All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
It was presented as a bold stimulus to boost China’s ailing economy – but while it excited stock markets in Asia, Western economists were underwhelmed. At a rare press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, the usually gnomic governor of the People’s Bank of China, Pan Gongsheng, unveiled a range of measures designed to ‘support the
Britain’s republicans won’t give up. In spite of trying to use the coronation of Charles III as an opportunity to push their campaign to abolish the monarchy, support for the institution has remained stubbornly high. It is our elected politicians – on both sides of the political divide – who seem to have lost support rather
The ravens really are leaving the tower. In recent months, Reform has been turbo-charging its professionalisation drive, working to set up branches across the country as part of their efforts to elect enough MPs to form the next government. There’s been a big back office clear-out and tonight it sounds like there has been another
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Sir Keir Starmer has declared ‘change has begun’ in Liverpool. He defended the cuts to the winter fuel payments, announced a Hillsborough Law, and saw off a heckler. But did we learn anything from the speech in terms of policy? Is he leaving conference in a better or worse position than he entered? Isabel Hardman
‘Some things are more important than staying in power,’ Joe Biden just told the United Nations, and the General Assembly broke into sustained applause. Biden left the stage clasping his hand to his chest, so touched that he had so touched the crowd. ‘It’s your people that matter the most,’ said Biden. ‘Never forget we
The standout line from Sir Keir Starmer’s first speech to conference as prime minister – the one that will be quoted far and wide – will not have been what he planned. With his most serious, most pained expression, Sir Keir called for ‘an immediate ceasefire in Gaza’ and… ‘the return of the sausages’. He
Keir Starmer gave a formidable speech to the Labour conference today. It was easily good enough to inspire the party’s natural supporters to cut him some slack over the bumpy months ahead. In doing so, the Prime Minister also clawed back some of the ground lost through the needless mistakes that have afflicted his rookie
Keir Starmer’s first conference speech as Prime Minister neatly embodied the past three days in Liverpool: patchy, uninspiring, with a strong finish and the promise of better tidings tomorrow. Starmer took to the stage today after a conference that feels more muted than Labour’s landslide victory might suggest. His speech was accordingly light on policy
It’s day three of Labour conference, and Sir Keir’s has just delivered his much anticipated keynote speech. The Prime Minister lauded his party’s general election success, warned delegates of more ‘unpopular’ decisions to come and insisted that ‘taking back control is a Labour argument’. The Labour leader received multiple standing ovations and even elicited a
Thank you, Conference. And I do mean that from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, Conference for everything you have done to fulfil the basic duty of this party – our clause one – so we can return this great nation to the service of working people. Thank you, Conference. People said we couldn’t
Can you be a progressive without being po-faced? I wonder sometimes, especially when I read that public health minister Andrew Gwynne is considering ‘tightening up the hours of operation’ for pubs. The Telegraph reports that Gwynne told Labour conference that changes had to be contemplated because of ‘concerns that people are drinking too much’. After
Oops. After his first Labour conference as Prime Minister was overshadowed by power struggles in No. 10 and the growing scandal over wardrobe-gate, Keir Starmer was hoping to send a message of confidence and competence with his conference speech today. Unfortunately, the PM appeared to make an excruciating verbal slip when discussing the war in
Socialism, wrote George Orwell, has often had a habit of attracting posh cranks. He witheringly described the ‘sandal-wearers and bearded fruit-juice drinkers who come knocking towards the smell of “progress” like bluebottles to a dead cat’. Even though Starmer’s Labour has all but dropped the s-word, fully embracing its role as the party of the
Ahead of the Prime Minister’s address a number of Cabinet ministers are savouring the last full day of their party conference. Pat McFadden – Labour’s campaign co-ordinator and now the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – was in conversation with the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar this morning, enthusiastically recounting election night, lamenting the loss of
Back in September last year, Labour leader Keir Starmer unveiled his party’s flagship education policy: a drive for oracy, or public speaking, to be at the centre of the national curriculum. As Starmer said at the time, his government would put confident speaking ‘at the heart of’ teaching in schools, with these skills potentially making
If you started again with a clean slate, a blank sheet of paper, you would never design a system of policing like this. It’s a system – in England and Wales – where there are 43 ‘territorial’ forces. No matter how big or small, each force has its own leadership structure, specialist units and support functions, such as
Donald Trump is arguably the most unsuitable candidate of any major western political party in living memory, let alone leader of its most powerful state. Brazenly dishonest at times, fond of extreme and reckless rhetoric and disdainful of most political conventions, he’s also the funniest politician in decades. The two things are not unconnected. Comedy
