And perhaps wotth comparing that government’s rearmament spending over three years - from 2.9% in 1936 to 9% in 1939 - to defence spending since Putin’s invasion in 2022

Why Cardiff Bay could be to Reform what Brussels was to Ukip

spectator.co.uk/article/reform…

Flashback:

Hosted this edition’s The Spectator ‘Week in 60 minutes’ featuring owen matthews on Russia, Freddy Gray on America and Rachel Johnson on private members’ clubs

youtu.be/Qckez2MBbQk?si…

Only Westminster angle to OJ Simpson is that policing minister Chris Philp was once suspended and fined by the Oxford Union in 1996 for selling a transcript of Simpson’s only UK speech to national newspapers; Sheridan Westlake was the Union press officer at the time.

Depressing when good, hard working journalists lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Good luck to the Open Democracy team with what comes next.

With Wragg’s resignation of the party whip, Downing Street hope that it will draw a line under this affair, allow them to continue landing attacks on Rayner while avoiding the nightmare of yet another by-election involving Tory sleaze

spectator.co.uk/article/why-ha…

New: Richard Holden held a call with Tory MPs this afternoon on the importance of maximising efforts ahead of the long campaign beginning on 18 July. CCHQ have designed new leaflets, intended to be 'the icing, not the cake' to supplement local door knocking.

Cameron: 'I come here with no intention of lecturing or telling other people what to do'

New: Humza Yousaf's brother in law has been arrested and charged with abduction and extortion

New: Will Wragg resigns as both the vicar chair of the 1922 committee and chairman of the public administration select committee

Interesting to see how Reform and Greens do in media attention versus seats + vote share

Perhaps worth noting that Miliband’s main legacy as Foreign Secretary was the dismantling of the much-valued Foreign Office library

When MPs were shown the prototype pound coin in the early 1980s, Tory wet Norman St John-Stevas suggested it should be called ‘a Maggie’ as it was ‘bold and brassy and thinks it’s a sovereign.’

“When the opposition does it, that means that it’s not illegal”

Unfortunate photo positioning in this leaflet from Maria Caulfield

Nice throwback to the pre-TV days before WWI when crowds would queue around the block to watch the great barristers of the day like Edward Carson and FE Smith perform

Inbox: “Neil Parish says William Wragg should be able to remain as a Tory MP”

Telling difference in energy reported by attendees at last night’s “downbeat” Carlton Club political committee dinner with Rishi Sunak + other grandees versus Nigel Farage’s 60th

Anthony Horowitz in this week's The Spectator on when the herd will move against Labour