World
John Major has taken a pounding (1992)
It’s three decades ago this month since the UK government was forced to withdraw the pound from the European Exchange Rate…
Is Labour ready for power?
Labour conference has been pretty strange so far. Not the sort of strange that parties in opposition get comfortably used…
Is Europe’s attitude to asylum seekers changing?
The EU spent last November reinforcing its borders as Vladimir Putin directed a wave of refugees through Belarus towards the…
Does the EU respect the Italian people?
I know we’re all meant to be quaking over the election result in Italy. That we’re all supposed to be…
The British Social Attitudes survey misunderstands social attitudes
‘I’m not sure I even know what woke means,’ tweeted barrister Chris Daw at the weekend, ‘but if it’s just…
Why football needs a regulator
Plans by the government to introduce a regulator to the football industry – endorsed by all Westminster parties just a…
Labour storm ahead of Tories in latest poll
Tonight’s YouGov poll in the Times is brilliant news for Keir Starmer ahead of his conference speech tomorrow. It has…
Can the Bank of England inspire confidence?
It has dawned on the government that last week’s mini-Budget might have been a bit too one-sided: £70 billion worth…
Liz Truss is a liberal. So how will she approach immigration?
Should Tories already be feeling buyer’s remorse over their new leader? It has been only 20 days since Boris Johnson,…
The anger behind Shinzo Abe’s state funeral
Tokyo While not quite on the scale of Her Majesty’s service, Tuesday’s state funeral of Japan’s longest serving PM Shinzo…
Life among the Russian refuseniks
Yerevan, Armenia It was getting dark outside Yerevan Airport when I arrived, but there were still a dozen flights from Russia…
Will Meloni be able to govern Italy?
Mario Draghi’s national unity government lost badly in yesterday’s Italian election – worse even than the polls predicted. Fratelli d’Italia,…
The Bank of England has no good options
How will and how should the Bank of England, and the Treasury, react to this morning’s continued fall in the…
In praise of the speeding crackdown
We all needed a laugh, what with the pound tanking and inflation running away, my old pal Kwasi delivering a…
Will the Bank of England now move to steady the pound?
After a weekend where the markets digested the Kwasi Kwarteng plan for growth, the pound hit $1.03 in early trading…
The Republican ‘Commitment to America’ feels like a Hail Mary
Last week, with fewer than 50 days to go before the midterm elections, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy put it…
Will the GOP blow the midterms?
At the start of the year, largely thanks to the actions of the president, the Republican Party was sitting pretty.…
Starmer sets himself apart from Truss
One of the reasons members of Liz Truss’s team remain upbeat despite the onslaught of criticism towards government’s tax-cutting budget…
Why are suspected murderers being let out of jail?
What should judges do with potentially dangerous prisoners waiting for their trial when the barristers’ strike means their cases cannot…
Could Balochistan secede from Pakistan?
The rain and the cold in Quetta, the capital of the Pakistani province of Balochistan, did not deter them. Neither…
The apocalypse complex
Just in case there’s an apocalypse, the super-rich are buying bunkers. Big bunkers. Bunkers with swimming pools, indoor gardens, cinemas,…
In defence of repression
There is a modern superstition that for every terrible experience suffered there is an equal and opposite psychological technique that,…
The Tories are to blame for Scotland’s tax mess
Lost amid much of the commentary on Kwasi Kwarteng’s income tax and stamp duty cuts is that they will not…
Leicester’s multiculturalism masks a stark sectarian divide
Leicester, the city where I was born, appears to be a melting pot of different cultures. Until recent weeks, its…
Only Britain can save France from German domination
Are Britain and France at the dawn of a new Entente Cordiale? It’s reported that France will be the destination…
