The Latest Breaking News from Tanya Gold

From the Sussexes’ woes to the bully XL debate, from the state of US politics to the conflict in Gaza, the Evening Standard’s comment team have been as incisive as ever

No one owns the news cycle. If you want it, you have to earn it. So while Rishi Sunak was making a speech in north London about the taxes he may or may not cut, attention was drawn across town, towards the Covid Inquiry and Sir Patrick Vallance.

Politicians are not widely trusted. In fact, they are the least trusted profession in the UK, with only 12 per cent believing they generally tell the truth. The most trusted are nurses (89 per cent), followed by engineers (87 per cent) and doctors (85 per cent). Journalists are... well, we're…

If you want to annoy an economist, try mixing up stock and flow. This is a mistake commonly made even by business journalists (though not Jonathan Prynn, of course) when attempting to describe the value of large companies.

Infrastructure is good. Countries and regions with more factories, power supplies, ports, telecommunications and yes, rail lines, tend to be wealthier than those with fewer.

When will Jeremy Corbyn’s vanity — his most essential characteristic — run out? Still MP for Islington North but denied the Labour whip for stating that the problem of anti-Semitism under his leadership “was dramatically overstated for political reasons”, he keeps his supporters on tenterhooks with a constant drip of…

Each Sunday I cook a meal for 20 people. I don’t have 20 friends: this meal is for the guests of the Street Food Project in Penzance. Its remit to is provide a hot meal 365 days of the year to anyone who needs it, and it has never failed…

I’m afraid I have what might be shocking news – Ken Clarke is quite right-wing. He may hold heterodox views on Europe (a conviction that cost him the party leadership on multiple occasions), but Clarke’s reputation as a Tory ‘wet’ belies both his record and his admiration for Margaret Thatcher.

Rishi Sunak is reportedly unhappy as Prime Minister: I am not surprised. He is too shiny — possibly even too idealistic— to appreciate the novelistic possibilities of decline. It seems unlikely that he will be a successful Prime Minister — 13 years are stacked against him, alongside the furies of…

Less than 12 months ago, he was prime minister. Barely a year before that, it seemed not inconceivable he could govern for a decade (people make fun of this tweet but it was right at the time).

The 2001 general election was a disaster for the Conservatives. After four years in opposition, a young new leader and the twin crises of fuel protests and foot and mouth disease, the party achieved a swing of just 1 per cent and a net gain of a single seat, taking…