All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Listen to Douglas Murray and James Forsyth debating Ken Livingstone’s non-expulsion: Ken Livingstone has not been expelled from the Labour party for his comments about Hitler and Zionism. Instead, he has been suspended for two years; but he has already served one year of that suspension. Given the offensiveness of what Livingstone said and the
Cadbury has changed the name of its annual ‘Easter Egg Trail’ to ‘Cadbury’s Great British Egg Hunt’, callously dropping any reference to the Christian festival celebrated by 31.5 million Brits. (Actually, the word ‘Easter’ appears multiple times in the marketing, but it’s out of the title, and that’s the important bit.) Theresa May has taken
Today the news agenda has been dominated by Easter eggs — or just eggs, depending on who you speak to. Theresa May sent hacks into a spin on her official visit to Saudi Arabia when she declared the National Trust’s decision to drop the word Easter from the name of their egg hunts ‘absolutely ridiculous’. Jeremy Corbyn has
The decision by Conservative MPs to walk away from the Commons Committee on Exiting the EU is one of the most unintentionally revealing abdications of duty I have seen. The report they refused to endorse was polite to the point of blandness. The necessity of securing cross-party approval meant that its restrained language bore little
One looked in vain for the words ‘Islamic extremist’ in the Guardian’s reporting of the Westminster attack a fortnight ago. Even after Isis claimed the attacker, Khalid Masood, as one of its own, the paper declined to accept him as a terrorist motivated by religious extremism. And who knows, maybe it was right. Masood had
Although Nick Robinson once accused the Corporation of anti-Corbyn bias, he takes a different approach when it comes to allegations of Brexit bias. After 70 Eurosceptic MPs signed a letter accusing the BBC of a biased and ‘pessimistic’ view (and another 80 Remain MPs sent a letter asking the BBC to stay strong), the former
I have always had a soft spot for building societies. Maybe it’s because I worked for one in the 1980s as an economist. Bristol & West it was called, and long since gone to the cemetery for building societies (not many plots left). Lovely departmental boss, no work pressure and little economic analysis required. But
This morning there has been much outrage following the National Trust’s decision to drop the word Easter from the name of their egg hunts (previously called ‘Easter Egg Trails’), in association with Cadbury. The Prime Minister has branded the decision ‘absolutely ridiculous’ as Easter is ‘a very important festival for the Christian faith for millions across the
Like many households, my electricity meter is not in a terribly accessible spot. Reaching said meter requires a short stepladder or standing on the kitchen counter. That said, there’s no need for crampons. And so every time someone comes to read the meter, I’m met with the same response. ‘Oh no lass, health and safety.
As the events of the last few days show, the increasingly toxic issue of Gibraltar means the UK’s Article 50 talks with Spain might become more fraught than either party would like. It’s not just that Spain wants to share sovereignty of the Rock with Britain; more dangerous is the fact that Brussels can exploit this dispute to punish the UK for Brexit.
It’s judgment day. Today Ken Livingstone is expected to find out if he has been expelled from Labour, over controversial comments he made last year about Hitler and Zionism. So in the final hours before the verdict, how is Livingstone occupying himself? Well, by talking about Hitler, obviously. Only now Ken has a new enemy in his
Theresa May says the way to deal with the row over Gibraltar is ‘jaw-jaw’ rather than war. And there is plenty of chatter on the subject in today’s newspapers: Of course we don’t want a war with Spain, says the Sun. But ‘nor will we sit quietly’ and let Madrid ‘launch its latest ridiculous attempt
Last week, disgruntled MPs walked out of a meeting of the Commons Brexit Select Committee — chaired by Hilary Benn — in protest at a report they claimed was ‘too gloomy’. Today that report has been published in its 155-page entirety. As expected, the committee is divided over its contents — with Tory members of
As a type of (Platonic) gerontophile, I never expected to say this, but can the dinosaurs not shut up? In recent weeks the nation has had to suffer repeat appearances on the television by Lord Heseltine. In each interview the Remain-supporting peer appears ever more viciously angry – brimming over, indeed with a sort of concentrated,
ICM, who Vote Leave used for their own referendum polling, have some striking numbers on what elements of an EU exit deal British voters would find acceptable. 54 per cent of voters regard maintaining free movement as part of a transition deal – something that Theresa May wouldn’t rule out in her interview with Andrew
In 2002, I befriended an old Frenchman called Andre. He had been a resistant, one of the first, and when the SAS parachuted into the wooded, rolling countryside of the Morvan in central France, he was there to greet them. For three months in the summer of 1944, the SAS and the Resistance waged a guerrilla
The news that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has cancelled her speaking tour of Australia due to ‘security concerns’ should concern anyone who believes in freedom. It is a dark day when a woman who fled to the West to escape the Islamist suffocations of Somalia, and precisely so that she might think and speak freely, feels she
