All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Boris Johnson is to ‘take personal charge’ of a new crackdown on crime and gangs. So reports Steve Swinford of the Times, one of the Lobby’s best reporters. While this is a good and new story, for a jaded and ageing ex-hack like me it crystallises a vague feeling that’s been nagging at me for
Now that the second phase of the Labour leadership contest is underway, the five candidates are finalising their campaign teams. Some of them, of course, have had some kind of infrastructure running for a good long while before the December election was even called. Others are just announcing their big hires and co-chairs now. Here’s
The second stage of the Labour leadership contest kicks off today as nominations open for affiliated groups – including trade unions – and constituency Labour parties pick a leadership candidate to support. There are five hopefuls still in contention to succeed Jeremy Corbyn: Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Jess Phillips, Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry. Over
Are you a student at the university of Sheffield looking for work? Do you have an incredibly thin skin and a passion for policing other people’s conversations? Are you willing to work for £9.34 per hour? Then have I got the job for you. The university is hiring 20 students to challenge offensive language on
Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign looked listless back in October. Sure, the Vermont senator and 2016 Democratic party runner-up still had his most fervent supporters coming to his rallies and listening to him rail about millionaires, billionaires and greedy health insurance companies. But the polls suggested the wind was hitting his face; one survey put Sanders in a
Boris Johnson has just given a wide-ranging interview to BBC Breakfast in which he signalled support for a new Trump nuclear agreement with Iran and promised to bring forward plans for social care by the end year. Here are the six things we learnt from the interview: 1. Boris backs Trump’s Iran strategy The Prime
Gavin Barwell is a decent enough chap, but the more you read of his time as Theresa May’s chief of staff, the more you realise why her government was doomed. He paints a picture of a low-energy government in the midst of high-energy national crisis. Nothing demonstrates this better than the corresponding reading lists of
There will be no second referendum on Scottish independence this year. This is certain. And it is not because Boris Johnson has today told Nicola Sturgeon that, as expected, he is not minded to pass control of the UK constitution from Westminster to Holyrood – but because the people of Scotland are not yet demanding a
I have many fine qualities – but being a good judge of character is not one of them. Put me in a room with six saints and a psychopath and we all know who I’m going to be swearing blood-brotherhood with by the end of the evening. Interestingly, this hasn’t left me feeling like a
When Jeremy Hunt made it to the final two of the Conservative leadership contest, many presumed this meant he had secured at the very least a senior job in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet. Alas it wasn’t to be. When Johnson won, the then-foreign secretary was swiftly offered the role of defence secretary. He declined – insisting
After the election, when discussions turned to Boris Johnson’s inevitable cabinet reshuffle, most pundits were certain Julian Smith was destined for the door. The Northern Ireland secretary had made himself unpopular with No. 10 following several cabinet table outburst – the most notable being over Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament. So when it was announced
Gavin Barwell was Theresa May’s chief of staff between 2017 and 2019. He was the MP for Croydon Central between 2010 and 2017 and served May as secretary of state for housing. He was made a life peer last year. This is a transcript of a speech he gave to the Institute for Government last night.
What would it take to convert Afua Hirsch to the cause of capitalism? We now know the answer because the Guardian columnist has enthusiastically backed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as the couple seek ‘financial independence’, by such means as registering the trademark ‘Sussex Royal’. As for those who have criticised the Duke and
On the streets of Tehran the real story from inside the Islamic Republic is being written. And Iran’s Mullahs are worried. The people are rioting, as they have for the last year. And as commentators struggle to project their own views onto Iranians, Iranians themselves are finally making their voices heard. Events following the assassination
Watch out for Emily Thornberry. She has sneaked through to the next round of the Labour leadership contest because of nominations to make the whole thing “more diverse”. Some of those who nominated her stressed that this was not an endorsement of the woman. There are people in the Parliamentary Labour Party who haven’t learned
They say no news is good news, but what to make of old news? Today’s papers (including this front page) feature rather boastful headlines about the success of the sugar tax (a levy on soft drinks companies concocted by former chancellor George Osborne, with the stated aim of tackling obesity). The i reports that the levy has “revolutionised the industry,
Emily Thornberry has made it through to the second round of the Labour leadership contest, having secured the required number of nominations from MPs and MEPs at the eleventh hour. As I explained this morning, Thornberry had struggled to gain support from colleagues because of strained interpersonal relationships and her – somewhat unfair – reputation
