All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
There’s a curiously two-faced aspect to the British take on the Commonwealth, wouldn’t you say? On the one hand, there’s justifiable contrition about the treatment of the elderly Windrush generation and a general feeling that the Commonwealth leaders assembled for this week’s summit might be justified in taking Britain to task for its cavalier approach
To see the cruelty of bureaucracy, the injustice that can spring from reducing public life to mere process and human beings to paperwork, look no further than the Windrush scandal. Scandal is an overused word these days. Everything from a politician’s ill-advised tweet to a celeb’s extramarital affair gets chalked up as scandal. But if
After Theresa May authorised targeted military strikes in Syria without seeking Parliament’s approval, the Prime Minister has received a mixed response. One group particularly angry about recent events are Stop the War. The anti-war campaign group – of which Jeremy Corbyn is a supporter – gathered this evening to demonstrate against the government response. Only
Though Theresa May, still responding to questions from MPs in the Commons on the weekend strikes in Syria, seems to have won support from a clear majority of MPs, her session has not been entirely comfortable. A large number of backbench Labour MPs made clear that they agreed with the Prime Minister’s assessment that the
Theresa May came to the House today to explain why the UK joined in the strikes on Syria’s chemical weapons facilities and why she had not consulted the House first. May argued, rightly, that there was no prospect of getting UN authorisation for action because Russia would simply veto anything that affected its client regime
Ministers have been caught so badly on the hop in the row about the Windrush generation that when Amber Rudd came to the Commons today, she was forced not only to tell MPs that her own department wasn’t working properly, but also to admit that she didn’t know how many people had been deported. The
Oh dear. As the government goes into meltdown over whether or not Windrush immigrants have been accidentally deported or not, Amber Rudd has found herself in the firing line at the despatch box – with David Lammy tabling an urgent question. However, the Home Secretary appears to have found a scapegoat… the Home Office: ‘I
It’s shrinking. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll indicates that the Democrats’ edge over the Republicans in the forthcoming midterm election has dwindled among registered voters, from a 12-percent lead to 4-points. Trump’s own approval ratings have edged up slightly to 40 percent, but his disapproval rating remains at a daunting 56 percent. So is it
They say the term ‘car crash TV’ is over-used these days. However, Mr S is pretty sure a case of car crash television occurred this afternoon on BBC news. As a BBC correspondent reported from outside the drink-driving trial of Ant McPartlin – of Ant and Dec fame – a vehicle collision occurred. Well, that
Oh to be a fly-in-the-wall at the Home Office today. The government department appears to be in a state of meltdown as Amber Rudd and her ministers attempt some damage limitation after it was revealed that a request by Commonwealth leaders to discuss the cases of the Windrush generation experiencing immigration issues with the Prime
How did the government manage to create such a terrible row over the Windrush generation? The Home Office has told many people who arrived here as children in the late 1940s and 1950s that they are in fact illegal immigrants because they cannot produce documents from 40 years ago about their residence here. That in
The government has won the first of two expected retrospective votes on Theresa May decision to join French and American allies in targeted military strikes in Syria, she did so without seeking Parliamentary approval. MPs debated Alison McGoverns emergency debate late into the evening – with the SNP calling a vote on the motion that
Last week there was an exclusive in the Times – widely followed up – revealing majority support for NHS-linked tax rises. ‘For the first time in more than a decade, a majority of Britons say that they are personally willing to pay more to increase spending, according to the respected British Social Attitudes survey’. It
The Foreign Secretary joined Andrew Marr to discuss the targeted missile strikes on chemical weapons facilities in Syria that took place during the early hours of Saturday morning. Although the US-led attacks were not intended to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad, and have reportedly seen no fatalities as a result, they have proved controversial,
The Syria missile strike has been backed by the governments of Germany, Canada, New Zealand and more – but not Jeremy Corbyn. Not for him the convention of the Opposition leader supporting the government in issues of war and peace. ‘I say to the Prime Minister: where is the legal case for this?’ he told
The latest competition asked for a short story inspired by the Salisbury poisonings. Ian McEwan, a writer who is fascinated by spying, was asked recently on the Today programme how he would begin a novel inspired by the current confrontation with Russia. The image that comes to mind, he said, was of a lion hunting
In my researches for the final volume of my Thatcher biography, there is plenty, of course, about the Cold War, and its end. A constant bone of contention with the Russians was defection to the West. They were particularly furious about the MI6 exfiltration of the KGB man and British double agent Oleg Gordievsky in
