All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
On Christmas Eve 1914, British and German soldiers laid down their arms and crossed trenches to exchange gifts, bury the fallen and even play football – a brief, poignant truce amid the horrors of the first world war. This week, Hungary’s Viktor Orban has tried to emulate that spirit of goodwill by proposing a symbolic
In hindsight, did the US, UK and France fail to seize the chance to topple President Bashar al-Assad in 2013? This is the question that convinced Wes Streeting, the health secretary, to attack his colleague, Ed Miliband, the energy secretary and former Labour leader. Miliband orchestrated the vote that threw out the proposal by David
Emmanuel Macron has appointed the veteran centrist Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister of the year. First elected as an MP in 1986, Bayrou served as the Minister for Education in the 1990s under both the Socialist government of president Francois Mitterrand and the centre-right Jacques Chirac. In 2007 he launched a Centrist party, Mouvement
The festive season is well and truly upon us and The Spectator celebrated with a Christmas reception that took place this week. From Labour cabinet ministers to Reform’s Nigel Farage, the great and the good of Westminster descended upon Old Queen Street. After a pretty eventful year in politics, parliamentarians, pundits and professionals were able
Eighteen-year old Gukesh Dommaraju, from India, has become the youngest ever world chess champion – after defeating defending champion, China’s Ding Liren, in Singapore yesterday. There is an adorable clip online in which an 11-year old Gukesh, smiling shyly, states his ambition to become the youngest world champion. Bold as that goal was, at the age
To the world of comedy, where it transpires that renowned gender critical activist Graham Linehan is looking for pastures new. The Irish comedian – who worked on Father Ted and The IT Crowd – took to X/Twitter this week to announce he is leaving Britain to move to America after claiming ‘freedom of speech is
It’s not every day I spring to the defence of Ed Miliband, Secretary for Environment, Net Zero and all the rest of it. But for him to be taken to task for not backing the bombing of Syria back in 2013, as Wes Streeting cautiously does today, is actually to criticise him for his most statesmanlike
It is fair to say that Prince Andrew has always had poor taste in friends. Notoriously, and reputation-shreddingly, he consorted with Jeffrey Epstein long after the latter’s disgrace. There is a rogue’s gallery of potentates and sheikhs who have been only too happy to provide what one royal biographer euphemistically called “alternative sources of income”
Is the government going to create a recession out of thin air? This morning’s GDP figures from the Office of National Statistics are dire, showing that the economy contracted by 0.1 percent in October, following a similar fall in September. We are still a long way from a recession being officially called – that would
Another day, another Labour drama. It now transpires that Sir Keir Starmer’s army is in turmoil over a previous Labour party’s response to Bashar al-Assad’s regime – with one current Cabinet Secretary taking a pop at another. Talk about trouble in paradise, eh? Appearing on BBC Question Time, Health Secretary Wes Streeting remarked that ‘if
Another day, another piece of bad news for the chancellor. The economy shrank in October for the second month in a row. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a 0.1 per cent drop despite speculation that the economy would return to growth following a fall in September. The ONS said pubs, restaurants
For anyone who is even a little superstitious (and superstition sometimes feels more like an unavoidable burden than a conscious choice) the arrival of yet another Friday the 13th sends a little chill down the spine. Yet whatever its psychological effects, Friday the 13th is not one of the ancient unlucky days. There used to
Donald Trump is right that some of Nato’s European members are essentially freeloaders. That these countries are holding talks about increasing the alliance’s target for defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP at its annual summit next June comes too little, too late. Countries like Germany and France have consistently underspent on defence, leaving
In late February 2012 I was travelling through Syria’s Idleb province. I stayed for a few days in a town called Binnish, not far from the province’s capital. It was, at that time, under the tentative control of the newly hatched insurgency against the regime of Bashar Assad. The young host of the place I was
Does religion matter in politics today? It certainly does, at least if you pose as someone who is neutral, as the BBC presenters do, or from the centre ground, or if you’re an avowed secularist. On BBC Radio 4 yesterday morning, Conservative MP Danny Kruger was asked how his stance on the Assisted Dying Bill
16 min listen
Today Downing Street has continued its reset – that is definitely not a reset – by providing more details on Labour’s plan to cut the planning red tape and deliver a housing revolution. Their target is to build one and a half million new homes over the next five years by building on green belt
