debate

MOLLY KINGSLEY: Shut the school gates again, Prime Minister, and you will ruin young lives

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Prime Minister, if I could say just three words to you this morning, they are these: ‘Don’t shut schools.’ That’s it. The message is that stark, that simple. Britain cannot afford another lockdown that closes our classrooms. We cannot afford the devastation to ten million children, to their education and their future opportunities, to their … Read more

MAX HILL: Many people will be trapped indoors with violent and controlling partners this Christmas

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Hell of a home that’s stopped being a safe haven: Many people will be trapped indoors with violent and controlling partners this Christmas, writes Director of Public Prosecutions MAX HILL By Max Hill Qc, Director Of Public Prosecutions For The Daily Mail Published: 00:00 GMT, 23 December 2020 | Updated: 00:02 GMT, 23 December 2020 … Read more

The royal stroll that has split Britain

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When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were photographed enjoying an impromptu get-together with Edward and Sophie at the weekend, naturally eyebrows were raised.  As a group of nine they were, or appeared to be, breaking the Rule of Six outdoors in Tier 2.  Some felt it was a bad show by the royals, others … Read more

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Tier 4 Is Not Enough… Covid-19 sounds like an elite snatch squad from a movie

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They love their NATO-style acronyms, don’t they? How many times during this pandemic have we been informed ominously that the Prime Minister has convened an emergency meeting of COBRA? Back on March 3, as coronavirus was coming to be seen as a clear and present danger, I observed in this column: ‘COBRA sounds like something … Read more

ROSS CLARK: French threats and why we MUST grow British and take control of the food we eat

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First the good news: the closure of Channel ports isn’t going to ruin your Christmas lunch after all (goodness knows we have few festive pleasures left to us!). Britain’s supermarkets were busy yesterday letting it be known that they have in stock all the festive food they expect to sell before Christmas. And, anyway, it … Read more

PROF DAVID LIVERMORE: Is the mutant virus really out of control?

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Rarely has the midwinter seemed so bleak. Lockdown has returned with a new intensity, Christmas is curtailed by official edict and around half the population is effectively under house arrest. The Government justifies this draconian approach by warning that a dangerous new strain of coronavirus is ‘out of control’, to use the alarming phraseology of … Read more

Add some magic to your mantelpiece: With this ingenious trick

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Deck the halls with boughs of holly? If you must, but mantelpieces are where it is at this year. Cheryl had one and so did Mariah Carey. Ivanka Trump decided to go completely wild and did hers with green baubles and ostentatious ribbon. Of course, hearthside decor is nothing new. Pagans decorated with branches on … Read more

ANDREW PIERCE: SNP’s Ian Blackford is rolling in the London dough 

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Like a broken record, Westminster’s SNP leader Ian Blackford launched into one of his tiresome anti-Brexit rants at Prime Minister’s Questions last week. Blackford lambasted Boris Johnson for inflicting ‘economic vandalism’ on Scotland and demanding a ‘detailed economic assessment of the cost to the UK of his extreme Tory Brexit plans’. With Blackford frothing at … Read more