All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
‘Talent is plentiful’, said Laurence Olivier. ‘Skill is much rarer’. Although the great actor was talking about the stage he was really acknowledging the nature of what Ken Tynan called ‘high definition’ performance. And in the world of football, there were few performers so highly defined as Denis Law. The tributes paid to ‘the Lawman’,
To Liverpool and the case of the Southport murders. Today, 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls in a knife attack last year on the first day of his trial. Rudakubana appeared at Liverpool Crown Court this morning over the horrific events of last year, which saw nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar,
One of the worst ways to form a good first impression of someone is when they’re chasing the same woman as you, so in the interests of total clarity I’ll divulge that the first – and only – time I met Neil Gaiman was way back in the twentieth century, at the Groucho Club, when we
Donald Trump is back. Later today, Trump will once again take the oath of office and be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. A host of UK politicians are in Washington D. C. to watch the spectacle including Trump’s friend Nigel Farage, former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, shadow
‘Lunch?’ growled Gordon Gekko in Wall Street. ‘Lunch is for wimps.’ Yet for half of Westminster the noble art of lunching is as much a part of political life as PMQs. For generations, hacks, flacks and MPs of all sides have wined and dined in various London establishments. Whether it is the pubs of SW1
It’s fitting that Donald Trump’s inauguration day coincides with the first day of the World Economic Forum’s infamous Davos conference. The new and the old world orders are, in theory, competing for attention. But this is not a competition. It’s not even close. This year’s conference theme is ‘Collaboration for the Intelligent Age’: an idea
Him again? Donald Trump’s back in the White House. Those who thought his first term in office was an aberration – a dismaying blip in the long arc of history towards liberal democracy, properly corrected by Biden’s 2020 victory – have been proven wrong in the most painful possible way. He wasn’t some brainfart of
Like Ronald Reagan in 1985, Donald Trump is bowing to the elements and moving his inauguration indoors to the Capitol Rotunda, where only 500 guests can squeeze in to attend the ceremony. But that development isn’t putting a damper on the spirits of the tens of thousands of Trump followers who have traveled to Washington.
Biblical weather outside the rally for the sixtieth presidential inaugural in the Capitol One Arena in downtown Washington yesterday: hail plonked down onto streets of slush. The poor huddled Magas lined up for hours and hours, through labyrinthine perimeter fencing, just to see their leader. Inside, the atmosphere was electric and jubilant. ‘We won, we
A poll published last week by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) found that much of the world is relishing the return of Donald Trump to the White House. Eighty-four per cent of Indians think Trump will be good for their country as do 61 per cent of Saudis. In Russia, South Africa, China and Brazil,
When Hamas launched its war on Israel in October, 2023, it did so on the basis of a clear analysis of Israeli society, according to which it hoped to achieve its objectives. Given the nature and extent of the massacre of 7 October 2023, it was surely clear to the Palestinian Islamist movement that Israel’s
Millions of Americans will have tried to follow their routine this morning: turn off the alarm, grab the phone, start to scroll. For TikTok users, there will have been a moment of false hope: the shortest clip of a video starts to play, before the notification pops up that everyone was expecting , but no
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas tentatively came into effect at 9.15 a.m. UK time, following a three-hour delay caused by Israel not receiving the names of three female hostages to be freed later today. News of the imminent ceasefire emerged as Laura Kuenssberg interviewed Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones on the BBC.
