The government’s plan to reintroduce imperial measures is a clear attempt to win a few cheers from the readers of the Daily Telegraph. This is no crime – governments must please their bases, after all. If you are the sort of stout-hearted Brexiteer whose heart still aches for “Metric Martyrs", this triumph over Brussels’ pernicious efforts at standardisation is a welcome benefit of our exit from the European Union. For those of us of a more cynical bent, however, this is a tedious attempt to piggyback on the Jubilee by a government enduring a sticky patch. I say all this despite being a true blue Tory and Telegraph devotee, who would have chosen to Leave had I been old enough to ...

After a recent trend of acknowledging wrongdoing, you might think the mass media would now treat female celebrities with greater kindness than it used to. Whether it’s more feminist coverage about bodies and choices, a reckoning with women’s autonomy since #MeToo, or the discussion around how popstars such as Britney Spears were covered by the tabloids, the past five years could make us look back in horror at how things were in the Noughties – and can assure ourselves that things are much better now.  It’s the kind of social progress we presume is always being made. But beneath the surface, what has actually changed for women in the public eye? Do they truly experience less harassment and receive significantly different treatment? ...

NEW YORK — On the evening of 24 May, shortly after a gunman massacred 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the writer Matthew Yglesias said on Twitter that “for all its very real problems… the contemporary United States of America is one of the best places to live in all of human history.” Yglesias’s tweet was poorly timed and provocative, seemingly designed to call as much attention to its author as possible; in times of crisis, our base instincts are hard to suppress. But the sentiment wasn’t incorrect. The US is a pretty great place to live. In the majority of the country the water that comes from the pipes is drinkable. Most residents own ...

Only the Tory party, with its love of unleashed big business, could have turned a solution to the climate crisis into an extension of the problem. For that is exactly what Chancellor Rishi Sunak's announcement yesterday (26 May) of a UK windfall tax on oil and gas companies appears to have done – breaking a historic Cop26 pledge not to incentivise further extraction. Calls for such a tax have built momentum over recent months, as the war in Ukraine has pushed up energy prices – and profits – around the world. A proposal put forward by Labour carried the support of the Greens, SNP and Liberal Democrats, as well as some Conservative backbenchers (in addition to 63 per cent of the ...

Shortly after Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he delivered a major foreign policy speech setting out his vision for the United States’ place in the world. He vowed to rebuild the country’s alliances and restore its moral leadership after the tumult of Donald Trump’s presidency to confront the advancing threat from authoritarian powers such as China and Russia. “America is back,” he declared, and he promised that the United States would “again lead not just by the example of our power but the power of our example”. Yet the power of that example has been repeatedly undermined by the failure of US political leaders to tackle the country’s domestic problems, including racial injustice and worsening gun violence. This plays into ...

It bears repeating. After 126 fines, alcohol up the walls, vomiting staff, parties that went on until 4.30am, a broken swing, cleaners treated appallingly, a karaoke machine, a quiz and “wine time Fridays”, the only person to have resigned over partygate is Allegra Stratton. Let us remember, there is no suggestion that the Prime Minister’s former spokeswoman broke any rules herself. She resigned because she had been recorded laughing at the challenge before her: how to defend Boris Johnson should the press get wind of the parties, in particular a Christmas event in December 2020 when London was under Covid resrictions that banned indoor social gatherings. For this, the Downing Street press secretary earned the PM’s fury: he shared the nation’s ...

In many ways, the long awaited publication of Sue Gray's partygate report revealed very little that we didn’t already know. The exception was the revelation of how cleaning and security staff were mocked and treated with disrespect by officials in No 10 during the various lockdown parties and events. You can learn a lot about people, especially those with some form of power, from how they treat cleaners and security guards. The same goes for waiters and bar staff – essentially, anyone in the service industry who isn’t a professional. As the son of a cleaner and somebody who has myself worked in retail and behind a bar, I can tell you that if somebody treats another human being who is ...

I’m as confused as you are. Boris Johnson’s appearance at Prime Minister's Questions and his statement on Sue Gray’s partygate report yesterday (25 May) were a mess of contradictions and empty words. Johnson appeared to apologise but then stuck to the line that he wasn’t aware of anything that unfolded in Downing Street over those months. He took “full responsibility” for everything that happened under his watch but, apparently, that wasn’t very much at all. He appeared contrite, even humbled by the scandal until he launched an attack on Keir Starmer, reminiscent of boarding school “banter”, labelling him “Sir Beer Korma” (which even got an “Oh God, he said it” glance from Dominic Raab). For the past few months the government has been waging ...