All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Barcelona’s Barri Gotic is ablaze with banners. Virtually every balcony in the gothic quarter seems to be adorned with some sort of flag. Some people fly La Senyera, the state-sanctioned flag of Catalonia, but far more fly L’Estelada, the rebel flag of independence. Eight months since Catalans voted for secession from Spain in an unofficial
Italy’s new populist government – the first in western Europe – collapsed last night before it even had the chance to govern for a single day. Italy, the Eurozone’s third largest economy and the beating pulse of European civilisation, now finds itself in a constitutional crisis as grave as any of the many it has
Andrew Marr returned to our screens this week after recovering from his kidney operation. His first interview was with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Chairman of the European Research Group and currently the bookies’ favourite to be the next Prime Minister. Marr inquired as to how Rees-Mogg felt the government’s negotiations with the EU were progressing, particularly
‘Onward’ is the name of the latest movement — ‘think-tank’ is not quite the right phrase — to try to revitalise Conservatism. It is led by some of the most able of the new political generation, such as Neil O’Brien and Tom Tugendhat, and under the patronage of the only current cabinet minister who never
I must respond to Rod Liddle’s opinion on Gaza (‘Why this deluded affection for the Palestinians?’, which appeared in last week’s Spectator). I was in Shifa hospital for two quiet Fridays during the initial protests. Eighty-five per cent of bullet wounds were around the knee; the result of accurate sniper targeting. The first casualty I
So referendums are good now? The turnaround has been astonishing. The very people who have spent the best part of two years in moral meltdown at the fact that Britons were given a referendum on membership of the EU are now beside themselves with joy over the abortion referendum in Ireland. ‘You know who loved
This time round, competitors were asked to provide poems about a bromance. Pairings including Friedrich and Karl, Laurel and Hardy, Nigel and Donald lit up an entry that was witty, touching and generally pleasingly varied. I liked Chris O’Carroll’s ‘Boris and Donnie’, a twist on Jimmie Rodgers’s ‘Frankie and Johnny’. And Bill Greenwell had the
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, had declared that there would not be celebrations if and when the Yes side won in yesterday’s referendum on liberalising the abortion laws. But there’s a decidedly celebratory aspect to his side, now it turns out that nearly 70 per cent of voters voted for change. ‘Democracy in action,’
Political Cabinet on Tuesday was treated to a polling presentation that highlighted the dilemma the Tories are facing. When voters are asked what the most important issue facing the country is, they reply Brexit and the NHS. But when they are asked what the most pressing issue for them personally is, they say the cost
The founder of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, turned up in Leeds on Thursday to film people going into a grooming trial. He did not speak, chant, accost anyone or do anything other than point his mobile phone at attendees, from a distance. Nor was he with a crowd. Still, seven coppers turned up and
Mr S has always been a great admirer of creative accounting: the tricks our politicians use to dress up 50p as £1. It’s not lying, per se. All the techniques need to be valid. But their effect is to mislead. Ed Balls was the great master of this dark art, George Osborne his less-subtle apprentice.
Although Conservative MPs were recently given training to brush up their Instagram skills, there’s one Cabinet minister who requires no such help. Step forward Liz Truss. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has carved out a niche on social media thanks to her hashtags and puns. One of my favourite things from tonight's event is
These days Mr S rarely – if ever – finds himself agreeing with Anna Soubry on politics. The arch-Remainer has made it her mission to keep Britain in the customs union, the single market and ideally – Steerpike suspects – the EU. Yet, on Question Time this week, the Conservative MP managed to briefly strike
If you want to get on in right-wing politics, it is essential you master the art of vice signalling. You must show you are tough, hard-headed, a dealer in uncomfortable truths, and, above all, that you live in ‘the real world’ – as if any of us had the option of living anywhere else. In
Is the abortion referendum going to be Ireland’s Brexit moment? Despite the financial crisis, a clerical scandal and a vote on gay marriage, the country had managed to steer itself relatively harmoniously along. Yet just as the EU referendum brought to the surface deep tensions across Britain, this week’s vote is in danger of doing the
The announcement from Marks & Spencer regarding multiple store closures is the most recent in the long chain of major UK retailers shutting their doors. Other announcements in 2018 include Toys R Us, Maplin, Gap, Michael Kors and Abercrombie and Fitch. M&S’s annual pre-tax profits fell by nearly two thirds in the last 12 months,
Trying to make Christian politicians squirm is a favourite occasional sport among political broadcasters in Westminster. The former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron was, for a season, the preferred quarry as he writhed for the cameras most obligingly under increasingly forensic questioning of his views on gay marriage. More recently, the attention has turned to Jacob
