Politics

After dropping Michael Vaughan in punishment for what he said (or might not have said) many years ago, the BBC has now given him the chance to explain himself. It took the form of Dan Walker, a BBC1 Breakfast host, confronting the accused with examples of his wrongthink and hearing his defence. That defence is pretty academic now, given that Vaughan has already been dropped from covering the Ashes this winter and may now disappear from the screens entirely. But it has given us an example of what may now lie ahead in the cancel culture we are adopting. Ten years after the Tweets comes the outrage. Then the cancellation.

Sajid Javid: we’re ‘nowhere near’ renewed social distancing Health Secretary Sajid Javid found himself back in the hot seat this morning after a week which saw the discovery of the new ‘Omicron variant’ of the virus in South Africa. Yesterday, Boris Johnson confirmed that there were at least two cases of this variant already in the UK, despite suspending flights from the country and ordering new quarantine measures to be put in place. Trevor Phillips spoke to Javid about whether the latest strain could mean a return to many of the measures that have previously been in place, such as social distancing. However, Javid insisted that, beyond the new mask mandate,

Given the complexities of modern government, with all its pitfalls and unforeseeable reverses, pointing out when ministers have made a mess of things is certainly an important part of the repertoire of opposition – the equivalent of a boxer’s jab in our pugilistic political system. But the ‘it’s a shambles’ method of politics can only take an opposition party or its leader so far. On the rare occasions that Labour has talked about illegal migration across the English Channel since Boris Johnson became PM and Priti Patel was appointed Home Secretary, this has been its favoured line of attack. Earlier in the month Keir Starmer told BBC Radio 4: ‘The

After two cases of the new Omicron variant were identified in the UK, the Prime Minister held a Downing Street press conference this afternoon to update the public on the government’s response. As research gets underway to identify whether the new Covid variant is partially vaccine resistant – and how quickly it spreads compared to the Delta strain – Boris Johnson spoke of his desire to slow the spread of the variant here in the UK. Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Vallance said three things needed to be done in order to do this: First, limit the number of cases arriving in the UK from abroad. Second, limit the spread of

As a former court room, the No. 9 Downing Street briefing hub has seen its fair share of drama – and none more so than this past year. Some £2.9 million was lavished on turning the site into a state-of-the-art stage for press conferences, amid plans to televise government briefings with the parliamentary lobby. But all that changed in April when, following the departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain, the idea was scrapped, with Allegra Stratton moved from lobby briefings to the COP26 beat. But what to do with the newly-restored press room, newly decked out in royal blue and Union Jacks aplenty? For the last six months the former Privy Council

What are the armed forces for? This is the question that hangs over every defence review, and one that recent governments have been averse to answering. The problem is this: since the end of the Cold War, defence has gradually slipped further and further down the political priority list. At the same time, ministers and senior officers have been reluctant to publicly scale back their ambitions for what the military should do. As a result, instead of making decisive cuts to certain capacities in order to maintain others, we have gradually shrunk all the services to the point where they face serious operational difficulties. Britain boasts two aircraft carriers, for