HENRY DEEDES: Pure Tinker, Tailor… all it needed was Smiley with a filterless Senior Service By Henry Deedes for the Daily Mail Published: 22:01 BST, 21 July 2020 | Updated: 22:01 BST, 21 July 2020 As a cast of characters goes, even that masterful spy scribe John Le Carre might have struggled to improve upon … Read more
Black belt Dominic Raab was in tough guy mode: HENRY DEEDES watches Foreign Secretary taking on Beijing By Henry Deedes for the Daily Mail Published: 22:47 BST, 20 July 2020 | Updated: 23:06 BST, 20 July 2020 With a stiff-board back and a pronounced tone of defiance, Dominic Raab announced to the Commons he was … Read more
Sir Ed Davey’s face was a picture. A whirling, twirling swirl of yee-haw, whoop-dee-doo delight. Golfers know the one: that pop-eyed look of pleasure that players pull, half shock/half ecstasy, as their ball plops into the hole from long distance. Like the novice hacker who’s just chipped in from a bunker, the acting Lib Dem … Read more
From the House of Commons yesterday there came the familiar sound of screeching tyres, followed by rising smoke and the lingering aroma of scorched rubber. Not for the first time this summer the Government was embarking on another fast paced U-turn. The unfortunate minister yanking up the handbrake this time was Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden. … Read more
HENRY DEEDES: A mere Summer Statement this might have been, but really it was so much more than that. It was a one-time pitch to save our frazzled economy…
Everyone’s got a sound that drives them potty. For some, it’s that slow chomp of a train passenger munching their egg sandwiches. For others, it’s the spine-shivering screech of a shopping trolley’s tyres against the supermarket linoleum. Mine’s listening to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson in the Commons. Goodness it’s an ordeal. Reading his statement, Williamson … Read more
Hard hat? Check. Oversized high-vis jacket? Check. Daft stunt in hardcore heavy machinery? Check, check, check. With a crash and a bang and a no small wallop, Boris Johnson rolled into the West Midlands yesterday to outline his ‘new deal’ plans for the economy. Finally, a chance to blow away some of those coronavirus cobwebs … Read more
You’d have thought a royal baby had been announced, such were the throaty gargles of pleasure which went up in the Commons. Sir Desmond Swayne even parped a rejoiceful: ‘Hallelujah!’ All around the chamber, cherry red noses twitched with delight. Some members grinned like Euromillions winners, while others exchanged satisfied winks as if to say … Read more
People seem weary of Dominic Raab. Too uncaring, they shudder. Too robotic. Something about those deep set eyes which just leaves them cold. It is true that his remarks yesterday criticising Black Lives Matter supporters for taking the knee were remarkably charmless. So too was his Tory leadership campaign last year. Watching his speeches I … Read more
Boris Johnson blasted his way to victory over Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs, though it wasn’t pretty. A triumph of bludgeon over rapier, blunderbuss over pistolet. As displays go, this was a ragged, up-by-the-scruff-of-the-neck sort of performance. What tennis coaches call ‘winning ugly’. But it was no less enjoyable for that. Prime Minister Boris Johnson … Read more