All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
On the Today programme this morning I debated Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the Public Accounts Committee which has just issued a damning report on free schools. The report is wrong in almost every particular. It says the free schools programme offers ‘poor value for money’, but earlier this year the National Audit Office
People who don’t bank online are more likely to face financial trouble than their more internet-savvy peers. That’s according to research by the University of Bristol for investment website Momentum UK which found that those who bank by phone are five times more likely than internet bankers to miss bill payments and nine times more
Universities up and down the land are clambering to recruit students in time for the start of the new academic year. International students – those from outside the EU – are the most lucrative market, not least because there are no legal restrictions on the fees that they can be charged; top universities, such as Oxford,
Today Tim Farron attempted to put a stop to questions over his Christianity, as he declared that he does not think gay sex is a sin. However, just a few hours later and the party have been plunged into another row. David Ward has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate in Bradford East, where he
Of late, Labour’s press releases haven’t offered much cause for amusement. But today’s was a turn up for the books. With Labour currently predicted a catastrophic defeat come June 8, a spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn emailed to say the Labour leader had met with Sir Jeremy Heywood to discuss the transition to government if Labour
Theresa May is playing it safe during this election cycle and doing her best to leave the blunders to Labour. With the likes of Dawn Butler touring the airwaves, it’s a strategy that appears to be working wonders for the Prime Minister. But even a supposedly safe pair of hands like May isn’t immune to
The race to be the Labour candidate for Bury North has attracted some unprecedented media attention this week thanks to Karen Danczuk’s announcement that she has her sights set on it. The self-proclaimed ‘selfie’ queen — and former wife of Simon Danczuk — has applied to be Labour’s candidate in the marginal constituency. Announcing her bid, the former Labour
Well, golly, Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland, says this general election has nothing to do with the arguments for or against Scottish independence. In one sense, this is correct in as much as independence is not the question on the ballot. But in another, deeper, more genuine sense, everyone
Today’s polls suggest that Theresa May could be on track to secure a Commons majority of 150, reversing – in just 20 years – the landslide that was inflicted on the Tories in 1997. These figures, from the Daily Telegraph, reveal no fresh agony for Labour: already the worst case scenario being floated in Labour circles
Brexit comes in all shapes and sizes: hard, soft, clean. Today, Labour added a new type: a ‘reckless Tory Brexit’. That’s what Keir Starmer accused the Government of trying to drive through as he detailed Labour’s plan for waving goodbye to the EU. The main purpose of Starmer’s tour of the airwaves was to clear
If Emmanuel Macron were British, would he be a Tory, Lib Dem or a Blairite? Or would he be blubbing into a handkerchief in a TV studio calling himself a ‘survivor’ of seduction by his teacher while his wife was banned from the teaching profession, if not put through the mill by investigators from Operation
It was a badly kept secret in Westminster that very senior figures in the UK government wanted Francois Fillon to win the French presidential election. He was regarded as being the best candidate for Britain, and the one most likely to be pragmatic on Brexit. But with Fillon out, attention switches to Macron—the overwhelming favourite.
Today Jeremy Corbyn took to social media to promise that a Labour government would mean people on low-income no longer need to rely on food banks. REVEALED TODAY: Number one cause of people using foodbanks is low-income. Labour's real Living Wage of £10/hour will eradicate poverty wages pic.twitter.com/RPQtLtl3hZ — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 25, 2017 However,
In recent months, Corbyn-mania has appeared to be on the wane. From Charlotte Church to Glenda Jackson, former cheerleaders for the Labour leader have gone cold on the one-time left wing messiah. However, Jeremy Corbyn can take heart that he has now received his first celebrity endorsement of the snap election. Step forward Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Are the Conservatives sharp enough to be able to beat the Liberal Democrats in battleground Remain-voting seats? We hear today that they might put forward Zac Goldsmith as their candidate for Richmond Park – the same Zac Goldsmith who quit the party in protest at the Heathrow decision, then triggered a by-election and ran as an
For the benefit of Sky News, standard Christian doctrine says gay sex is a sin. It’s the sin that gives sinning a good name. There ought to be a stewards’ inquiry into why it didn’t make it into the Ten Commandments. But, yes, it’s one of those trespasses we ask to be forgiven. Sky’s Darren
I’ll never forget the estate agent who tried to flog me my first flat. As I waited on the kerb in North London, he roared up in a Mercedes-Benz convertible, bling glittering from his hands and neck, a belt emblazoned with the word ‘STUD’ and a knuckle tattoo that can’t be shared in a respectable publication.
