All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
When Channel 4’s Cathy Newman summed up the Church of England’s John Smyth scandal as showing that ‘the church had neither process nor kindness’, Justin Welby agreed. It was hard for the Archbishop of Canterbury not to. Welby’s downfall was in no small part due to his neglect of the right process, one which puts
In my first few teenage years I attended Christian holiday camps rather like the ‘Bash’ camps where John Smyth and Justin Welby prayed in the same dormitory. They were run by old boys from the school. It was a day-school, but obviously these camps had a boarding school feel. I loved it. It was like
The comments by Stephen Moore, Donald Trump’s economic adviser, should not really be controversial. ‘I’ve always said that Britain has to decide,’ he said from Florida, where he is preparing the new administration’s economic policy. ‘Do you want to go towards the European socialist model or do you want to go towards the US free
This year, as almost every year, there have been calls for a complete ban on boxing. Two fighters, Ardi Ndembo and Sherif Lawal, have died as a result of the sport since April, with more than twenty meeting the same end in the last decade alone. Steve Bunce, BBC’s ‘voice of boxing’, seemed in a
If Peter Mandelson is confirmed as our next ambassador to Washington there will be an outcry among swathes of both the right and the left of British politics. There always is when Mandelson lands a plum position. On the left, the resentment began over his transfer of allegiance from Gordon Brown to Tony Blair more
Russians are, stereotypically, known as heavy vodka drinkers – a fact that is often celebrated, despite all the bodily perils it entails. What’s rather less talked about is that Russia suffers one of the worst HIV epidemics outside Africa. This is thanks, in no small part, to heroin users sharing needles. But the latest challenge to public
In the near three-decade history of the annual round of UN climate conferences, the Baku Cop29 stands out. There have been disastrous Cops before. For those with long memories, there was Cop6 in the Hague after George W. Bush narrowly won the 2000 presidential election, which was disrupted by protestors and the outgoing American climate
After eight years of poorly serving the capital, there was relief from London taxpayers last month when Amy Lamé announced she was standing down as Sadiq Khan’s ‘Night Czar’. On her watch, dozens of clubs, pubs and bars closed down, all the while she continued to enjoy inflation-busting pay rises. It was Mr S who
This afternoon, for the first time in nearly two years, the German chancellor Olaf Scholz picked up the phone to speak with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two leaders reportedly spoke for approximately an hour, with Scholz calling on Putin to end the ‘Russian war of aggression in Ukraine’ and withdraw his troops from the
To Scotland, where the Nats are once again under scrutiny over expenses claims. It now transpires that not only had SNP health secretary Neil Gray been using ministerial cars to take him to sports matches, he took relatives in the vehicle with him too. The last time Mr S checked, acting ‘in line with government
One of the new cliches of American politics is that progressives need their own Joe Rogan. The comedian turned podcaster has an audience that is four-fifths male and 51 per cent aged 18-34, and it has not escaped the Democrats’ notice that, while women aged 18 to 29 voted overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris, men in
Two recently-released prisoners have lifted the lid on corruption and sexual harassment in Britain’s prisons. Beatrice Auty, who was imprisoned for money laundering, said that she was harassed by a male prison officer at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey. A former officer, Lee Davis, who spent two years in prison for corruption, also told the BBC
The head of the Valencia regional government has just attempted an impossible task – justifying his administration’s conduct before, during and after the flash floods that killed over 220 people in the Spanish region last month. Since the catastrophe on 29 October, relentless, richly deserved criticism has been heaped on Carlos Mazón’s right-wing Partido Popular
Hold the front page. The government may have finally smashed part of a people-smuggling gang, or as word-mangling Keir Starmer put it in a piece to camera, a ‘people-smaggling gun’. The details are as follows: a 44-year-old Turkish national was arrested at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam in an operation involving the UK National Crime Agency
