News and Opinion

Liberal Democrat politician Layla Moran has said there have been more than 1,000 submissions provided to a cross-party ‘rapid inquiry’ into the UK government’s handling of the pandemic. Speaking during Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Moran said: ‘We saw the prime minister this week suggest that mistakes were made and that is why I am leading […]

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has said the way the government handled its latest quarantine announcement is ‘shambolic’, as it was revealed the transport secretary would be affected. Shadow secretary labels governments Spain quarantine decision shambolic. Photo: Sky News. – Credit: Sky News Ashworth spoke about the announcement made this weekend that people arriving from […]

Former prime minister Tony Blair said that even if the UK government lands a Brexit deal, it will be a bad one for the country. Speaking during Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Tony Blair said: ‘They obviously could land a deal. But even the deal we land is going to be pretty bad, because even the […]

Former Today programme presenter has hinted some listeners got the wrong impression of him after saying he felt ‘very strongly’ about staying in the EU and said he also is ‘not a fan’ of Boris Johnson. Humphrys was a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s flagship programme for more than 30 years until he stood down […]

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said Boris Johnson is in a good position to keep the United Kingdom together due to his ‘optimistic fizz’. The statement was made amid growing support for Scottish independence, with the majority of Scots thinking Johnson is doing a bad job and fellow guest Tony Blair saying the prime minister will […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the concert pianist and composer whose star shone brightly but briefly. The summer of 1831 brought cholera to St Petersburg. It was in the Neva and the canals, it was in the wells and the culverts. The first cases were reported in early June and within days the daily death rate was […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a new novel about a Stasi agent immersed in the chilling oppression of the East German state, right up until its final moments. A few years ago I was in Leipzig with a film crew. We were being taken around the city by a local fixer called Tomas, a giant of a […]

WILL SELF on theatre’s potential curtain call after a real-life tragedy. A young friend who has the acute misfortune to be an impresario sends me a link to a piece on the Spectator website about ‘guerrilla’ plays. Not to be outflanked by drug-fuelled ravers during the lockdowns, sedate playgoers are also being drawn into a […]

The Russia report’s criticism of the government was unambiguous and unhesitating. JAMES BALL wonders what comes next. Reading a report from parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) often feels like trying to deduce a cryptic message from an oracle in Classical literature. A stinging criticism from an ISC report might typically read ‘we now have […]

Boris Johnson has admitted the government could have handled the coronavirus outbreak ‘differently’ after initially saying it ‘took the right decisions at the right time’. Speaking to BBC News, Johnson said: ‘Maybe there were things we could have done differently, and of course there will be time to understand what exactly we could have done, […]

After Nigel Farage’s role in Brexit, STEVE ANGLESEY looks at why he might be tempted to try to pull off something similar in Italy. ‘Mussolini can be quite funny,’ Nigel Farage told a Channel 4 reality show in 2014. ‘I saw his granddaughter last week… Pretty girl, pretty girl.’ These are opinions Farage might want […]

Former chief prosecutor NAZIR AFZAL – who lost a brother during the pandemic – has instructed lawyers to investigate why no action was taken against Dominic Cummings for his lockdown breaches. He explains why. When we contacted the undertaker, he said: ‘I’ve got 14 bodies to pick up, I will get to you late afternoon.’ […]

Boris Johnson must not ‘shy away’ from parliamentary scrutiny, the Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle has said. Sir Lindsay said he is ‘perplexed’ when ministers make statements in Downing Street that could have been delivered in the chamber, as he urged the government to ‘put the House first’. The speaker said MPs were the ‘right people’ […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the sometimes rather rude origins of surnames. Some family names, in spite of having been passed down across the generations for the last 500 years or more, still retain a form which makes it easy to see what they originally meant. In an earlier column, we already noted colour-based names like Browne […]

TIM WALKER recalls his conversation with the famed King Kong actress. The producer told Fay Wray that she was going to have ‘the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood’ and she optimistically thought it might be Cary Grant. It turned out to be a giant ape – or at least an 18-inch model of one […]

BILL BORROWS on the remarkable story of Rockfield, the rural recording studio that has played a pivotal role in musical history. Rob Coombes, Danny Goffey, Gaz Coombes and Mickey Quinn of Supergrass, at Rockfield Studios in Wales during the recording of ‘Life On Other Planets’, United Kingdom, 2002. (Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images) – Credit: […]

