My sources in Westminster say that it was the chance to be elected for a “full five more years” that was the deciding factor for calling the election, along with there being a “window” for a summer election before the European Union agrees its negotiating position and the German elections later this year. Add Theresa
Some myths need to be cleared up about the reported £61 billion “divorce bill” that Brussels hopes to force Britain to pay before its departure. This is not simply political posturing on behalf of the sclerotic EU: it is a very weak opening negotiating move. Whenever the other side opens with a “this is going
It is not often that an ex-Tory Chancellor gets compared by a former Cabinet colleague to Gordon Gekko. But that was how Iain Duncan Smith reportedly described George Osborne taking a sixth well-paid job last week, after putting himself forward to be editor of the Evening Standard. I suspect that Wall Street was among the
For the first time in my life, I have joined the Conservative Party. It cost £25 and took less than a minute online. But it has been a long personal political odyssey that included being so disaffected with the brand of so-called Conservatism espoused by David Cameron and George Osborne, which threatened to fasten us
You might have thought that, after more than 30 years of campaigning to leave the EU, Eurosceptic MPs would have celebrated the historic victory of triggering Article 50 in various bars of the Commons. The Maastricht Treaty, undertaken to integrate Europe, was signed on February 7, 1992 – 25 years ago this week. But my
This is the second of a two-part feature; the first was published last week The Abbey House first came into view as we walked along the old monastic apple orchard, heading through a huge 13th-century broken colonnade towards a magnificent-looking priory. I winced as I saw medieval transept mullion windows replaced with white gloss-painted frames
Who would have thought that the accidental discovery, while out on a Sunday walk along the River Severn, that a run-down priory was for sale could end up costing so much? Not just financially and emotionally but also in terms of a private sense of loss – both aesthetically and, above all, in terms of
Kenneth Clark by James Stourton, William Collins, £30 When I opened James Stourton’s “authorised” biography of the art historian and broadcaster Kenneth Clark (better known as Lord Clark of Civilisation), it was tempting to start reading at Clark’s deathbed scene in 1982. According to diarist James Lees-Milne, Clark – much of whose life was spent
The continuing row over whether the Queen is in favour of Brexit is strange. Like any sovereign head of state – symbolic or otherwise – Her Majesty will have private views. It is almost inconceivable that she is a cheerleader for the anti-sovereignty ambitions of EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker. It’s interesting that when Sir
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