Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
What is it like to go mad? Not so much developing depression or having a panic attack — which is wearyingly familiar to many of us — but to go properly mad, the sort of madness that involves delusions and police officers and locked psychiatric wards? Horatio Clare didn’t have to imagine what that was
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On the 80th anniversary of Prime Minister’s Questions, viewers were treated to a distinctly lacklustre performance today. James Forsyth argues that Starmer’s questions are still too long; and proper scrutiny is not helped by the technical issues that accompanied the Prime Minister’s virtual contribution. Isabel Hardman talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.
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It’s the day after ‘freedom’ day and it’s not entirely clear just how free we are, with the prime minister last night say that from September nightclub goers will have to prove their vaccination status or provide a negative test. But with just the threat of vaccine passports leading to record appointments booked in both
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Ella Al-Shamahi is a presenter, comedian, and an explorer recognised by National Geographic. On this episode, Ella talks to Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts about her ill fated early days as a domestic house wife, her critiques of the paleo diet and the time she had to try turtle – not a fan.
What is the point of the Covid-19 app? Ministers seem to be as in the dark about the answer to this question as the rest of us, with the government tying itself in knots over whether it means anything at all to get ‘pinged’ and told to self-isolate. Downing Street has contradicted Business Minister Paul
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Yesterday in what was the quickest public turnaround in government history. The prime minister and the chancellor are now in isolation after getting pinged for being too close to the Covid ridden health secretary Sajid Javid. There is something a little ironic about the leaders of the country being locked up on what was initially
After several hours of rage that Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were going to be able to avoid self-isolation — despite being contacted by NHS Test and Trace — the pair have performed a screeching U-turn. They’ve now said they will ignore the pilot that they were a part of and stay at home like
Is the NHS about to be privatised? That’s the charge from some campaigners as the Health and Care Bill starts its journey through parliament. Certain doctors, mainly on social media, are calling on MPs to scrap the Bill because they claim it will open up the NHS to more privatisation and allow private companies to skim
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After a year and a half of Zoom speeches held in empty rooms, opposition leader Keir Starmer is heading out on a listening tour to connect with voters. That may be all well and good, but is anyone listening to him? And even if they are, does he have anything worth saying? James Forsyth talks
Boris Johnson’s uncomfortable session at Prime Minister’s Questions was largely of his own making rather than the work of Keir Starmer. As I wrote earlier, the Tories have tied themselves in knots over the question of taking the knee to the extent that they are now open to accusations that they don’t really care about
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The Prime Minister looked visibly uncomfortable at Prime Minister’s Questions today, as Keir Starmer accused him of ‘giving racism the green light’ with the Conservative party’s stance on footballers taking the knee. It comes after a week in which other Tories – notably Priti Patel – have been criticised by footballers and begs the question
Steve Baker’s warning to his colleagues about the way they respond to footballers taking the knee has shaken like a snow globe the debate about the Conservative party and racism. Sir Keir Starmer chose to focus on the matter at Prime Minister’s Questions, mentioning Baker’s message to fellow Tory MPs. That message said: ‘Much as we
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Boris Johnson and his government won the vote today to cut foreign aid spending, but there were rebels and some very prominent ones, including former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and former Prime Minister Theresa May. What should the government learn from this in order to win potentially even more contentious votes down the line? To
Effective cabinet ministers are ones who work out what they want to do in a department on arrival, and then stick to that very small set of priorities whatever the political winds and storms. Michael Gove had this approach in the Education department, setting himself three priorities and then focusing on getting them delivered. Not
The government has won its vote on cutting international development spending from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of GDP. 333 MPs voted for the motion, with 290 MPs voting against. The debate on the cut featured a number of politely furious arguments from Tory rebels, from Andrew Mitchell, who spoke of ‘the Chancellor’s
Theresa May has just announced that she is going to, ‘with regret’, vote against the government today on aid spending. It will be the first time she has voted against a three-line whip (previously she has abstained on crunch votes). The former Prime Minister recalled with some force her own dealings with Conservative rebels when
Things are looking tight this morning for the government’s vote on aid spending. Ministers were hoping that springing the vote on rebels at the last minute might help to peel away some softer MPs, and there’s a list doing the rounds this morning of 14 backbenchers who’ve said they are supporting a compromise which would
How different will life be after 19 July? Not very, if the Prime Minister’s press conference this evening was anything to go by. As with Sajid Javid’s statement in the Commons earlier confirming the final step of the road map, Boris Johnson’s emphasis seemed muted. He said he expected people to continue wearing masks, working from home
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The new Health Secretary Sajid Javid addresses the Commons this afternoon ahead of Boris Johnson’s 5pm remarks about the lifting of restrictions on July 19. And in what was an already painful night for England it was made even grimmer by the horrific, racist abuse that Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka received online
Is the government having a wobble over ‘Freedom Day’ on 19 July? Well, for one thing you won’t hear ministers talking about ‘Freedom Day’ over the next week. Instead, they are preferring to focus on the need for people to be very cautious, given the soaring numbers of cases and hospitalisations. When he appeared on