MICHAEL WHITE on a dangerous global climate exposing domestic weaknesses. ‘Walking the dog’, by Martin Rowson. – Credit: Archant On Sunday I hunted down a book on my shelves which I hadn’t read for 40 years, but kept because it opened my mind to the underlying realities of Maoist China. Chinese Shadows was written in […]

Forty years ago this summer, the main event at the Moscow Olympics was an almighty clash between sport and politics. MICK O’HARE considers which was the winner. Alan Wells (L) of Great Britain wins the men’s 100m final in front of Silvio Leonard (C) from Cuba and Petar Petrov (3rd L) from Bulgaria 25 July […]

The government is ‘putting the safety of the public at risk’ by not stepping up planning for policing and security measures ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period, a former UK national security adviser has warned. Lord Ricketts, who advised the government on security between 2010-12, was commenting on the prospect of a […]

MPs have said the Russian tycoon behind one of Britain’s biggest infrastructure projects, and has given the Tories more than £40,000 since 2018, must be named. Aquind has plans to install a £1.2 billion electric pipeline under the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France. But whilst its director has been named as a Tory donor […]

Recently published plans on how the UK’s ‘internal market’ will work after Brexit hint at further tensions ahead, suggests NICOLA McEWEN. When Theresa May first set out her Brexit objectives at Lancaster House in January 2017, one of her top priorities was ‘to strengthen the precious union’, by ensuring that ‘as we leave the European […]

MITCH BENN says loyalty is great, but it’s rarely an indicator of intelligence – and that’s the government’s problem. It’s good to know that as the country sinks into ever more viscous mires of torpor and despair, there’s still someone out there who can be guaranteed to raise a smile. I refer of course to […]

Despite protesters turning out to greet Boris Johnson when he arrived in Orkney, a Tory MP has claimed the prime minister received a welcome reception. Appearing on Channel 4 News the Douglas Ross, the Moray MP and former Scotland Office minister said that people in Scotland ‘cheered and waved’ Johnson. Presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy told Ross: […]

Boris Johnson has said he believes the UK will be ‘well past’ coronavirus by the middle of next year, but warned of ‘tough times’ ahead. His comments come just a week after he spoke of his hopes that there could be a ‘significant return to normality’ in time for Christmas – a vision that leading […]

Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis said she had a text from Dominic Cummings after she was reprimanded by the BBC over her monologue about the adviser. The BBC said the episode ‘did not meet our standards of due impartiality’, while its head of news, Fran Unsworth, said it belonged ‘more on the op-ed page in a […]

A former Labour voter who made an appearance in Boris Johnson’s campaign video during the general election has been tracked down to give his view on the prime minister’s first year in power. And despite reports that ‘red wall voters’ are shifting away from the Tories, this first-time Tory voter says he would vote for […]

Former Lib Dem leader TIM FARRON on ‘intolerant liberals’ and others he says are wrongly adopting the l-word. On the Unherd website recently, the writer Peter Franklin laid down a challenge: why won’t liberals defend liberalism? He wanted to know why self-professed liberals are not speaking out against the damaging ‘cancel culture’, where people are […]

Tory donor Alexander Temerko has insisted Russian-linked businessmen have ‘zero’ influence on British politics despite donating more than £1 million. Temerko said his wealth gave him influence in the City but not Westminster. The director of energy business Aquind, which is planning to build a £1.2 billion power pipeline from Britain to France, was born […]

The home secretary has claimed that the Russia report is ‘out of date’ and that the situation over foreign interference has improved since it was written. The Intelligence and Security Committee’s (ISC) report warned that successive governments ‘welcomed the oligarchs and their money with open arms’ and allowed them to forge ‘connections at the highest […]

A new survey suggests most Tory MPs are not expecting any ruptures in the Union over the next decade. DR ALAN WAGER reports. It is difficult to think of an area of British politics as sensitive to the vagaries of opinion poll research as the debate over Scottish independence. The ritual has begun to look […]

As the UK takes a forthright approach to China, Germany remains more muted. CATHRIN SCHAER explains why, and asks whether the EU’s most powerful member might change its tune. ‘Look at situations from all angles and you will become more open’ – it seems like a fairly innocuous bit of advice to offer as a […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL decided to spend a few days in Europe to recharge – and he can’t recommend it enough. Alastair Campbell’s holiday snaps from his trip to Europe. Picture: Alastair Campbell – Credit: Archant From Take Back Control to Out of Control in four crazy, chaotic, useless years, under three progressively worse prime ministers. First […]