There’s no panacea for the nation’s credit card debt – but the Financial Conduct Authority is having a go at helping people languishing in continual debt. So-called ‘persistent’ debt is a serious problem. Under the FCA’s definition, credit card customers are in persistent debt if they have paid more in interest and charges than they have
When it comes to bank branch closures, there are two schools of thought. One side isn’t bothered, pointing to the ubiquity of online banking and celebrating the fact that technology has, in their opinion, made bank branches obsolete. The other side – of which I’m a part – laments the loss of local bank branches, not
Remember the hoo-ha about the sharp fall in the number of EU students applying to study at British universities? Numbers were down, we were told, and there was only one reason: Brexit. In the months since the referendum, applications from EU students have fallen by seven per cent. Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, told MPs
Paul Collier is right to say that the refugee crisis will not be solved with tents and food alone. But context is everything, and aid remains vital. In middle-income countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, getting refugees into jobs is essential. Businesses are part of the jigsaw. So is government legislation to ensure, for example,
When Theresa May was snapped shopping in Waitrose last year, the Prime Minister was praised by the Telegraph for putting the politics of envy to one side by unapologetically shopping in the high-end supermarket. But is the real story that she was in a supermarket to begin with? Mr S only asks after Richard Burgon —
Michael Howard – ‘Show resolve’ over Gibraltar Former Conservative leader Michael Howard caused a stir on social media after his appearance on the Sunday Politics regarding his comments about Spain and Gibraltar. Interviewed by Andrew Neil, Howard stated that the British government should respond ‘as it has responded, by making it absolutely clear that we
It was quite right for Theresa May to not mention Gibraltar in her Article 50 letter – why should the future of its people be in question in our negotiations? To do so would be to introduce a dangerous notion: that Gibraltar and its people were somehow a bargaining chip. Of course, the press will have fun with the idea
The latest competition invited you to dream up an April Fool disguised as a serious news feature that contains a startling revelation about a well-known literary figure. The top-ranked April Fool of all time, according to the Museum of Hoaxes, was Panorama’s 1957 report on how Swiss farmers on the shores of Lake Lugano were
How good a businessman is Donald Trump? Maybe the answer doesn’t matter, since barring death or impeachment he’ll be the most powerful man in the world until January 2021, or even 2025, come what may. Or maybe it does matter, in the sense that the only positive spin to be put on his otherwise ridiculous
The thing that got me about the photo-graph which prompted the Daily Mail’s harmless but now infamous headline ‘Never mind Brexit — who won Legs-it!’ was what I shall call the Sturgeon Lower Limb Mystery. In the photograph, the SNP leader seemed to be possessed of two slender and very long legs indeed. Whereas we
Most diplomats in Brussels will tell you that Theresa May has just embarked upon a fool’s errand, that Britain might wish for a free-trade deal with the European Union but will have to learn that it can’t cherry-pick. Anyway, they say, nothing of any value can be agreed in two years. This received wisdom can
Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is running a poster campaign to increase sentences for cruelty to animals. The current maximum is six months. It is probably popular — almost all campaigns for higher prison sentences are. But I doubt if the public interest would be served by locking up offenders for five years, as Battersea
For Israelis, Europe’s political landscape is looking increasingly familiar. Whereas Israel was once seen as something of a political backwater, nowadays it’s European politicians who seem to be gazing across to Israel for inspiration. Those on the right are leading the way: from Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders to Austria’s Norbert Hofer, this group of populist politicians
There’s an awfully long way to go, but the Brexit negotiations got off to a good start for Theresa May this week I say in The Sun today. Number 10’s great worry was that there would be an immediate no from the EU to what it proposed. That is why May’s Article 50 letter was
The comedian Jimmy Carr is not necessarily a guy you would trust on much, but he was spot on the other day when he said that the Hillsborough disaster was something you would never joke about. Of course not, but it seems you can’t have even a sliver of a divergent view. Now, thanks to
It’s usually best to ignore the indignant fury of the 21st-century young. We’re used to them now, these snowflakes, posing as victims (though they’re mostly middle-class), demanding ‘safe spaces’, banning books and speakers. Best to rise above them, deadhead the camellias. Attention, especially from the press, acts on entitled millennials like water on gremlins —
I walked past Parliament, five days after Khalid Masood’s fatal attack. I looked at all the armed policemen on all the gates visible to the public. All were talking to one another rather than surveying the scene in front of them. As I write, the only person, so far as we know, being actively investigated