4 h. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Major Tim was a chatty fellow... space travel does that

Astronaut Tim Peake (pictured) was at a House of Lords committee to discuss outer space. Discussion soon landed on the crucial matter: should space be governed by the United Nations?

Politics

51 h. ago QUENTIN LETTS: There's been an uptick in groovy Americanisms

With the PM so desperate to stress his Englishness, just one question: why does he spout so many Americanisms?

Politics

4 d. ago QUENTIN LETTS: The Colombian's interpreter at Ed Miliband's global energy shindig had a growly voice worthy of any Spaghetti Western bandido

Well that was a bit of a diplomatic floater. Ed Miliband's global energy shindig started yesterday at London's Lancaster House. 

Politics

4 d. ago QUENTIN LETTS: The Colombian's interpreter at Ed Miliband's global energy shindig had a growly voice worthy of any Spaghetti Western bandido

Well that was a bit of a diplomatic floater. Ed Miliband's global energy shindig started yesterday at London's Lancaster House. 

Politics

6 d. ago Bridget looked likely to smash a pint glass in the nearest Hooray Henry's face

The hot topic of the day was trans people, following the latest ruling by the Supreme Court. Sir Keir Starmer said he no longer believed blokes could be women. Make your mind up, sunshine.

Politics

2 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: At every New Zero slight, Ed fumbled furtively with his lower lip... then left

Westminster Bills normally need months of scrutiny but this one whizzed through in roughly the time it takes to chill a Cotes de Gascogne. By the end of a captious day we certainly all needed a gargle.

Politics

2 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: The public seats were full, but soon visitors were slack

With the world in Trumpian turmoil, an economy self-combusting and rats as big as centaurs cantering through Birmingham, the Commons liaison committee had 90 minutes to interrogate the PM.

Politics

3 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: The poohbahs were like aristocratic ladies confronted by the pong of fish

Bumpy sort of day for our political class. Stock markets were diving like guillemots and Net Zero sprang a leak - Labour was doing a reverse-ferret on electric car rules.

Events

3 w. ago The Christian right has set the US on the road to Gilead. Without a fight, other nations may follow | Deborah Frances

Organisations that pumped money into overturning Roe v Wade are making inroads in Europe. Women’s rights are truly at riskWith Donald Trump as president, there is now a heavy strain of Christian nationalism driving the US political agenda. From draconian abortion policies to ending birthright citizenship, some of Trump’s first executive orders sound startlingly like something out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian novel turned TV show set in Gilead, a fundamentalist, fascist version of the US where women have no rights. But it is urgent we understand that what is happening in the US could happen here. This road to Atwood’s Gilead is charting a course straight through the UK and Europe, and we may well be sleepwalking on to it.In November 2024 I debated with the American conservative lawyer Erin Hawley at the Oxford Union. The motion was “This house regrets the overturning of Roe v Wade”, the US supreme court’s landmark decision that once protected the right to h...

Politics

3 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: After Trump's tariffs, this was no time to dust down the gramophone and play Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans

We took a wallop from the USS Donald Trump; but as MPs emerged from shelters and the Speaker's secretary dispensed tin mugs of sugared tea, there was a consolation: the EU copped it worse.

Politics

3 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Reeves pranced in, her orbit tinkling with laughter. But on camera, she started sounding like a duck

With the economy smoking like a wonky Moskvitch, how was Rachel Reeves faring?Was she feeling under the cosh from Donald Trump's tariffs and the pratfall of her Budget?

Politics

3 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: How those lawyerly, cocksure sentences rolled forth... was Lord Hermer's first word as a toddler 'heretofore'?

With the economy smoking like a wonky Moskvitch, how was Rachel Reeves faring?Was she feeling under the cosh from Donald Trump's tariffs and the pratfall of her Budget?

Politics

3 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Once Robert Jenrick locks on to you, it's like seeing a Sidewinder missile chaser a Tiger Moth

QUENTIN LETTS: Shabana Mahmood's Tory shadow, Robert Jenrick, has had her in all sorts of difficulties over the Sentencing Council's 'two-tier justice' gambit.

Events

4 w. ago QUENTIN LETTS: With all these summits, Sir Keir is becoming Westminster's answer to Sherpa Tenzing

QUENTIN LETTS: Summits were once rare events at which the leaders of the USSR and USA frostily shook hands.

Politics

4 w. ago With all these summits, Sir Keir is becoming Westminster's answer to Sherpa Tenzing

QUENTIN LETTS: Summits were once rare events at which the leaders of the USSR and USA frostily shook hands.

Politics