66 h. ago QUENTIN LETTS: One Labour MP sat with pen poised to write down all the Chancellor's thrilling announcements. It was soon lowered

Save perhaps in those first days after the general election, Rachel Reeves's Chancellorship has yet to have its time of pomp. QUENTIN LETTS asks: Will it ever?

Politics

68 h. ago Spending review: Reeves vows to ‘renew Britain’ with big rises for NHS, housing and defence

Chancellor pledges to end spending on asylum hotels, as she contrasts Labour investment with Tory austerityUK politics live – latest updatesSpending review 2025: key points at a glanceFive charts underpinning Rachel Reeves’s decisionsRachel Reeves has pledged to “renew Britain” with a spending review prioritising health, defence and more than £100bn for long-term capital projects, despite leaving some key areas facing a tough squeeze on funding.In a speech to the Commons setting out Labour’s priorities up to the next general election, the chancellor said her investment programme would be felt in all corners of the country, while decrying austerity as a “destructive choice”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Polish presidential candidates hold rival rallies in Warsaw before runoff election

Candidates representing sharply divergent visions for nation’s future are neck-and-neck in pollsTens of thousands of people in Warsaw have taken part in duelling political marches, led by the two men vying for the Polish presidency in a 1 June runoff election, which is expected to be close and consequential. Many of those who joined Sunday’s marches had travelled from across Poland, a country of nearly 38 million people, not just to support a candidate but to rally behind sharply divergent visions for the nation’s future.At the head of one march was Rafał Trzaskowski, 53, the pro-EU mayor of Warsaw who supports abortion rights and LGBTQ+ inclusion. He is a close political ally of the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, who has led a centrist coalition government since late 2023. During a speech to a huge crowd, Trzaskowski laid out his vision for a Poland that is inclusive and vowed to work to help develop industry as the nation continues a economic transformation into a regional ec...

Politics

3 w. ago Poland presidential debate puts Ukraine and Europe centre stage

Rafał Trzaskowski, from the governing pro-EU coalition, faces Eurosceptic populist rightwing historian Karol Nawrocki ahead of run-offPolish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge.During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, the centrist Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, from prime minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the populist rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS). Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Polish election: Tusk party urged to show it is not ‘deceiving women’ on abortion

Five years after near-total ban on abortion, campaigners say Sunday’s elections will be critical to see if promised change happensPoland’s presidential elections are a “historic, groundbreaking” chance for Donald Tusk’s centrist party to show it was not trying to “deceive women” when it promised to change some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, campaigners have said.Voters across Poland will head to the polls on Sunday in the first round of the elections to replace Andrzej Duda, the current president who is aligned with the former rightwing government and has veto power over legislation. Continue reading...

Politics

last month ‘This is the moment’: Poland elections chance for Tusk centrists to relax abortion laws

Five years after near-total ban on abortion, campaigners say Sunday’s elections will be critical to see if promised change happensPoland’s presidential elections are a “historic, groundbreaking” chance for Donald Tusk’s centrist party to show it was not trying to “deceive women” when it promised to change some of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws, campaigners have said.Voters across Poland will head to the polls on Sunday in the first round of the elections to replace Andrzej Duda, the current president who is aligned with the former rightwing government and has veto power over legislation. Continue reading...

Politics

last month Labour has denounced me as ‘deeply misleading’ on its planning reform. I wish that were true | George Monbiot

Even it now admits that brick by brick, these proposals will wreck habitats. This could be Starmer’s most damaging mistake yetThe precedent is uncanny, and the failure to learn from it downright mystifying. Keir Starmer is rushing gladly towards the catastrophe Boris Johnson inflicted on himself in 2020. Had he set out to stymie Labour’s chances of re-election, he couldn’t be doing it better.In 2020, Johnson promised “a whole new planning system” for England, which, he claimed, would promote “economic growth”. He said he wanted to see 300,000 new homes built every year. He sought to “build, build, build”, but falsely claimed that his plans were thwarted by newts, which he used as shorthand for environmental protections. He would sweep these protections away. Continue reading...

Politics

last month My husband and son suffered strokes, 30 years apart. Shockingly little had changed

I was told my husband would never talk again, while physiotherapy was dismissed entirely. My son was failed in similar ways, but for the brilliance of some medical staff who refuse to believe a stroke is the endOn the night before the accident, John and I and our son Jay, who was then 26, lingered in the garden drinking wine and enjoying the mid-summer scent of jasmine and lilies. We talked about the Manet exhibition we had just seen at the National Gallery. We probably talked about how the end of the cold war might affect the chances of Bill Clinton winning the presidential election against George HW Bush in November. I know what John thought about that. I only wish I could recall his words.The next morning, 30 July 1992, John got up before me as he always did. In the kitchen I found the contents of the dishwasher – knives, forks, spoons, plates, mugs – jumbled together on the table. This was odd because unloading the dishwasher was the one domestic ritual he willingly performed. I...

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