Tom Goodenough is online editor of The Spectator.
Boris Johnson got plenty of things wrong as prime minister but he at least knew how to come up with a punchy slogan. ‘Get Brexit done’, was the tagline of his October 2019 Tory conference. It was a work of genius: both sides of the referendum, exhausted by infighting and frankly bored with Brexit, could
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This week: J. Meirion Thomas tells us about the story of the politician, the street trader and the foiled kidney transplant plot (00:57), Tom Goodenough discusses the blurred lines between sport and entertainment (08:30) and Adam Sweeting reads his interview with documentary-maker Nick Broomfield about the forgotten Rolling Stone (13:42).
Wrexham had never seen anything like it: thousands of fans cheering their team as an open-top bus made its way through the city’s streets. On board, Wrexham’s footballers celebrated their side’s promotion back to the English football league. The club’s star owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, were there too – and with them, as
Wrexham’s Hollywood dream seems almost too good to be true. The club spent years in the doldrums of the football league, its lack of success on the pitch matched by financial troubles off it. In 2004, the club plunged into the relegation zone after it was placed into administration. A few years later, in 2008, the
Finding Cambridge’s ugly side isn’t easy, but a walking tour of the city promises to show you it. Uncomfortable Cambridge, which bills itself as the ‘perfect introductory tour’ of the city, suggests tourists are wrong to think this is a place of beauty. Rather, Cambridge is a place we should be ashamed of – or
‘For the Greeks, it feels like a gaping wound,’ says Sarah Baxter, a columnist at the Sunday Times, of the Elgin Marbles. For 200 years, the Parthenon sculptures have taken pride of place at the British Museum. The Greeks want them back, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Aukus is a pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. But its primary purpose is combatting another country: China. ‘It’s about China, let’s be quite clear,’ says security minister Tom Tugendhat. ‘You will not see many direct references to China in Aukus literature,’ says Sophia Gaston, director of the British Foreign Policy
Brexit was hailed by its supporters as an opportunity for Britain to go out and into the world. But six years on from the EU referendum, are we making the most of Britain’s departure from the EU? Not so, according to Conor Burns, Minister of State in the Department for International Trade. Burns says that,
Members of the Royal Family have gathered at Balmoral amid concerns for the Queen’s health. Buckingham Palace released a statement this afternoon saying Her Majesty was ‘comfortable’ but that ‘the Queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision’. Prince Charles, Camilla and Princess Anne are at Balmoral. Prince
Liz Truss has won the race to become Tory leader and Britain’s new Prime Minister. Truss, who was the runaway favourite to win, defeated her rival Rishi Sunak by 81,326 votes to 60,399 – a margin of 57 per cent to 43 per cent. She will take over from Boris Johnson tomorrow, after flying to Balmoral to see
Love him or loathe him, Donald Trump is a brilliant political opportunist. And the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate last night may have handed the former president a significant boost in any future run for the White House. Speculation is rife that The Donald will have another shot at the presidency – and the dramatic events of the
Penny Mordaunt’s flip-flopping over gender self-ID makes it difficult to know where she stands. But on another issue she has made things abundantly clear: Mordaunt doesn’t understand how the internet works. If she makes it to the final round of the leadership contest this afternoon – and indeed to No. 10 – Mordaunt has vowed
Chris Pincher remains a Tory MP this morning, but how long will that be the case? The Conservative deputy chief whip resigned from the government last night, following allegations that he groped two men at a private members’ club on Wednesday evening. In a letter to Boris Johnson, Pincher said he ‘drank far too much’ and ’embarrassed myself and
Gary Lineker is the BBC’s top earner: he was paid £1.36m last year. The popularity of Match of the Day, the programme he hosts, is often given as the reason for that astronomical pay cheque. Yet the reality is that most fans tune in to watch the goals, not to hear Lineker’s presentation. Lineker, however,
Boris Johnson has won a confidence vote in his leadership – but nearly 150 Tory MPs voted against him in a huge blow to the Prime Minister’s leadership. The PM won the support of 211 Conservative MPs, while 148 voted against him in the ballot of Tory MPs. The PM insisted that this was a ‘very good
Jürgen Klopp is football’s Mr Nice Guy. Despite his Liverpool side missing out on winning the Premier League, Klopp was this week named as the League Managers’ Association manager of the year. The German also won the Premier League manager of the year. It’s not the first time Klopp has won both awards in the
A row about rainbows has broken out in football. Paris St-Germain players wore brightly coloured numbers — a show of support for this week’s ‘International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia’. But one player was missing from the line-up: Idrissa Gueye. PSG’s manager Mauricio Pochettino said that Gueye missed the game against Montpellier – which
Westminster council has fallen to the Labour party for the first time ever, as the Tories suffered a string of defeats in local elections across Britain overnight. The party also picked up Wandsworth council for the first time since 1978, with the defeated Tory council leader Ravi Govindia admitting many voters raised ‘the issue of Boris Johnson’ during
In The Spectator office’s toilets there are framed front covers of the events that didn’t happen: Corbyn beats Boris; ‘Here’s Hillary’; Jeremy Hunt wins the Tory leadership contest. The British Library has something similar at its Breaking the News exhibition. The difference is that these ones actually made it to the newsstand. It’s enough to
Can Boris recover from the storm of partygate? The Prime Minister has pinned his hopes on being exonerated – or at least not entirely condemned – by Sue Gray in her investigation into Downing Street festivities during the pandemic. And yet, whatever she says, the writing might already be on the Red Wall for Boris.
