For the past 40 years, I’ve taken television rather seriously. Week by week, I went through my copy of the Radio Times with a pen, circling the programmes I wanted to watch, often scribbling notes. However, these days I can scarcely be bothered, so woefully unimaginative are the offerings from the two principal broadcasters and, … Read more
Boris Johnson has a new ploy when asked about the prospect of a No Deal Brexit outcome: He talks about Australia instead. He did it again yesterday, comparing leaving the EU without a trade agreement as ‘the Australian-style option’. On Thursday, the Prime Minister said cutting ties with Brussels ‘on Australian terms’ would allow the … Read more
Let us imagine that, come the eleventh hour, a Brexit trade deal is announced tomorrow night. Leaving aside the feelings of diehard Remainers who will never accept our departure from the European Union, and of diehard Brexiteers who will bemoan a ‘sellout’, it’s fair to say a mood of relief would sweep Britain. Wearied by … Read more
For some diehard Remainers, the images are a vision of what is to come after Britain leaves the European Union – especially if No Deal is in play. Snaking queues of lorries on the approach road to Dover port and far beyond; shipping containers piling up on docksides; a logjam of goods for distribution, from … Read more
By this time in December, if 2020 were a normal year, I’d already be wilting under the stresses and strains of the festive season. I don’t mean the business of buying and wrapping the presents, ordering the turkey, choosing the tree, inviting the guests, putting up the decorations, baking and icing the cake, writing the … Read more
Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance has been forced to admit that there’s no evidence locking down pubs and restaurants saved a single life or stopped the spread of Covid. Vallance, one of the Two Ronnies of Doom, also confessed to MPs that the 10pm curfew was plucked out of thin air. It was a ‘policy … Read more
Until last night, it was tempting to think that the acrimonious fallout from Boris Johnson‘s dinner with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels was entirely stage-managed. That it is all part of a carefully choreographed diplomatic dance which allows each side to prove to their respective supporters that they have fought tooth … Read more
We may well sneer at serial Tier offender Rita Ora, roll our eyes at the antics of Amir Khan – stupidly posting pictures of his lavish birthday bash for 18 online – and we can gloat over Kay Burley’s grovelling apology for ‘inadvertently’ breaking the rules with a dinner for ten, then visiting another restaurant, … Read more
How easy it is for high-minded rich people to lay down the law for poorer folk. They often haven’t the faintest idea of the effect of their expensive recommendations on ordinary lives. The most recent example comes from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), a quango which advises the Government on measures to tackle climate … Read more
As with most members of the legal profession, Sir Keir Starmer would crawl through an open sewer to hear the sound of his own voice. No topic is too obscure, too arcane, on which he would happily hold court. Weighty matters of Human Rights jurisprudence, for example, or the finer points of the Equality Act. … Read more