All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
A similar phenomenon is developing with the Covid recession as happened with Brexit. News outlets – the BBC in particular – are choosing to focus on dire economic predictions at the expense of more positive real-world data. Yesterday, we heard no end of it when EY forecast that the economy would not reach its pre-Covid
One of Julian Assange’s many gifts to the law was to establish in the case of Assange v. Swedish Judicial Authority that where a woman consents to sexual intercourse on condition that the man is wearing a condom, he commits the offence of rape – in English as well as Swedish law – if they
It’s happening again. Despite having lost four general elections in a row, supporters of the Labour party have already convinced themselves that Boris Johnson is doomed and they are on course for victory next time. Their reasoning was expertly set out by Andrew Rawnsley, still the doyen of left-of-centre commentators, in his Observer column on
Poor Grant Shapps. Having hopped on a flight to Spain on Saturday morning, the transport secretary discovered that his family’s holiday hotspot would be placed on the government’s Covid quarantine list from midnight. Shapps tells the Sun that he has spent the last 48 hours of his summer hols locked in emergency calls with industry bods and transport
Seventy-five years ago this week, Clement Attlee became prime minister of the most radical government in British history. In office, Attlee faced unprecedented problems created by the need to turn a near-bankrupt wartime economy back to the requirements of peace while finding work for millions of demobilised soldiers. Under his leadership and despite these problems the Labour
Is there anything we do not know about Harry and Meghan? They might have ‘stepped back’ as senior royals in order to avoid the media spotlight. They might have a habit of suing newspapers and photographers for breaching their privacy and a fondness for elaborate screens and fences around their various homes. But with the
I am trying to work up sympathy for people who book a holiday abroad in the middle of a pandemic and are then surprised to discover they may end up in quarantine. Failing, so far. Still, I would rather we’d had the quarantine back in February and March, when it might genuinely have done some
More data emerges on one of the central questions of the Covid-19 epidemic: just how many of us have had the infection and have, as a result, built up some immunity towards it? The question is crucial because it governs whether or not we need to fear a second spike of the epidemic. It is
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Within a few hours, the government enacted a quarantine policy for those returning from Spain (including the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, and almost including our own Economics Correspondent Kate Andrews). There’s been confusion and unhappiness over the speed with which this was put in place, but did the government have any choice? Cindy Yu talks
Voting opens this week for Lib Dem members to choose the next leader of their party. One figure has overwhelmingly dominated the race so far, both during public hustings and behind the scenes. Unfortunately, it has not been Ed Davey nor Layla Moran – but Keir Starmer. Both candidates are essentially engaged in a battle
Who would have thought a Prime Minister that once railed against the ‘continuing creep of the nanny state’ would be the one to launch a war on fat? Boris Johnson spent much of his journalistic life before No. 10 criticising the paternalistic instincts of policymakers. Yet now he is promising new laws to help ‘reduce the temptations that
I’ve always thought the ‘last flight out’ was reserved for truly grave situations abroad – or an apocalypse film starring Will Smith or Brad Pitt. Yet somehow I unknowingly found myself on one – or one of the last – yesterday, flying from Malaga back to Heathrow Airport. I can’t say the re-instated quarantine rules
In the Nineties, it was a husband and a wife who used supportive reporters, friendly biographers and the global reach of television to extol their own royal righteousness, as their marriage deteriorated. Now, it’s the sons of Charles and Diana who are settling scores after the searing pain of a shared bereavement failed to lash
Dominic Raab – ‘Swift decisive action’ needed on new quarantine rules The government updated its rules on foreign travel yesterday so that anybody returning to the UK from Spain has to self-isolate for 14 days. The new guidance reflects the discovery of 971 new coronavirus cases in Spain in one day, prompting fears of a
I think Anne Applebaum is a friend of mine. I certainly hope so, since I have always admired her writing, her dignified charm and her un-English readiness to be serious. Her new book Twilight of Democracy is subtitled ‘The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends’. Quite a large number of friends, several associated
Today is the first day of the Covid-19 pandemic in England when you must wear a mask if you go shopping. Up to now ministers and health and scientific advisors have played fast and loose with facial coverings. Judgements on their merit and usefulness have waxed and waned from the ‘yeah, but no, but yeah’ of
Freemasons beware – the traditional handshake may be the latest victim of the coronavirus, cancelled in our post-pandemic quest for a sanitised contactless future. According to testimony before the science and technology select committee, in the interests of public health, the good old-fashioned grip and grin should be replaced with the chaste but benign Japanese
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Boris Johnson probably didn’t expect his first year as Prime Minister to shake out quite the way it did. From winning a landslide majority, to leading the country during a global pandemic, it’s the sort of year that, if shown in a TV show fans would complain about too much being squeezed into one season.
