All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
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
Back to Labour’s freebie row, which has spilled over into conference week. Sir Keir Starmer’s top team is desperate to get on top of the scandal, yet every time they try, they somehow manage to make things worse. Take Labour’s winter fuel payment-cutting Rachel Reeves, for example, who spoke to ITV News today about the
There is a Christian preacher, a woman, who has suffered the most heinous persecutions. She has been chased by mobs, arrested, unlawfully jailed and even stabbed. Where did this hellish hounding of a follower of Christ occur? Afghanistan, perhaps? Somalia maybe? Actually it was right here, in Britain. An angry mob formed around her Her
Have you learned anything about this Labour government from the conference speeches so far? Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ address to the hall in Liverpool this lunchtime was an announcement-free zone, and the same is true of all the other ministers who have got up to speak so far. All of them have followed the same format:
It was late in 1997 when I got to a small military base on the border between Israel and Lebanon. Straight out of training, my welcome to the base involved sitting in the war room wearing a helmet and a bulletproof vest, hoping that the barrage of rockets flying over our heads, courtesy of Hezbollah,
It is not hard to imagine what will be in Rachel Reeves’ ‘industrial strategy’. There will be lots of ‘green industries’, along with plenty of ‘cutting-edge technologies’, all designed to nurture ‘national champions’ in the ‘sectors of the future’. And presumably Lord Alli, the Labour donor who has been footing the bill for Keir Starmer’s
Just as the Chancellor Rachel Reeves was talking in her conference speech about the importance of resolving public sector strikes, the Royal College of Nursing announced that its members had rejected their pay deal. Nurses have voted two thirds against the 5.5 per cent pay rise, and the College published a letter to Health Secretary
After the general election this year, Nigel Farage argued that he was now the leader of the opposition, after his Reform party took more than six million votes, and came second in swathes of seats across the north of England. The Conservatives furiously disagree with him of course, especially given the Tory party’s higher vote
Yet another natural disaster has struck in Japan as floods and landslides in the Noto peninsula, precipitated by ‘unprecedented’ rainfall, have killed seven (according to the state broadcaster NHK) with 10 people missing. As usual, these numbers are expected to rise. The Ishikawa area was pounded on Saturday with the heaviest continuous rainfall (540 millimetres
Rachel Reeves had to deal with unexpected turbulence in her party conference speech, after anti-Israel protesters interrupted her. But that was the easy bit, since she just opted to go for the Labour line for stage disruption: ‘We are a changed Labour party that represent working people – not the party of protest’. That response
It’s day two of Labour conference and Sir Keir Starmer’s freebie fiasco still hasn’t gone away. Over a week since it transpired that clothing donations to Lady Starmer hadn’t initially been declared properly, revelations that the Prime Minister has received over £107,000 in donations since 2019 have caused outrage among the party’s voter base –
It’s Rachel Reeves’ big day at conference today. After 80 days of doom and gloom, the Starmer army have concluded that this might not be doing wonders for business confidence and party morale. So the Chancellor is seeking to strike a more optimistic note in her address to activists, declaring that her budget will have
Emmanuel Macron’s new government marks, in the words of the BBC, ‘a decisive shift to the right’. That is also the view of Le Monde, the newspaper of the French left, which quotes Socialist party chairman Oliver Faure’s description of it as ‘a reactionary government that gives democracy the finger’. This government is not right
Anyone else getting fed up with ‘emergencies’? There was a time when that word meant something, but not any longer now that every other quango or town council has declared a ‘climate emergency’, ‘housing emergency’ or ‘nature emergency’ (not that the existence of multiple emergencies seems to stop their staff cutting their hours to four
To Liverpool, where Sir Keir Starmer is enjoying his first Labour conference in government, against the backdrop of rather stormy weather and an even worse week of press. On Sunday night, the Prime Minister attended the Scottish Labour reception to welcome new MPs north of the border and ramp up support for his Caledonian lot
Can Rachel Reeves inject some optimism into the debate around Britain’s economy? That seems to be her ambition today, as she prepares to address Labour conference – and the country – this afternoon, where she will look forward to a ‘decade of national renewal’ and promise ‘no return to austerity.’ The change in language is
For the second time in three weeks, the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has received a significant percentage of the votes at a state election in eastern Germany. The far-right party won 29.5 per cent of the votes in Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin. Given the polls going into Sunday, the AfD might even be
In what will surely come as a relief to the German chancellor Olaf Scholz, his SPD party has won this weekend’s state elections in Brandenburg. Securing themselves another term in power, the party squeaked past the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) with 30.7 per cent of the vote. The AfD missed out by just 1.2
Introducing a tub-thumping op-ed in the Mail yesterday, Robert Jenrick quoted Orwell: ‘England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality.’ Mr Jenrick’s thesis is a familiar one. It is that ‘England’s political and media elite’ (he didn’t get ‘metropolitan establishment’ in the text but it was supplied in
Events of the last week have demonstrated the fierce determination of some migrants to reach their European destination of choice. Last Sunday, hundreds of migrants stormed the frontier dividing Morocco from Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the African coast. The Moroccan police fired bullets into the air to ward off the intruders. ‘They do this deliberately to scare
Party conferences are never short of hyperbole. Whether it’s on the conference floor or the late night bar, impromptu speeches and after dinner speeches are often peppered with the kind of comments which come back to haunt a political party as their fortunes change for the worse. And while this year’s Labour jamboree is only
This weekend Labour ministers, MPs and delegates will arrive in Liverpool for their first conference in office since 2009. Following July’s thumping election victory, the official slogan for this week’s gathering is ‘Change Begins’. But after recent rows on winter fuel and No. 10 squabbles, is everyone in the party agreed on what that change
As well as being paid more than the Prime Minister, it seems Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff is getting more press attention these days too. It now transpires that Sue Gray will not be attending Labour’s conference this week, following bad briefings over her pay packet. Rather than attend the Liverpool love-in, Gray will
Last week, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance appeared on CNN’s State of the Union where he was interviewed by Dana Bash. During what could best be described as a testy exchange, Vance said he had ‘created’ the story of Haitian immigrants eating pets. Explaining that statement, he said he ‘created’ the story with memes and tweets, not
Poor Keir Starmer. One of the first things he did after becoming prime minister was to stuff the unions’ mouths with gold – with his government signing off bumper pay rises for striking train drivers, teachers and junior doctors. Still, as he should probably have known at this Labour conference in Liverpool: money can’t buy