All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
It is testament to the chilling effect of libel law on public discussion that I feel nervous about the sentences I’m about to write. The libel ruling against Katie Hopkins is obscene. The punishment of her to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds for making a mistake on Twitter is disgusting. To punish
Corbyn flunked it. Yet again. And his failure to skewer the government left the field open to the SNP. Speaker Bercow seemed to collude with this arrangement and he gave the Nats six opportunities to quiz the prime minister. Angus Robertson appeared to relish the battle. His great grey face was already brimming with fury
It’s not turning out to be a great day for the government. After announcing a u-turn on the NICs rise in last week’s Budget, Philip Hammond has spent the afternoon having to face down angry MPs in the Chamber. Now it turns out that a ‘clerical error’ has meant Michael Heseltine has been temporarily ‘unsacked’
This time last week, Philip Hammond stood in the Chamber and made a joke about how the last Chancellor to proclaim they would deliver the last Spring Budget had been sacked 10 weeks later. Little did he then know that just seven days later he would have to face down angry MPs questioning his future — as he
The government’s decision to announce a U-turn on the planned rise in Class 4 National Insurance contributions minutes before PMQs meant that Jeremy Corbyn was left with the wrong homework for the session. Still, presented with an embarrassing government climbdown on a key Budget pledge, surely Corbyn could still come out on top? It wasn’t to be. Instead
Philip Hammond’s credibility as Chancellor has just taken a big blow. Under pressure from his own backbenchers, he has abandoned the proposed National Insurance increase for the self-employed. This means that he has U-turned on one of the central measures of his first Budget. What makes this change particularly humiliating for Hammond is that he
Just in time to throw Jeremy Corbyn off the scent at PMQs, Philip Hammond has written to Tory MPs to say he has cancelled the rise in Class 4 National Insurance contributions announced in last week’s Budget. His U-turn comes after he faced opposition from many MPs in his own party — as well as a briefing
This isn’t a redemption story. I’m not trying to prove my dad’s just a man who made some bad choices, or that he was, ironically, vilified by the press. Chances are you’ve already made up your own mind about what kind of person Greg Miskiw is, or more than likely you’ve never heard of him
After Philip Hammond delivered his Budget last week, he went to speak to a meeting of Conservative backbench MPs. Several were deeply alarmed about his tearing up of their manifesto pledge not to raise National Insurance. One asked him how sure he was about all this. Might they find themselves going out to defend this
The key to a happy life, it’s been discovered, is living near to Georgian architecture and a Waitrose. Bath, York, Chichester, Stamford, Skipton, Harrogate, Oxford and Cambridge are among the towns listed in the Sunday Times 20 nicest places to live in Britain survey. Almost all these areas have one thing in common: they all
Rotterdam What started as a minor disagreement between Turkey and the Netherlands has now expanded into an unprecedented diplomatic spat. Turkish attempts to hold rallies in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands have been blocked – and President Erdogan is now using this to his advantage. In April, Erdogan will hold a referendum on changes to constitutional powers in
Theresa May’s statement today on the EU withdrawal bill should have been a victory lap – after the government succeeded in getting a clean bill through both Houses. Instead Scottish independence proved a party pooper, as the Prime Minister faced numerous questions in the chamber over Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for ‘indy ref 2’. Not letting
A new week, a new drama for Ukip. Although Nigel Farage last month called for Douglas Carswell to be kicked out of the party for disloyalty over a knighthood, it’s Farage’s righthand man Arron Banks who has today been left out in the cold. The Ukip donor says he has been pushed out of the party after
Last night Jeremy Corbyn gathered with thousands of supporters on Parliament Square to protest against the government’s failure to guarantee the rights of EU migrants in the UK. Upon hearing the chants of ‘Say it loud, say it clear – all EU migrants welcome here!’ Theresa May performed a sensational U-turn. Britain now has an
Douglas Murray and Melle Garschagen, UK and Ireland correspondent for NRC, discuss the Dutch election: The Dutch public go to the polls tomorrow, and the question of Turkey is on the menu. This past weekend the Dutch government forbade a plane containing the Turkish Foreign minister from landing in the country. The Turkish minister had been
Following the Copeland by-election defeat, many in Labour have been left wondering whether Jeremy Corbyn is the right man to lead them into the next election. However, could it all really be the fault of the Parliamentary Labour Party? Mr S only asks after Kate Osamor — a key Corbyn ally — gave an interview to the
It’s the Press Awards tonight and a first for The Spectator – we’re nominated for the first time. James Forsyth is up for political journalist of the year, and he and I are heading to out to the awards now (after taking out a small mortgage for the £250-a-piece tickets) to hope for the best.