Boris Johnson’s first week back in Parliament did not lead to the type of fireworks many had been expecting after the Prime Minister’s decisive election victory. Over Christmas, there was chatter that Johnson was building up to a mass restructuring of Whitehall, a cull of the Cabinet and a reorganisation of the civil service. This
About a hundred Stop the War activists gathered outside BBC Broadcasting House on Saturday to protest against a possible conflict with Iran. They were the usual ragbag of idlers, dreamers, misfits and malcontents. Many of these people are unable to grasp the illogicality of their political positions. A chap selling the Socialist declined to give
There’s a dramatic day ahead in the Labour leadership contest, with the first stage of the process closing this afternoon. The candidates must have secured the nominations of at least 22 MPs or MEPs by 2.30pm in order to proceed to the next step. And while Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy
The Iranian government has faced growing internal pressure following the downing of a civilian jet last week. The Ukraine International Airlines flight was shot down on Wednesday shortly after takeoff, killing all 176 passengers on board. The regime has since taken responsibility for the deaths, blaming ‘human error’ amid rising tensions with the US following
When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced last week that they were stepping down as ‘senior’ members of the royal family to ‘carve out a progressive new role within [the royal] institution’, plenty of eyebrows were raised at the couple’s suggestion that they would work toward financial independence as well. After all, how will
‘Global Britain’: a phrase that provokes mockery and even indignation. As an alternative to EU membership many consider it impossible and worse, undesirable. Are we capable of true independence, or is this an illusion? Does ‘global Britain’, as its bitterest critics accuse, draw on imperial nostalgia and nationalistic arrogance? Or is it a rational response
Sir Roger Scruton has died. Diagnosed with cancer last summer, he passed away peacefully on Sunday surrounded by his family. There will be a lot of things written and said in the coming days. But perhaps I could say a few things here. The first is to reiterate something that the Scruton family have said
Sir Roger Scruton died today at the age of 75. In an article for the 2019 Christmas issue of The Spectator, republished here, he looked back on his year: January My 2018 ended with a hate storm, in response to my appointment as chair of the government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission. But the new year
Rebecca Long Bailey: Labour ‘didn’t win the argument’ in December… Sophy Ridge interviewed Rebecca Long Bailey, who launched her campaign for the Labour leadership earlier this week. The shadow business secretary is thought to be the preferred choice of outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn and she has the support of the Momentum grouping inside the party.
The latest challenge invited you to add to Sam Leith’s lines about Boris Johnson, written in the metre of Longfellow’s ‘The Song of Hiawatha’: ‘Mayor of London Boris Johnson/ Much admired the lady’s pole-dance/ Mentored well her start-up business…’ Though Longfellow has long fallen out of fashion, in his day he was a poet celebrity,
The biggest news of the week, obviously, is the conclusion of the drama which has rocked Britain for the past 12 months: the moment the EU Withdrawal Bill finally made it through the Commons. Blanket coverage of Thursday night’s vote may have led to some readers being unaware of some of the other news stories
It is easy to construct a scenario in which tit for tat actions by the Americans and Iranians lead to all-out war, close off the Gulf, send oil prices soaring, crash the global economy – and, if you are really going to go for it, end in nuclear conflagration. But what about the alternative outcome:
This week has shown how much the election has changed. The withdrawal agreement has sailed through the Commons and in Northern Ireland, there has been an agreement to get the assembly and the executive back up and running. As I say in The Sun this morning, ministers were struck by how Brexit got only the
Not so long ago, you could judge the stability of the Middle East by looking at the oil price. Now: not so much. In the last week, we’ve seen American drones kill an Iranian general and Tehran fire missiles at two American bases in Iraq, yet the price of oil remained relatively stable. It climbed
There is anxiety at the BBC, where the Cummings effect is thought to threaten the Today programme. If ministers are told not to appear on it, people ask how it can survive. Although a supporter of the Cummings frost towards the BBC, I feel it would be perverse if Today were the victim. It is well-edited, with a much
It is actually fitting that Harry and Meghan’s decision to leave the UK is being referred to as Megxit. Because this royal temper tantrum, this flouncing out of the UK by the most painfully PC couple in monarchical history, has much in common with Brexit. Like Brexit, it has exposed the vast moral divide that
Just before Christmas, Dr Gavin Ashenden, a former Chaplain to the Queen, converted to Catholicism. But that’s not the main subject of my interview with him in the first Holy Smoke episode of 2020. In it, he deplores the Church of England’s surrender to secularism under Archbishop Justin Welby, who won’t enjoy his former colleague’s
