Tom Goodenough

Tom Goodenough

Tom Goodenough is online editor of The Spectator.

Wednesday

Tom Goodenough

Bill Clinton tries to solve Hillary’s inauthenticity problem. Did it work?

So there we have it: Bill has backed his 'best friend' and wife Hillary Clinton for President. That he would do so was never in doubt, of course, but the words he used are what matters. He started his yarn with a tale of courtship: 'In the year of 1971, I met a girl'. Bill went on to talk of how he first wooed his wife by following her around and started 'something I couldn't stop'. But this wasn't a speech about the former President's dating techniques. Instead, Bill was trying to reveal the answer to a somewhat less exciting if not frequently discussed question: who is the real Hillary? Despite being in the limelight for going on thirty years, Hillary is still something of an enigma to many.

Tuesday

Tom Goodenough

Bernie Sanders backs Hillary but not all Democrats are happy about it

So after the glorious disunity of the Republican convention, now is the chance for the Democrats to pull together and show their rivals what unity is all about. If only. As with so much of politics at the moment, the script is there to be broken and that much was clear when Bernie Sanders was booed as he endorsed his one-time rival Hillary Clinton. To be fair to Sanders, he did try his best to throw his weight behind Hillary. 'Hillary, Hillary, Hillary,' was the chorus of his speech which was intended to draw a line under a fractious primary campaign - and unlike Ted Cruz he could at least bring himself to mention his rival's name.

Tom Goodenough

Jean-Claude Juncker comes out fighting over Brexit

Although Theresa May has repeatedly assured us that 'Brexit means Brexit', we're still no closer to finding out what that actually means. The Prime Minister has done her best to play hardball in talks with other European leaders, having told Angela Merkel that control over free movement was an issue she would deliver on. But the fighting talk doesn't actually mean much in practice. At least not yet anyway. And like it or not, one man who will play a key role in Brexit negotiations, Jean-Claude Juncker, is making it clear he's not going to lie down and accept compromise on free movement.

Monday

Tom Goodenough

Germany comes under attack again

For the third time in a week, Germany has come under attack. On this occasion, a Syrian asylum seeker blew himself up outside a festival in the Bavarian town of Ansbach. Twelve people were injured in the incident last night but thankfully no one else was killed. It's still too early to tell what the motive for the attack was but one thing does seem clear: nerves in Germany are fraying. Sadly, the latest incident was carried out by a man who was given shelter by a country which took in 1.1million asylum seekers last year. The man responsible for the attack had recently been told his claim for asylum had been rejected - but that means little in Germany, where half of those who had their claims rejected were allowed to stay put anyway.

Tom Goodenough

Philip Green is the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’. What will Theresa May do about it?

In her opening pitch as Prime Minister, Theresa May vowed to stick up for the man in the street and fight 'burning injustices'. There will be fewer clear opportunities for her to put those words into action than after today's damning report into Sir Philip Green. It's no understatement to say that Green's reputation lies in tatters following the publication of this report which looked into the circumstances of the collapse of BHS. Green is branded the 'unacceptable face of capitalism'. He is accused of adopting a 'scattergun approach' to try and pin blame elsewhere. Instead, despite his attempts to blame others, the Select Committee report says: 'The truth is that a large proportion of those who have got rich or richer off the back of BHS are to blame.

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Nine killed after shooting in Munich

Nine people have been killed and 21 wounded after a shooting rampage at a shopping centre in Munich. The authorities say the perpetrator was an 18-year-old German of Iranian descent, who then killed himself. It's far too early to form an clear picture of what has happened at the Olympia shopping centre: some reports say he acted in the name of the Islamic State, but the German authorities say there is (so far) no evidence of this. Horrifying video footage on social media shows a man shooting at passers-by in what appears to be a well-planned attack. His body was found two hours later.  Germany has been on edge since a 17-year-old Afghan refugee attacked passengers on a train near Wurzburg with an axe and knifed, injuring five.

Tom Goodenough

Europol chief rows back on Brexit ‘Project Fear’ warnings

Those who acted as the biggest cheerleaders for Project Fear in the run-up to the referendum now have the awkward task of changing tack. One of those shouting loudly was Rob Wainwright, the British head of Europol. A key campaign strategy of David Cameron was that Britain would be safer in the European Union - and, ergo, less safe outside of it. Joining him in those warnings was Wainwright, who said that if the UK was no longer a member of the EU, Britain would become a 'second-tier member' of the crime-fighting club. He said, in the event of Brexit, that: 'It would make it harder for Britain to fight terrorism and crime.' This morning, he's been striking a somewhat different note.

