All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
‘Imagine Trump doing Brexit — what would he do?’ asked the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, at that dinner which was recorded and leaked to Buzzfeed. ‘There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think that he’d gone mad. But you might actually get somewhere.’ Well, let’s imagine. What follows, brought to
Quite a long time, five seconds, when you count it. And ever since Netflix reportedly warned its employees not to stare at a colleague for longer than that, the paradoxical effect is, inevitably, to make you stare and count. The company’s new guideline is, of course, all part of corporate America’s response to the #MeToo
In the last few days, world order seems to have been turned on its head as Trump antagonised his western allies at the G7 Summit, and then shook the hand of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. We ask, how will Trump treat his allies in the July Nato summit? We also talk to Peter
Jeremy Corbyn has promised to deliver ’21st century socialism’ to the UK if elected. Only Mr S isn’t so sure all Corbynistas are on the same page as to what this will mean in practice. With the ill-fated LabourLive festival just four days away, the blame game has already begun on who is at fault
The SNP thinks Westminster is an anachronism but boy does it love those anachronisms. The Nationalists’ London leader Ian Blackford got himself thrown out of the Commons for disrupting Prime Minister’s Questions. Blackford attempted to move — inartfully and tagged onto a question rather than as a substantive motion — that the House sit in
Jeremy Corbyn had one of his best PMQs ever. Then it all went wrong. His witty use of Boris’s recent tape-recorded solecisms went down very well in the chamber. The evening news would surely have celebrated Mr Corbyn’s deftness at the despatch box. But he was undone by the publicity-burglar, Ian Blackford. The SNP leader
The confusion about what precisely the government promised those Tory MPs attracted to the Grieve amendment hasn’t yet been cleared up. Today, Number 10 is saying that Part C of the Grieve amendment, which would have allowed the Commons to effectively direct the government if there wasn’t a deal by the 15th of February, is
Of course it was a “stunt” – the Westminster village’s preferred term for any piece of nonsense that disrupts the serenity of the mother of parliaments – and of course it was planned in advance. Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, tweeted that prime minister’s questions would be unusually interesting this
The SNP walkout today at PMQs was a stunt. But I was left with the feeling that John Bercow didn’t handle it wonderfully. It was clear from the moment that Ian Blackford requested that the House sit in private that the SNP wanted to be ordered out of the chamber. Bercow’s insistence that the vote
When Kezia Dugdale stepped down as the leader of Scottish Labour, there were rumours that she was planning to defect to the SNP. Despite Dugdale’s denial, odds were as short as 5/1 on Dugdale – whose partner is an SNP MSP – joining the Scottish Nationalists before the next Holyrood election in 2021. So, after today’s
I am sure there must have been a time when feminism was concerned with the interests of the low-paid and disadvantaged – before, that is, it became almost wholly concerned with powerful, well-paid women demanding even higher money. Nicky Morgan and her Treasury Select Committee have found an injustice which puts into the shade the
Although the Serjeant-at-Arms Kamal El-Hajji has dismissed bullying allegations against John Bercow as a ‘witch hunt’, the Speaker’s problems are not going away anytime soon. Claire Perry, the climate change minister, has today accused Bercow of ‘sexist and demeaning’ behaviour – accusing him of having a ‘women problem’. This video shows the incident Perry is referring to.
Awake to the Today programme and ordure being dumped on me by Polly Toynbee while the Mail’s legendary Dame Ann Leslie sings my praises. I recall how Toynbee penned a venomous piece about my predecessor, Sir David English, only days after he died at 67 (though, through a slip in the actualité, his Who’s Who
Although no-one yet knows what the government’s compromise meaningful vote amendment will look like when it returns to the Lords, there’s a growing feeling in Westminster that it is the Tory Remain rebels who have the upper hand. Even if the government doesn’t go far enough to appease these MPs in its verbal promise of
I hate to take issue with a fellow Spectator writer, but Robert Peston’s revelation that a “no deal” Brexit is now off the table strikes me as a prime example of Westminster’s ability to ignore the bleeding obvious for months on end then talk cobblers in an authoritative voice when finally forced to confront reality.
