News and Opinion

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has left a lot of questions unanswered in a television interview, despite having been sent the questions in advance. In a tweet sent at 8pm last night from the official Sophy Ridge on Sunday account, it had been announced that Shapps would be responding on Dominic Cummings’ lockdown breach as per […]

The allegations over Dominic Cummings ‘is now an issue of Boris Johnson’s judgment and integrity’, according to the SNP’s Westminster deputy leader. Kirsty Blackman spoke out as a number of backcbench Tory MPs broke ranks to criticise the Prime Minister’s top aide who has been the subject of numerous national newspaper reports. On Saturday the […]

The journalist behind this weekend’s Dominic Cummings revelations had the perfect response for a prominent Brexit campaigner after he tweeted his support for the Vote Leave mastermind. Darren Grimes took to Twitter to defend Boris Johnson’s senior adviser, tweeting a video to Cummings outside his house, saying ‘it’s not about what you guys think’ in […]

Tory Brexiteers have turned on Vote Leave mastermind Dominic Cummings – calling for him to resign from his post as senior aide to the prime minister over allegations he broke lockdown rules more than once. Boris Johnson has been urged to sack Cummings after reports surfaced that the 48-year-old made a second trip to County […]

Elvis Presley did much to promote Hawaii’s musical culture, but its native sons have far more to offer themselves. SOPHIE DEBOICK reports. Honolulu is more than 2,000 miles from the West Coast of the US, but is a place deeply embedded in American mythology. As a tourist playground focussed on Waikiki – once the home […]

A Conservative MP has apologised for tweeting his support of Dominic Cummings on Saturday and said the PM’s aide should ‘face the consequences of breaking the law’. In a statement Robert Halfon, the MP for Harlow said: ‘I would first like to make it clear to residents that I regret writing the tweet yesterday in […]

Political campaigners Led By Donkeys have trolled Boris Johnson’s most senior aide outside his home – by using clips of his boss’ speeches. A video by political campaign group Led By Donkeys of the statement made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson is shown outside the north London home of his senior aide Dominic Cummings. Photograph: […]

Keir Starmer’s raw approval rating has rocketed, as more people approve of the Labour leader than prime minister Boris Johnson. 47% of people surveyed by Opinium now approve of Labour’s leader, an increase of five points, compared to 17% disapproving (down one point). By contrast 45% of those surveyed approve of Boris Johnson, down one […]

Sunday newspapers have alleged that Boris Johnson’s senior aide Dominic Cummings breached lockdown rules more than once. New testimonies in the Observer and Sunday Mirror claim that Cummings was spotted back in Durham on April 19 – days after he was back at work having recovered from the virus. This was at the point that […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY looks back on the life of Giovanni Falcone who played an instrumental role in bringing down the mafia. One hot Sicilian night in July 2017 somebody attacked a statue in a piazza in the poor San Filippo Neri neighbourhood of Palermo. They meant business too. It took a determined effort to knock the […]

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has swerved questions about what Boris Johnson knew about senior aide Dominic Cummings breaking lockdown rules. Speaking at the latest Downing Street briefing, Shapps was asked if the prime minister knew about Cumming’s actions and had approved them. He said: ‘The important thing is that everyone remains in the same place […]

The SNP has written to Boris Johnson and the head of the civil service calling for an investigation into Dominic Cummings’ ‘rule-breaking and the Tory government’s cover-up’. In the letter to Sir Mark Sedwill and the prime minister, the party’s leader in Westminster Ian Blackford said he called for Cummings to be sacked. Cummings is […]

TIM WALKER reflects on an interview with American actor and political activist Charlton Heston. Charlton Heston was appearing on the London stage in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He was a big guy in a wig whose views on everything from gun control to gay rights had made him politically incorrect before the term had even […]

Former Downing Street director of communications Alastair Campbell has savaged Boris Johnson over his failure to lead the country, and branded those around him ‘liars and hypocrites’. In a fiery exchange on Sky News, The New European’s editor-at-large said that he was providing a reaction ‘on behalf of the millions and millions of people who […]