It will, as one pro-life campaigner told me, take an act of God to swing the Irish referendum for the No side tomorrow. I’m all for referendums but this one has been so wildly unbalanced as to make the Brexit campaign look almost effete in its regard for impartiality and fair play. The polls suggest
In the cold war of contemporary identity politics, it might seem strange that the only flash of heat has come in the battle over the rights of transgender women. Clashes between trans activists and radical feminists have been violent – metaphorically and literally. At Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park last fall, in an unprovoked attack,
Vote Leave director Dominic Cummings has been warned he could find himself in contempt of parliament for refusing to appear before a select committee on fake news. Here is an edited version of his response to Damian Collins, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee chair: You talk of ‘contempt of Parliament’. You seem unaware
Is the “American Dream”, as Donald Trump claims, dead? Is “America First” a policy of national pride or a dogwhistle to white supremacists? In this week’s books podcast we take the long view. My guest, Sarah Churchwell, excavates the long histories and surprisingly variable meanings of these two phrases in her new book Behold, America:
So much for the “World Peace” that Donald Trump bragged he would create at the June 12th Singapore summit. In a wildly inappropriate letter that veered between a bullying and lachrymose tone, Trump bowed to the inevitable in canceling the summit with Kim Jong-un. He had to do it before Kim did. Already Kim had the upper
In this week’s issue, the Spectator reveals that the government is planning a significant yearly increase in the NHS’s budget. But, Lara Prendergast asks in the podcast, isn’t this the £350 million a week bus pledge? And how will the government pay for this (00:40)? We also talk about the difficulties in modern adoption with
Boris Johnson has been caught in a prank call by a pair of Russian comedians posing as the Armenian prime minister. The Foreign Secretary is recorded discussing Russia’s involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and offering tips to the pranksters on how to deal with Vladimir Putin. In a recording of the phone conversation
If the BBC really is, as Steve Bannon says, a communications department of the global elite, they messed up badly last night. Emily Maitlis’s 20-minute long interview with Bannon on Newsnight was mesmerising television — even, or especially, if you can’t bear the subject. It was also the longest advertisement for economic nationalism yet delivered to
A week doesn’t go by without at least one horror story about the National Health Service hitting the headlines. But today you can take your pick. From the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which says the NHS will need £2,000 a year from each household to stay afloat, to the Care Quality Commission’s warning about patient safety in
The people of the Eurozone’s third largest economy – Italy – yesterday evening became the first in western Europe to get what is popularly known as a ‘populist’ government. The imperial eurocracy will not – cannot – allow such a mortal threat to the EU from the patriotic people to survive – not in Italy.
It’s sometimes hard to know who’s really behind decisions at big tech firms. It could have been the PR team (‘we don’t want more negative press’), the policy team (‘the luddites in parliament want to regulate us’) or the engineers (‘we can’t stop it’). Whoever it was, a couple of weeks back both Google and Facebook announced
It’s safe to say that the uneasy peace formed in the Labour party after the snap election is coming to an end. Labour MP Ian Austin has today penned an article for PoliticsHome which is titled: ‘The current Labour leadership is completely outside Labour’s mainstream tradition’. And he doesn’t mean that as a compliment. In
On Monday night, Michael Gove set tongues wagging in Westminster by joining forces with Ruth Davidson to launch new Conservative think tank Onward. With down-hearted Conservatives hoping the duo could form a future dream ticket in a Tory leadership election, the Defra Secretary dampened enthusiasm slightly by comparing himself and the leader of the Scottish
Dear Tory MPs and donors, I’ve avoided writing about the substance of Brexit and the negotiations since the anniversary last year but a few of you have been in touch recently asking ‘what do you think?’ so… Vote Leave said during the referendum that: 1) promising to use the Article 50 process would be stupid and
There are few sights more pitiful than Labour ‘moderates’ – I prefer to call them what they are: Corbyn-enablers – plating up meagre scraps as a feast of optimism for the party’s future. Last week, it was the routing of Momentum – and Unite-backed candidates for the Lewisham East by-election. That didn’t last long. Now, it’s
If you’re looking to buy your first home, this week’s Best Buys – from data supplied by moneyfacts.co.uk – will help you find the best mortgage deals on the market right now.
On the anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing all the talk has been of hugs and hearts; of healing and hope; of handholding and heroism. Newsreaders have spoken in self-consciously faltering tones about the resilience and defiance of those who have suffered so much. A choir sang Somewhere over the Rainbow. A minute’s silence, followed