Tom Goodenough is online editor of The Spectator.
The decision by prison staff to walkout yesterday before returning to their posts following a court ruling leads many of the newspaper editorials today. There is some sympathy for the difficult job being done by jail staff – but the papers say that officers leaving their posts isn’t the answer. Elsewhere, yesterday’s Brexit memo which suggested
Theresa May used her first big speech on foreign policy last night to spell out the need for globalisation to change. She adopted a softer approach than she did in her conference speech, when she went on the warpath against the liberal elite, says James Forsyth. Yet she remained clear: this year’s political upheaval shows something needs to
Theresa May was tenth in line in the phone queue to speak to president-elect Donald Trump last week. Yet Nigel Farage managed an hour-long meeting with Trump over the weekend – and even found time to pose for pictures in Trump’s gold-plated elevator. Downing Street has so far said it doesn’t want Farage’s help to
Trump’s win sent shockwaves around the world and today’s papers are dominated with news of the one of the biggest political upsets in modern history. Here’s what the papers are saying about Trump’s triumph: The Times describes Trump’s electoral triumph as heralding the start of ‘The New World’. It says that the president elect’s own
Americans will finally head to the polls today after one of the most fractious Presidential contests in the country’s history. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been criss-crossing the US overnight in a final dash for votes. But how has their last-ditch campaigning gone down with the American press? Here’s what the US newspapers are saying
Hillary Clinton is, not for the first time, in the clear. The FBI announced last night its investigation into the latest cache of emails to emerge showed no wrongdoing on the part of the Democrat nominee. Clinton’s spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said the they were glad the matter was resolved. But does the exoneration – if you can
The row over last week’s High Court ruling on Article 50 rumbles on this morning. Theresa May has given her backing to the judiciary, with the PM saying she ‘values the independence of our judiciary’. Yet some of this morning’s newspaper editorials are in much less forgiving mood. The Daily Telegraph points out the distinction between
The High Court’s ruling that Parliament should have the final say on pulling the Article 50 trigger has not gone down well in today’s papers. ‘Enemies of the people’ screams the front page of the Daily Mail alongside a picture of the judges who made yesterday’s decision. If its headline didn’t make its view clear
Sir John Chilcot isn’t a man who deals in pithy quotes. His Iraq War inquiry report came in at two-and-a-half million words, and even the executive summary was 150 pages long. Yet Chilcot’s assessment of Tony Blair during his select committee appearance this afternoon was about as damning as he could manage. Asked whether the former PM
Press regulation – something of a political hot potato – is top of the agenda once again after Culture Secretary Karen Bradley announced the government was considering ditching plans for a follow-up Leveson inquiry. It’s no surprise that this morning’s newspapers have (almost all) welcomed the news. The Sun says David Cameron left behind a press regulation ‘dog’s
Mark Carney’s decision to stay on as Bank of England Governor until 2019 has been widely welcomed. But not everyone is happy about the news. The Daily Mail accuses Carney of being a ‘posturing governor’ and says the staging of his announcement yesterday was in line with much of his conduct: ‘designed to generate maximum publicity’.
In a contest already offering plenty of thrills and spills, the race to become the next Ukip leader has kicked up some fresh drama this morning. Raheem Kassam, Nigel Farage’s preferred successor, has announced his decision to end his leadership bid. The former press officer has blamed press intrusion. In a statement, he said: ‘After
Mark Carney’s appointment in 2013 as Governor of the Bank of England was almost universally applauded. Yet more recently Carney has become something of a divisive figure. His interventions during the referendum campaign angered many. While his economic policies have also come in for criticism, leading some to call for Carney to quit. So should
Theresa May hailed Nissan’s decision to stay put in Sunderland and build its new Qashqai and X-Trail models at its plant in the north-east as a ‘vote of confidence’ in the UK. But was this just the PM drumming up the deal or is it really such good news for Britain? The Times suggests the
Theresa May was widely praised in yesterday’s papers after the Government backed a third runway at Heathrow. And there are more plaudits for the Prime Minister in today’s editorials. The Sun says that yesterday’s figures showing the wages of the poorest rose faster than for any other section of society made it clear that it
The Guardian’s splash today looks like bad news for the PM. ‘Leaked recording shows Theresa May is ‘ignoring her own warnings’ on Brexit’, the paper says on its front page. The story centres around a recording of May giving a speech at Goldman Sachs in the run-up to the referendum. In the tape, which was
Heathrow’s third runway has won the backing of the Government but the long-running saga over the airport’s expansion rumbles on. Zac Goldsmith has quit in protest and Boris Johnson said the plans are ‘undeliverable’. So will the scheme ever see the light of day? Hopefully not, says The Times in its editorial, which suggests Boris’s
Today, after years of delay, we’ll finally learn what the Government’s answer is to the airport question. Both supporters and opponents of it expect the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to announce that the Government is backing a third runway at Heathrow. However, it is also likely that the Government will make encouraging noises about further
As was widely expected, the Government has backed plans to expand Heathrow. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the decision to approve a third runway is ‘truly momentous’. In a statement released moments ago, he said: ‘I am proud that after years of discussion and delay this government is taking decisive action to secure the UK’s place
Following Steven Woolfe’s decision to quit Ukip, the party’s prospects don’t look good. Woolfe – who was the frontrunner in Ukip’s leadership contest – said the party was in a ‘death spiral’. And on the basis of a tumultuous summer involving Diane James’s short-lived 18-day reign, a search for meaning after Brexit and that famous ‘altercation’