Politics

Tony Blair's hopes of creating a new centrist political party lie in tatters after key donors abandoned the cause. With an increasing amount of MPs feeling alienated by their respective parties and a lack of support for pro-Remain policies the time seemed ripe for the former New Labour leader to launch an alternative party. Emmanuel Macron's success in France also seemed to add credence to the notion that new progressive parties could succeed elsewhere in Europe, but as far as...

This was the hilarious moment a Labour party activist was photobombed by ex-PM David Cameron while taking a selfie at a posh music festival. Town councillor Vanessa Price, 47, snapped the selfie with husband Steve while at the upmarket Wilderness festival close to the former Tory MP's Cotswold home. But when she looked back at the photograph she was horrified to discover the glum face of the Eton-educated politician glaring at her from the crowd of excited revellers. Cameron, dressed...

Right to Buy, the policy no one wants to talk about, is decimating local councils’ housing stock and costing us all dearly in state subsidy. In London alone, this amounts to £104,900 per discount. The Grenfell Tower fire has justly led to widespread debate about the state of social housing in 21st century Britain. However, the aspect no one seems to want to talk about is the devastating impact the right to buy policy (introduced by PM Margaret Thatcher as...

Do you remember Shari Lewis? I try and avoid describing women in sexualized terms, however sometimes it suits, as she was an astoundingly beautiful ventriloquist on American television when I was a child thus becoming my first and fondest celebrity crush. She had several puppets, however the best known was a little sheep named Lamb Chop. (As I think of it now, that's really a rather ominous name, like calling a chicken KFC.) Lewis recorded several albums of children's songs...

Murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich has been confirmed as being a Wikileaks source by Seymour Hersh in a leaked telephone call. The journalist, who has high level FBI sources, discussed what he knows about the murder in the call and revealed some interesting details about what is in the FBI report following the cyber unit investigation. Seth Rich was an American employee for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who was fatally shot in the Bloomingdale neighbourhood of Washington. His murder has...

Donald Trump dubbed New Hampshire a "drug-infested den", boasted about his election victory and urged his Mexican counterpart to remain quiet about a border wall in a telephone call which has been leaked by the Washington Post. The transcript provides a rare glimpse into the private conversations of a new US President testing his negotiating powers on foreign counterparts, with the phone call taking place just seven days after Trump entered office. More than 30 references to "the wall" are made in the...

So the latest since our last check-in is that the President has been having imaginary conversations with the head of the Boy Scouts of America and the President of Mexico. These were either bald-faced lies (most likely), possible signs of creeping dementia (not unlikely), or one of those flashbacks we were all promised when we were ingesting recreational chemicals back in our tossed salad days (pleasant to consider). Oh yes, and Trump has also been quoted as telling his wealthy...

It's a thin and shaky cable that stretches between bemused interest and hysteric obsession and sometimes you just stand there in the middle, wondering which way to walk. Casual glances at a news subject's headlines with only an occasional long read is in the long run probably safer for mental health, and a damn sight better in terms of work productivity, yet it never seems to satisfy. You feel a permanent – perhaps not a hunger exactly – but a...

Six in ten Brexit voters believe significant damage to the British economy is a price worth paying for leaving the European Union. New research has unearthed extremist beliefs among Leavers, with many so committed to their beliefs that they believe significant harm befalling the UK economy, or even losing their jobs, would be a price worth paying in order to get their way on Brexit. The economic impact of the UK's vote to leave has been ever-present since the referendum, with the latest economic...