All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
“What is going on with the conference recess?” asked Valerie Vaz during Jacob Rees-Mogg’s first outing for Business Questions as Leader of the House. She sounded exasperated, and who can blame her? After all, it was the sixth week in a row she asked the question. And it was the sixth week that she was
It’s law and order week in No. 10. After a series of announcements over the weekend, on stop and search and a promise of more prison places, Boris Johnson has today announced a review of sentencing guidelines for rapists and murderers. More announcements and appearances are expected as the week goes on to further hammer
It’s an emergency! So says Caroline Lucas, who has called for an all-female cabinet to step in and block a no-deal Brexit. The Green party MP said her planned national unity government would hit the ‘pause button’ on Brexit while the likes of Emily Thornberry, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon
A standard version of this autumn’s events is beginning to emerge. Labour brings a no-confidence vote in the Government on 4 September. The Tories, down to a majority of one – and with several Conservative old-timers vowing to go out in style by torpedoing their own Government in a last act of defiance to stop
Someone at No. 10 must have had the shock of their lives over the weekend. The new chancellor Sajid Javid had written in the Observer calling for a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson before offering his ‘full support’ to a government of national unity to extend Article 50. Perhaps the former Remain campaigner
Labour has said it will open a review to decide whether grouse shooting should be illegal. Here, Ben MacDonald argues that grouse moors have left our countryside immeasurably poorer: Britain’s hunting estates were once beautiful. Walking through the New Forest, we can all appreciate how the purchase of land for hunting can radically protect our
Is it a crime to mock a criminal’s unfortunate hairstyle? Police in South Wales seem to think so. Last week, Gwent Police posted on Facebook calling for any information on the whereabouts of 21-year-old Jermaine Taylor, a convicted drug dealer from Newport who had breached his license conditions. They put up the obligatory mugshot, in which Taylor sports his
Jeff Brechlin’s inspired ‘Hokey-Cokey’ rewritten as a Shakespearean sonnet prompted this week’s invitation, to filter the song through the pen of another well-known writer. You were on cracking form this week. Here is a taste of Basil Ransome-Davies as Dorothy Parker: Oh, I have put my left leg in To join the merry dance, And
Change, for some people, is difficult. Hearing voices on the BBC that differ from the Etonian baritone of old must rankle for some. Lauren Laverne, who took over Desert Island Discs (DID) is about as different from a stuffed shirt as one can imagine. Bright, lively, and witty, her fabulous north-east accent makes Laverne a
The world is watching Beijing as it watches Hong Kong. There are nervous expectations that troops will be deployed in the region, as they were in Tiananmen Square thirty years ago. Were this to happen, it would be seen as proof that an era of malign Chinese enforcement had begun. Xi Jinping and his colleagues
Politicians determined to prevent a no-deal Brexit are locked in a Mexican stand-off. If Boris Johnson cannot command a Commons majority, Jo Swinson has made it clear that under no circumstances will Liberal Democrats support a caretaker Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour government. John McDonnell has indicated that Labour will not back a temporary national unity government
When Boris Johnson sacked David Mundell as Scottish Secretary, Ruth Davidson was said to be ‘livid’ over the decision. One of 17 ministers to leave government with Theresa May, there had been an expectation among Scottish Tories that he would stay in place – as a figure with ministerial experience unlike the bulk of the
Michael Heseltine – The UK’s agenda ‘is on hold’ Ed Conway took over the reins from Sophy Ridge this week, and began by interviewing Lord Heseltine, the former deputy prime minister and committed europhile. Heseltine has co-authored an article with former speaker Betty Boothroyd in today’s Sunday Times, calling a no-deal exit ‘the most grotesque
It is a good tactic of Dominic Cummings to make fearful but off-the-record noises about how a Johnson government might handle parliament in the next few weeks. He smokes out the ever more extreme notions of the other side without actually committing the government to any course other than leaving on 31 October. A tendency
The BBC’s flagship news and current affairs programme wasn’t in any doubt about who to blame for America’s latest bout of mass shootings. Newsnight’s report began with footage of Donald Trump addressing the faithful at a rally. ‘This is an invasion,’ he warned, referring to the refugees massing on the Mexican border. ‘When you see
‘I’ve heard he’s a great guy, this mayor,’ shouted Sadiq Khan to no one in particular as he arrived in the foyer of the Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Festival. He barged past me and headed for the auditorium. ‘Treat him gently, please. No heckling,’ he added, talking about himself. The audience moved into the
