All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
‘Can I just say, he’s a t***.’ The taxi driver leans backwards and interjects into our conversation about one of Elon Musk’s latest forays into UK politics. Musk, he makes short shrift of explaining, should keep his beak out. We’ve just arrived in a North-East coastal town, where we will be spending the next few days
Like the sound of birdsong over the trenches after the machine guns have ceased roaring, the FT reports bankers are once again using the words ‘pussy’ and ‘retard’ in the course of their work with no fear of reprisal. The culture war is over. Hurrah. How funny though for those of us who over the last decade have observed
As the hot Australia summer rolls on, so too do the summer silly season stories. The latest is a Sydney council imposing bans on G-string bathing costumes at its public swimming pools. When it comes to swimwear, Australia has had a long tradition of community standards conflicting with personal freedom. In the early years of
After nearly a decade of speculation about his political aspirations, Mark Carney has today formally declared that he wants be Canada’s next Prime Minister. The former Bank of England Governor kicked off his campaign to be the next Liberal party leader at a community centre in Alberta, promising to build the fastest-growing economy in the
Kemi Badenoch’s first big speech of 2024 was meant to seize the news agenda and tell the public that the Tory party is changing under her leadership. Yet in a sign of the difficulties opposition leaders have getting their messages out, Badenoch had to compete with the Labour government announcement of a ‘rapid national audit’
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced a bizarre proposal to cap the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. This change could see as much as 95 per cent of the total nicotine content removed, aiming to ‘save many lives and dramatically reduce the burden of severe illness and disability’, according to FDA Commissioner Robert Calliff. Reducing
There will be more inquiries into grooming gangs after all – just not a full public inquiry. Yvette Cooper has just announced in the Commons that there will be five new local inquiries, including one in Oldham which triggered the most recent row on these crimes. The Home Secretary also announced that Louise Casey is going to
A government consultation on restricting access to disability benefits was ‘so unfair as to be unlawful’, the High Court ruled today, putting £1.3 billion a year of benefit savings in doubt. The Work Capability Assessment is the gateway to Universal Credit health benefits and up to £4,900 a year for recipients. The Tories planned to change parts of
13 min listen
Keir Starmer is in Ukraine today, on his first visit to Kyiv since becoming Prime Minister. And he came bearing gifts: a 100-year partnership agreement between the UK and Ukraine, covering nine ‘pillars’ from culture to science. It is hoped that the new pact will define the relationship between the two countries well beyond the
Perhaps you could gather a group of traffic wardens and ask them how to build a racetrack. Or get the leaders of the Salvation Army over to suggest some cool ideas for a cocktail bar. Think up any improbable brainstorming sessions, and it will still be hard to imagine anything more awkward than the gathering
In her first big speech of the year, Kemi Badenoch has taken a pop at Chancellor Rachel Reeves, reiterated her calls for a national inquiry into the grooming gang scandal and hit out at Britain’s immigration figures. Mr S was rather interested, however, in what the Tory leader said about Reform UK. Speaking in London
Well, well, well. President-elect Donald Trump may have snubbed Sir Keir Starmer and missed off the new US ambassador Peter Mandelson when he was sending out his inauguration invites but there is one Labour figure who has been deemed privileged enough to make the cut. Steerpike can reveal that Lord Maurice Glasman is currently making
Benjamin Netanyahu has this morning accused Hamas of trying to backtrack on the six-week ceasefire and hostage release that was agreed yesterday. The Israeli Prime Minister’s office released a statement saying that Hamas objected to part of the deal that would give Israel the power to veto the release of certain prisoners, and that negotiators
The art of policymaking is to chart a course through evolving circumstances. In the face of resistance, there are three options: resist and persevere in kind, adjust, or fold and abandon ship. The best policymakers make the correct decision at the right time. The British government is in such a moment with its attempt to
Sir Keir Starmer arrived in Kyiv this morning. He came by train, crossing the border from Poland, since air travel into the Ukrainian capital is now unacceptably hazardous. Perhaps he regards this visit as a respite after the week’s event so far at Westminster. The Prime Minister arrived to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky bearing gifts.
