All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Not all is rotten in the state of Scotland. For at least former member of Nicola Sturgeon’s ancien régime appears to have actually believed her talk of ‘openness’ and ‘transparency’. Step forward Kate Forbes, the former Finance Secretary now banished to the backbenches. Amid the ongoing palaver about the Scottish government’s missing WhatsApps, the one-time SNP leadership
The Covid Inquiry has been taking evidence from Helen MacNamara, Deputy Cabinet Secretary from 2020 to 2021. During Dominic Cummings’s cross-examination yesterday it was revealed that he had wanted to ‘handcuff her [MacNamara] and escort’ her out of No. 10. Yet much of her evidence this morning corroborates his account (or rather criticism) of Whitehall
Try to think of leading names in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Kamala Harris is probably not the first that springs to mind. The woman can barely talk. But she is Vice President of the United States of America and as such she’s in London, about to give a speech ahead of Rishi Sunak’s big
Yesterday saw the latest performance of one of the longest-running dramas in town. In many ways, the Covid inquiry felt very much like a slightly unnecessary reboot (Matrix Resurrections style) of Cummings’s appearance at the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee back in May 2021. We didn’t learn a lot yesterday that we didn’t know then, for all that
Little Britain is ‘explicitly racist and outdated’. That’s the verdict of viewers asked by Ofcom to watch a 2003 sketch from the hit BBC show. Back in the noughties, millions tuned in each week to watch the abominable David Walliams and Matt Lucas dress up as characters with names like Ting Tong Macadangdang and Bubbles
It’s spooky season in Holyrood. Halloween might now be over but it seems that there are still scares in the air. Following the shock claims of an alleged Chinese spy working at the heart of Westminster, it seems that the parliamentary authorities up in Edinburgh are now taking no chances either. An invitation to a
Keir Starmer continues to face significant pressure to call for a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict over Gaza. A third of all Labour MPs have either said they want a ceasefire or signed a Commons motion calling for one, out of a current total of 198 Labour members in the Commons. Below is The Spectator’s
Should we really believe that house prices rose by 0.9 per cent in September, as claimed by the latest release from the Nationwide House Price Index? The unexpected rise moderates the annual fall in house prices from 5.3 per cent in August to 3.3 per cent in September. There is a health warning on the
‘We, who are as good as you, swear to you, who are no better than us, to accept you as our king and sovereign lord, provided you observe all our laws and liberties; but if not, not.’ This famous oath of allegiance, sworn hundreds of years ago by the noblemen of Aragon in northern Spain
It was no coincidence that Kenya was chosen for King Charles’s first state visit as monarch outside Europe. After all, it was at the Treetops hotel in Aberdare National Park on 6 February 1952 that his mother acceded to the throne. As the politician and diarist Harold Nicholson quipped, ‘She became Queen while perched in
It would be a major strategic error for Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza, as some are calling for now. Any let up in air and ground attacks would simply allow Hamas to regroup, rearm and replenish its depleted ranks with new recruits ready and willing to kill women, children and babies the
He must be a busy man, Rishi Sunak. When he’s not rescuing the country from inflation, sending the Royal Navy towards troublezones, making long term decisions for a brighter future, herding worried Conservative MPs towards the lemming-edge of the next election, and organising globally important AI summits, I doubt he has much time to read the darker recesses
Fifa, world football’s governing body, is an organisation that is devoid of anything resembling a moral compass. In its place, the organisation chases money. That is why it comes as no great surprise that Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2034 World Cup, after Australia – the only other nation considering a bid –
Dominic Cummings showed up at the Covid Inquiry dressed in his signature white shirt. Plus, in a nod to formality, he’d added a shoe-string tie , rakishly askew. He was interrogated by Hugo Keith KC, a lawyer with a plausible manner and an expensive tailor. He looked like one of those shiny new MPs with
The mystery of the missing WhatsApps continues. Deputy First Minister Shona Robison took to the floor at Holyrood today to issue an update about the Scottish Government’s interactions with the UK Covid Inquiry. Amid ongoing concern about whether ministers deleted public records, Robison’s contributions don’t offer a whole lot of clarity… Addressing the Scottish parliament
The triviality-obsessed Covid Inquiry has today been having fun with Dominic Cummings’s emails and finding rude words he used about colleagues. Trying to draw anything substantial from this is hard but one line did jump out at me: Boris Johnson saying ‘I no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff’. The inquiry should be asking:
Today it was the turn of the Vote Leave gang to appear before the Covid Inquiry. And while Lee Cain, Boris Johnson’s onetime director of comms, gave a fairly sober appearance this morning, the arrival of Dominic Cummings produced the expectant headlines. Much of Cummings’ evidence today had first been revealed two-and-a-half years ago during
Who is to blame for the shocking pogrom in the Dagestani city of Makhachkala, where a mob of hundreds stormed the local airport in search of Jews on a flight from Tel Aviv? Vladimir Putin has offered a predictable answer: the West. In a meeting with Russia’s security council and law enforcement agencies, president Putin said
It’s not a good time to be an American XL Bully. The breed, an extra-large pitbull variant, has been blamed for a threefold rise in fatal dog attacks in the UK; after a series of high-profile maulings, bullies have today been added to the list of breeds restricted under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Incidents involving the dogs have been met
12 min listen
Fraser Nelson speaks to Michael Simmons about the second phase of the Covid inquiry, looking at political governance. Attending the inquiry today was former No.10 aids Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain.