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The main takeaway from the confusion surrounding today’s meaningful vote amendment is that no-one knows what it means. Although the government technically successfully defeated the Lords amendment calling for a meaningful vote on the final deal, confusion reigns over who is the winner: the Remainers or the Brexiteers. The would-be Tory Remain rebels are convinced
So MPs have (narrowly) rejected the Lords’ amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, which would (if passed) have given parliament the power to force the PM back into negotiations with Brussels if MPs and Lords reject whatever Brexit deal she ultimately negotiates. (Phew: that was a mouthful). But the price Theresa May is paying for that
Given this morning’s ministerial resignation, all looked set fair for an afternoon of high drama in the Commons over the EU Withdrawal Bill. In the end, though, the drama was rather quieter, with the government managing to persuade the Remainer rebels to stand down – temporarily – on the matter of a ‘meaningful vote’. Chief
Phillip Lee struck a sorrowful tone when he spoke in the Commons this afternoon, explaining why he had felt it was necessary to resign over Brexit. The Bracknell MP was congratulated for his “courage” as he spoke by his two vocally pro-Remain colleagues, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston. He also received some applause as he
The reviews are coming in for Donald Trump’s performance in Singapore and they aren’t pretty. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times says Trump was ‘hoodwinked’. Ari Fleischer, the former press spokesman for George W. Bush, says ‘This feels like the Agreed Framework of the 90s all over again. NK gave its word to abandon
What is it about Brexit campaigners and select committees? First Vote Leave’s Dom Cummings declined an invitation to appear before Damian Collins’ select committee (leading MPs to back a motion demanding he does so by 20 June). Now Arron Banks – of Leave.EU – has cut his time before the committee short. Banks appeared before
Barack Obama tried to be the first Pacific President. He attempted to pivot America’s grand strategy eastwards in order to adapt to a changing world. He failed, by and large. After his meeting with Kim Jong-un today, Donald Trump has shown that he is moving further east. In fact, Trump could be turning into the first truly Global
Imagine the industrial levels of brass neck it must require for EU-supporting MPs to present themselves as defenders of parliamentary sovereignty. That’s what they’re doing today, on ‘Brexit Super Tuesday’, as they start voting on the Lords’ amendments to the government’s Brexit Bill. They say they are backing the amendment that would give MPs a
Although Theresa May managed to unite her MPs briefly on Monday night and put off a customs union confrontation on today’s EU withdrawal bill votes, not everything is going to plan. Philip Lee has this morning broken that truce and resigned as justice minister to fight Brexit. Speaking at a Bright Blue event, Lee said
President Xi will have been watching the meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un with bated breath, because their meeting is vital for the future of Chinese power. China and North Korea have enjoyed close ties since the dawn of Asian communism. Mao’s own son died on the frontlines of the Korean War, fighting for
You can tell when Donald Trump has just achieved something: he starts being strangely amiable, and his critics start frothing at the mouth. He’s just met supposedly one of the most dangerous, evil men in the world — and made him look like a sweet overgrown child. He and Kim Jong-un just signed an agreement
Donald Trump means different things to different people. To his core supporters, he’s the man who will make America great again. To his diehard opponents, he is a dangerous juvenile with authoritarian tendencies. Ultimately, these descriptions are secondary to how Trump sees himself: a tough, dealmaking Svengali who has the experience and power of persuasion
The refusal by Italy’s new ‘populist’ coalition government of the alt-left Five Star Movement and the hard right Lega to allow an NGO vessel with 629 African migrants on board to dock in Italy is an historic moment. The leader of the Lega Matteo Salvini, now Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, is determined to
Tomorrow marks a year since Theresa May sat her dejected parliamentary party down and promised that ‘I got us into this mess and I’ll get us out of it’. She was speaking amid the chaos of the snap election that she’d called, and it wasn’t clear whether the Prime Minister was going to be able
For the last ten days or more the UK has been becalmed. In theory, our windmill fleet should be able to generate 20 gigawatts of power, more than 50 percent of peak demand at this time of year, but with barely a puff of wind this month, it has been generating next to nothing. If
In Donald Trump’s dealings with Kim Jong-un it is possible to decipher a strategy of creative destruction: stir things up, so that relations cannot seem to get any worse – and then get down to doing business. Might the same process also be in operation in Trump’s trade war with his G7 allies? The President’s
What a difference eight months makes. Back in October, Grant Shapps launched a failed coup against Theresa May after a disastrous Tory conference which saw the Prime Minister cough her way through what was supposed to be a set piece speech. Since then, we’ve had Cabinet feuding, backbench rebellions and a lack of leadership from an
The farce that is Labour Live rumbles on. With the Jezfest set to take place this weekend, the organisers are still struggling to shift tickets to the musical bonanza – which bills The Magic Numbers and Kate Osamor among its headliners. The Times today reports that ‘sales’ are still said to be stuck at around