4 h. ago As Netherlands goes to the polls again, Geert Wilders faces isolation

With other parties refusing to govern with the far-right leader, months of political deadlock may lie aheadDutch election: the key players and main issuesVoters in the Netherlands return to the polls on Wednesday less than two years after Geert Wilders led his party to a shock election win that the anti-immigration agitator could well repeat – but this time, with little chance of his party ending up in government.Polls suggest that Wilders’ far-right Freedom party (PVV) could again finish first in a vote triggered when he pulled it out of a fractious and ineffectual four-party rightwing coalition last June in a row over his 10-point plan for a radical crackdown on refugees. Continue reading...

Politics

15 h. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Deputy PM David Lammy laughed theatrically but he was seething, his voice now near castrato

In the Commons David Lammy, Deputy PM and Justice Secretary, was fighting to save his career after the Epping sex offender was accidentally released from prison.

Politics

41 h. ago MAFS UK chaos as two marriages call it quits with one groom's unexpected exit

On Sunday's instalment of Married at First Sight UK, tensions were at an all-time high as the couples attended the dinner party at their countryside retreat.

Events

47 h. ago Simon Amstell review – time to move on after Hollywood party crush

Arches London Bridge New show I Love It Here is billed as a departure from the comedian’s familiar neurotic self-analysis, but it proves frustratingly unchallenging“An exciting departure from [his] previous work,” claims the publicity for Simon Amstell’s new standup show – but it’s a claim that proves hard to substantiate. Like any Amstell set, I Love It Here is self-analytical to an absurd degree – and this level of forensic solipsism, from this clever and funny a man, can’t help but be engaging. But departure it is not – and indeed, I found it frustrating how Amstell’s concerns have not moved on a jot in a show largely about his disappointment (“pain”, he would call it) that his crush on a famous singer isn’t reciprocated.The abiding impression, of a show set at a star-studded Hollywood party, is of an artist whose life (and creative output) might benefit from a little more friction. We encounter Amstell at the start of this set blissful with his partner of 14 years, increasingly ...

Politics

54 h. ago Minister Wes Streeting piles fresh pressure on Keir Starmer saying Brits are 'disillusioned' and 'despair' of ANYONE being able to sort the country out

The Health Secretary insisted he was trying to help after he compared Labour's disastrous showing in the Caerphilly by-election to the lowest point of Sir Keir's time as party leader.

Politics

64 h. ago Stunning UFC fighter who was asked creepy question is left unrecognizable after brutal bloody fight

Days after she was asked a 'creepy' question by a reporter at a press conference, Dern stepped foot inside the octagon and claimed the UFC's strawweight title.

Sport

66 h. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Panicky Labour is now losing more votes to Zack Polanski's loony Left Greens than it is to naughty Nigel Farage

QUENTIN LETTS: Hallowe'en arrived early for Sir Keir Starmer last week when an opinion poll found the Greens to be level with Labour. Eek! No wonder the Prime Minister is looking so knackered.

Politics

4 d. ago ALISON BOSHOFF: The bombshell party snap that shows Liz Hurley posing with her 'friend' Ghislaine Maxwell

The image (pictured), shared as a 'Throwback Thursday' on Instagram by Sean Borg, shows Hurley at a birthday party with her close pal and one-time flatmate Julia Verdin - and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Events

4 d. ago BBC Question Time audience laugh as Nadine Dorries squirms amid immigration debate

Nadine Dorries, a former nurse who last month ditched the Conservative Party for Reform UK, was grilled on Question Time on BBC One on Thursday about immigration

Events

5 d. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Big Ange twisted her head right then left, as guileless as Little Weed between the flower pots...

One hour after PMQs, Labour MPs herded back to the Commons for a 'personal statement' from Angela Rayner , property dealer and ex-deputy PM. First appearance since her tax scandal downfall.

Politics

6 d. ago Man met girlfriend's brother at party, downed Jägerbombs together and then murdered him, trial told

Stephen Bates is accused of murdering Martin O'Donovan after they met for the first time at the Martin's mum's birthday party

Events

6 d. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Brother Jenrick whacked Prince Andrew then proposed a burka ban. Polite society will be appalled

To complete his day, he attended a Commons debate on the Sentencing Bill in which his sidekick Kieran Mullan complained about Labour ditching plans to castrate pederasts.

Politics

7 d. ago QUENTIN LETTS: Speaker Hoyle was still right unchoofed about t'China spy case

What will become of the House of Lords if Nigel Farage 's Reform does well at the next general election?

Politics

8 d. ago Rodrigo Paz Pereira wins Bolivia’s presidential runoff marking a new shift to the right

Sunday’s election marked the first time since 2005 that no candidate from Evo Morales’ Mas party was on the ballotCentre-right senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira, 58, won Bolivia’s presidential runoff on Sunday and will be the country’s next president, marking a shift to the right after nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftist Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) party.With just over 97% of ballots counted in the electoral court’s “preliminary” tally, Paz Pereira secured 54.6% of the vote, while rightwing former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga received 45.4%. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago The Guardian view on UK national security: a case of state failure | Editorial

This week’s partisan blame game is the wrong response to the collapse of the alleged Chinese spying case. The failure of governance runs deeperThe China spying row has revealed disturbing weaknesses in the processes of the UK state. It cannot be in the national interest for a case involving national security to get so close to the courts and then for it to be abandoned in what remain mysterious circumstances. Public confidence, as well as security itself, are inevitably placed at risk. But this genuinely important issue now risks being blanketed by the fog of the party-political battle at Westminster.For the third time this week, MPs spent Thursday trading accusations about whether the Conservatives or Labour are more to blame for the fiasco of last month’s collapsed prosecution. To be fair, the latest exchanges did not descend to the abject “did-didn’t” level that was reached at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday. Politicians from Sir Keir Starmer...

Events

1 week ago QUENTIN LETTS: Want to know why Labour has no hope of stopping the small boats? Meet the windy dullard in charge of border security

Martin Hewitt appeared at a parliamentary committee yesterday.To his CBE and QPM there should perhaps be added the OPD, the Order of Prize Dribblers.

Events

1 week ago QUENTIN LETTS: 'She's not a lawyer,' Starmer snapped at Kemi. In his book, there's no worse insult

Here is what I saw when Sir Keir Starmer, MP, KC, PM, rose to his hind legs to try to ambush Kemi Badenoch on the Jonathan Powell-'China spying' affair.

Politics

1 week ago QUENTIN LETTS: 'She's not a laywer,' Starmer snapped at Kemi in his book... there's no worse insult

Here is what I saw when Sir Keir Starmer, MP, KC, PM, rose to his hind legs to try to ambush Kemi Badenoch on the Jonathan Powell-'China spying' affair.

Politics

1 week ago QUENTIN LETTS: Only Starmer could utter a word like 'statespersonship' without irony...

Sir Keir Starmer, inflating himself like something rubbery and faintly spermicidal, told Kemi Badenoch she was not a 'serious statesperson'.

Politics

2 w. ago Reform UK now has an official grouping on the London Assembly for the first time since the party was founded

Reform UK now has an official grouping on the London Assembly for the first time since the party was founded  Southwark News

Politics