Stephen Daisley is a Spectator regular and a columnist for the Scottish Daily Mail
Despite its name, Gers Day is not an annual celebration of the Ibrox side that makes up one half of Glasgow’s notorious Old Firm. If only it were that uncontentious. In fact, Gers stands for ‘Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland’, the Scottish government’s yearly report on public finances. In a normal country, the publication of
Yesterday, 1,295 people arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats. That is the highest daily total since current records began being kept in 2018. More than 6,000 people entered the country this way in the first three weeks of August and more than 22,500 in the first eight months of the
As if Judy Murray wasn’t already a national treasure. When the tennis coach, mother of Jamie and Sir Andy, heard about a biological male poised to be awarded tour status by the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association, she tweeted: The replies are what you might imagine but, refreshingly, Murray has not backed down or issued an
You probably think you’ve heard every story there is to hear about people getting fired over their tweets. Well, here’s the story of Sarah Muscroft. She’s got them all beat. Until last Friday, Muscroft was the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA). For 72
James Cook, the BBC’s Scotland editor, is ‘a traitor’. He is ‘scum’, ‘a scumbag’ and ‘a liar’. At least he is according to the Scottish nationalists who howled those epithets at him last night as he tried to report on the Tory leadership hustings. Outside Perth Concert Hall, a mob had gathered, as they invariably
Last night’s Tory leadership hustings in Perth saw Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak interrogated on their plans to tackle the energy crisis. As with other occasions on which they have fielded this question, neither of them gave particularly convincing answers. Both candidates have struggled to articulate an energetic government response to crippling increases in fuel
The race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and Prime Minister has been marked by acrimony. Rishi Sunak has established himself as the candidate of the centre and his rival Liz Truss the figurehead of the right. On one issue, however, they are on the same platform. Last night, Sunak spoke to Conservative Friends
Salman Rushdie’s would-be assassin might have been a lone wolf. He might have had no contact with military or intelligence figures. He might never even have set foot in Tehran. But be in no doubt: he acted, in effect, as an agent of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Under the terms of the fatwa issued
The Devil Wears Prada, a 2006 box-office hit adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s best-seller, is the story of Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), an earnest reporter trying to break into New York journalism. Eventually she takes an entry-level job as a personal assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the Anna Wintour-ish editor of Runway, a Vogue-ish fashion
The next Prime Minister, whoever they are, really needs to get a grip on the declinism and defeatism of the UK government. A case in point is the statement issued today confirming ministers have submitted their case to the Supreme Court in the referendum showdown with Nicola Sturgeon. For those unfamiliar, the Scottish government intends
Donald Burgess is the latest Briton to die after being hit by a police taser. He won’t be the last, but the circumstances of his death underscore the need for a wider debate about conducted energy devices. Police were called to a care home in St Leonards-on-Sea on 21 June, where they found Burgess threatening
Liz Truss has signalled a historic shift in British foreign policy by saying she would review the location of the UK’s embassy in Israel in order to strengthen ties with the Jewish state. The announcement came in a letter sent by the Tory leadership candidate to Conservative Friends of Israel. The Foreign Secretary writes: ‘I
There is a lot of pearl-clutching over Liz Truss’s dismissive remarks about Nicola Sturgeon. Much of it involves conflating a dig at the leader of the SNP with a grave insult to Scotland. This is symptomatic not only of the fetid culture of grievance that permeates Scottish politics but of the steady merging of the
Much to the chagrin of colleagues, friends and ex-friends, I’ve spent the past few years raising the alarm about how Scottish devolution is gradually eroding the Union. I’ve noted how the devolution settlement was devised as a fiefdom by arrogant New Labour architects who, unable to imagine anyone else coming to power, failed to include
The Scottish government’s attempts to spin the latest drugs deaths statistics are a grim response to a total failure of public policy, not to mention revealing of the attitudes of those responsible. While admitting the ongoing problem was ‘unacceptable’, the Scottish government could be found ‘welcoming an end to seven annual increases in drugs deaths’ in
Reflections on the life and legacy of David Trimble will naturally focus on his role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, a feat for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize, but never the same esteem from the political and intellectual classes as went to the more romantic figure of Martin McGuinness. However, in his
It’s always the ones you most expect. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, nationalist strongman and post-liberal poster-boy gave a speech over the weekend on the evils of race-mixing. He was speaking on Saturday to attendees at Tusványos summer university in Băile Tușnad, Transylvania, previously an annual forum for Hungarian-Romanian dialogue but now an intellectual pep
The opening of talks on a UK-Israel free-trade agreement (FTA) is a welcome development for both countries. The negotiations, launched by Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan in a meeting with Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely on Wednesday, follow a bilateral roadmap on cyber, tech and defence drawn up last year. As it stands, UK-Israel trade is worth
It’s not a question that has enjoyed much play in the Tory leadership election but it’s a pretty important one: Should the United Kingdom continue to exist? That is essentially what Isabel Hardman tried to tease out of the three remaining candidates in The Spectator hustings, which comprised separate head-to-head interviews. Penny Mordaunt and Liz
Kemi Badenoch has one last chance. With Tom Tugendhat out on Monday evening, the MP for Saffron Walden is now bringing up the rear in the contest to replace Boris Johnson. With 58 votes from MPs, Badenoch is still substantially behind the third-placed Liz Truss on 71, with Penny Mordaunt coming second on 82 and
