawful gatherings of people in homes from the current 30, perhaps to as low as six, I understand. This is a first response to the significant spike to circa 3,000 a day in Covid-19 infections we’ve seen. At the moment, attending a gathering of more than
Free speech concerns about the SNP’s Hate Crime Bill have been mounting for months now, so it was inevitable that the Scottish Parliament would eventually take notice. The Scottish Conservatives plan to force a vote there tomorrow calling on the Nationalist administration to withdraw the legislation. The Tory motion is unlikely to pass given the
Like most things Brexit related, it depends on who you believe. The EU is concerned over the announcement that the government will be introducing legislation that could override portions of the Withdrawal Agreement, in particular the Northern Ireland Protocol. The UK government insists that the changes they wish to introduce are ‘limited and reasonable’ and
In 1714, after a long siege, Spain managed to regain control of Barcelona after the War of Spanish Succession. Catalan nationalists point to the day Barcelona fell, 11 September 1714, as the point when Madrid began to strip their homeland of its ancient privileges, and three centuries of subjugation and repression began. To remind everyone
Matt Hancock provided a vaccine update on Monday, explaining that the chances of a drug being ready by early next year are ‘looking up’. With trials pending in the UK, USA and Brazil, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine could be approved this year, although the Health Secretary he conceded it would more likely come in spring 2021. He added that doses are
A new kind of politics has taken root, righteous intimidation. Occasional outbursts of violent outrage are not new, but today righteous intimidation has become the deliberate first choice of many campaigners. Climate campaigners shut down newspapers by blockading printworkers while race campaigners deface and tear down statues. Twitter mobs try to get people sacked, silenced, or arrested for
When we trained at medical school we were taught to approach each patient on his or her own merits. We were taught to take a history: ask questions about past medical problems, drugs and present complaints; to do a physical examination and make a management plan including those tests that allowed us to narrow the
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Boris Johnson last night issued a warning to the European Union that Brexit negotiations must be concluded by October 15 or Britain will walk away. Will this focus minds, or might it spell the end for the talks? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about the government’s hardline approach.
You may wonder why on earth a Tory government led by Boris Johnson, the heirs to Thatcher for goodness sake, are sacrificing the prospect of a trade deal with the EU because they want the right to subsidise British industry. If the Tories and Thatcher stood for anything, it was rolling back the role of
‘Rashford slams MP’s tweet about feeding children’ That was a headline last night on the BBC News site. It neatly captures a tale that sums up just about everything that’s wrong with politics and journalism today. The ‘story’ – also in most newspapers today – is that Kevin Hollinrake, Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton,