All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Rachel Reeves has spent the morning touring the broadcast studios as she attempts to pitch roll for Wednesday’s Spring Statement. While this was never meant to be a big fiscal event, it has taken on a new significance as a result of the worsening public finances. The Chancellor is looking for billions in savings with
Cindy Yu (CY): Slashing winter fuel allowance, keeping the two-child benefit cap, cutting foreign aid, cutting the civil service, axing NHS bureaucracy and slashing welfare spending. Rod, are we actually living under a conservative government? Rod Liddle (RL): No, because the Conservative government didn’t do any of that, because they didn’t have the appetite for
Five years ago tonight, Boris Johnson told us we were going into lockdown. In the run-up to the anniversary of that historic moment, lots of people have shuddered as they remembered the boredom, frustration and horror of that strange time when we were only allowed to leave the house once a day. Me? I’ve been
The phenomenon of people living their lives vicariously through social media is nothing new. We’ve all got that friend who uses their Instagram story to post passive aggressive memes about their ex. Or the one who decides to document the repainting of their downstairs loo as if it’s an interior design triumph worthy of Architectural
Looking at the list breaking down the reasons for which people are granted Personal Independence Payments (PIPSs), up to £180 a week to help them with their daily living and mobility, one cannot help but be reminded of the London Bills of Mortality of the seventeenth century, when some people died ‘frighted’, or of ‘grief’,
Just Stop Oil are their own worst enemies. I support their aims and I do my best to minimise my carbon footprint. I haven’t flown since 1993, I don’t own a car and I have eleven solar panels on my roof, but I’m losing patience with the movement. Meeting the JSO activists who disrupted a
The death of Oleg Gordievsky at the age of 86 comes at a moment when relations between his native Russia and his adopted country Britain are just as fraught as they were in his heyday as the West’s most important double agent at the height of the Cold War. Gordievsky’s life story reads like the
At some point in every sensitive young Oxonian’s life he admits that he should have gone to Cambridge. Since graduating I have found it so much lovelier and livelier than dreary Oxford. Had I my time again I’d join the Tabs, not shoe them. Disillusioned as I am, however, every year I summon up some
Five years ago this weekend, the nation was plunged into what was expected to be a three-week lockdown. Weeks turned into months and years, lives were upended, and society was reshaped. But with the Covid inquiry rumbling on and the threat of a new pandemic ever present, it is worth reflecting on what happened. That’s
John Swinney said this week the SNP doesn’t have a problem with women. I disagree. Of course, some of the unsung founders of the party were women. Some of the party’s strongest and most famous politicians have been women – from Winnie Ewing, Margo MacDonald and Nicola Sturgeon. Yet under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon,
For years now, Mr S has been covering the long-running farce that is China’s proposed new ‘super-embassy’. Back in 2018, Beijing bought the site of the old Royal Mint, declaring their intention to turn the Tower Hamlets location into the country’s largest diplomatic mission in Europe. But for the past seven years, various planning concerns
The good news is that England, under new head coach Thomas Tuchel, are off to a winning start. The Three Lions secured a comfortable 2-0 victory in the World Cup qualifier against Albania at Wembley. It’s three points on the board and ultimately that’s all that matters. The bad news is that it wasn’t exactly
We may look back to find Sir Keir Starmer partly defined by the phrase ‘coalition of the willing’. It is hard to fault the prime minister’s energy in rallying nations to implement a peace settlement in Ukraine, but there are issues to unpick. Who makes up the coalition? What is its role in Ukraine? What
Over the past few months, I’ve wished that almost anyone was education secretary instead of Bridget Phillipson, who seems to be on a one-woman mission to destroy thirty years of school reforms. I’ll be honest, though: by ‘anyone’, I didn’t mean Donald Trump. But this week, President Trump showed how much better he would be in
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On 23 March 2020, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the unprecedented decision to put the UK into lockdown. To mark the 5th anniversary of that announcement this weekend, we have brought together our editor Michael Gove – then a cabinet minister under Boris – and our associate editor Toby Young – an ardent critic of
One in seven British adults – almost nine million people – now take antidepressants. Yet a study attached to the University of California San Francisco suggests we don’t actually know if they should. The paper from the US, led by William Ward and published last month, exposes a glaring flaw: American trials test these drugs