Boris Johnson has defended his top aide for travelling 264 miles to Durham with his children during lockdown, despite the fact those around him had tested positive for the coronavirus. Downing Street has said Dominic Cummings believed he ‘behaved reasonably and legally’ when he travelled from his London home to Country Durham during the lockdown. […]

Ian Blackford, SNP Westminster leader, says the prime minister has ‘serious questions’ to answer regarding what he knew about Dominic Cummings’ lockdown trip to Country Durham. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the MP said: ‘I think what should have happened by now is that Dominic Cummings should have gone. ‘What I find interesting…is […]

SUNA ERDEM on the spectacular success of foreign TV shows on streaming channels – accelerated during lockdown – and how they represent an emerging global culture, characterised by differences. Babylon Berlin – German neo-noir television series. Picture: Archant – Credit: Archant It was only days into lockdown and we were already slouched on the sofa […]

Dominic Cummings has insisted he ‘behaved reasonably and legally’ when he travelled from his London home to County Durham during the lockdown. Speaking outside his London home about the trip to Durham, Boris Johnson’s senior aide told reporters: ‘I behaved reasonably and legally.’ Reporters asked Cummings where he was off to this time as he […]

Calls have been made for Dominic Cummings to resign from his role as chief adviser to the prime minister after reports emerged he broke lockdown rules by travelling 260 miles from his London home. Sir Ed Davey, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, has called for Cummings to quit over the allegations. He said: ‘Millions […]

Police spoke to Boris Johnson’s top adviser after he breached the government’s lockdown rules to travel to see his family in Durham – despite having shown signs of coronavirus. An investigation by the Mirror and Guardian found that Cummings travelled 264 miles and was spoken to by officers, days after being seen rushing out of […]

WILL SELF considers the British response to the coronavirus lockdown. There’s a curious fallacy at work in our culture – one I call ‘reverse Darwinism’. It goes something like this: characteristic X, possessed by humans in abundance, confers no obvious adaptive advantage – at least, not in societies that have, say, a fully-functioning health service […]

Political campaigners Led by Donkeys have created a new billboard comparing the UK’s number of coronavirus deaths with the rest of the world after Downing Street stopped showing the charts in daily press briefings. The group released a video showing the chart on a billboard which is on display in Westminster. The 20-second clip, posted […]

A Downing Street tweet telling people to remain ‘three fridges apart’ ahead of the bank holiday weekend has been ridiculed by Twitter users. The tweet, published ahead of the bank holiday weekend, asks the public to keep ‘2 meters apart’ from one another. ‘That’s 1 bed, 2 benches, 3 fridges, 4 chairs,’ it read with […]

A video of a comedian mocking Tory health minister Matt Hancock during the general election has resurfaced, raising a smile during the coronavirus pandemic. Russell Howard took a clip of Hancock talking about the Conservative Party’s election manifesto and his pledges for the NHS and mocked it up to look like he was following the […]

Ministers acting quicker would have made a ‘big difference’ to the coronavirus, a member of the SAGE scientific advisory group scientist has claimed. Sir Ian Boyd told the BBC’s Coronavirus Newscast podcast that the number one issue is whether ministers could have acted earlier. He said he believes that some politicians ‘would have loved’ to […]

A senior Tory’s decision to chair the new China Research Group alongside the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) has raised questions about its compatibility. The China Research Group (CRG) was formed to pressure the leadership of the Conservative Party and the government over UK relations with China after allegations the country had tried […]

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has slammed Jacob Rees-Mogg’s plan to force MPs back to the Commons, calling it a case of ‘do as we say, not as we do’. Burnham appeared on the BBC’s Question Time show via videolink to say that the move to force MPs back to the chamber was a ‘poor […]

A police watchdog has claimed that deleted evidence between Boris Johnson and model-turned-businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri prevented the watchdog from establishing if the prime minister had committed misconduct in public office. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said there that here was some evidence to suggest there may have been an ‘intimate relationship’, but there […]