Boosterism is back! The Prime Minister delivered his latest address to the nation on the coronavirus yesterday. His message was fizzy, frenetic, oozing optimism. We have seen a rather different Boris Johnson than we are used to this week. The gravity of this disease has required him to occupy a persona in which he had … Read more
We were promised a bazooka. What we got, instead, was a volley of howitzers, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Chancellor Rishi Sunak was summoned to the front-line in the Government’s assault against the coronavirus yesterday. His orders: to deploy every weapon in the Treasury’s arsenal to keep Britain’s economy above the water line. Generous cash grants, … Read more
Whenever Boris Johnson has sticky news to deliver, he has what card sharps call a ‘tell’. I’ve come to know it as his imaginary pen rummage routine. It begins with a dramatic double pat to the chest. A quizzical look then creeps across his face, as though to say: ‘Where is the blighter, what have … Read more
Get too close to snakes and chances are you’ll get bitten. It was with a certain squeamishness, then, that I plonked myself within yards of Whitehall grande fromaggios Sir Mark Sedwill and Sir John Manzoni at yesterday’s hearing in front of the public administration select committee. Sedwill and Manzoni. Sounds like a cruise liner cabaret … Read more
Breathless Boris Johnson had his oratory dial set to ‘rousing’: HENRY DEEDES on the PM’s emergency coronavirus address to the nation By Henry Deedes for the Daily Mail Published: 00:21 GMT, 10 March 2020 | Updated: 01:24 GMT, 10 March 2020 Film buffs will know there comes a point in every science fiction disaster movie … Read more
They say scary times call for steady heads. Fortunately, Professor Chris Whitty is one weirdly cool hombre. For 90 minutes yesterday, England’s Chief Medical Officer answered questions from the Commons health committee on the coronavirus outbreak. No notes, no sprawling entourage. He didn’t so much as require a replenishing tumbler of Highland Spring as he … Read more
Michael Gove was charged with updating the House on the Government’s Brexit strategy yesterday. Of course he was. For years the Govester has been the Government’s man for big occasions. The closer, the ‘death’ bowler entrusted with the crucial last overs. Need to rally the troops? Send for Gove! Under the previous lot this was … Read more
Well, it was no knockout blow but it was certainly a decent jab to the sweetbreads. Sajid Javid’s resignation speech to the Commons yesterday may have lacked Sir Geoffrey Howe’s verbal pyrotechnics against Margaret Thatcher, but it will have rattled a few Downing Street teacups all the same. Modest, witty, stylishly courteous, the ex-chancellor’s ten-minute … Read more
Liam Payne EXCLUSIVE: Singer, 26, and Maya Henry, 19, ‘are definitely still a couple’ and are taking their romance off social media after speculation that the pair had split The singer, 26, and model, 19, have refuted claims they had split, as a source said they were ‘very happy together’ A friend of the couple … Read more
Whenever John McDonnell addresses the Commons, weird things happen in Westminster. The entire parliamentary estate is gripped by unexplained phenomena. Dark nimbus clouds suddenly form over Big Ben. Birds stop tweeting. Flowers along New Palace Yard begin to wilt. Over on Parliament Square, excitable puppies abruptly cease their wagging and curl into defensive balls. It … Read more