Japan is planning to strengthen its ‘counterstrike capabilities’ by deploying long-range missiles on the southern island of Kyushu. The missiles have a range of 621 miles, meaning they could hit targets within North Korea and China. The move comes amidst rising tensions in the region and in an atmosphere of increased uncertainty in Japan about
Complaints that ‘London isn’t what it used to be’ or ‘London is a hell-hole these days’ are hardly original or new, but reports keep giving succour to this perception. The news that the capital has recorded its highest-ever level of mobile theft will only confirm what nostalgics and those who regularly watch TV already know:
The Reform schism, which the party’s many establishment detractors hoped would prevent it securing a breakthrough at the local elections, is nearly played out. A leak to the BBC of private WhatsApp messages from Nigel Farage about Rupert Lowe, apparently designed to put Farage in a bad light, has in my view done just the
Tommy Robinson has lost his attempt to force the prison service to move him out of segregation. Robinson’s lawyers said he is being held in ‘inhuman’ and ‘degrading’ conditions at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes. But the High Court ruled that Robinson, also known as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was being kept away from other prisoners for
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It’s been Kemi-takes-action week for the Conservatives, with the leader of the opposition trying to prove that she can – in fact – do policy. She launched a series of policy reviews, which will be delivered in a steady stream between now and conference, with a headline statement on Net Zero, declaring that Britain’s 2050 emissions target was
Hark ye now, O despots of the world and enemies of freedom: as the American beacon of democracy fades, Europe stands ready and willing to take its place as the arsenal of democracy. ‘We have agreed on a strategy for fully re-arming and re-equipping Europe,’ tweeted French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday. ‘We will fully restore
The BBC’s legions of staff seem to be struggling to cope with, um, the news. The corporation has issued an emotional support notice for colleagues affected by events across the water, after the election of US President Donald Trump – with the Beeb gushing that its ‘commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging remains unwavering’. How
Southside Central is the kind of ward Scottish Labour needs to be winning. It’s in Glasgow, home to significant pockets of deprivation within the Gorbals and Govanhill, and has a substantial population of Scots of Pakistani heritage. If there is a path to a Labour government after the 2026 Holyrood elections, it runs through communities
The first thing to say is that Nicola Sturgeon has been cleared in an investigation into the SNP’s funding and finances, with no case to answer, scot-free. That may seem a statement of the bleedin’ obvious, but there are many in and out of the independence movement who do not and never will believe that
To Scotland, where the Holyrood exodus continues. Now SNP veteran Fergus Ewing – son of Winnie Ewing, one of the first nationalist politicians to be elected to Westminster – has announced that he will not stand for the party at the 2026 election. But on whether he will leave frontline politics altogether, Ewing is less
Ed Miliband has made the confident and somewhat premature reassurance that there is ‘no sign of foul play’ in the fire that has occurred at the electricity substation serving Heathrow airport. Nevertheless, investigators combing through the debris will presumably be starting with the question in their mind: ‘Could this be a work of sabotage by
Uh oh. As the news about the closure of Heathrow airport circulates around the country, Mr S has been rather concerned to see instances of faulty reporting by the media. Both Sky News and, surprise surprise, the Guardian got rather confused in their coverage this morning – mixing up the Swedish airline SAS with British
Exams at the University of Oxford are tough, but there is one test that students nearly always pass with flying colours: 98 per cent of those who took part in an in-house university-funded assessment centre to screen for learning difficulties, including ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), were told they may have a condition. The screening
It is a requirement of the Royal Family that they should remain politically neutral. They are, after all, the only family in the United Kingdom who are constitutionally not allowed to vote. However, this does not stop its various members from having opinions and expressing them, sometimes in embarrassing and distinctly un-regal fashions. Whether it’s
Pursuing net zero is the ‘opportunity of the century’ which will create tens of thousands of well-paid green jobs and slash our energy bills. That is this Labour government’s official line, at least, as it was the last Tory government’s. Now we know, thanks to a leaked study, that is not quite how the Department
Rachel Reeves is having to borrow more and more money to keep Britain’s show on the road. Figures on the public finances, published this morning by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show that in the financial year to February we borrowed over £132 billion. That is nearly £15 billion more than at the same
