Jawad Iqbal is a broadcaster and ex-television news executive. Jawad is a former Visiting Senior Fellow in the Institute of Global Affairs at the LSE
What will it take for Labour and the Tories to realise how bad their situation is? Reform’s by-election victory in Runcorn and Helsby is symbolic of a much wider success, with support for Westminster’s two traditional parties falling through the floor. Britain’s traditional two-party electoral system has morphed into a multi-party system because voters are
The new boss of the National Theatre has a big job on her hands. The combination of Covid, funding cuts and rising costs has left it struggling financially. Audiences remain stubbornly below pre-pandemic levels, with plenty of theatregoers complaining about high ticket prices for mediocre productions. Bubbling away is the eternal question of the National’s role
Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, refuses to go away quietly. Her latest barnstorming idea is to launch her very own ‘uncensorable’ social media platform to counter the mainstream media and protect free speech in Britain. Truss told a cryptocurrency conference, held in Bedford, that the platform would launch this summer. Honestly,
Ray Bradbury, the great science fiction author, had this to say about space exploration: ‘Space travel is life-enhancing, and anything that’s life-enhancing is worth doing. It makes you want to live forever.’ I’d hazard a guess that Bradbury might want to think again if he’d lived to witness what must surely go down in history –
Could Idris Elba, the film star and anti-knife crime campaigner, be in the running to be Labour candidate for London mayor? He is rumoured to be the party’s top choice to replace Sir Sadiq Khan, who is expected to stand down ahead of the next London mayoral election, likely to take place in 2028. Could he?
The head of the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, Michael Stewart, is to carry the can for failures exposed by the Southport attack last year. Stewart’s role has been in question for some time, following revelations that Prevent failed to stop Axel Rudakubana murdering three girls at a dance class in Merseyside last July. Rudakubana was first
The good news is that England, under new head coach Thomas Tuchel, are off to a winning start. The Three Lions secured a comfortable 2-0 victory in the World Cup qualifier against Albania at Wembley. It’s three points on the board and ultimately that’s all that matters. The bad news is that it wasn’t exactly
Poor Lord Coe. His dream of leading the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – the most powerful job in international sport – lies in tatters. He was roundly beaten by Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, the former Olympic swimming champion who will now become the first female president of the IOC. She received a whopping 49 of
Football’s most revered promulgator of platitudes is at it again. Sir Gareth Southgate, the former England manager, has warned that vulnerable young men are falling victim to ‘callous, manipulative and toxic influencers’. Delivering the Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Southgate said the young are falling prey to an ideology that asserts success is measured by money and
Even Keir Starmer’s fiercest detractors (and there are a fair few) must concede that he has had a very good week on the international stage: the best by a long chalk since he entered Downing Street. The Prime Minister, derided by critics as a political plodder, lacking in ideas and charisma-free, is a leader transformed. The
What possessed the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump in a verbal wresting match in the White House? It makes almost no sense as a diplomatic strategy. It is well documented that the US president, notoriously thin-skinned and egotistical, likes to be showered with compliments and treated as an all-knowing, all-seeing
The resignation of Anneliese Dodds, the International Development Minister, over cuts to the aid budget is a shock on many levels. After all, it is almost unheard of for a senior politician in office to quit because of some political belief or principle. Dodds deserves praise for sticking up for her values, even – and
Donald Trump really knows how to wind up his political opponents. That has to be the only rational explanation behind his decision to share on social media a video – apparently AI-generated – of what a US-owned Gaza Strip could look like in the future. It is 35 seconds of unadulterated visual idiocy, veering from
The scenes involving a tearful Emma Raducanu at the Dubai tennis championships must give pause for thought about the terrifying ordeals faced by women sports stars. Raducanu broke down in tears just two games into a second-round match against her opponent Karolina Muchova. The match had to be stopped after the former British No. 1
A British couple detained in Iran have been charged with espionage, according to the Iranian judiciary news agency. Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been accused of entering the country ‘under the guise of tourists’ and of being ‘affiliated with intelligence services’. No actual evidence to back up the spying charges has been provided by the regime in
JD Vance certainly knows how to grab people’s attention. In a landmark address to the Munich Security Conference, he accused Europe’s leaders of being scared of voters and failing to defend democracy. In a fiery speech, he criticised Europeans for abandoning their roots as ‘defenders of democracy’ and of shutting down dissenting voices. Vance even
Football fans attending the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia will not be allowed to buy alcohol during their time there. Hands up anyone who is surprised. The sale of alcohol is outlawed in the desert kingdom, and penalties for consumption include flogging, jail or deportation. Prince Khalid bin Bandar Sultan Al Saud doesn’t come
Who knew that being a voice coach qualified for ‘key worker’ status during the pandemic lockdowns? It has been revealed that the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer employed a personal voice coach as a ‘key worker’ during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite strict government guidelines at the time. The rules defined critical workers as those essential
The best that can be said about Lord Mandelson’s change of heart over Donald Trump is that it shows how much he wants to be the next British ambassador to Washington. He is expected to be confirmed in the role shortly. Even so, Mandelson was taking no chances in an interview he gave to Fox
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, comes across as something of a political nerd, determined to bankrupt the country with his distinctive brand of net zero zealotry. Miliband has devised the answer to this image problem. He is looking to hire a vanity photographer – at considerable public expense – despite previously criticising politicians who did