There’s been much talk this week of a so-called government of national unity (GNU) to stop Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan. The idea is that he’d be forced out in a vote of no confidence in September and replaced by a caretaker PM who would request an extension to our EU membership before resigning and calling
Is Boris Johnson the luckiest prime minister ever? This week, the Government can borrow money for ten years at 0.48 per cent and for thirty years at 1.16 per cent. At these rates, it would irresponsible not to borrow more. The age of austerity can be brought to an end at exactly the same moment
Joe Biden possesses the elixir of ordinariness, despite the appearance of having picked his hair and teeth out of a catalog. One of the traits of ordinariness is inconsistency. Another is hypocrisy. These are pardonable flaws among the ordinary, but we expect our leaders to at least remember their lines. Biden’s performance this week shows
At 16 minutes past four on Friday a press officer at National Grid put out a tweet which seemed to signal Britain’s progress towards its much-vaunted zero-carbon economy. The proportion of UK electricity generated by wind power, it boasted, had just reached a record high of 47.6 per cent. What, with the weather sunny as
The president of the United States has to wear many hats. When a crisis hits the world, it’s the president who is often called to help solve it. And when a crisis hits the home front, whether it be a mindless mass shooting, a major hurricane, or a mass-casualty terrorist attack, it’s the president who
What George Orwell said of left-wing intellectuals now applies to Boris Johnson and his ministers: so much of what they propose is a ‘playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot’. They may suspend Parliament and crash us out of the EU on 31 October or crash us out in
On the day Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, I said his most important appointment was that of Dominic Cummings – who had run the triumphant pro-Brexit, Vote Leave referendum campaign – as his most senior government adviser. It signalled Johnson was not bluffing when he pledged to extract the UK from the EU do or
The sense of excitement among some Remainers is almost palpable. Finally – after three years of waiting – a quarter of negative growth has materialised following all the grim warnings of Brexit-related economic turmoil. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) this morning released its first estimate for economic growth for the second quarter of this
This week, our writers tell us about their favourite British beaches, from Cornwall to Northern Ireland (24:15). But before then, there’s of course some Brexit chat as we ask whether parliament can stop a no deal Brexit in the autumn (00:25), and – has Desert Island Discs lost the plot (15:05)? With James Forsyth, Catherine
Try as I might, I just can’t seem to get anyone interested in discriminating against Indians. No one is tearing open packets of imported turmeric and cardamom and dumping their contents on supermarket floors. British academics aren’t severing ties with professors from Delhi University. If pension funds are divesting from Tata Motors and ICICI Bank,
John McDonnell spent a large amount of his time this week attacking the career history of the newly-promoted Chancellor, Sajid Javid. While some might take heart at the way Javid, as son of a Pakistani bus driver, worked his way up to become a banker and then the second most powerful politician in the country,
‘Imagine there’s no countries,’ John Lennon once sang. It seems that one Labour MP is taking that song literally. Paul Sweeney, who represents Glasgow North East, had this to say: Well, Mr S. has to admire the scale of Sweeney’s ambitions, but he also wonders whether this plan might not be the best way to
This week’s Holy Smoke podcast asks whether Cardinal George Pell, jailed in Australia for paedophile crimes, could have been the victim of a hoax. The possibility needs to be considered following the conviction in Britain of Carl Beech, formerly known as ‘Nick’, for inventing a non-existent Westminster sex ring in which VIPs supposedly raped and
An 18-year-old girl stabbed in the back in the West Midlands; three people stabbed at a party in Borough; a teenage boy left fighting for his life in New Cross; a police officer attacked with a machete in Leyton – and that is just in the past week alone. Over the past five years offences involving
It is three months since the former chancellor Philip Hammond backtracked and announced that the government would not, after all, abolish pennies and two pences. But then comes the news that the Royal Mint has produced no new one pence and two pence coins for the past 12 months. So much for official policy –
Who wrote ‘Our lifestyle is destroying the environment of our country… creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly over-harvesting resources… the next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our
The argument about whether Boris Johnson would have to resign if he lost a confidence vote is continuing to rage at Westminster. There is, though, an angle to this argument that is being neglected. Right now, the Labour leadership is clear that it won’t back anyone other than Jeremy Corbyn to be prime minister. This