The most open of folk, who spill saucy secrets about themselves, clam up when asked how much they earn. Revealing your salary, especially to colleagues, is taboo. Conventional wisdom says that knowing fellow workers’ salaries sows discord. I know first-hand how explosive it can be to learn what people you work with get paid. I’d
Exaggeration is the political pundits’ stock in trade: nobody built a loyal readership on equivocation. But Matthew Parris’ recent commentary about the Conservative Party’s direction under Theresa May borders on the hysterical. A few weeks ago he used his Times column to hyperventilate about a Conservative Party ‘paralysed in the headlights of a dangerous surge
The latest polling marmalade dropper comes from Wales. Labour have won a majority of Welsh seats in every general election for the past eighty-odd years. But the latest Welsh Political Barometer, the most respected poll there, has the Tories on 40 per cent and on course to win 21 seats to Labour’s 15. This poll
Here they come, Tony Blair and his tragic chattering-class army. The former PM, whose rictus grin and glottal stops still haunt the nation’s dreams (well, mine anyway), is on the march with his pleb-allergic mates in business and the media. Blair and the Twitterati, linking arms, united in their horror at the incalculable stupidity of
The launch of Ukip’s new ‘integration agenda’ today was notable for two reasons. Firstly, Paul Nuttall refused to say whether he would seek a parliamentary seat in the snap election — eventually barricading himself in a locked room away from pesky hacks. The second thing to note was Ukip’s focus on the burqa. Overall, the new agenda had a
The success of Emmanuel Macron’s ‘En Marche’, a party which is barely a year old, has taken some by surprise. But Macron wasn’t the only alternative party candidate to do well in the first round of voting in the French Presidential elections. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, or NDA as the French call him, is the leader of Debout La
Today hacks were briefed that Ukip would use a press conference to make a big campaign announcement. This led to some chatter that Paul Nuttall, the Ukip leader, would announce whether he would be seeking a seat in the upcoming election. However, it turned out that this was actually the very last thing Nuttall wished to discuss.
I am inundated with press releases, emails and phone calls from PRs, all wanting to talk about their clients, the latest piece of ‘ground-breaking’ research or a news story so innovative that not to publish would have disastrous consequences. While some of these communications are useful and thought-provoking, a fair few are, to use the vernacular,
Next Monday, while the village fair is raging outside, I will be inside working as on any other Monday morning. Will I be disappointed to miss out on a day of Mayday fun? Not a bit of it. There are only so many steam rallies one wants to attend, only so many seaside-bound traffic jams
Of all the politicians to have a bad 2016, Zac Goldsmith is high on that list. The former Conservative MP for Richmond Park managed to lose not one but two elections. First, the mayoral contest against Sadiq Khan after a tawdry campaign, and later his seat when he called a by-election after the Government approved Heathrow.
Britain’s universities are finding it hard to look on the bright side of Brexit. One of their big gripes is that they feel that foreign students could be put off from coming to the UK. This fits into the narrative that Brexit is an exercise in hauling up the drawbridge. But in reality, the result of
I am an idiot. This is something my recent experience with Amazon has taught me. ‘How come we have Amazon Prime?’ my husband asked from time to time, ‘I get it free,’ I told him. ‘But I don’t want to find out how exactly, you know, in case they notice and start charging me.’ May I
Arron Banks’ bid to become the MP for Clacton is over already. Just six days ago, the multi-millionaire Ukip donor was ‘a million per cent going for it’, and Banks said that ‘come hell or high water’ he was standing. Not any more. Banks, who had planned to fight Douglas Carswell for the seat before
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face each other in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday May 7th after the two finished neck-and-neck in the first round of voting. With votes still to be counted, there are slight discrepancies in the final percentage, but according to a Harris Interactive exit poll
Brexit is often said to be driven by English nationalism. In recent decades England has certainly become a less shy country, made aware of itself thanks to the growth of Scottish and Welsh national consciousness and the banal fact that we now talk about the English NHS, English schools, and so on, in a way
Corbyn – Labour may scrap Trident nuclear deterrent Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn occupied the prime slot on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, and he told Marr that he wants to see ‘a very different country’. But how different? He was asked what he would say to the captains of the Trident submarines about whether
Everything you need to know about the current state of the polls is summed up by the fact that one which puts the Tories at 40 per cent, a level that they haven’t hit in a general election for a quarter of a century, and 11 points clear is presented as a blow to them.
