All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Migrant hotels have been the talk of the week after the High Court granted Epping Forest district council a temporary injunction on Tuesday – meaning the asylum seeker residents of Essex’s Bell Hotel must be moved within 24 days. It’s a landmark ruling that will have significant ramifications for the rest of the country –
Today is GCSE results day, and as ever that is cause for celebration: one in five entries got at least a grade seven (equivalent to an A). However, despite all the headline photos of smiling faces, proud parents and carefully open envelopes, the GCSE pass rate for English and Maths has hit a record low:
New immigration data published today has only reinforced what many have known for some time – the current government strategy of ‘smashing the gangs’ to resolve the UK’s small-boats emergency is failing miserably. There are growing signs that the impact of the Yemeni civil war and the Israel-Palestine conflict is spilling over into the UK’s
On Afghanistan, you’ll recall, a massive data breach of vast dimensions and bitter consequences has already been revealed, after years of secrecy and lies. The state has forked out billions to transport tens of thousands of entirely unvetted people into Britain, where they and their descendants will reside at public expense. And, to top it
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GCSE results day has brought a mixed picture; the pass rate has fallen, yet the regional gap has reduced and the gender gap is the narrowest it has ever been. Isabel Hardman and Sir Nick Gibb, former Conservative schools minister, join James Heale to discuss education policy, how changing cultural expectations may be helping the
There was a time when people of colour were not adequately represented in British TV commercials. For many years, despite the UK’s growing black and Asian population, there were too few people matching that description in the commercial breaks. Advertisers’ commitment to diversity has quite often been a commitment to discrimination In the programmes surrounding
When it rains for Sir Keir Starmer, it pours. Now it has emerged that during the Labour lot’s first year in office to June 2025, a whopping 111,000 people claimed asylum in the UK amid a surge in small boat crossings – up by a staggering 14 per cent on the previous 12 months. So
It has only been a few months since Labour’s much-trailed ‘China audit’ – touted as the masterplan that would finally bring coherence to Britain’s China policy – yet once again the government’s China position looks as muddled as ever. The latest furore is over Operation High Mast, Britain’s first carrier strike group deployment to the
It is another scratchy, difficult week for the government. Inflation is up, to 3.8 per cent in July – the highest level since January 2024. Asylum applications are now at record levels with 111,000 applying during Keir Starmer’s first year in office. But the real body blow is the interim High Court injunction to stop
The High Court victory of Epping Forest District Council has made news in France. The decision to temporarily block migrants from being housed in The Bell Hotel was covered by newspapers such as Le Monde and Le Figaro. The latter provided some context to the growing tension in England, noting that the migrants in Epping
Perhaps its cars automatically run down people of the wrong colour? Or its batteries will only charge if you put a white hood over the socket? It is hard to know what exactly the green energy tycoon Dale Vince is thinking by comparing Tesla to the Ku Klux Klan. The comparison is so ridiculously over-the-top,
Since the renewal of ground operations in March this year under the Southern Command, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have entered a defining phase of their campaign in the Gaza Strip. Under the framework of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’, Israeli troops have achieved what military officials describe as operational control over approximately 75 per cent of
That’s the trouble of trying to measure everything through the metric of race: sooner or later you will arrive at a situation very different from that which you intended. Namely, that in some cases it is white people who appear to be at some kind of disadvantage. At least Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is not
Britain is slowly drowning in debt. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that in the financial year to July the state had to borrow £60 billion to tread water. That’s £6.7 billion more than by July last year and the third highest borrowing total for this period of the year
What weapon is stronger than F-16s, drones, targeted strikes, disciplined and war-hardened ground troops, and even nuclear weapons? Hostages. Despite its formidable armed forces and weapons capabilities, in the long and bitter struggle between Israel and its enemies, no tool of war has proven more effective in bending the will of the Jewish state than
Last week, John Power reported on Labour’s alleged ‘dark arts’ strategy: a cynical ploy to damage Nigel Farage and his allies not through debate, but through reputational sabotage. As a target of such smears for many years, I was not hugely surprised to see my name mentioned in the piece. I can attest to the venom
Scottish Labour MSP Colin Smyth has been arrested and charged in connection with the possession of indecent images. The 52-year-old politician – who has represented the South Scotland constituency for a decade – was taken into custody at a Dumfries property earlier this month and a police investigation has been launched. The Scottish Labour party
