News in brief
- Keir Starmer has said Britain is ‘not at the point of decisions’ about whether to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, and insisted he still has a ‘good relationship’ with Donald Trump.
- The government has announced it will provide £53m to help ‘vulnerable’ households exposed to a sharp rise in the price of heating oil.
- Economists at the investment bank ING have suggested that up to 100,000 Britons could lose their jobs if the Iran war continues.
- Hundreds of students at the University of Kent are queuing for meningitis jabs after an outbreak of the disease in which two young people died.
- A former nursery worker in Bristol has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually abusing children in his care.
- The ONS has added alcohol-free beer, hummus and dashboard cameras to the list of 760 products and services it uses to measure inflation.
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On Coffee House today…
Jonathan Sacerdoti praises Donald Trump’s moral clarity over Iran, while Patrick West implores us all to stop crying wolf about world war three. Alexander Larman thinks the Oscars had all the thrill of a speech by Keir Starmer, Philip Womack predicts that with the end of the hereditary peers we will soon see languid earls on the Commons benches, and Owen Matthews says Italians do it better, at least when it comes to our miserable airports.
‘And on that bombshell we’ll find out what happens to the oil price tomorrow.’
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In pictures
Mexico City: Some 9,500 people in the Zocalo participate in the world’s largest-ever football drill, ahead of the World Cup in June.
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Most read on The Spectator
Richard Tice’s tax trickery shows he is a true patriot – Sam Leith
Britain can learn from Trump’s moral clarity over Iran – Jonathan Sacerdoti
The Oscars was as exciting as a Keir Starmer speech – Alexander Larman
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In words
‘We will abandon all restraint and make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders.’
– Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warns the US not to attack its islands.
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