News and Opinion

Sir Keir Starmer has written an open letter to the country ahead of this week’s elections, setting out his “burning desire to build a brighter future” for Britain. The Labour leader claimed it is “a changed Labour Party” in the letter ahead of Thursday, which will be his first electoral test since taking over from […]

A former aide to Boris Johnson advised him on new planning laws while being employed by two major property firms, a report claims. Industry insiders told the Mirror that Eddie Lister, who stepped down from No 10 over a conflict of interest, had been advising on the proposals. Whitehall sources suggested that Lord Udny-Lister had been […]

The new royal yacht named after Prince Philip is a waste of £200 million, says MITCH BENN. “SERIOUSLY GUYS, READ THE ROOM” MOMENT OF THE WEEK  This week brought the news our beleaguered nation has been waiting to hear. Yes, we are still fighting our way out from underneath the virus; yes, our economy is […]

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, a Westminster MP, is one of two candidates to announce a bid to replace Arlene Foster as DUP leader. The longstanding Lagan Valley MP said he would promote a positive strategy and values if elected, with a focus on building a shared future for everyone in Northern Ireland. The party’s current Westminster leader […]

A new poll has revealed the Tories could be on course to win the Hartlepool by-election after its candidate polled 17 points ahead of Labour. Tory candidate Jill Mortimer could win 50% of the vote with Labour GP Dr Paul Williams on 33%, if undecideds were removed, according to Survation. Independents Thelma Walker and Sam Lee […]

From beach bums to hippies, hair metal rockers to gangster rappers, LA’s musical story has more twists than most. LA is a city of extremes. It’s a place where you either make it big or hit rock bottom, with a huge gulf between the mansions of Bel Air and the tents and shacks of Skid Row, […]

Mexican Coke is now on sale in the UK, but will it ever replace the real thing, with its iconic glass Coca-Cola bottles? My uncle used to buttonhole the sommeliers in expensive restaurants and ask for “a bottle of American Beaujolais”. A so-called ‘Mad Man’ – or Madison Avenue advertising copywriter – he knew the […]

Best known as Grouty in Porridge, Peter Vaughan was an actor who seemed to get better with age The Seven Ages of Man speech in Shakespeare’s As You Like It amounts to a career trajectory for all serious actors. The best and luckiest manage to grow old with their audiences, going from playing “the whining schoolboy, with […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on Dalida, the French superstar singer who endured a catalogue of personal catastrophes They made an unlikely couple arriving at the Sanremo Music Festival in January 1967, the young protest singer some called the Italian Bob Dylan and the elegant, older chanteuse from Paris with a glittering decade of mainstream chart success behind […]

Tanit Koch on how the ruling German elite do not have the same upbringing as politicians in the UK If I had to choose just one word to praise the EU, it would be this: Erasmus. These academic exchanges are a beautifully efficient way to achieve cross-border friendship and mutual understanding. Because, yes, foreign languages […]

In both war and peace, a love of reading made Napoleon history’s biggest bibliophile.  When you’re an enthusiastically expansionist autocrat and visionary military leader building an empire that will cover almost an entire continent your work doesn’t, it’s fair to say, leave much time for hobbies. Julius Caesar produced no macramé of note; Alexander the […]

A new book shows how Christians are turning away from the Labour Party. Does it impact their chances? Labour, Harold Wilson once said, owes more to Methodism than Marx. Its founder, Keir Hardie – after whom its present leader is named – was a lay preacher. Its early leaders were devout men; Ramsay Macdonald, its first […]

Set in a Britain with zero-Covid and corruption is punished, is this why we love Line of Duty? SUDDEN EPIPHANY OF THE WEEK On Sunday night I was (like, apparently, 80% of the population of the United Kingdom) watching Line of Duty on BBC 1, when I had a sudden realisation: Line of Duty takes […]

For a man with a celebrated line of fragrances, it’s no surprise that Pierre Cardin comes out of a new documentary smelling of roses. “We kept digging for dirt,” concedes one of the film’s directors, Todd Hughes. “But we kept striking gold.” So, adorned by celebs including Dionne Warwick, Naomi Campbell and Sharon Stone, House […]