Yesterday’s injunction granted to Epping Forest council giving the government three weeks to stop using the Bell Hotel for asylum seekers on planning grounds is not quite the slam-dunk that it looks. It is theoretically open to appeal: furthermore, it is only an interim measure pending a full trial later this year. But the affair
To the Land of the Free, where Donald Trump’s administration has been busy, er, setting up a TikTok account. The White House has joined the social media platform this week, despite plans by the United States to ban the app in just under a month over security concerns. The profile has so far posted three
I wonder how No. 10 decides which minister is up for the ritual humiliation of the Today programme each morning. Russian roulette? An elaborate lottery? A competition – last person to spell out ‘TOOLMAKER’ using alphabetti spaghetti? Either way, today’s lucky victim for the airwaves was Home Office minister Dan Jarvis. The Minister made a
After yesterday’s landmark decision on the Bell Hotel in Epping, the next question must be: where do we go from here? What is essential to understand is that yesterday’s High Court judgement was what might be called an ‘Al Capone reckoning’. One ultimate actor, the state, and by extension the government, has been humbled on
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The Green Party leadership election is underway, pitting new MPs Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns against London Assembly Member Zack Polanski. The Greens achieved their best ever result at the 2024 general election, but they’ve remained static in opinion polls ever since. Lucy Dunn and Luke Tryl of More in Common join Patrick Gibbons to
There is not a lot of good news on the British economy at the moment: prices are rising rapidly, job vacancies are falling and taxes are almost certainly going to be hiked again in the autumn to fill the ‘black hole’ that has opened up in the nation’s finances. But there is this. Free money
Well, well, well. The Scottish Tories have lost a number of councillors to Nigel Farage’s ranks and now Labour appears to be facing the same fate. This morning, a former Labour councillor in Fife who left the party over claims she was blocked from becoming a general election candidate has jumped ship to Nige’s Scottish
After the jaw-dropping spectacle of the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska, there was another full day of theatre on Monday as Trump hosted European leaders and President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Yet the results of this three-day diplomatic pageant are embarrassingly modest. In the absence of a breakthrough on this important question, Trump’s diplomacy
Dear oh dear. As Steerpike wrote on Tuesday afternoon, asylum seekers will be removed from the Bell Hotel in Essex after Epping Forest district council was granted a temporary injunction by the High Court. The legal action comes after a series of protestors gathered outside the venue after a resident was charged with sexually assaulting
Rachel Reeves’s rather crude strategy is becoming painfully clear. Between now and the Budget she intends to float ideas for so many painful tax rises that, come the day, we will all feel pathetically grateful that only a few of them have come to pass. Her latest suggestion – reported from an anonymous briefing, needless
The events of the last few days – the Trump/Putin summit in Anchorage, the visit of European leaders to the White House and the virtual conference of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ – have felt strangely detached and surreal. It has been almost like the anxiety dream of a stressed European diplomat: full of famous
Inflation is up again. CPI climbed to 3.8 per cent last month – up from 3.6 per cent in July, now well above the 2 per cent target that the Bank of England no longer seems all that bothered about missing. It throws fresh doubt on the wisdom of the Bank’s decision to cut rates
Australia and Israel are – were – traditional allies. A former leader of Australia’s Labor party and then president of the United Nations General Assembly, Herbert Evatt, played a significant role in the establishment of Israel in 1948. In recent decades, Labor prime minister Bob Hawke was one of Israel’s staunchest international supporters, once observing
Friedrich Merz arrived in Washington this week alongside Europe’s most senior leaders, ostensibly to coordinate the continent’s response to Trump’s Ukraine designs. Here was Germany’s moment to demonstrate the leadership it perpetually claims to seek – a chance to shape the conversation that will determine Europe’s security architecture for years to come. Instead, before the
When dealing with rogue states, being pessimistic often means being realistic. The much-anticipated summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin last week allowed the Russian leader to relish the bright Alaskan lights of summitry with Trump, buy the precious commodity of time, all while maintaining his ambition to defeat Ukraine. Amidst this week’s numerous meetings
Protest works. That will be the take-home message to activists across the country, now that Epping Forest District Council has been granted a temporary High Court injunction blocking asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in the leafy Essex market town. Thousands have demonstrated outside the Bell in recent weeks, sparked by the charging