All is not well in nationalist circles. Veteran SNP MSP Fergus Ewing has now lashed out at the ‘petulant’ response of Humza Yousaf and the SNP leadership to Ash Regan’s defection to Alba. Steerpike can’t blame him — with hapless Humza’s muddled indy strategy confusing, er, just about everyone, they’re all back to fighting like
Three cheers for Suella Braverman, hammer of the left. The Home Secretary has provoked yet more howls of indignation from progressives after describing anti-Israel demonstrations as ‘hate marches’. Speaking after Monday’s Cobra meeting, Braverman said: ‘We’ve seen now tens of thousands of people take to the streets after the massacre of Jewish people, the single
Good headlines are coming out of the Eurozone this morning, as the inflation rate slowed to 2.9 per cent in October. This is a spectacular fall from its double-digit peak last October, when the rate sat at over 10 per cent. Today’s news brings inflation to a stone’s throw away from the European Central Bank’s
Fewer than one in five Scots can reliably be expected to vote for the Conservative party, but a poll this weekend showed that well over half are in favour of his delay on the banning of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. In rural areas, much of which is still considered SNP territory,
Boris Johnson wasn’t in attendance at the Covid Inquiry this morning, but he was certainly there in spirit. The ex-Prime Minister suffered a bevvy of blows in absentia, in the form of WhatsApps published from his former No. 10 team. Among the more explosive were his blunt views on a second national lockdown in October
So it seems that rail ticket offices will be reprieved. After a vociferous campaign – not least on behalf of elderly travellers who might find it difficult to use mobile phone technology, let alone the network of often-dysfunctional ticket machines – the government has undertaken a U-turn and told rail companies to withdraw their proposals
Keir Starmer has tried to get back on the front foot today over his party’s position on Israel and Palestine. Following growing discontent in Labour over Starmer’s refusal to call for a ceasefire, the party’s leader used an impromptu speech at Chatham House to insist that he would not bow to demands to change his
Supporting the Palestinians is a reasonable thing to do. Flying their flag is not an act of hatred. Expressing sympathy for their hardships is not bigotry. There is nothing invalid about arguing for their national self-determination. The problem has always been the proximity of the Palestinian cause to the Jews. Is accusing the ‘Zionist lobby’
Bill Gates was probably otherwise engaged. Mark Zuckerberg was busy in the metaverse. And Jeff Bezos was tied up on his next rocket trip. When the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was looking for a major technology tycoon to host a conversation with at his Artificial Intelligence summit later this week those were probably the names
Since slinking off into ignominious retirement two years ago, Westminster has been blessedly free of the pronouncements of Len McCluskey. Amid ongoing questions about a controversial hotel project, the former Unite boss has seemed largely content to reinvent himself as a scribe of sorts, teaming up with longtime comrade Jeremy Corbyn to release, er, a
There’s no room for racism in Britain, we’re told. EDI (equality, diversion and inclusion) initiatives and anti-racism strategies are everywhere. We’re all familiar with the ‘horror’ of micro-aggressions and unconscious bias. We are forever on alert for dangerous racial ‘dog whistles’. And yet the last few weeks has exposed a troubling blind spot when it
Temperate weather, perfect apples, and leaves turning yellow, red, and purple – ‘Fall’ ought to be the most charming time to be in the US. But the season’s natural beauty is defiled by a grotesque American obsession – Halloween. For all of October (and most of September) Halloween kitsch is as ubiquitous as leaves and
In the past few minutes, Labour has suspended Andy McDonald from the party whip after comments he made that were ‘deeply offensive, particularly at a time of rising anti-Semitism which has left Jewish people fearful for their safety’. Those comments, which the Labour backbencher made at the weekend, included the phrase ‘between the river and
