Media

Will Self searches for meaning in the prime minister’s festive messages. Hanukkah ends on Friday December 18 this year – and I wonder whether our beloved leader will be delivering another filmed address to the British Jewish community. Last year’s message was both utterly bizarre and politically tendentious; and given that we’ve seen a year […]

Videoconferencing has come of age during the pandemic. Could it catalyse activism as well as business, asks NIMO OMER?

Liz Truss has been berated for suggesting that the debate surrounding gender and race equality issues had been dominated by “fashion” and not “facts”. The equalities minister today announced a change to government policy around systemic discrimination issues, promising a move away from “identity politics” in favour of a focus on people’s social class and individual “character”. She […]

Dominic Cummings has used a column in The Spectator‘s magazine Christmas special to launch a veiled attack on Boris Johnson and his fiancée Carrie Symonds. Cummings used a slot in a publication where his wife works to say politicians had become “more focused on Twitter and gossip-column stories about their dogs”. Johnson’s former top aide is set to […]

JAMES OLIVER suggests 12 festive movies – a combination of the familiar and the less so – that best reflect the complexities of the season. Just don’t call his list a ‘best of…’ It was always unlikely, in this year like no other, that we’d have anything like a normal Christmas and so it has […]

The gender pay gap has significantly widened at the Department for International Trade (DIT) run by women and equalities minister Liz Truss, new figures reveal. Labour said the growing divide “raises serious questions” about the government’s commitment to close the gender pay gap when Truss’s department is “clearly going backwards”. The gap in the DIT, […]

Subscribers of a Tory Party newsletter in Northamptonshire have been advised to campaign like Donald Trump by “weaponising fake news”. Activists were told they could “learn lessons” from Trump, adding: “A lie can go round the world before the truth can get its boots on.” It calls on members to “fight woke-ism” and attacks Labour’s landmark […]

The government is to press ahead with the easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas even though it will lead to an increase in the infection rate, a senior minister has said. Communities secretary Robert Jenrick said that it would be up to people to make a “personal judgment” whether they wanted to meet up with […]

The TV broadcasting watchdog is looking into the comments Emily Maitlis made about Dominic Cummings after he broke lockdown earlier this year. The Newsnight coverage centred on the former senior adviser to Boris Johnson’s trip from London to Durham during the first lockdown. The BBC previously ruled that the presenter’s comments about Dominic Cummings, breached impartiality rules.  […]

A former prime minister of the Republic of Ireland said a Brexit deal was inevitable “as long as” Boris Johnson does not get involved. Bertie Ahern, who helped broker the Good Friday Agreement, said striking a deal was only a matter of time and trade-offs. Ahern told POLITICO the EU could give into Britain’s demands on fishing […]

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has described the prospects of a speedy trade agreement between India and the UK as “the biggest bucket of b*****ks” he has ever heard. Rudd said Australia’s own trade talks with India, which he launched in 2009, were still on going and that chances of Britain getting one sooner […]

Dominic Cummings has been heavily criticised for “quietly receiving” a 40% pay rise while he was Boris Johnson’s adviser in Downing Street. Government special advisers were paid almost £10 million last year, new figures have revealed, with former chief adviser Cummings paid the equivalent of £140,000-£144,999 – up from £95,000-£99,999 last year. Dominic Cummings quietly received […]

The Daily Mail has suggested Britons could make a success out of a no-deal Brexit by buying British-made products such as a Jaguar, a second home in the UK, or a more powerful vacuum cleaner. With the EU and Britain warning a no-deal Brexit was now the most likely outcome of negotiations, leading to World Trade Organisation tariffs […]

A Telegraph editor has been told her newspaper is a ‘big part of the Brexit problem’ after denying the realities of leaving the European Union. Camilla Tominey, the associate editor at the right-wing newspaper, clashed with The New European‘s editor-at-large Alastair Campbell on Politics Live about the prospect of a no-deal outcome. She told Campbell: “I’m afraid you’re […]

A Labour MP has been reprimanded by Sir Keir Starmer after accusations he suggested Boris Johnson was “recreating Nazi Germany”. Junior shadow frontbencher Bill Esterson shared a tweet suggesting the prime minister was steering the country “to a very dangerous place”. Esterton tweeted: “My dad’s family is Jewish. “We have no idea how many of […]

A Labour MP has delivered a scathing attack on Boris Johnson for suggesting that crashing out of the EU would be a “wonderful” outcome for Britain. David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, accused Johnson of attempting to deliver a type of Brexit no-one wanted. MORE: Boris Johnson under renewed pressure as new polling finds two-thirds of Brits […]

