News and Opinion

MITCH BENN on how Boris Johnson’s decisions to tackle obesity are not helping. As is generally the case with what we will, for the lack of a more accurate term, call our present ‘government’, I find myself wondering if I’d be eyeing their newfound enthusiasm for tackling obesity with less suspicion if it were coming […]

Married former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke is facing the ‘very real possibility’ of jail after being convicted of sexually assaulting two women in near-identical circumstances, later describing himself to them as ‘naughty’. The jury at Southwark Crown Court dismissed the 49-year-old’s claims his accusers were lying, instead believing victims who gave tearful evidence during a […]

In the earliest days of the Covid outbreak,the Chinese government was on the back foot and its critics spoke up. Within weeks, though, those critics had been removed from the streets. GILES WHITTELL describes Xi Jinping’s chilling clampdown. When Xu Zhiyong went on the run last year he must have known it wasn’t going to […]

STEVE ANGLESEY considers whether the Brexiteers’ latest fight with the corporation is an attempt at revenge over what they see as Remain bias. If you liked Brexit, you’re going to love its sequels. Pre-production work on one of them began in mid-July on what its organisers describe as ‘one of the busiest roads in London’, […]

UK Travel company bosses are urging Boris Johnson to reevaluate his government’s coronavirus quarantine guidance, warning that without change British airlines risk going under. The heads of 47 airlines, airports and tour operators have written a letter to the prime minister denouncing the 14-day self-isolation rule on UK arrivals from Spain. British Airways, easyJet and […]

The pandemic has been a shared national experience. Throughout it, DR JEN GASKELL and her team have been monitoring the public’s assessment through a series of focus groups. She explains how different narratives are emerging. There have been calls for a public inquiry into what went wrong, and what went right, in the UK’s response […]

The electoral tectonic plates are shifting in New Zealand, reports RICHARD SHAW. Jacinda Ardern has helped shift politics to the centre-left. Strong team. More jobs. Better economy. So say the National Party’s campaign hoardings. Only thing is, last Sunday’s Newshub-Reid Research poll – which had support for the Labour Party at 60.9% and for National […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL fears historians may look back at 2020 as beginning of the end for the traditional form of greeting around the world. Several moons ago, way back in April, I wrote here about 20 things I was missing in lockdown. Number 1 was ‘Burnley FC’, and my God we have had a good run […]

A member of the Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has accused Downing Street of showing a ‘lack of ambition’ to reduce coronavirus infection rates across England. Professor Martin McKee said that ministers could be doing an ‘awful lot more’ to tackle rising Covid-19 infection rates. Talking with Tom Swarbrick on LBC radio, McKee […]

BONNIE GREER looks back on the life of activist John Lewis and his fight for equality. SNCC leader John Lewis (light coat, center), attempts to ward off the blow as a burly state trooper swings his club at Lewis’ head during the attempted march from Selma to Montgomery. – Credit: Bettmann Archive A book that […]

A study has found that the lockdown helped to heal some divisions in the country in early March, but this was dissipated by Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser travelling to Durham. The research, by think tank British Future, found that new community spirit had been fostered across Britain during the lockdown, with people starting to […]

Campaigner ELLEN LEES on how the government’s trade legislation leaves the NHS vulnerable. When the government’s Trade Bill – which sets the framework for the UK’s future trade agreements – came back to the House of Commons recently it was unsurprisingly filled with gaping holes. First of all, it contained no protections for our NHS. […]

IAN DUNT on how Brexiteers have set Scotland on a seemingly unstoppable march towards independence. By the time the panic set in, it was too late. Boris Johnson scrambled up to Scotland recently as part of a new effort to save the Union, doing his usual impersonation of an upbeat naughty uncle. But behind the […]

A council is so fed up with the failures of Downing Street’s coronavirus track-and-trace programme that it has decided to launch its own. Sandwell council in Birmingham has seconded dozens of staff to a new team set up specially to deal with local outbreaks. The West Midlands council has the seventh highest infection rate in […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the talent and energy for the Brexit and union battles. Who was it who likes to mention his love of Whac-a-Mole? Ah, yes, the prime minister. But Boris Johnson is finding out what more serious students of the popular Japanese arcade game could have told him from the start. The more the […]

