I’ve got Donald Trump to thank for my unusual middle name
Never make a drunken bet. At about 3 a.m. one fateful morning, pre-pandemic and several bottles down, a friend and…
PMQs is truly cursed
In the Fifth Circle of Dante’s Inferno, the damned are cursed to bob on the surface of the Styx, scrapping…
Emmanuel Macron would love to be King
When Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito visited Windsor Castle in the early years of the 21st century, the Queen Mother gave…
The ghost of Liz Truss haunts parliament
Today’s Urgent Question in the House of Commons about the state of the economy was dominated by two people who…
Admit it: most wedding speeches are awful
Perhaps the most traumatic part of attending an American wedding – much worse than the bridesmaids coming in the wrong…
At PMQs we saw Keir Starmer’s ugly side
‘When a Knight won his spurs in the stories of old, he was gentle and brave, he was gallant and…
Welfare reform died in parliament last night
That this government is bad at maths will not come as a surprise to many readers. Thus far, however, in…
Liz Kendall’s humiliating welfare climb-down
‘This government believes in equality and social justice,’ began Liz Kendall. Which government she was describing is anyone’s guess. I…
Keir Starmer is seriously stupid
Sir Keir has returned from his worldwide statesmanship tour. Barely the edge of a photograph went ungurned in, not a…
Rachel Reeves looks increasingly petrified
Sir Keir Starmer was in the Hague. I know, I know, you’d have thought they would have done Blair first.…
David Lammy has nothing to say
The day started badly for David Lammy. Well – we don’t know that for sure – it’s feasible that first…
‘Grim’ Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying triumph is a bleak day for parliament
The portents this morning were grim. The Grim Leadreaper was doing her HR manager of Hades act, buzzing around with…
Rayner’s PMQs performance will trouble Starmer
As you might have noticed from the crowds weeping in the streets and the appearance of sackcloth, ashes and rent,…
Starmer looked out of place in the mountains with Sky’s Beth Rigby
Sir Keir Starmer was doing an interview with Beth Rigby in the lush mountain landscape of Canada. Hardly a man…
Kemi was at her best skewering Labour on grooming gangs
Yvette Cooper had come to the House of Commons to shut, as loudly and with as much gusto as she…
Tim Farron, the last of the old-school liberals
Today the Assisted Suicide Bill returned to the House of Commons. Amid its many flaws and complications, perhaps most important…
The spending review was 45 minutes I will never get back
Rachel Reeves looked a little surprised at the cheers from the Labour benches that greeted her as she stood to…
Ed Miliband is an astonishing Commons performer
I’m not totally sure where they keep Ed Miliband in between his Commons appearances. Perhaps some sort of deep freeze…
No more Mr Nice Nige
Rachel Reeves was visiting a gardening club for the retired. ‘Do you come here every week?’ she simpered at some…
Leave our period dramas alone!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that any article about Jane Austen must begin with a mangled, platitudinous variation on…
It didn’t take Starmer long to morph into Brezhnev
It has taken Sir Keir Starmer just under 11 months to enter his Brezhnev era. Portly, autocratic and reliant on…
Make Bond great again
One of the great recurring James Bond tropes is to make it look as though 007 has actually been killed…
How Covid has changed the dating game
Covid has changed the dating game