I met Andrew Malkinson, the victim of one of Britain’s gravest miscarriages of justice, on just one occasion. But he left quite an impression and I’ve been thinking about his case, especially since the belated resignation of Helen Pitcher, chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). The organisation, which investigates potential wrongful convictions, failed
Could the government be preparing itself for a spending cut which would eclipse the ending of the winter fuel payment? In his mini-reshuffle in response to the resignation of Tulip Siddiq, Keir Starmer has appointed the newly-elected MP for Swansea West, Torsten Bell, as pensions minister. It is an interesting choice because, in his former
The leader of the opposition found it difficult to land her punches in Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, with Kemi Badenoch not quite able to work out how she wanted to attack Sir Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister fended off a number of issues from the Tories, from the economy to the Chagos Islands to Gerry
To the curious case of Mike Amesbury, the former Labour MP who was caught on camera in some rather shocking footage last year. The politician was charged in November and has now pleaded guilty to assault during his appearance in Chester Magistrates Court this morning – after he punched a man in Frodsham last year.
Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay has barely been in the job four months and already his party is facing defections. Mr S can reveal today that Glasgow councillor – and the Scottish Conservative’s leader on Glasgow City Council – Thomas Kerr has jumped ship to Nigel Farage’s party to represent Reform UK on Glasgow City
Over the years I have learned not to take BMI measurements too seriously. I’m pretty healthy, touch wood, and fit, and don’t look remarkably like a porker. But by BMI standards, I am very definitely “overweight”, once or twice even bordering on the dreaded orange swathe of the chart that signifies obese (“severely obese” is
The UK economy has grown for the first time in three months. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that the economy expanded by 0.1 per cent in November after it contracted by 0.1 per cent in both September and October. This uptick is largely thanks to an increase in services output, which grew by
The relief from Downing Street at yesterday’s inflation data – which showed that it dipped to 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to December, down from 2.6 per cent the month before – was palpable. Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, cast a breezy image as he described his boss, the Chancellor Rachel
After days of increasing optimism, Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani summoned the press last night to announce that Israel and Hamas had agreed on a ceasefire and hostage deal. In the hours since, Israel has accused Hamas of backtracking on the agreement and dozens of people have been killed in Israeli strikes on
As Mauritius and the UK scramble to finalise the terms of a treaty to hand over the Chagos Islands before Donald Trump becomes president, there remains a glaring issue with any agreement: for years, both governments have ignored the desire of Chagossian leaders for a democratic solution to the islands’ future. It is 104 days since
There will be two politicians from France in Washington next week to see Donald Trump sworn in as president – and Emmanuel Macron isn’t one of them. The president didn’t get an invite (unlike his European rival, Giorgia Meloni) and nor for that matter did Marine Le Pen. It says much about how Reconquest is
Donald Trump’s favourite President, William McKinley, added Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the American fief at the turn of the twentieth century. Trump once saw Greenland on a map and reportedly said: ‘Look at the size of this. It’s massive! That should be part of the United States’? Two years later, his language is stronger: ‘For
Eyebrows were raised in the House of Lords this week as the Justice and Home Affairs Committee heard evidence that the Ministry of Justice is having to recruit from overseas to staff Britain’s overcrowded jails. Mark Fairhurst, the national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: We are recruiting from overseas and you are getting
After 15 gruelling months of war and negotiation, a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas has been brokered, following intensive diplomatic activity led by the United States, Qatar,and Egypt. Announced this evening, the deal marks a critical yet deeply contentious milestone in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While it offers hope for the
The Labour government is generating its fair share of negative headlines these days – and now the focus is on the new Attorney General, Lord Hermer. As Mr S pointed out in summer, Sir Keir Starmer’s appointee has held some rather, er, interesting roles in the past – including representing ex-Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams
Robots will never replace Sir Keir Starmer. No need. Silicon Valley is already using him as the template for an army of cloned officials to be sold worldwide. The Starmer App was on display at PMQs as he answered planted questions at the start of the session. A tame backbencher said the word ‘train station.’
When I was at Magdalen College, Oxford, in the early 1990s, I’d often read ‘Bogsheets’ in the loos by the college bar. They were single pages of anonymous college gossip, cheaply printed off in those pre-internet days. I remember one bogsheet clearly. The headline said, ‘Cheer up!’ And the standfirst said, ‘You’re at the most
As Ireland’s octogenarian President, Michael D Higgins, enters the last few months of his final term in office, a man who was always outspoken in his views seems to have dropped any presidential filter. Higgins spent much of last year on what seemed like a one-man mission against Israel, making a series of wild and frequently incorrect statements about the Jewish