Thursday

Tom Goodenough

Diane Abbott sticks the knife into Owen Smith as she compares him to David Cameron

If we didn't know it before, Diane Abbott has made it clear that this summer's Labour leadership contest is going to be very nasty indeed. On the day Jeremy Corbyn will officially launch his campaign, his loyal ally has taken to the airwaves to stick the knife into his challenger Owen Smith. We've had a taste of just how the Corbynistas are planning to attack Smith before and it seems his links to Pfizer, where he used to work, will be the main thrust of their attempts to undermine him. Abbott made that much obvious this morning. She managed to concede that Owen was a 'great bloke and so on', but her main purpose in speaking out was to go on the attack. Here's what she said about him on the Today programme: 'He wasn't a scientist, he was a lobbyist.

Wednesday

Tom Goodenough

Did Theresa May’s flash of nastiness at PMQs tell of trouble to come?

That Theresa May 'won' Prime Minister's Questions today, there is no doubt. Tory backbencher Simon Hoare said it was 'game, set and match' and few are likely to disagree with that summation of what took place in the Commons. Jeremy Corbyn was repeatedly left floundering throughout by a politician who showed that she means business. As James Forsyth says, the Labour benches looked even more fed-up than usual upon their realisation of just how effective an adversary May will be. But from the woman who famously coined the 'nasty party' term about the Tories, was there also a part of that moniker on display from the despatch box this afternoon? It certainly seemed that way. Take this exchange with Tim Farron.

Tom Goodenough

Which Labour MPs are backing Owen Smith?

Owen Smith is now in a head-to-head battle with Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership. We'll know by September 24th - the day before the Labour party conference starts - who has come out on top. As things stand, Corbyn is the clear favourite: a recent YouGov poll put the party's current leader 20 points ahead of his rival. But Owen Smith is not going to relinquish without a fight and has already been doing his best to counter one of his main problems - how well-known he is. Smith has been positioning himself as the 'radical' yet 'normal' alternative to Corbyn in various interviews. He's also vowed to be like the 'duracell bunny' in his energy for taking the fight to Corbyn and ousting the Labour leader. Ninety Labour MPs are pinning their hopes on him doing just that.

Tom Goodenough

Is Owen Smith ‘radical’ or ‘normal’? He needs to be both to defeat Corbyn

Owen Smith has told us he's both 'radical' and 'normal'. It doesn't take a genius to work out those characteristics aren't compatible. Yet, Owen Smith knows he needs to try and be both if he is to defy the huge odds and win this Labour leadership race. And therein lies the problem. Smith is deftly attempting a balancing act between praising Corbyn (his 'radical' bit) whilst trying to offer those policies in a more electable package (the 'normal' bit). So can Smith manage to do both? It's going to be a tricky ask but he tried his best just now during his Today interview. After praising Corbyn as someone who had been 'great at identifying the question' he tried to move things on to suggest he is the man to provide the answers.

Tom Goodenough

Donald Trump officially clinches Republican nomination

We were told it should never happen and would never happen. But the impossible has now happened: Donald Trump is officially the Republican candidate in this year's presidential election. It's been a near-certainty for some time, but there is no going back after Trump sealed the nomination at the Republican National Convention last night. Some of those at the RNC in Cleveland will have been praying for a miracle and hoping that unbound voters - who, they argued, did not technically have to side with Trump - could have unseated him at the last hurdle. In the end, last night's nomination process was seamless and the outcome was clear: it's Trump vs Hillary. In a piece of convention theatre, it was Donald Trump Junior- a delegate from New York, who tipped his dad over the line.

Tuesday

Tom Goodenough

Boris’s charm wins over at awkward press conference

Fresh from banging his head on the door of Downing Street, John Kerry has just been speaking at a press conference alongside Boris. But it wasn’t the US Secretary of State coming to blows during the heated Q and A session at the Foreign Office. John Kerry might be heading home tomorrow, but most of the eyes – and the barbs being flung from the audience of gathered journalists – were aimed squarely at one man: Boris. American journalists in London for Kerry's visit appeared to see it as their sole opportunity to hammer the Foreign Secretary - and they certainly tried their best to make the most of it.

