Joe Biden has yet to show true leadership
Past visits of US presidents to Europe have been defined by East-West tensions. In 1963, John F Kennedy travelled to West Berlin and declared himself a citizen…
A provocative red sock is waggled, and the border Bill mutineers try a push-back of their own
Here’s a paradox: Britain is a great country, say MPs, because it opens its doors (David Davis), but a mean one because Tory toffs don’t want to…
Craven politicians are too scared to confront the true cost of electric cars
Almost from the moment that the first automobile took to the roads led by a pedestrian waving a red flag, the motorist has been clobbered by the…
The power (and pitfalls) of nationalism in music
Living as I do in the boundary-less world of the middle-class “brain worker”, much of it spent online, I am as likely as anyone to forget the…
Climate change on the back burner as Liz Truss wants aid spent on women and girls
“It could mean in practice that the Foreign Office focuses on political stuff and away from some of the areas we have been known for, such as…
Triple whammy of tax rises set to cost every adult £1,000 a year extra
Tax rises will cost people an extra £1,000 a year, an analysis has shown, as Rishi Sunak pledges extra help in Wednesday’s Spring Statement for hard-pressed families….
Let civil servants work around the school run, says union
Steve Barclay, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, wrote to the permanent secretary of every department at the end of January saying that government departments should…
An entire London suburb could be ‘cancelled’ as council decolonisers close in
The culture wars have seen statues removed and reputations “cancelled” – now entire areas are in the line of fire for their supposed historic connections. The south…
Emmanuel Macron calls for calm after Corsican separatist dies following prison attack
Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday appealed for calm in Corsica after the death in prison of Yvan Colonna, a nationalist who was strangled by an inmate on mainland…
Millions more placed in lockdown to curb China’s largest Covid outbreak yet
Elsewhere in China, tens of millions of people are under different forms of lockdown. The city of Tangshan east of Beijing banned traffic for 24 hours on…
Sunak must not repeat the mistakes of the 1970s
The UK sells and buys its fossil fuels on the world market. It is, therefore, subject to the same marginal prices as all other market participants. The…
PM faces Cabinet split as push for onshore wind farms gathers momentum
Boris Johnson faces a Cabinet split over an attempt to tear up planning rules that prohibit new onshore wind farms as he seeks to wean Britain off…
Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages from ‘partygate’ are ‘no longer available’
The update issued by Sue Gray’s team of investigators revealed that they examined emails, WhatsApp messages and text messages to establish “extensive substantive factual information”. In January,…
Up-and-coming funds to add to your Isa
Some of Britain’s best-known fund managers are wobbling. Terry Smith and Nick Train have failed to beat their peers in the past two years, and Tom Slater,…
Use this pension trick to net £42k and swerve Rishi Sunak’s National Insurance tax raid
Workers reluctant to pay the taxman hundreds of pounds in extra National Insurance contributions next month can swerve the tax with a little-known pension savings trick. Pensions…
Desperate tenants losing thousands to rental scams
Thousands of hopeful tenants have been scammed out of deposits for non-existent rental properties by fraudsters exploiting the red-hot housing market. More than 5,000 people were victims…
Questor: this investment company is back to trading at a big discount so we’ll hold on
All three already have valuations in the hundreds of millions of dollars and IP Group owns stakes in them of 19.5pc, 56.4pc and 28.4pc respectively, with a…
Record childcare prices force parents to leave their jobs
The rising cost of childcare has isolated children and pushed parents out of work amid the worst cost of living crisis in a generation, campaigners have warned. …
Higher-rate taxpayers are throwing away valuable pension benefits
Dear Kate, I have just become a higher-rate taxpayer for the first time and wanted to know how this will affect my employer/employee pension contributions? Will I…
Landlords face £4,000 tax bill for offering homes to Ukrainian refugees
Landlords who want to offer homes to Ukrainian refugees will be hit by tax bills worth thousands of pounds because the tax office has failed to update…
Pensioners to receive £733 boost after promise to reinstate ‘triple lock’
This comes as a further blow for pensioners who are among the most vulnerable to rising energy prices and have little protection as the cost of living…
Five ways Rishi Sunak could save Britain from high tax hell
It seems extraordinary that just one year ago the Budget forecast inflation of 1.8pc for 2022. Fast forward to today, with Britain in the midst of a…
‘When you help someone else your own problems don’t seem so bad’
Steve Barnabis was 11 years old when he visited his grandmother in Jamaica and accompanied her as she performed her charity work. They stayed and helped at…
Easy ways to slash your energy bills, room by room
We had a power cut last week, in the throes of which I tried to persuade my panicking nine-year-old son that people used to live very happily…
Why the brilliant British fish and chip shop is under threat
Sunflower oil and wheat are two other global commodities impacted by the war. Spiralling fertiliser costs, much of which comes from Russia and Belarus, means fewer potatoes…