United Kingdom

Liz Truss is a great cabinet survivor and darling of the Tory members. But will her controversial trade deal with Australia curb her ascent? Perhaps it’s a measure of misogyny in the parliamentary lobby that Boris Johnson’s main acknowledged successors are Rishi Sunak, Dominic Raab and Michael Gove. The choice of who replaces him as prime […]

PETER TRUDGILL picks apart another popular subject for pedants Are you alright? Or are you all right? Is alright one word or two? A number of people seem to feel rather strongly about this issue, and some of them are adamant that to write alright is totally not all right. They think that all right is the only “correct” way to write […]

British pubs are facing an “acute” shortage of staff, leading some to reduce capacity or close entirely, the sector has warned. Labour-intensive social distancing restrictions such as table service only are requiring more staff, while employees are finding the work physically demanding with some walking up to 15 miles a day on the job, the […]

The boss of pub chain JD Wetherspoon has denied reports that his pubs have been hit by staff shortages due to Brexit. Tim Martin, who was a vocal supporter of the UK leaving the European Union, told investors that a Daily Telegraph story “misrepresented Wetherspoon’s position”. He said it “clearly isn’t true” that the pub group […]

Former prime minister Theresa May has backed a growing bid by Conservative rebels to force Boris Johnson to reverse his widely-criticised cuts to foreign aid. His Conservative predecessor heaped pressure on the prime minister to avert a Commons revolt as the number of Tory MPs to back a rebel amendment doubled to 30. May’s former […]

The Conservative Party has been fined £10,000 for sending 51 emails in Boris Johnson’s name to people who did not want to receive them. In a breach of data laws the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) called “serious”, the emails, which addressed the recipients by name, were sent out over eight days in July 2019 after […]

The education recovery commissioner has resigned in a row over the government’s £1.4 billion catch-up fund on what school leaders deemed a “deeply disappointing” and “truly awful day”. Sir Kevan Collins has quit after just four months in the role as catch-up tsar as he warned the government’s package “falls far short of what is […]

Boris Johnson is facing a major Commons rebellion over his policy to slash foreign aid. Conservative former chief whip Andrew Mitchell is leading a parliamentary push to ensure new legislation makes up the shortfall left by the cut to the UK’s official development assistance. A further 14 Tory backbenchers, including former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt […]

The real divide in this country is between those appalled by the PM’s behaviour and those who just don’t care We keep being told everyone is angry. Hence the rage, abuse and hatred that biles its way onto social media, every second of every minute of every hour of every day. I am beginning to […]

Prime minister Boris Johnson made an honest – or at least an honestly mistaken – woman of the nation’s erstwhile first side-chick Ms. Carrie Symonds ACT OF WEAPONS-GRADE OPTIMISM OF THE WEEK In perhaps the most startling, last minute of stoppage-time victory ever scored by hope over experience, our beloved leader Boris Johnson finally made […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the woman behind an 80-year-old masterpiece, one of the most important books about Europe of the last century A couple of weeks ago a tweet by the American novelist Jake Wolff made me laugh out loud. It read, “Creative nonfiction writers be like: I first ate a hotdog when I was six […]

The Foghorn’s Lament focuses on an unusual subject that inspires a spellbinding book One of my earliest memories is of foghorns. It’s of my sister and I being wrapped in warm clothing and lifted into wellington boots, sleep-dozy because it’s nearly midnight, and taken by our parents out of the front door of our house […]

A rugby league international who has been selected to fight the Batley and Spen by-election for the Green Party says he feels “in tune with the attitudes, needs and wants” of the community. Ross Peltier, 29, is a prop forward with Doncaster Dons and has represented the Jamaica international team nine times as well as […]

Labour has called on the political party spending watchdog to investigate claims that the Tories accepted donations from companies that were defunct. Anneliese Dodds, chairwoman of the Labour Party, has written to the Electoral Commission asking it to “urgently investigate” two donations made to the Conservatives that “do not appear to comply” with the law. […]

An ‘oven-ready’ deal for social care exists – it’s time the prime minister delivered on his promise.