If you write a book, even a novel, about Shakespeare you must at least consider the theory that Will of Stratford was not the author of the plays. The arguments for that seem nonsensical to me, but they appeal to conspiracy theorists who, a couple of hundred years from now, will probably contend that Joanne
The Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, strolls nonchalantly across the marble floor of his palace in Damascus, gently swinging his briefcase: just another day at the office. This short video – titled ‘Morning of Steadfastness’ – was posted on the Syrian presidency’s Twitter feed hours after the US, Britain and France bombed what they said were ‘chemical
The best that can be said for Jeremy Corbyn’s response to air strikes against the Assad regime is that he is at least consistent. Why did he assert that the smart cuff meted out last night risked ‘escalating further… an already devastating conflict’? Because in Corbyn’s worldview, it is the felling of chemical weapons factories, not the
‘Any tips for the National?’ I think anyone who has even a vague connection to a horse has been asked this question over the last week, and it’s a pretty impossible one to answer. With a field of forty and some very tough obstacles to get over safely on the way, all you can really
The attack on Syria is now over, says the Pentagon – so where does this leave us? Last time 55 missiles were fired on the airbase from which Assad launched chemical weapons attacks. It was back in use days later, with jets flying off to bomb the same rebels. The United Nations estimated that Assad
Happy now? The US-led air strikes against Syrian bases, notably chemical weapons storage facilities, near Damascus and Homs and reportedly elsewhere, has been, according to all the participants, American, Brits and French, a success. Or, as Donald Trump put it, ‘the nations of Britain, France, and the United States of America have marshalled their righteous
Last night British, French and American armed forces conducted co-ordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the Syrian Regime’s chemical weapons capability and deter their use. For the UK’s part four RAF Tornado GR 4’s launched storm shadow missiles at a military facility some 15 miles west of Homs, where the regime is assessed to keep
Overnight, British, French and US forces took part in strikes against the Syrian regime as a punishment for the use of chemical weapons in Douma. In a statement released in the small hours, Theresa May described these as ‘co-ordinated and targeted strikes to degrade the Syrian Regime’s chemical weapons capability and deter their use’. The
So, what are strikes on Syria meant to achieve? Well, as I write in The Sun today, Boris Johnson was clear at Thursday’s Cabinet what they aren’t trying to do. The Foreign Secretary emphasised that this wasn’t about regime change in Damascus or altering the course of the Syrian civil war. Instead, it was about
With Russian poisoners stalking the streets of Salisbury and the real possibility of a hot war with the Kremlin’s troops in Syria, The Spectator’s debate this Wednesday – What does Russia want? – could hardly be more timely. The line-up of guests we’ve assembled promises to be an explosive mixture. Russian Presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak,
Since Emmanuel Macron became president last year, he has unashamedly courted the world’s presidents, prime ministers, sheiks and chancellors. Much like Trump, his message has been clear: France is not only back, but it is great again. Trump and Macron will have the chance to discuss their strategies later this month when the American president
The death of Winnie Madikizela Mandela has come at a delicate time for South Africa. The country’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has taken over, yet politics remains in a state of flux. Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial, set to take place in June, will see an airing of dirty laundry sure to paint the country’s political
There are several ingredients for a successful democracy: the rule of law, opposition parties working without harassment, and a free press able to discuss every issue from every angle. Viktor Orban won a landslide victory in Hungary’s elections last weekend, reflecting public support that is far wider than his critics allow. But was it the
‘The whole of the Balkans,’ Otto von Bismarck said, ‘is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.’ He was right, until he was wrong. Times changed, and so did the map. In 1914, with Bismarck gone and no one to restrain the Kaiser, terrorism in the Balkans sparked a world war. How much
Monet spinner The National Gallery was criticised for charging £22 for an exhibition of Monet’s work, although the rest of the gallery is free. How much do you have to pay for art? Uffizi, Florence €20.75 (£18) New York Metropolitan $25 (£17.75) Louvre, Paris €15 (£13) Hermitage, St Petersburg $25 (£17.75) Museum del Prado, Madrid
Nearly six years ago, in The Spectator, I explained how and why the gang culture that exploded in the 2011 riots was a ‘taste of the Britain to come.’ I also explained how the left-liberal establishment had allowed the conditions for gang crime to flourish while ignoring the solutions. Sadly, this wasn’t difficult to predict
After Theresa May’s Cabinet agreed on the ‘need to take action’ in Syria, it seems a matter of when, not if, military strikes against the Assad regime take place. But the strikes won’t be the end of the matter politically. Labour have been quick to stir up trouble, with Jeremy Corbyn describing the government as