The ceasefire in Gaza, scheduled to begin this morning, has been anything but straightforward. As the agreement unfolds, many have rushed to declare who are the winners and who are the losers. Yet victory does not lie with those who made the most military gains or acted most morally – it leans, perversely, towards those ruthless enough
The signs are not good. The much-anticipated Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal is a horribly complicated construct which seems almost designed to fail. The three-phase plan, which is due to start today, will stop the fighting for 42 days. During that time, Israel will withdraw from the Gaza Strip’s most populated regions and allow
Lahore, Pakistan Pakistani-origin men are up to four times more likely to be reported to the police for child sex grooming offences than the general population in England and Wales, the first national police scheme data appeared to suggest last week. The perpetrators of three of the most gruesome child abuse scandals in modern British history, in
A few months ago, I spoke to a man halfway through a life sentence for murder. We first met 12 years ago when I was a prison officer. We mused on the changes to the prison service over the last decade. He said it wasn’t just the days that had got louder, but the nights
Hundreds of millions of Americans will have a new president tomorrow. Depending on where you land on America’s increasingly hyper-partisan political spectrum, 20 January will either be a day of dread or joy, a return to the good old times or a step back into rough, unpredictable waters. The same could be said for policymakers
Five years ago, Reform UK had no presence in Scotland. Its Facebook and Twitter pages emerged during the latter half of the pandemic and despite briefly experiencing four months in Holyrood courtesy of a Tory defector, the group has since then remained very much out of sight and mind. Nigel Farage neglected Scotland during last
Fleeing the United States ahead of a ‘fascist takeover’ by Donald Trump on 20 January has been the talk of liberal circles, and nowhere more than in deep-blue New York City. A New York Times story revealing that tech billionaire and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman was ‘weighing a move overseas’ because he feared ‘retribution’ from the next president
A couple of weeks ago, a friend voiced a sentiment that I wasn’t expecting. ‘I think your values are quite Christian, Sonia.’ What I found even more surprising was my own reaction to it. A year ago, I’d have felt patronised, maybe even a little insulted. Instead, I took it as a compliment. Growing up
Earlier this month, the UAE announced it was sanctioning 11 individuals and eight rather obscure organisations for alleged connections to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The UAE proscribed the MB as a terrorist group in 2014, so you might be forgiven for thinking this was routine. But it wasn’t. All eight organisations were based in the
This week nine more charges of sexual abuse were levelled against Abbé Pierre, the late French Roman Catholic priest who for decades was regarded as a modern-day saint. This brings to 33 the number of charges, ranging from sexual assault to the rape of a boy, all alleged to have been committed between the 1960s and shortly
They do say you shouldn’t take anything for granted and it seems Peter Mandelson is beginning to realise that too. He may have thought that his new appointment as UK ambassador to the US was set in stone – but it has emerged that the president-elect is considering, um, rejecting Sir Keir Starmer’s nominee. Ouch.
The Daily Mail has got a world exclusive on its hands. In great excitement it is publishing the secret diary of Unity Valkyrie Mitford, the star-struck young aristo who made a splash in the 1930s tabloids with her pursuit of her famous love interest. The thing was that the star she was struck with was
Washington, DC On your marks, get set, executive orders. Donald Trump will be sworn back into office on Monday, from inside the Capitol Rotunda, as Ronald Reagan was in 1985. Cold weather is the official reason for moving the ceremony from outside to in, and it seems true – the 78-year-old president-elect may wish to
It’s been a mixed week for Kemi Badenoch. The Tory leader can – alongside Elon Musk and Nigel Farage – claim a partial win after Labour announced an audit and inquiries into grooming gangs (though stopped short of a national one). She also set out the first part of her plan for restoring trust –
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It’s been a tricky week for Rachel Reeves: an onslaught of criticism for the levels of borrowing costs, GDP at 0.1 per cent, and stagflation still gripping the UK economy. Remarkably she has come out of it looking stronger – politically at least. But can she afford to celebrate? The Spectator’s Kate Andrews and data
For Scottish Labour’s significant crop of new MPs, the heady summer of electoral triumph is already a distant memory. In the days following the general election – where Anas Sarwar’s party swept the Central Belt, gaining a whopping 36 seats – it seemed Scottish Labour’s recovery was not only inevitable but already underway. In the
What’s the greatest divide in life? Is it between the dumb and the clever, the rich and the poor, the ugly and the beautiful? All have their points, but in my opinion it’s between those who can make a living doing a thing they love and those who do a job they don’t particularly care
It’s clear who was to blame for the Lockerbie terrorist bombing: Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi paid over a billion dollars to relatives of the 270 victims of the attack after accepting responsibility. But viewers of Sky Atlantic’s Lockerbie: A Search For Truth, might feel that the USA and UK were somehow involved. Here’s a clue as to
Of the many characters created by the peerless Victoria Wood, one creation in particular lingers in the mind: namely the immaculately polished, but unashamedly snobbish television continuity announcer, who, with an assassin’s smile, treated her audience with utter contempt. ‘We’d like to apologise to viewers in the North. It must be awful for them,’ was
‘There are only two families in the world, as a grandmother of mine used to say: the haves and the have-nots.’ Sancho Panza’s line in Cervantes’ famous novel was echoed by socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday when he worried that Spanish society was rapidly dividing into two classes: ‘Those who inherit properties from
When one of your favourite filmmakers dies, it is hard not to feel a deeply personal sense of loss; the punch in the viscera with the knowledge that someone who has created some of the most iconic pieces of cinema from the past half-century will no longer be bringing his inimitable and unforgettable personal voice