The Spectator

Fast

‘When you said you wanted to live life in the fast lane, I didn’t think you meant literally.’

Portrait of the week | 29 May 2014

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, responded to the triumph of the UK Independence Party in the European elections (which left the Conservatives in third place for the first time ever in a national poll) by having dinner with other European leaders in Brussels, which he said had ‘got too big, too bossy, too interfering’.

Europe’s extremists aren’t really on the right

This week, the European parliament took a strong lurch to the left. That is not quite the story that you may have read elsewhere — with most headlines stating that Europe has taken a lurch to the right — but it is the inevitable conclusion if you analyse the results from Sunday’s election from the perspective of

As it happened: 2014 European election results

Welcome to the Spectator’s liveblog of the European elections results. We’ll bring you results, analysis and political reaction throughout the night. Britain: Ukip has come first with 27 per cent of vote (so far), the Tories did reasonably (on 24 per cent, a whisker from Labour’s 25.4 per cent) and Lib Dems are in free

The Ukip effect: live local election results

Ukip is celebrating after winning council seats from all three main parties across the country. Nigel Farage’s party has already exceeded its target of 80 gains in the local elections. On a night of upsets, Labour took control of Tory flagship council Hammersmith and Fulham and the Conservatives took Kingston-upon-Thames. But Labour also failed to make