A few days ago, in the suburban surroundings of the Phoenix cinema in Finchley, north London, a major film by a great director that positively hums with contemporary relevance received its first, and by the looks of it, only showing in the English-speaking world. Like so many examples of authoritarianism, the censorship is confined to the
Hapless Humza Yousaf certainly picks his battles – and this week the former first minister has taken aim at Elon Musk. On a Tortoise media podcast, Yousaf rather pompously claimed that the tech billionaire was part of a campaign to ‘besmirch’ his reputation and insisted he was ‘certain’ the Twitter CEO had access to his
Ella Kissi-Debrah, a nine-year-old who died in February 2013 after suffering an asthma attack, is the first person in the UK to have air pollution cited on their death certificate. Two weeks ago, Ella’s mother finally settled her legal action against the government, which said it was ‘truly sorry’ for Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’s loss and that
It’s police overreach season again on free speech and non-crime hate incidents, or NCHIs. On Remembrance Day morning, we had Essex police’s surreal doorstepping of journalist Allison Pearson, demanding an interview about a long-forgotten Tweet by her they refused to identify. Pearson has said the police told her it was a NCHI, though the force says it
The circumstances of David Lammy’s Chagos deal get murkier and murkier. This week, the incumbent Mauritian government went to the polls – and got roundly thrashed. Pravind Jugnauth’s MSM party won just two of the 62 seats in parliament, with the Labour party taking the other 60. Now, five days after losing office, the Mauritian
This week, the House of Commons is focusing its attention on proposed reforms to the House of Lords. MPs backed plans to get rid of the remaining 92 hereditary peers on Tuesday, while a second bill which will increase the number of female bishops in the Lords had its second reading on Thursday. The contrasting
Of all Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments this week, his selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is in some ways the least surprising. Yet it could prove the most controversial. RFK Jr’s mistrust of Big Pharma and Big Food resonates widely If confirmed, RFK Jr will
Business taxes are soaring. Employment rights have been massively extended, the trade unions are getting more powers, companies are too dependent on low-skilled immigrants, and the planning system still makes it impossible to build anything. There are plenty of challenges facing the British economy that the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey could
Good old Remainiacs: where would be without them? It is eight years now since the UK voted to quit the EU and nearly five since we actually left – but a small band of Hiroo Onoda-impressionists are still refusing to accept those basic facts. Chief among them is ‘Led by Donkeys’, the self-identifying ‘satirists’ who
Oh dear. It is more than a week since Steerpike broke the news of Downing Street’s Diwali debacle. Many Hindu attendees at the No. 10 reception were horrified to be served alcohol and meat at the event, which aimed to improve the links between Labour and the British Indian community. When Mr S first Downing
Forecasts are one thing, results are another. It’s a tough morning for the government, as the Office for National Statistics publishes the first quarterly growth figures since Labour entered Downing Street. The figures are disappointing: the UK economy only managed to grow by 0.1 per cent between July and September, lower than had been expected
Rachel Reeves is beginning to look awfully like Gordon Brown. Study the actions of this government so far and you would hardly say that deregulation was its big idea. True, Keir Starmer did claim at his investment summit last month that he was going to slash red tape. Angela Rayner wants planning laws relaxed to
Going to restaurants used to be fun. So much so that in the first two booze-sloshed decades of the 21st century, restaurants were the key setting for most of my social activity. My friends and I, living in pretty nasty rented rooms, spent our disposable income on two or three meals out a week, where
A consensus seems to be forming, with unreasonable speed, that Kemi Badenoch isn’t exactly smashing it at Prime Minister’s Questions. Much of the harsher criticism comes from expected quarters – ‘Tory Gloom as Gaffe-Prone Kemi Badenoch Endures Another Miserable PMQs’ says a headline in the Huffington Post, while John Crace snarks in the Guardian that
Tedious narcissist blowhard Jake Paul will fight Mike Tyson on Saturday in a meaningless freakshow in Texas that will likely – thanks to the fact it is being internationally streamed by Netflix – be the most watched boxing match in history. Naturally, both men will make millions. That the contest has little to do with