On Thursday the supposedly resurgent Labour party lost control of Brighton and Hove, one of its few centres of power in southern England, because of the endemic anti-Semitism on the left. The fate of the local Labour group shows in microcosm the problem facing the Labour leadership nationally as it struggles to pull the party
The controversy over the UK’s use of Huawei equipment in its 5G network has not abated, despite the government’s announcement that the Chinese manufacturer’s equipment will be stripped from the network by 2027. Conservative MPs continue to be unsatisfied by this half-way house, claiming that Britain will remain vulnerable to ‘back-door’ espionage by the Chinese
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Freddy Gray talks to the journalist and author Nancy Rommelmann about the ongoing protests in Portland, Oregon as Trump begins to send in federal forces.
If he had lived in a less meretricious age, Stuart Wheeler would be a household name. An extraordinarily successfully entrepreneur, Stuart made his fortune founding the spread betting firm, IG Index. He then proceeded to spend a great deal of it restoring Chilham Castle in Kent and supporting the Conservative party during its nadir at
Given this year’s Tokyo games had to be called off because of the Covid pandemic, you would think those sitting around at Olympic HQ might have a bit of spare time to brush up on their history. Judging by the official Olympic Twitter account, it would seem not. Some social media whizz-kid decided to put together an
Over the last few months, the management of severe Covid-19 cases has effectively been turned on its head. At first, reports from China and Italy, coupled with initial guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO), had doctors preparing for acutely ill and breathless patients whose lungs were being starved of oxygen. The natural reaction of
Hopes for economic recovery have faded a little of late as Covid-19 cases continue to rack up in many parts of the world. The grand reopening of bars, restaurants and the like has turned into a bit of damp squib, serving to remind everyone how far we remain from normality. Yet today comes a double bill
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New plans are being drawn up to tackle obesity in Britain, with proposals including a ban on adverts of junk foods and calorie content shown on restaurant menus. Will Boris get his war on obesity succeed, and will it meet opposition within his own party? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth. Also
Usually, MPs think debate is quite an important part of their job description – after all, the entire purpose of the House of Commons is to pit the opposition against the government of the day, to scrutinise their decisions, and in doing so make better policy. That appears to have passed the Labour MP and Corbyn
If reports in today’s papers are to be believed, the government will propose a new raft of nanny state policies on Monday. This time the target is food. A ban on advertising sugary, salty and fatty food on television before 9 p.m. is said to have been given the green light. The government will also dictate
Last month, the New York Times published an opinion piece by the US senator, Tom Cotton, calling for the army to be used to quell rioters during the Black Lives Matter protests. Despite this proposition being supported by 52 per cent of Americans, the paper’s staff were not happy about its publication, and many publicly
Who would have thought that a man worth a reported £3 million would need a donation page? Apparently, his supporters do. After suggestions that Panorama journalist John Ware could take legal action against the former Labour leader, Corbynites have taken it upon themselves to set up a fund to help Jeremy in case of a legal dispute. The
The increasingly polarised and politicised views on whether to wear masks in public during the current Covid-19 crisis hides a bitter truth on the state of contemporary research and the value we pose on clinical evidence to guide our decisions. In 2010, at the end of the last influenza pandemic, there were six published randomised
As Boris Johnson marks a year in Downing Street, one of his biggest achievements to date had been the destruction of Labour’s red wall. In the 2019 election, the Prime Minister succeeded in turning many seats in the Midlands and North blue for the first time. At cabinet this week, he referred to them as his