Nigel Jones

It is an idée fixe among British Europhiles that continental Europe is a progressive place firmly wedded to left-wing parties and policies, and that in leaving the EU, Brexit Britain was demonstrating its irredeemably reactionary and backward nature. The picture of Europe beloved by British Eurofans as a safe space for only left-wing politics is a complete myth In fact, as a brief examination of recent European elections and current governments reveals, this is the exact opposite of the truth: across Europe the right and often the far-right are on the rise. Meanwhile, the once mighty Socialist and Social Democratic parties that dominated the continent are in eclipse, if not facing outright extinction. Only in Britain is a left-wing party poised to take power.

Eighty-year old Sir John Major does not appear to be enjoying a peaceful retirement. Judging by his frequent tetchy interventions in public life, the former prime minister is far from a happy bunny. Sir John’s latest outburst was not on his usual hobby horses of the iniquities of Boris Johnson or the horrors of Brexit, but came in a speech – delivered to the liberal Prison Reform Trust at the Old Bailey of all places – that will give comfort to the criminal community. For Major is worried that we are locking up too many people for minor offences. On this topic – as on so many others – Major is out of step with public opinion.

Kim yo-Jong, the powerful and influential sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, has launched a savage personal attack on US President Joe Biden after he signed a new nuclear cooperation deal with America’s ally South Korea. The female Kim said that 80-year old Biden was ‘in his dotage’, calling him an ‘old man with no future’ who was unable to complete his term of office, and ridiculed his threat to destroy North Korea should it launch a nuclear strike against the US or its allies. Beyond the war of words over nukes, however, the question that must be raised is: why does it take a leader of a brutal dictatorship to tell a truth about the President that most of the ‘free’ Western media is reluctant to even mention?

Vladimir Putin’s crimes against Ukraine are often facilely compared with those committed by Hitler’s Nazis during World War Two. As Gary Lineker has crassly demonstrated, the unique crimes of National Socialism are the gold standard of evil that careless people reach for all too easily when they wish to comment on, or criticise, a contemporary issue. In one under-reported way, however, Putin is indeed imitating the hideous crimes Nazi Germany carried out in Eastern Europe’s badlands 80 years ago: by abducting Ukraine’s children from their parents and taking them abroad. An arrest warrant has today been issued against Putin by the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Among the war crimes Russia's leader is accused of is the unlawful deportation of children.

Humza Yousaf, the frontrunner in the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon, says Scotland could ditch the monarchy if it leaves the UK. 'I’ve been very clear, I’m a republican...Let’s absolutely, within the first five years (of independence), consider whether or not we should move away from having a monarchy into an elected head of state,' he told the National. Yousaf is seen as the SNP's continuity candidate. But his pop at the monarchy marks a sea change from the official line under his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon: that an independent Scotland should retain the institution. As the coronation of King Charles on 6 May approaches, this difference, with the potential for another split in the party, takes on a more than theoretical interest.

When a prominent left-wing celebrity wants to attack a conservative person or policy they very often make a comparison with Hitler’s Germany or his Nazi party. The latest person to draw this invidious, ignorant and downright offensive parallel with the gold standard of political evil is the former footballer turned Match of the Day BBC commentator Gary Lineker. Presumably, the star has calculated that his fame and popularity with football fans make him unsackable In Tweets attacking the government’s new Bill attempting to crack down on illegal migrants crossing the Channel, Lineker said that it was an ‘immeasurably cruel’ policy that was ‘beyond awful’ and that it used language directed at the migrants ‘not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s’.

As the world marks the grim first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin should give thanks that there appears to be at least one of what Lenin called ‘useful idiots’ left in the West. Step forward – after removing your foot from its usual place in your mouth – the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most Reverend Justin Welby. Fresh from presiding over a schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion over gay marriage, the Archbishop is now favouring us with his deeply misguided views on Putin’s aggression and its possible consequences. It may not sit well with Welby’s milk and water theology Welby has said that 'when the time comes' and 'provided a just peace between Russia and Ukraine can be achieved', Russia must be allowed to 'recover'.

Plop! That was the sound of another rat leaving the sinking Tory ship as Nadine Dorries announced on her Talk TV show that she will quit parliament at the next election. The former Culture Secretary and unashamed Boris Johnson fan joins a lengthening list of departing Tory MPs who have read the writing on the wall and know that inevitable defeat and years in opposition await after their appointment with the voters next year. The only remaining question is the size of that defeat: will it simply be a narrow victory for Sir Keir Starmer’s reinvigorated Labour party? Or a wipeout on the scale of Tony Blair’s 1997 New Labour landslide that left the Tories out of power for more than a decade?

Winston Churchill had a stamp on his office desk reading ‘Action this day’ with which he marked documents demanding immediate attention from his officials and ministers. It seems that Rishi Sunak has exchanged this stamp for one reading ‘Inaction this day’ to judge by his government’s paralysed inactivity in the face of pressing events. His answer to the multiple strikes, walkouts and disputes plaguing Britain is, erm, carrying out a mini-ministerial reshuffle of the same tired old faces. Such a massive irrelevancy is unlikely to impress public opinion or do anything  to close the Tories’ 20 point lag behind Labour in the opinion polls. Nor are many of the appointments so far exactly ‘new’.

Vladimir Putin has journeyed to the southern city of Volgograd – better known by its former name of Stalingrad – to take part in the 80th anniversary celebrations of the great Soviet victory in the city this weekend. The battle was the turning point of the second world war. While there, the Russian president specifically linked his invasion of Ukraine with the Nazi attack on Russia – turning history inside out as he did so. ‘It’s unbelievable but true,’ Putin said. ‘We are again being threatened by German tanks. Again and again we are forced to repel the collective aggression of the West.

Almost half a century ago, on 28 February 1974, Britain went to the polls in a general election called by Tory prime minister Edward Heath. The election was called in the midst of a crisis eerily resembling the situation that confronts Rishi Sunak today. Britain was ‘working from home’ on a three day working week announced by Heath in a bid to cope with the crisis, which included a full blown strike by the National Union of Mineworkers. Then, as now, the country was also suffering an energy crisis after a foreign war. Oil prices had rocketed following the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

As the skies darken over Rishi Sunak’s embattled government, with ministers being fired or placed under investigation, opinion polls dire and few signs of better times ahead, Tory optimists are (somewhat desperately) searching for signs that all may not yet be irretrievably lost for their party. The hopeful precedent that they have come up with is the 1992 general election. That year, things did not look good for John Major, the man who had replaced Margaret Thatcher under controversial circumstances just two years before. The opinion polls predicted a narrow but clear victory for Labour leader Neil Kinnock until Major, then a much-mocked figure, got on a soapbox – literally – and appealed to the public to be given a chance.

Nadhim Zahawi, who has been sacked by Rishi Sunak after days of headlines over his tax affairs, could learn a lot from the example of one of his predecessors as chancellor. Labour chancellor Hugh Dalton entered the House of Commons to deliver his autumn Budget on 10 November 1947. On his way in, he was accosted by a journalist who jocularly asked him what he was about to say. Equally jovially, Dalton confided a couple of sentences on the changes in taxation he would announce within minutes. Before he finished his speech, the tidbits he had disclosed to the nosy hack were in the evening papers and the London stock market was reacting. Dalton’s indiscretion – it was hardly an offence – cost him his front bench career.