All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Another day, another uncosted bribe from Labour. This time, Corbyn is promising to slash a third off rail fares and allow children to travel for free. What wonderful, munificent people we have putting themselves forward to lead us. And of course, it won’t cost the taxpayer an extra penny because, as Labour’s transport spokesman, Andy
With ten days to go until polling day, the election campaign has turned to national security. Following the London Bridge knife attack on Friday by a convicted terrorist which left two members of the public dead, the Conservatives have made a concerted effort to get on the front foot on the issue. Over the weekend,
Some readers have been asking me to comment on the latest London Bridge terrorism incident. And if I have some reluctance it is only because although ennui comes from writing the same article over and over again, that’s nothing like the feeling you get from writing the same article so often that you don’t even
London plays host to another Nato summit tomorrow, which can only mean one thing: expect plenty of handshakes, laboured smiles for the cameras and joint communiques about solidarity, unity and the importance of Western values. Underneath the facade, however, lies a club riven by disputes over policy and personality. Nato may be celebrating its 70th
I’ve just finished reading William Manchester’s absorbing memoir about the Pacific War. ‘Goodbye Darkness’ is a reminder of just how brutal that campaign was, particularly the battle for Okinawa in 1945, where Americans and Japanese fought in hand-to-hand combat in conditions that Manchester likened to Passchendaele. There was one key difference though: in the East China
A great deal of the transgender debate is unexplained. One of the most mystifying aspects is the speed and success of a small number of small organisations in achieving major influence over public bodies, politicians and officials. How has a certain idea taken hold in so many places so swiftly? People and organisations that at
We learnt this weekend that the London Bridge attacker, Usman Khan, had been jailed in 2012 along with eight other men for terrorism offences, and had close links to the group planning to bomb the London stock exchange, among other targets. If so, why was he allowed to travel to the heart of London while released
Amongst many leaflets posted and campaigns found around this general election, we can see groups setting out to ‘mobilise the Muslim vote’. I find the term stomach-churning. I’m a director of Faith Matters, which seeks to foster good relationships between all faith communities. I don’t believe in seeing people’s political choices as some form of block activity or vote:
Tonight’s ITV election debate had a slightly different cast to the seven-way BBC programme on Friday night, but its spokespeople offered pretty much the same soundbites throughout the show. It started with the parties arguing about the lessons from the London Bridge attack, with Conservative Rishi Sunak and Labour’s Richard Burgon repeating the lines their
Boris Johnson – We will end automatic early release The Prime Minister joined Andrew Marr this morning to give his first extensive interview since Friday’s terror attack on London Bridge. Usman Khan, who was previously convicted for his involvement in plotting to bomb the London Stock Exchange in 2010, killed 2 members of the public,
Boris Johnson appeared on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. Marr grilled the Prime Minister on everything from NHS spending to Andrew Neil. Read the full transcript here: Andrew Marr: Simple question to start with, how could such a man be released onto the streets of Britain after serving only eight years? My final guest
In the ‘whataboutery’ which now dominates British politics, no mention of Labour anti-Semitism is complete without a counter-accusation of Tory Islamophobia. It swiftly followed the Chief Rabbi’s condemnation of Labour anti-Semitism on Tuesday. There may well be people in the Conservative party who have an irrational hatred of Muslims, but the term ‘Islamophobia’ should be
Unless Jeremy Corbyn defies the odds, it looks unlikely that the Labour leader will become prime minister come 13 December. So what might happen if Corbyn loses for a second time? Will he try to cling on? Is there life for Labour after Corbyn? Before the campaign began, John McDonnell conceded Corbyn could not remain
This week is seminal for Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron. Boris, in Watford, is hosting one of the most important Nato summits for years. Its significance is not because it marks the Alliance’s 70th anniversary, but because of President Macron’s ‘disruptive’ and trenchant criticism of the Atlantic Alliance as close to ‘brain dead’, which has touched
If Donald Trump really doesn’t want Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister, he should, I say in the Sun this morning, just ignore the Labour leader when he comes to London for the Nato summit next week. The Labour leader would like nothing more than to get into a war of words with the US
My Sunday job is to ask questions; but in this campaign there is a line of criticism of television interviewing which makes me pause. The rise of misnamed social media (mostly Twitter) makes it all too easy to clip and post ‘Gotcha!’ moments, when a politician appears to be gasping for air at a particularly
Boris Johnson likes to call black people ‘piccaninnies’. Everyone’s saying it. Even Stormzy said it this week in his endorsement of Jeremy Corbyn. It is ‘criminally dangerous’ to give the keys of Downing Street back to a man who refers to ‘black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”’, the grime superstar said. Whether Stormzy also
