It’s no secret that a lot of people hate using dating apps. The journalist and author Nancy Jo Sales, who has written a book, Nothing Personal, about the intensity of her hatred, likes to refer to the conglomeration of apps as "Big Dating" (a reference to Big Pharma, another huge and sometimes predatory industry). As Sales can attest, heterosexual women tend to be particularly gloomy about Big Dating. If your goal is to find a hook-up then there is no shortage of willing men. Finding a long-term partner on a dating app, though, is another matter entirely. Some of the Big Dating companies have tried to design products that cater to people seeking marriages rather than hook-ups. Hinge, for instance, was originally marketed as an app ...

Whatever happened to the deficit? For almost a decade the gap between what the government got in taxes and what it spent was the single most important fact in British politics. Yet today it is barely mentioned by the Conservative leadership contenders. Reducing the deficit was the defining economic mission of George Osborne’s while he was chancellor from 2010 to 2016. Following a terrible financial crisis, only slaying the monster of public spending would prevent Britain becoming Greece, “a country that didn’t face up to its problems”, as Osborne put it. He imposed the harshest spending cuts this country had known since the Great Depression. Today British government debt today stands at almost 103 per cent of GDP, 30 percentage points higher ...

The former minister and MP Rory Stewart has been so scathing recently about the government it’s easy to forget he was a contender in the last Tory leadership election in 2019. In his campaign then he reached over the heads of Conservative members to the electorate as a whole through slick social media gimmicks and videos (reminiscent of Barack Obama's 2008 US presidential campaign). He shone in debates too; Boris Johnson was said to have skipped the last Channel 4 TV debate for fear of being grilled by Stewart, at the time the international development secretary. Stewart may not have won, but he reminded the country that it's possible to be a Conservative without regressing to a right-wing caricature. This ...

Rising prices, record-breaking NHS backlogs, the small matter of restoring dignity and decency to public office – the average Tory leadership candidate has plenty of pressing issues to choose from when setting out their stall to replace Boris Johnson. Running for party leader in the aftermath of a major pandemic and in the throes of a cost-of-living crisis, you would be forgiven for presuming that the country's current state would act as an automatic filter for leadership hopefuls, focusing candidates only on serious, urgent matters. Well, you would be wrong. It seems that, for some candidates, not even the 9.1 per cent rate of inflation is enough to weed out distractions. Popping up alongside the pledges to cut taxes and government ...

The UK leads the world in decline: no major economy other than Russia is forecast to perform worse next year and wages have fallen far behind those of European rivals such as Germany and France. After the sinister and farcical diversion that was Boris Johnson’s premiership, now should be a time for his putative successors to reckon with these challenges. But those looking for fresh thinking will not find it in the Conservative leadership election.  The contest has so far been dominated by reheated Thatcherism: both Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid have called for UK corporation tax to be cut from 19 per cent to 15 per cent (rather than increased to 25 per cent). In other words, they would spend ...

There’s a particularly enticing conservative group that is currently having its moment in the sun: the right-wing anti-snowflake. We know of them through sizeable Twitter accounts, popular YouTube channels, and the odd dabble in politics, before they inevitably take their place on the sofa of a news studio somewhere to offer the “conservative” perspective on whatever “mad”, “outrageous” or “half-sourced” story of wokeness has grabbed the attention that day. They constitute a cringe fest to many people; a daily dose of relatability to others. The “anti-snowflake” pundit has captivated the hearts of many with “edgy” humour, controversial takes; positing themselves as ostensibly highbrow, only to start seal-clapping when one of them decides to identify as a lawnmower to make a point ...

The first ethnic minority British prime minister was Benjamin Disraeli – and many Jews, from Leon Brittan to Nigel Lawson and Malcolm Rifkind, have occupied the great offices of state. The first brown chancellor of the Exchequer was Sajid Javid in 2019. The second brown chancellor of the Exchequer was Rishi Sunak a year later. The third brown chancellor of the Exchequer was Nadhim Zahawi, who was appointed on 5 July. The first brown home secretary was Sajid Javid in 2018. The second brown home secretary was Priti Patel, who still holds the post. What they all have in common is they have represented or currently represent the Conservative Party.  When Sunak launched his campaign to be the next prime minister, ...

Does anyone have a plus-one to Boris and Carrie Johnson’s wedding party? I’d like to go. It would be a pleasure to experience the most scandalous wedding celebrations on public record. The cake? Stolen from a food bank. The dress? Crafted from £4bn worth of unused PPE. The guest list? Russian oligarchs and sex pests only. I commend the tireless work of my colleagues, across publications, who have been instrumental in not only plunging the knife into Johnson’s premiership, but firmly gripping the handle and twisting it. Because hour by hour, another petty humiliation arises for our spineless Prime Minister and the luxury-loving Carrie Antoinette. Even last month, it was reported the pair planned a £150,000 tree-house for their son at ...