Tom Goodenough is online editor of The Spectator.
It’s impossible not to see Dame Lowell Goddard’s resignation as an embarrassment to Theresa May. When the Prime Minister was Home Secretary, she personally interviewed and appointed the New Zealand judge to head up the Inquiry into child sex abuse. What’s more, Goddard was rewarded with an almighty pay packet which instantly made her Britain’s
As expected, the Bank of England has cut base interest rates down to 0.25 per cent- the first movement since rates were cut to an ’emergency’ low of 0.5 per cent in March 2009. There’s a “clear case for stimulus, and stimulus now” said Mark Carney, BoE governor – so the money printing machine is
Since the vote for Brexit, the media has fallen over itself to cover the apparently large upswing in the number of ‘hate crimes’ being reported. One of the trends noted is a particularly high occurrence of such incidents in areas that voted ‘Leave’. In his Spectator cover piece, Brendan O’Neill argues that there is an
One woman has been killed and five injured after a knifeman went on the rampage in Russell Square, London, late on Thursday night. Police said the lady who died was an American in her sixties. Those injured were British, Israeli, Australian and American. Police earlier said ‘terrorism is one possibility being explored at this stage’ but
Donald Trump doesn’t seem the forgiving type, so it’s no surprise he hasn’t let Barack Obama’s comments yesterday stand. Obama said Trump was ‘unfit’ to be President – so what did the Republican candidate have to say in response? He answered in the only way he knows how, by flinging mud back at the person
The final shortlist for who will replace Nigel Farage has been unveiled – and the frontrunner Steven Woolfe has been excluded. Ukip’s NEC said Woolfe was left off the list after being deemed ‘ineligible as a result of a late submission’, having missed the party’s nomination deadline by seventeen minutes. It’s a decision which is sure
Barack Obama has said Donald Trump is unfit to be President in his most resounding criticism yet of the Republican candidate. In a strongly-worded statement, Obama said Trump – who he couldn’t bring himself to name – was ‘woefully unprepared’ for the top job. Obama’s intervention is extraordinary and it’s difficult to think of a
Ukip’s leadership race has barely begun but the contest has already delivered plenty of drama. The frontrunner Steven Woolfe missed out on entering his nomination in time after a ‘Computer says no’ moment, and it’s also emerged that Woolfe failed to declare a drink-driving conviction when he ran for office in 2012 – potentially breaching electoral rules.
Those who follow Donald Trump on Twitter will be well accustomed to him prefixing every mention of Hillary with the word ‘crooked’. But whilst Trump has frequently tried to discredit Clinton by painting her as a liar he has never gone so far as to call her the devil. Until now that it. During a speech last
Whilst Labour tangle themselves up in civil war, the Prime Minister is making a move for the party’s economic territory. On her first day in Downing Street, Theresa May said her Government would stick up for everyone, not only the ‘privileged few’. Today, she’ll start work making good on that promise when she chairs the
The Muslim extremist who attempted to murder a man at Leytonstone tube station last December has been given a life sentence today. Muhiddin Mire will spend at least eight-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of attempted murder. He’ll start his sentence at Broadmoor but whilst the Old Bailey Judge accepted Mire was suffering from
His time in No.10 might have come to an end last month but it’s David Cameron who is on the front pages of several newspapers this morning. The former PM’s resignation list of honours has sparked outrage since it was published by the Sunday Times yesterday. And today the fallout shows no sign of dampening
After a week where both Germany and France suffered terror attacks, the question of the relationship between Islamic terrorism and Europe’s refugee crisis is once again rearing its head. In his Spectator cover piece, Douglas Murray argues that whilst the public knows that ‘Islamism comes from Islam’, Europe’s political classes are still refusing to tackle the
Once again, an American police officer has been killed in the line of duty. This time, a policeman in San Diego was shot dead, and his colleague wounded, in a gun attack which happened after the two officers stopped a car. It is, of course, too early to tell exactly what happened, but the horrific pattern
One of Hillary Clinton’s biggest problems when she took to the stage last night was who had come before her: Barack Obama gave a belting speech at the Democrat convention, which Freddy Gray said was like a band playing back some of their old hits. The audience lapped it up. And her husband Bill’s number
Brits had been told that we’d be cooking our turkeys on power generated at Hinkley Point by next Christmas. It’s clear that for those still holding on to that promise, cold lunches will be on the menu. But nonetheless the drawn-out, long-running saga of Hinkley Point should at least reach some kind of conclusion today.
In a week in which both Germany and France have suffered terror attacks, the question of the relationship between Islamic terrorism and Europe’s refugee crisis is once again rearing its head. In his Spectator cover piece, Douglas Murray argues that whilst the public knows that ‘Islamism comes from Islam’, Europe’s political classes are still refusing
So there we have it: Bill has backed his ‘best friend’ and wife Hillary Clinton for President. That he would do so was never in doubt, of course, but the words he used are what matters. He started his yarn with a tale of courtship: ‘In the year of 1971, I met a girl’. Bill
So after the glorious disunity of the Republican convention, now is the chance for the Democrats to pull together and show their rivals what unity is all about. If only. As with so much of politics at the moment, the script is there to be broken and that much was clear when Bernie Sanders was
Although Theresa May has repeatedly assured us that ‘Brexit means Brexit’, we’re still no closer to finding out what that actually means. The Prime Minister has done her best to play hardball in talks with other European leaders, having told Angela Merkel that control over free movement was an issue she would deliver on. But the