Nigel Farage: the last gasp of a desperate, discredited leader

Nigel Farage, who famously resigned and unresigned within days as party leader, is a born showman, but even his speech to the UKIP conference in Doncaster sounded like a broken record that’s seen better days.

Home Mission Sunday: we've forgotten that our lives our our most powerful witness

It was 5 years ago this weekend that the Pope made his visit to Britain and was jubilantly received by British Catholics. Today, it’s Home Mission Sunday – a day to remember the evangelising mission at home in England and Wales. It is my sincere belief that our country is one of the battlegrounds for faith and secularisation, even more than France and other countries you might think of. It’s Britain that is one of the most challenging arenas for the Christian mission.

Corbyn's first PMQs: a joyless spectacle

Jeremy Corbyn’s first performance at Prime Minister’s Questions was bland, boring and uninspiring.

Jeremy Corbyn: the triumph of easy answers, dangerous ideas and the one-party state

There is no sniff of smugness coming from the Tories over yesterday’s victory of Jeremy Corbyn as the new leader of the Labour party. Writing in today’s Telegraph, Michael Gove has written persuasively of his belief that Jeremy Corbyn actually poses a real, serious risk to the security of this country – a line repeated by Michael Fallon and Priti Patel on news programmes yesterday; there will be other voices repeating much the same message from the big guns of the Conservative party.

A society that protects the vulnerable can never allow assisted dying

The challenging subject of assisted dying is once again back on the public agenda, with an all-important debate to take place on Friday in the House of Commons on a private member’s bil tabled by Labour MP Rob Marris.

Cameron is isolated at home and within Europe, he must relent and welcome refugees

David Cameron is, ultimately, a thoroughly decent man. When he muses on the human tragedy that lies behind the ‘migrant crisis,’ it is clear to see that he genuinely means every word and is not playing the part of a politician faking sympathy and sadness to please a public increasingly horrified by the images plastered on its screens and all over the newspapers. But, this good man has a punishing tendency to make life extremely difficult for himself, running scared of the right, Eurosceptic elements of his party, and the kind of Tory voter that would be readily persuaded to switch their support to UKIP, especially in European elections.

Grown-up thinking is required when it comes to the NHS, but don't hold your breath

We really need to have a difficult conversation about the NHS. No, not you and I, dear reader, but as a society. The NHS is rightly praised because it achieves well when it comes to the most difficult balancing act in healthcare: combining quality and access in the right combination.