During the Tory party conference, Liz Truss was described as ‘a dead woman walking’ by one of her colleagues. One wonders what she could be described as now – an ‘anti-prime minister’? Throwing her chancellor under the bus, as if she were not his closest confidant, as if she did not approve wholeheartedly of his reckless budget, and then claiming … [Read on]
It looks like Kwasi Kwarteng will be the shortest-lived chancellor in history. Liz Truss’s admission this morning that she had not discussed her top-rate tax cut with her cabinet is merely alarming. That the cut was ‘a decision the chancellor made’, as if she, the prime minister, had no part in it, can only mean one thing: the unfunded cut … [Read on]
The Telegraph is in buoyant mood. Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini budget represents ‘a rediscovery, in modernised form, of the ideas and ideals that rejuvenated Britain, America and others in the 1980s’. At last, we have ‘the kind of radical Conservative programme that has been promised so many times but never delivered’. Telegraph commentators have never seen anything like it. Allister Heath … [Read on]
It is an old cliché, but it is often only when you have lost something, or someone, that you begin fully to appreciate what they meant to you. Time and again, we are hearing our compatriots express surprise at their sense of personal loss at the death of Queen Elizabeth. Not only among ardent monarchists, but among those of us … [Read on]
Shocking scenes earlier this week from Wennington, where suburban houses went up in flames after wildfires spread across tinder dry fields, and firemen struggled to contain the blaze in record temperatures of 40 degrees. Meanwhile, fires have ranged across France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece. Italy has declared a state of emergency because of the worst drought in 70 years. … [Read on]
When Mountbatten’s tenure as Chief of Defence Staff was not extended in 1964, an official put a sign on his empty desk saying, ‘Remember that, after all, he was a great man’. Posterity has come to judge Mountbatten, and his achievements, rather differently. But at least he served. What of Boris Johnson? A man of destiny or a shameless self-publicising … [Read on]
Stirring scenes in the House of Commons today where MPs today gave the Ukrainian ambassador a standing ovation. Some even wore Ukrainian ribbons. But Ukraine is being pulverized. Boris Johnson is now claiming that the noose is ‘being tightened round Putin’s neck’. But the only noose being tightened is around the cities of Ukraine, where thousands of civilians are now … [Read on]
Boris Johnson’s war of words in support of the Ukraine is going down well with the media. Yesterday he raised the metaphorical stakes to new levels by pronouncing that the ‘economic ligature’ was being tightened around Putin’s neck. But despite Johnson’s bluster about sanctions being ‘unprecedented’, the overwhelming proportion of Russian assets in Britain and its offshore tax havens, where … [Read on]
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