There was a period during the pandemic in 2020 when the pubs were open but you could only go to one if you sat on your own and had a meal. You were allowed to buy an alcoholic drink but once you had finished your meal you could not buy another one. There was also
To the Labour party conference, where Starmer’s army is celebrating its first meet as a part of government in over 14 years. Labour frontbenchers are desperate to distract from their current woes — a freebie fiasco and leak inquiry over bad briefings, to name a few — and this morning it was Yvette Cooper’s turn
Israel has carried out its largest-scale operation against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the summer war of 2006. Wave after wave of Israeli aircraft struck at 1,600 targets across Lebanon yesterday with the aim of targeting Hezbollah weapons stores. Nearly 500 people were killed, according to figures issued by the Lebanese authorities. After nearly twelve months
Gary Neville, the Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United footballer, can’t help himself when it comes to tedious political rants. His latest comes in the form of a one-eyed defence of the Prime Minister’s right to accept freebies, including tickets to Premier League matches. Neville, a prominent Labour supporter, believes Sir Keir Starmer has ‘not
How serious is the Labour party about tackling male violence against women and girls? In June, while campaigning for the general election, then shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledged the matter would be treated as a ‘national emergency‘. Last week, the Home Office finally announced the development of a national initiative to use data-driven tools
Keir Starmer has his big speech today at Labour conference and, like Rachel Reeves’s offering yesterday, the Prime Minister plans to strike an upbeat tone while warning he can’t offer ‘false hope’. He will tell the hall in Liverpool that there’s ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ if the government takes ‘tough decisions now’.
President Zelensky is in the United States for his latest, possibly last, throw of the dice before the American election, in his attempt to prove that victory can be achieved against Ukraine’s Russian invaders. The redoubtable leader of Ukraine has brought what he calls his ‘victory plan’, which embraces every facet of his nation’s future.
Labour’s first conference from government in 14 years might not be taking place against an ideal backdrop, with the Prime Minister and other ministers under scrutiny for accepting designer clobber and other goodies from party donors, but there is an unlikely glimmer of hope in the form of Anas Sarwar. Unlikely, that is, because Sarwar
Keir Starmer takes centre stage at Labour’s conference in Liverpool today, but whatever the Prime Minister has to say, the truth is that the event has been overshadowed. The Prime Minister must have hoped this would be a triumphant gathering bathed in the glow of a landslide election victory less than 12 weeks ago. Instead
Labour’s honeymoon didn’t last long. Keir Starmer won power less than three months ago with a vow to ‘change Britain’. But the Labour government’s missteps over the last few weeks – not least the ongoing row about freebies – makes it hard to distinguish life under Labour to what came before. ‘Vanity snappers’, free posh
It wasn’t long ago that a Conservative government was congratulating itself for achieving the lowest unemployment figures in half a century. This won’t wash any more, since the wider picture has become clear: while official unemployment figures remain low, figures for ‘economic inactivity’ have seen a sharp rise. We have 9.4 million of working age
Universities today are well-known as places where progressive, hyper-liberal politics predominate. It’s only logical, therefore, that the cry for equality and diversity should now extend to the television programme University Challenge. Despite the current series witnessing the second-largest proportion of female competitors in the programme’s history – with 34 female contestants representing a 31 per
The mental health of people in the UK and worldwide is getting worse. Common conditions like depression and anxiety have risen by more than 20 per cent since the 1990s. Although much of the blame in recent years has been directed at social media platforms (perhaps not unreasonably), we may have overlooked another significant factor:
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government has made a lot of noise about the perilous state of the NHS, insisting the institution must ‘reform or die’. But while the rhetoric is right, what does Labour actually plan to do about it? There are ‘three shifts’, health minister Stephen Kinnock told Isabel Hardman at The Spectator’s ‘How to fix a
To Liverpool, where all the wit and wisdom of Sir Keir’s Labour party is gathered. Starmer’s army has come to the city armed with bright ideas and insightful opinions — and no one more so than Bell Ribeiro-Addy. The Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill has been thinking long and hard about the woes
John Boyne still doesn’t really know why he fell foul of the transgender mob. The author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was attacked on social media and accused of ‘transphobia’ following the publication of his children’s novel, My Brother’s Name is Jessica, in 2019. The book came in for a kicking from trans
When the Tories were in power, one of the harshest critics of the government’s Rwanda scheme to deport asylum seekers were the Refugee Council, who branded the plan, among other things, as ‘absurd and inhumane’ and ‘slam[ming] our door in the face of refugees in search of safety.’ Mr S was therefore curious to know