Omar Saif Ghobash, who is the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Russia, has written a good Muslim-reformist tract called Letters to a Young Muslim. There is plenty of passionate rhetoric denouncing rigidity, praising open-mindedness. There are plenty of insights that give the outsider a glimpse of his difficult inheritance (as a half-Arab, half-Russian boy educated
Savers cashing in their pension pots has led to the government raking in almost twice the tax it estimated the new pensions freedoms would generate. Experts expected that people withdrawing cash from their pensions would spread the withdrawals – but savers have taken bigger amounts in one go, leading to more cash in the Treasury’s
Fraser Nelson is joined by Alex Massie and James Forsyth to discuss IndyRef2: When will the politics ever end? Now Nicola Sturgeon says she wants a second Scottish independence referendum, and so we plunge ourselves – wearily but no less determined – into yet another fight to save our country. The nationalists operate on the
For weeks, politicians on both houses of Parliament have been carrying on a drama where they pretend to get worked up about the Brexit bill while knowing that the Lords was always going to cave and the Bill was always going to be passed. The House of Lords, which last week voted to make Brexit
The government has successfully defeated the two Lords amendments to its Article 50 bill. MPs voted down the first amendment, committing the government to guaranteeing the rights of EU nationals, by a majority of 48 — which means the government managed to increase its majority of 42 from the first vote. On the ‘meaningful vote’ amendment,
In their frequent moments of self-congratulation, conservatives describe themselves as level-headed and practical people. If there were a scintilla of truth in the stories they tell themselves the government would not think of activating Article 50 this week. Unfortunately, for our country, actual conservatives and mythical conservatives have next to nothing in common. Unconstrained by
Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement may have taken Westminster by surprise but it wasn’t a shock to her party leadership. Indeed, by the time the First Minister left her Bute House press conference this afternoon, a new Yes campaign website was already up and running with appeals for money, campaign material and a video from Ms Sturgeon explaining
Fraser Nelson is joined by Alex Massie and James Forsyth to discuss IndyRef2: Nicola Sturgeon has thrown down the gauntlet to Theresa May with her speech today. When the Scottish parliament backs a second independence referendum, as it will in the next few weeks, the UK government will have to decide how to respond. After
Before the end of this month – and very possibly as early as tomorrow – the Prime Minister will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, setting the UK on course to leave the EU in March 2019. It is important, therefore, for me to report now on the Scottish Government’s attempts to find compromise
Fraser Nelson is joined by Alex Massie and James Forsyth to discuss IndyRef2: You were warned, you know. You were told this would happen. And you voted for Brexit anyway. Because you privileged leaving the European Union over not giving the Scottish government an excuse to put the future integrity of the United Kingdom back
After spending the past few months declaring that a second Scottish independence referendum is highly likely as a result of the UK government’s plans for a ‘hard Brexit’, this morning Nicola Sturgeon bit the bullet and vowed to ensure Scotland has an independence referendum at the end of the Brexit process. In a speech at
Goodness, Wales is gorgeous to look at. The landscape is sublime. I woke in Abergavenny to snow on the Black Mountains, interspersed with emerald green valleys — all that rain is not for nothing. The natural beauty only heightens a troubling question. Wales voted for Brexit, but every road, university and waterfront improvement scheme —
Since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, few critics have been more persistent than Louise Mensch. The former Tory MP — and Heat Street journalist — has regularly become the ire of Trump supporters over her reports and theories relating to the relationship between the new leader of the free world and
Throughout David Cameron and George Osborne’s six-year double act, we seldom heard of serious arguments between them. Both were keen to avoid a repeat of the Blair-Brown psychodrama and prided themselves on their indivisibility. Same with their respective teams. You would never pick up the Sunday papers and read the sort of No. 10 vs
You might argue that the self-employed enjoy less security than the employed, so it’s fair they contribute less; you might argue that the ‘sharing economy’ is a nifty pocket-money source for hard-pressed families, and that tax grabs will swiftly kill it. But revenue-starved Chancellor Hammond will retort that all income and commerce, however novel in
The invitation for poems making the case for a national commemoration day for a person or thing of your choice brought in a varied and entertaining entry. While Alanna Blake championed the dandelion, there were also impassioned calls for days that high-five Thomas Crapper, Doris Day and the tent. I, for one, would happily celebrate
On the first Saturday in February, the people of Rome awoke to find the city covered in peculiar posters depicting a scowling Pope Francis. Underneath were written the words: Ah, Francis, you have intervened in Congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored Cardinals… but where is your