A group of MPs have said that the government needs to introduce a minister for food security ahead of Brexit and a second wave of coronavirus. A new report by the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee warns the government ‘cannot be complacent’ and said possible future crises triggered by climate change or […]

As a 14-day quarentine has been imposed on Brits who have travelled to Spain, JAMES BALL criticises the government for its ‘confusing’ policies abroad. When what should be a good and obvious policy becomes a fiasco, you know something fundamental has gone awry. This is what should be – but almost certainly isn’t – eating […]

Boris Johnson made misleading claims about the level of rising child poverty in the UK during the general election campaign, and then again at Prime Minister’s Questions. The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has responded to a complaint from the End Child Poverty Coalition about three incidences when the prime minister made misleading statements. Writing […]

The length of time people with coronavirus symptoms must self-isolate is set to increase to 10 days in England, with the rest of the United Kingdom expected to follow suit. Deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam is expected to announce on Thursday that the period will increase from the current rule of seven days. […]

ANDREW ADONIS reveals why he thinks the Lords and Commons should set up a new home in the north. House of Lords in London, – Credit: PA I have finally found something I agree with Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings about: moving the House of Lords up north. Indeed I proposed it way back in […]

Andrea Gullotta on how Stalin’s labour camps have become a source of such tension in Putin’s Russia. Army soldiers digging mass graves to try to show that the state wasn’t responsible for the dead. A historian who vehemently disagrees behind bars on charges that many believe are false. Organisations that support him being attacked by […]

The Grand Duchy is the first country in the world to introduce such a scheme. EMMA LUCK asks whether it could be a post-Covid example to follow. If you bought a ticket for the number six bus from the Pletzer stop in the suburb of Helfenterbruck at 11.59pm on February 28 you were probably the […]

Nicola Sturgeon has been ranked one of world’s most eloquent leaders, alongside New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern, and German chancellor Angela Merkel. The list saw Ardern top the list for her ’empathetic leadership style’, just ahead of German chancellor Angela Merkel, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in third place and Canada’s Justin Trudeau, who […]

YAQIU WANG on the fate of two young idealists who risked everything to beat Chinese censorship. Readers of online materials from sources in China are often frustrated when they click on an interesting article – only to find it has been deleted by government censors. Sometimes only a few minutes elapse after an article is […]

A report by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has found that England sustained the longest period of above average death rates from coronavirus in the first half of 2020 anywhere in Europe. England suffered the second highest peak death rate in Europe, after Spain, and is the worst-hit nation in terms of spread after […]

A new report has claimed the Liberal Democrats have a strong chance of unseating a number of Tories at the 2024 general election, which could help Labour and Keir Starmer’s chances at defeating Boris Johnson. In a report titled Where Next for the Liberal Democrats? produced by think-tank UK in a Changing Europe, it claims […]

A Labour MP has said that Boris Johnson is lying about the coronavirus situation in Spain – and that the spread in Britain is far worse. Chris Bryant, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Spain, said Boris Johnson was ‘using a JCB to deal with this’ rather than ‘a stiletto’. He said ‘people will […]

A medical chief has warned that Downing Street is not doing enough to stop a second wave of the coronavirus hitting Britain. The British Medical Association’s council chair, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, told MPs on Wednesday that Number 10’s laxed messaging on face coverings and lack of a ‘systematic approach’ to public health policies were leading […]

The boss of Heathrow airport has delivered a stark warning on the future of British aviation by telling MPs the push to make the UK a global economy after Brexit looks set to be ‘nothing more than a campaign slogan’. Chief executive John Holland-Kaye hit out at the quarantine measures, saying the airport’s financial results […]

The sister of prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has been hammered on Twitter following ‘insensitive’ comments she made on food poverty in the UK. Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the younger sister of the House of Commons leader, shared a tweet suggesting people on low incomes should buy fresh produce in lieu of junk food in order to save […]

A French minister has echoed Theresa May in warning that no deal is better than a bad deal for protecting European interests. The country’s European affairs minister Clement Beaune said it will continue to take a tough line on Brexit talks, saying that the EU would not accept a deal ‘at any price’. The new […]

Actress Miriam Margolyes has hit out at voters that back the Tories over Labour, and has given prime minister Boris Johnson one piece of advice to improve his image. Speaking on talkRADIO, Margolyes said the only way she would ever support Johnson was if he became more like the Labour leader. Asked if she was […]