With the polls seemingly reluctant to move in their favour, Labour have set out their stall very clearly: they hope to win the election by pledging perhaps the biggest increase in government spending in living memory. Billions have been promised for students and the health service. Under Corbyn, there will be free broadband for all,
I’d love for James Kirkup to be right when he claims I am wrong about Boris Johnson. And as he knows vastly more than me about Tory party politics, it’s really not easy to disagree. But I must confess I remain to be convinced. To start with, here’s why I want him to be right: I
For a seven-way debate which didn’t even feature the two main party leaders, tonight’s BBC election programme was remarkably good. It felt as though it started with a jolt, with all the senior politicians present looking dazed as they struggled to find the words to respond to this afternoon’s terror attack at London Bridge. It
Boris Johnson has just released a statement in response to the terrorist attack at London Bridge this afternoon. Several people were stabbed before a man wearing a fake suicide vest was shot dead by police. The Prime Minister, who returned to Downing Street from his constituency following the incident, said his message to terrorists is
Is the Labour party starting to panic? After a YouGov forecast this week suggested that the Tories could win scores of seats in the North of England, the Labour party appear to have made a rushed attempt to address regional inequality today. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell announced this morning that not only would his party have
With YouGov’s MRP model pointing to a 68-seat Tory majority, Conservative voters might think they have pretty solid ground for optimism. But as I say in my Daily Telegraph column today, things can still go wrong for the Tories. Here are my reasons to be fearful:- The Labour vote has grown since the election was called. Anti-Semitism
Where to start with the Conservatives’ “Buy British” promises to end EU state aid rules? The obvious point is that dumping rules that prevent governments subsidising domestic firms will make it much harder to strike a trade deal with the EU after Brexit. Limiting state aid is pretty much fundamental to the EU’s very existence
How do you weigh a once-in-a-generation transfer of power from private sector to public sector and from capital to labour, against an irreversible rupture with the European Union? That is the choice being offered to voters, by Labour and the Tories respectively. Talk about chalk and cheese, or bicycles versus fish. How on earth do you decide, if you
In the new episode of That’s Life, comedian Geoff Norcott talks to Spectator Life’s satirical writers Andy Shaw and Benedict Spence about the words, people and events that have shaped the recent news agenda. Geoff discusses the future of ‘woke-ism’, Emma Watson’s assertion that she is self-partnered and why from now on he’s going to
Charles Walker, the former chairman of the influential Conservative 1922 Committee, took to the airwaves last night in an attempt justify Boris Johnson’s growing list of TV no shows. The interview followed a Channel 4 leaders’ debate on climate change in which the public service broadcaster decided to replace Boris Johnson with a melting block
When James Forsyth and Katy Balls interviewed the Prime Minister for the magazine this week, the Boris they found was optimistic, humorous, and above all, on message. So can anything still trip him up in the final fortnight of this election campaign? Katy speaks to James and Paul Goodman, editor of the Conservative Home website.
Never mind the polls, Conservative insiders are more terrified about something else at the moment. The Donald is coming. CCHQ is quaking. After Black Friday comes Orange Monday, when the US president will touch down again in Great Britain ahead of another Nato summit. Trump is, we all know, a news cycle hurricane. What havoc
Labour is heading for its worst election performance since 1983, according to YouGov’s long-awaited MRP forecast. The poll also makes for miserable reading for parliament’s independent candidates, most of whom look set to lose their seats. Given that YouGov was one of the few pollsters to correctly predict a hung parliament in 2017, it would seem foolish
So, will Boris Johnson sit down for an interview with Andrew Neil? Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon have done theirs while Jo Swinson and Nigel Farage are scheduled for next week. The Prime Minister hasn’t yet agreed a time for his. Given how tough an Andrew Neil interview is, just ask Jeremy Corbyn if you
The Conservatives have launched a new party election broadcast that ran for the first time this evening on BBC One and ITV. The video (which you can view below) is made up of lots of different voters explaining why they’re backing Boris Johnson. But what does this advert tell about the Tories’ overall election strategy?
Whoever wins the election, three things are certain: borrowing is going to rise, taxes are going to have to go up – and there will be a lot more trees. There may even be enough trees to replace those lost to produce all those Lib Dem election leaflets and bogus newspapers. The election campaign has
According to a YouGov poll 45 per cent of Britons believe today’s party leaders are worse than any of their predecessors in history. The survey fits neatly into the dominant narrative of the 2019 election, where ‘Don’t Know’ is the preferred option of prime minister for one third of the UK, only 14 per cent of the