To Scotland, where a new poll has revealed results the Nats may be rather unhappy to see. It now transpires that more Labour voters north of the border support the UK government’s two-child benefit cap than oppose it – just days after the SNP said they would scrap the policy in Scotland. How very interesting…
North Korea has long been infamous for its hyperbolic rhetoric. While there are some subjects – such as the locations of its nuclear facilities – that it has so far managed to keep quiet on, the ongoing calls to oust South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, following his botched attempt to impose martial law last
There were two scenes from Syria last night screened by the BBC and Channel 4 News that should give the Panglossian optimists hailing the birth of a ‘new Syria’ a pause for thought. In one, filmed at the Assad family mausoleum in Qardaha, near the port of Latakia, armed members of the Islamist HTS who
I suppose it is a mild surprise that Fifa didn’t choose Yemen to host the 2034 World Cup, as the bosses of that awful organisation seem determined to make football do a tour of the world’s most primitive and dangerous hellholes. Instead, it’s Saudi Arabia. Of course it is. Over the last ten years the
There are, in fairness, plenty of reasons why the City might be reluctant to embrace the Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein. Its disposable fashion ravages the environment; it encourages rampant consumerism; it has admitted to finding child labour in its supply chain. Here’s the problem, however. The London stock market is in such a dire state
Well, well, well. It now transpires that the Scottish government will follow Westminster’s lead on the UK puberty blocker ban – after Health Secretary Wes Streeting told parliament that he would be extending the policy following the findings from Baroness Cass’s review. How very interesting… On Wednesday, the Health Secretary told MPs that the way
The curse of Macbeth strikes again. David Tennant’s turn as the Scottish psychopath was interrupted this week by a kerfuffle in the auditorium at the Harold Pinter theatre. A play-goer left to visit the lavatory and took exception when the ushers asked him to wait for a suitable pause before resuming his seat. Audience members
At last some good news for owners of second homes: Ofgem has ordered electricity providers to offer tariffs which have no standing charges, but where instead householders pay more per unit of electricity consumed. True, it isn’t second-home owners which Ofgem had in mind when it came up with the idea, rather low income consumers
At yesterday Prime Minister’s Questions, for the second week running, Kemi Badenoch was savaged by Sir Keir Starmer on the key issue of immigration. A fortnight ago, eye-watering ONS figures showed that we have added a city the size of Birmingham to our population, with most of the influx coming from outside Europe. This is
Just like London buses, you wait ages for a criminal justice review – and then three come along at once. First came the announcement of a sentencing review, led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke. Then there was a homicide review, to be conducted by the Law Commission. Now there will be a review of
The aftershocks of last Tuesday’s declaration, and then cancellation, of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol continue to be felt by South Korea’s ruling elite. Every day brings a new development and fresh revelations in this shocking and somewhat bizarre episode, along with evidence of the deep fissures in what had seemed a stable
As I walked through Vienna last weekend, I happened upon several protests organised by Syrian refugees celebrating the downfall of Bashar al-Assad, the butcher from Damascus. People were singing, some even crying, as they rejoiced the end of the father-and-son al-Assad dictatorship, which had lasted 53 years. The protestors had not yet seen the images
The changing nature of political power was neatly demonstrated in Westminster yesterday. In the House of Lords, members debated Labour’s plans to purge parliament of its hereditary peers. Yet down the corridor in the Commons, that same principle seems alive and well. Ten Labour MPs are descended from former members, including scions of the Benn,
Saudi Arabia has been confirmed as the host country for the 2034 World Cup tournament. It has been an open secret for some time that the Saudis would be given the nod. In the event, it turned out to be the easiest of contests, with no opponent and no actual vote – and all courtesy of
At the end of November, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults Bill passed its second reading with a majority of 55 in favour. Now, the MPs who have been selected to sit on the bill committee have been revealed. Find the full list – including each parliamentarian’s party and how they voted on the
As if 2024 hadn’t been packed full of elections, eyes are already moving to next year’s local polls – and it seems some quite interesting conversations are taking place. According to Bloomberg, it transpires that Tory and Reform party branches in parts of the country have held discussions about working together in next year’s council