Tom Goodenough

Inflation is up. But don’t panic, it’s nothing to do with Brexit

Inflation is up: between May and June it jumped from 0.3 per cent to 0.5 per cent. But before the doomsayers blame Brexit, it’s worth remembering that these latest Consumer Price Index figures are nothing to do with the EU referendum. Instead, the numbers behind today’s inflation rise were collected in the middle of June, before the Brexit vote took place. So what’s going on? The short answer is that there’s nothing to panic about. The rise was almost wholly brought about by a leap in the cost of air fares – particularly those to European countries. Here’s what the ONS, who released the numbers, said: ‘The 10.

Tom Goodenough

Can Labour MPs use Trident disarray to oust Corbyn?

Demonstrations of Labour party disunity are ten-a-penny these days. But even so, last night's Trident debate was still something to behold: 140 Labour MPs went against Jeremy Corbyn to back Trident renewal. Yet it wasn't numbers but the words Labour MPs said which will have damaged Corbyn the most. Scores of backbenchers accused Corbyn of going against the party's own manifesto policy on the vote. In one of the most damning speeches, John Woodcock said: 'What Labour’s current front bench are doing is not principled. It shows contempt for the public, for party members and often in what they say for the truth.' He went on to say the Trident vote showed 'how far this once great party has fallen'. So what can Labour do now?

Tom Goodenough

Trident: How every MP voted

MPs have voted to renew Trident by an overwhelming margin: 472 voted for, compared to 172 against. It's no great surprise that the decision to approve the replacement of Britain's four nuclear submarines passed. Perhaps what was more interesting was the split on the Labour benches opposite the Government, with 140 of the party's MPs going against Jeremy Corbyn and backing Trident. So, how did your local MP vote in the Trident debate?

Monday

Tom Goodenough

Today’s Trident vote will show how the split within Labour is widening

One of the first things Theresa May will have been briefed on when she took over as Prime Minister last week is the protocol for firing nuclear weapons. She'll have been handed the nuclear codes in the clearest demonstration, if she doubted it before, that she really is in charge. And today, in her first Commons test as PM, she'll be saying it would be a 'gross irresponsibility' to ditch Trident. She'll also go on to say 'abandoning' our 'ultimate safeguard' would be a 'reckless gamble'. In truth, she has little to worry about as to whether the vote will go through: barring a big upset, the Government will win comfortably and Trident will be renewed. What will prove more interesting, though, is what happens on the benches opposite Theresa May.

Tom Goodenough

Boris’s EU summit debut shows why he is the perfect pick for Foreign Secretary

After a bit of initial drama involving an emergency plane landing, Boris Johnson is in Brussels. There's been a lot of social media chatter about why Boris is the wrong choice for Foreign Secretary and how he's going to embarrass Britain in his new role. Some are quoting Boris' past articles to prove he is only going to upset those he meets on the world stage - and Boris' prize-winning President Erdogan poem in the Spectator has also gathered much interest. But for all those worrying about the 'damage' Boris is going to do, look instead to the huge interest in his debut at the EU summit to see why he is the perfect choice for the role. It's important to contrast the huge media scrum which greeted Boris today with the fact that Britain is on its way out of the EU.

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Is Theresa May rowing back on ‘Brexit means Brexit’?

Theresa May has told us repeatedly that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and Philip Hammond has been at it too: just in case you weren’t aware, Brexit really does mean Brexit. Whilst it’s a catchphrase which is meant to reassure those who want Britain to leave the EU (and those who don’t, but respect the outcome of the vote), it’s actually pretty vapid. And on her trip up to Scotland today, the PM may have shown how her phrase could easily unravel. Theresa May said she was ‘very clear’ about involving the Scottish government in the Brexit negotiations and that she was eager to ‘get the best possible deal for the entire United Kingdom’. So far, so good, you may think.

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May reacts to Nice terror attack

Theresa May has just given her reaction to the terrorist attack in Nice, saying that Britain would stand ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with the people of France as she condemned the ‘brutal murderers’ responsible. Here’s what she said: ‘I am shocked and saddened by the horrifying attack in Nice last night. Our hearts go out to the French people and to all those who’ve lost loved ones or been injured. While the full picture is still emerging, it seems that at least 80 people are feared dead and many others have been injured. These were innocent victims enjoying a national celebration with their friends and families. We are working urgently to establish whether any British nationals were caught up in the attack.