Britain seems beset by allegations of nefarious political deeds. But Germany is home to a blockbuster scandal that puts others in the shade Readers of a certain age will recall a show called Jeux sans Frontieres, or its English derivative, It’s a Knockout! Competitors in ridiculous costumes would jump over obstacles in the name of […]

The eyes of European leaders are on Denmark as it becomes the continent’s first country to fully embrace Covid passports For 27-year-old Nikoline Maria Flørnæss Brandenborg her most recent visit to a Copenhagen bar was a little different from the previous one, five months earlier. The music at Frederiksberg Ølbar was as loud as before lockdown and the […]

For those dreading a return to the pitched battles of IndyRef1, the Scottish Labour leader may offer the best hope There are two schools of thought in Scotland about the conduct of the 2014 independence referendum. One is that it was a festival of democracy, a carnival of marches, song, poetry and political awakening. The […]

Arlene Foster has said none of her DUP colleagues who moved to oust her have contacted her to explain why. The outgoing DUP leader and Stormont first minister said politics is “brutal” and she has endured a “turbulent” week, but she insisted she is “at peace” with her decision to leave the local political scene […]

The owners of a supertrawler have hit out at the collapse of post-Brexit fishing talks with Norway, which has left hundreds of crewmen without work. The failure to reach a deal means fish and chip shops will be selling Arctic cod imported from Norway rather than landed in Britain, UK Fisheries said. Its giant vessel […]

Labour leader Keir Starmer has quipped he is going to start wearing boxing gloves at the despatch box as he campaigned for Labour in Hull. Starmer donned pristine red gloves sporting the logo “vote Labour” as he was shown the ropes at the Vulcan Boxing Club in the city on Friday. The leader of the opposition […]

After a slow start, millions of people across EU countries are now receiving their vaccine – with almost a quarter of people across the bloc having had at least one dose of a Covid-19 shot. That relatively good news – though vaccine progress still lags far behind that of the UK – is marred by […]

An independent Scotland would need to confront border issues with the rest of the UK if returning to the European Union, Nicola Sturgeon has said. Concerns have been raised by critics of Scottish independence who say Scotland rejoining the EU would result in a hard border with England. The first minister told BBC Radio 4’s […]

David Cameron’s mates at Greensill Capital may not have been eligible for any of Rishi Sunak’s emergency Covid bailouts, but it turns out that a company in which the chancellor’s wife Akshata Murty had invested in heavily did qualify. Even though the educational publishing outfit called Mrs Wordsmith received a £1.3m cash injection from Sunak’s […]

The former deputy leader of the Conservative Party has claimed people are getting “worked up over nothing” over the refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat. Talking to Times Radio, Lord Peter Lilley said: “We are unique in that people get worked up where nothing bad has happened. “In Russia, public money was used to […]

Boris Johnson has insisted he is a fan of retailer John Lewis after the leader of the opposition mocked the scandal surrounding the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat. The prime minister was asked about reports he and his fiancee Carrie Symonds had rejected furnishings by the department store left in the Number 11 flat […]

Boris Johnson’s mobile phone number was freely available on the internet for the last 15 years, according to reports. A contact number for Johnson was listed on the bottom of a press release when he was still shadow higher education minister in 2006 – a document which was still available online in 2021. Reports earlier […]

New research shows how the Conservatives are hoovering up Christian support The past six years have seen the old rules of British politics torn up. Identities such as ‘Tory’, ‘Labour’, ‘working class’ or ‘middle class’ have been replaced by ‘Remainer’ or ‘Brexiteer’ and voters are deserting their traditional parties. The Conservatives, once the party of choice for middle-class professionals, […]

It’s the worst of both worlds – the UK was slow to protect its citizens and now is slow to help others. No-one knows what’s really going on in India. We don’t know the infection rate. We don’t know the death rate. We don’t know what’s going on with the variant. The information that comes […]