Politics

Six days after his involvement in the honeytrap sexting scandal was revealed, Will Wragg has now resigned the Tory whip. It follows his decision on Monday night to quit his roles as vice chairman of the 1922 committee and the public administration select committee. Wragg had previously announced in late 2022 that he would be standing down at the next election meaning he looks likely to sit out his last few months in parliament sitting as an independent. A statement from the whips’ office made clear that Wragg was ‘voluntarily relinquishing’ the whip. So, why now? Within government there is a sense that the initially supportive reaction of Wragg was

The government of New Zealand this week tightened the country’s working visa rules in order to stem historically high numbers of international migrants making their way to the South Seas. New Zealand’s infrastructure seems to be groaning in response to the surging number of international newcomers Immigration minister Erica Stanford said that the changes will allow businesses to make greater use of local workers while still attracting high-skill migrants where there are skill shortages. ‘Getting our immigration settings right is critical to this government’s plan to rebuild the economy,’ she says. The new rules have also been billed as protecting migrants from exploitation. But at least part of the political story is

‘I come here with no intention to lecture anybody’. David Cameron’s line mid-press conference summed up the Foreign Secretary’s approach on his trip stateside. Appearing alongside his counterpart Anthony Blinken, Cameron emphasised the extent to which Britain and America are acting in lockstep on Ukraine, Gaza and other various crises. ‘In a time of danger like this international affairs, close alliances really matter’ he said. Cameron’s trepidation is understandable: he is due to have meetings later today with skeptical congressional leaders on giving further aid to Ukraine. On his last visit to Washington, Cameron suggested that to not provide further funds risked ‘replicating weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s’;

In February 2024, Poland’s Anti-Corruption Bureau opened an investigation into the ‘Collegium Humanum Warsaw Management University’, a ‘Private Management School’ opened in 2018 by a man now (for legal reasons) referred to only as Paweł C. That same month, Paweł C was detained by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on suspicion of issuing diplomas in exchange for personal financial gain. Today, the desire for the appearance of wisdom is often greater than the desire for wisdom itself. Poland has an interesting relationship with academic credentials. The Collegium Humanum website boasts of offering ‘prestigious degrees’, including cut-price three-month MBA programmes marketing themselves with the words ‘save 6,200 zlotys and almost a year of studies’. A