James Hanson is a presenter on LBC and former host of Times Radio's Frontline series on the war in Ukraine.
In the time honoured tradition of underwhelming Christmas gifts, surely none is quite so derisory as the government’s Christmas bonus for pensioners. Many recipients may not even notice it. A £10 payment by the Department for Work and Pensions, this tax-free bauble is sent to every state pensioner in the first week of December, plus
‘Parents shouldn’t be out of pocket by setting their kids up for school’. So boasted Downing Street, as the government touts its expansion of ‘free’ breakfast clubs. Except, as with everything the state provides, they’re not ‘free’. They are paid for by taxpayers. Call me a selfish, hard-hearted miser if you wish, but why should
‘Don’t let Donald Trump’s Britain become Nigel Farage’s Britain’. So spluttered a typically hyperbolic Sir Ed Davey during his Lib Dem conference speech yesterday. In a further sign that the Reform UK leader lives rent-free inside the minds of liberal Britain, Davey made a series of wild accusations about Farage – including that he wants
You almost have to admire the RMT – they are a trade union from central casting. From Bob Crow to Mick Lynch, their leaders have been the baldest, the bolshiest and the most Bolshevik of the lot – and, credit where it’s due, the most effective. How else can you explain the insanity of a
When I moved to London two years ago, my friends who already lived in the capital shared various warnings. From the cost of housing to the oppressive heat of the Central Line in summer – they tempered my excitement at moving to the big city with sober, sensible advice. But more than anything, the one
Our economy is on the rocks, legal and illegal immigration remains out of control, public services are creaking, and a looming debt crisis is on the horizon. But fear not. Labour has announced its big idea for turning around Britain’s fortunes: votes for children. It is naive to assume that 16-year-olds will be more attracted
Having already angered older voters with their controversial changes to winter fuel payments last autumn, Labour has now achieved a generational symmetry by angering younger voters with its subsequent U-turn. Rachel Reeves has today announced that more than three quarters of pensioners will receive the winter fuel payment this year. It means any individual with
It just happened to be my birthday. A Friday lunchtime at the start of November. Broad daylight. I had left Oval tube station and was about to turn onto my road. But as I strolled along the pavement, airpods in, replying to happy birthday messages on WhatsApp, the inevitable happened. Snatch. My phone was lifted
Hold the front page, sound the alarm, remember where you were – the Lib Dems have come up with a good idea for once. Reinforcing the old adage that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, Ed Davey’s party has announced a genuinely sensible policy: that playing music out loud on public transport
Safety concerns around Notting Hill Carnival are nothing new. During last year’s event alone, 334 people were arrested and two people were killed, including 32 year-old Cher Maximen, who was stabbed to death in front of her young daughter during the festival’s ‘family day’. Forty-one year-old Mussie Imnetu was beaten to death during a separate
As a UK-US trade deal moves closer, an age-old fear is rearing its head once more: that Britain will be forced to accept imports of American chlorinated chicken. Ever since Brexit, politicians of all parties have decried the prospect. The Labour manifesto ruled it out and even Rishi Sunak promised farmers in 2023 that there
Very little surprises me about Sadiq Khan’s London anymore. It’s now a city in which low-level lawlessness is implicitly tolerated via the complete absence of enforcement. Where the fetid smell of cannabis pervades the streets, where phone-snatching is endemic and where shop-lifting goes unpunished. And now, people are smoking crack cocaine on the Victoria Line.
The phenomenon of people living their lives vicariously through social media is nothing new. We’ve all got that friend who uses their Instagram story to post passive aggressive memes about their ex. Or the one who decides to document the repainting of their downstairs loo as if it’s an interior design triumph worthy of Architectural
‘I just thought Reform cared about national borders and sovereignty’. So sighed the journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer at the end of her recent interview with the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice. He’d been trying to argue that Donald Trump was right to cut Ukraine out of peace talks with Russia. A normally polished media performer, I
In this godforsaken era of feigned victimhood, is there any group less worthy of our sympathy than the Waspi women? Having been, rightly, denied compensation by the government in December, they are now threatening legal action unless they are given a payout. Will their entitlement never end? It’s hard to know where to start with
No one can say we weren’t warned. As early as 1971 America was warning that it could reduce its defence commitment to Europe, when the Democratic Senator Mike Mansfield proposed halving the number of US troops stationed on the continent. The Senate defeated that particular resolution, but the sentiment never went away. In 2016, Barack
It is easy to forget how popular Neville Chamberlain was in the autumn of 1938. Proclaiming ‘peace in our time’ after signing the Munich Agreement, he was heralded as the deal-maker supreme. A leader who’d averted needless bloodshed and whose critics were merely warmongering naysayers. You don’t need me to tell you the rest of
Go to any tube station at rush hour in London. Literally any. Then wait by the barriers and watch. Within 60 seconds it’s likely you’ll see at least half a dozen young men (it’s almost always young men) barge their way through the barriers without a care in the world. No one is shocked anymore
In events that were foreseeable to anyone outside America’s cultural elite, the actress and popstar Selena Gomez is facing an online backlash to her now-deleted Instagram post decrying Donald Trump’s immigration policy. The offending video featured a sobbing Selena, who has Mexican heritage, wailing into her phone camera that ‘all my people are being attacked’
There was surprisingly little in Donald Trump’s inaugural address about Russia and Ukraine, aside from a vague pledge to ‘stop all wars’. There was certainly no repeat of his campaign trail promise to end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. But, while answering reporters’ questions in the Oval Office as he signed a
