Tom Goodenough is online editor of The Spectator.
Where is England’s ‘valley of the kings’? You’d be forgiven for not knowing. The Anglo-Saxon monarchs buried there are, like much of the rest of that period, little more than a footnote in the crash course in history you get at school. When the Romans headed home in the fourth century, it’s often thought that
More than 30 countries – including Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Thailand – will not allow travellers arriving from the UK to enter after a new variant of coronavirus was detected. Here are the measures countries around the world have imposed on Brits: France: The country halted all arrivals from the UK from midnight last
Is Boris Johnson really Prime Minister? Or is Marcus Rashford? It’s not hard to see why some are confused. Whenever the Manchester United footballer has opened his mouth – not least on helping children who get free school meals during holidays – Boris has, often reluctantly, bowed to Rashford’s requests. Rashford’s latest project, a book club
Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty have come under fire over slides used during the weekend announcement of the second Covid-19 lockdown. Today, the pair hit back. A chart suggesting there could be up to 4,000 deaths per day by December under a reasonable worst-case scenario was described by Oxford expert Carl Heneghan as ‘now proven to
From Friday night, southerners are set to be cooped up in their homes because of high Covid rates in the north. I’m talking, of course, about the decision to impose tier two restrictions on London. The capital’s nine million people will be banned from socialising indoors with people they don’t live with and commuters urged
When Boris Johnson announced further lockdown restrictions this week, it was inevitable that Rishi Sunak would again splash taxpayers’ cash. The Chancellor duly delivered this afternoon. But one thing is clear: slowly but surely Sunak is turning the taps off. The Job Support Scheme, which replaces the furlough scheme, means the government will pay up
When it comes to tackling climate change, the EU has always been eager to talk the talk. In 2011, the Commission vowed to spend a fifth of its upcoming budget on ‘climate action’. Last year, it went even further: it said that one euro in every four – or 320 billion euros (£290bn) – was going
When police kit out their patrol cars in rainbow flags or when officers don pride polo shirts, two questions spring to mind: Should the police be doing this? And how much does it cost? Now, we have some answers to the second of these questions. Among the top spenders on supporting and promoting LGBT causes
If companies were judged on what they said rather than what they did, business would be booming for Boohoo. In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, the fashion firm was saying all the right things about what it would do to make the world a better place. ‘We are louder together. Say his name.
Across Britain, the rainbow pictures are coming down. But in some houses, they are being replaced with new, more political placards. ‘This home supports a pay rise for NHS heroes,’ the poster says. It’s unlikely that any politician will be brave enough to say so but it’s worth asking a question in response: is now
Anyone worth listening to agrees that black lives matter. But what does the organisation ‘Black Lives Matter’ stand for? Worryingly, for the 34,000 Brits who have topped up BLM UK’s coffers with over £1million in recent weeks, finding out is no easy task. Despite being inundated with donations, BLM UK does not appear to have
It’s hard to argue that English football is chronically racist. Unlike in many boardrooms up and down Britain, there are no all-white teams in the Premier League. The number of black players has doubled since the Premier League started twenty years ago. Yet instead of letting the players – black and white – do the
One of the big sources of confusion in the Government’s latest advice on coronavirus is about schools. You don’t have to go far on Twitter or Facebook to find memes like this one, suggesting Boris Johnson is wrong not to order teachers and pupils to follow the rest of the country: Angry pupils and parents
Boris Johnson once promised to lie down in front of the bulldozers to stop Heathrow’s third runway ever being built. Fortunately for the Prime Minister, it now seems that he might not have to. The airport’s expansion plans have been thrown into doubt this morning after opponents won a legal fight against a new runway
Quassem Soleimani is dead but in Israel fear of his warped legacy lives on. The Iranian general was key to his country’s strategy of developing networks of militant groups throughout the Middle East. These organisations are all held together by one thing: a common hatred of Israel. And a month after Soleimani was killed in
Will Boris Johnson return to Downing Street on Friday? Or will it be prime minister Jeremy Corbyn? There are now only two days to go until election day. Here are the key seats to watch on Thursday night and Friday morning that will determine Labour and Tory fortunes: 10pm All eyes will be on the joint
Boris Johnson has just released a statement in response to the terrorist attack at London Bridge this afternoon. Several people were stabbed before a man wearing a fake suicide vest was shot dead by police. The Prime Minister, who returned to Downing Street from his constituency following the incident, said his message to terrorists is
Voters dislike Jo Swinson the more they see her. That was the verdict of a poll this week revealing that even Remain voters are turning away from the Lib Dem leader, despite the party’s fervent anti-Brexit pitch. In the summer, those asked about Swinson were apathetic: they didn’t know who she was. Now that she
Croydon Central’s last Tory MP wrote the book on how to win a marginal constituency. At the 2017 election, Gavin Barwell subsequently lost his seat. Now Barwell’s ex-Downing Street colleague is determined to win it back. So what went wrong last time? And will things really be different for the Tories two years on? Mario
Alun Cairns has resigned as Wales Secretary following claims he knew about a former aide’s role in the collapse of a rape trial. Cairns said he made the decision to quit ‘in light of continued speculation’ over what he called a ‘sensitive matter’. Cairns’ former advisor Ross England was condemned by a judge after making