It has been another gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain – although sadly not gloomy enough for residents of Ashford, Kent. After voting 59.4% to Leave in the referendum, Ashfordians have been rewarded with a light show. Alas, rather than fireworks celebrating our independence from the EU, the nightly display comes from […]

In his work, and in his life, Joseph Roth chronicles the old order that was swept away in the first half of the 20th century According to Joseph Roth his earliest memory was of watching his mother give away his cradle to a woman he’d never seen before. She “holds it to her chest, as though […]

Such is Liverpool’s immense musical heritage that the city is not overshadowed by its most famous sons Liverpool makes its own mythology. In February 1967, the Beatles released the double A-side Penny Lane/ Strawberry Fields Forever, not only creating a new paradigm for Britishness in pop on one side and all but single-handedly creating psychedelia on […]

Boris Johnson “paid entirely” for his wedding, Number 10 has insisted, following scrutiny of his finances. Johnson and Carrie Symonds married in a private ceremony at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday and plan to have a larger celebration next year when Covid restrictions are likely to be relaxed. His spokesperson also confirmed the couple spent two days […]

Gender bias means that the history of art has been written by men, about men. But there are some signs that the tide is finally beginning to turn It’s been 50 years since the pioneering feminist art historian Linda Nochlin posed the provocative question ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’ – a ground-breaking […]

The job of the Covid-19 vaccination programme is not yet “done”, an immunisation expert has said as scientists are split on whether the Government should press ahead with the final stages of easing social restrictions later this month. Professor Adam Finn, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said there are still many […]

It's not Matt Hancock that should be facing calls to resign - it's the prime minister

An NHS worker who has spent the pandemic helping save lives on a Covid-19 ward says Priti Patel’s immigration plans will see refugees like her turned away from the UK. Mariam, from Eritrea, is determined to help people and has been working exhausting 12-hour shifts in a Leeds hospital assisting coronavirus patients, sometimes four days […]

Global health leaders have announced new names for Covid-19 variants using letters of the Greek alphabet. Experts working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) developed the labels for variants which are often colloquially named after the places where they are first detected. Many variants of Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19 – have been […]

Carrie Johnson rented three “decoy” dresses to ensure extra secrecy surrounding her wedding to the prime minister on the weekend, it has been reported. Along with the white dress the former Carrie Symonds wore for the ceremony, she hired three other outfits from a favourite eco-fashion business, My Wardrobe HQ, without saying she would be […]

A new national flagship, the successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia, will promote British trade and industry around the world, Boris Johnson has said. The vessel will be used to host trade fairs, ministerial summits and diplomatic talks as the UK seeks to build links and boost exports following Brexit. It will be the first […]

Allowing the health secretary to keep his job after committing a “minor” breach of the ministerial code could give “carte blanche” for further rule-breaking at the top of government, Labour has said. A probe by Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministerial standards, found that Matt Hancock was guilty of a “technical” breach of the […]

Theatre reviewer TIM WALKER sees an old favourite returning to the stage after lockdown The Mousetrap St Martin’s Theatre, London ***** There was a lot of talk of a new kind of theatre emerging after the lockdowns – edgier, more relevant and representative – but maybe, after a traumatic experience, there’s something to be said […]

Was 18th century Scotland visited by people from the frozen north? RICHARD LUCK picks over the accounts of the men who might have made it all the way from Greenland. History is filled with tantalising theories of human endurance and exploration. Could the Vikings have crossed the Atlantic, for instance? Could Polynesia have been populated by migrants who crossed the […]

As club football’s strangest season comes to an end, photographer Stuart Roy Clarke shares images of fans taken during the pandemic I started The Homes of Football photography series more than 30 years ago as a love letter to this country, yet I knew that the Germans and Scandinavians and latterly the Americans revere our […]

It's a no-brainer that Yvette Cooper would offer much-needed leadership in the shadow cabinet

Labour is wasting its time trying to shock the public about Boris Johnson's low standards, it needs to focus on setting its own agenda.