Spain’s foreign minister has been praised for her explanation of why Brexit trade talks between Britain and the EU are failing. Arancha González said trade deals are developed to establish interdependence between parties, and not independence, which she says is likely to be the key barrier to progress. González’s comment comes after the UK and EU […]

A Leave-supporting peer has blamed the media for making the public “more frightened than they need to be” about a no-deal Brexit. Former cabinet minister and Labour MP Kate Hoey has accused the media of hyping up fears about food shortages and price increases caused by Britain leaving EU trade talks without a deal. Speaking with talkRADIO, Hoey […]

James O’Brien has urged the public to “wake up” to the “lies” being spread by the government ahead of a decision on Brexit. O’Brien, an LBC radio presenter, told Britons in a nine-and-a-half-minute long monologue they were on the precipice of being ‘fooled’ yet again over Brexit. “Brexit was meant to make our lives better,” he said, […]

The Daily Mail‘s meal guide to overcoming food shortages caused by Brexit has created a stir on social media. In an article titled “Cheddar instead of Brie, swap avocado for eggs on toast and plan a stay-cation! What No Deal could mean for the UK’s favourite foods, travel, holidays, second homes and the economy“, readers of the pro-Brexit […]

Pro-Brexit newspaper the Daily Express has been criticised for its front cover claiming that the EU has not understood its demands. In a sorry-sounding front page, the Leave-backing newspaper claims: “All we ever wanted was our freedom!” The headline comes as prime minister Boris Johnson told cabinet ministers to prepare for no-deal Brexit as talks with […]

A minister has said he “doesn’t accept” Tesco’s prediction that Brexit will drive food prices up by five percent. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said consumers were better of trusting the environment minister than Tesco when it came to food price predictions brought on by Brexit. Dowden joins a list of cabinet ministers who are denying that […]

A BBC presenter has been praised for his two-and-a-half minute explainer of Brexit – in a clip that some viewers said demonstrates why it “fundamentally won’t work”. Ros Atkins, who hosts Outside Source, explained how ideological differences between Britain and the EU would make a trade deal between the two sides near impossible to achieve. Atkins posted […]

A political commentator has brilliantly summed up the frustrations Remainers have with Brexit using an age-old analogy. The New Statesman‘s Philip Collins said Brexiteers compared the concerns of Remainers to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” having completely ignored the moral of the story. In the fable, which dates back to the Middle Ages, a young shepherd boy repeatedly trick nearby villagers into thinking […]

Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe has been accused of making “hollow promises” about the benefits of Brexit after he confirmed the new Grenadier cars will be built in France, and not in Wales, as had been hoped. The firm said the former Mercedes-Benz Hambach factory in Moselle, France, will build the new model of 4x4s following a deal […]

New document have revealed Matt Hancock backtracked on tough tech laws following a meeting with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Then culture secretary, Hancock promised the “tone” of new regulations would shift after Zuckerberg hinted he might pull plans to invest in the UK. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) obtained minutes from the secretive meeting via […]

A pro-Brexit caller on the James O’Brien show said he was delighted to be free of EU regulations but struggled to name one he disagreed with. Dave from Epsom told LBC listeners he was a Brexiteer because he did not believe in a “federal Europe”, which at first he struggled to define but eventually described […]

Dawn French has revealed she dumped an ex-boyfriend after discovering he was a Tory. The Vicar of Dibley actress opened up about her split with Lenny Henry in 2010 after realising “something wasn’t right”. French, 63, told the How To Wow podcast: “I did have a nice time with one chap. He was quite posh. […]

Rupert Murdoch’s latest television news channel has been given the go-ahead by Ofcom and could start broadcasting as early as spring 2021. News UK TV is competing against Andrew Neil-backed channel GB News to be first on-air. Both outlets believe there is a gap in the market for right-leaning television news channels aimed at Britons […]

President-elect Joe Biden has become more popular than Donald Trump ever was during his presidency, a new CNN Gallup poll has found. Biden received a 55pc approval rating, having jumped six percentage points since the election, while Trump shrunk to 42pc, down three points since November 3. Trump’s highest rating was 50pc in a Bloomberg […]

A Brexiteer MP has been described as “thick as two short planks” after suggesting tariffs on EU goods would help Britain cover export costs after it leaves the trading bloc. Andrew Bridgen has become the centre of ridicule after suggesting Britain could use levies imposed on EU-imported products to reimburse exporters hit with new fees […]

Jurgen Klopp has complained about new post-Brexit transfer rules after the Football Association (FA) announced Brexit would have ramifications for English football. The FA, alongside the Premier League and EFL, confirmed this week that English clubs cannot sign foreign players until they are 18, or more than three overseas players under 21 in a single […]