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John Power

John Power

The Telegraph

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The irony of Labour’s crackdown on fake gay asylum seekers

On Tuesday morning, three people were arrested by Home Office immigration enforcement because of their suspected links to a criminal network which...

thursday 20

The Spectator

John Power

The flaw in Kemi’s plan to scrap inheritance tax on ‘family homes’

In her closing speech at the Tory party conference in Birmingham today, Kemi Badenoch said that a Conservative government would abolish inheritance...

07.10.2026 10

The Spectator

John Power

Badenoch’s ‘Britannia shield’ won’t stop Russia

In March 1983, Ronald Reagan announced on television that the era of mutually assured destruction could come to an end thanks to developments in...

06.10.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

Anthropic has exaggerated another breakthrough

Another day, another claim by a frontier AI company to have achieved a huge breakthrough in science. Most recently, it’s Anthropic, saying:...

25.09.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Is Andy Burnham being sucked in by AI marketing?

Andy Burnham told Donald Trump this week that we need to ‘rein in AI’, and given who he is getting advice from it’s no surprise. The Turing...

23.09.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Why was the BBC so surprised to meet an AI doomer?

A somewhat bemusing interview took place between Victoria Derbyshire and Geoffrey Hinton last week on Newsnight. Hinton, an eminent computer scientist...

16.09.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

Don’t believe everything that AI companies say

Two big stories are driving interest in artificial intelligence this week. The first is the resignation of Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic...

11.09.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

Don’t believe everything that AI companies say

Two big stories are driving interest in artificial intelligence this week. The first is the resignation of Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic...

10.09.2026 50

The Spectator

John Power

Clip art / How social media ‘clippers’ are shaping politics

When Mel Stride put out a YouTube Short last month, it got zero views. That, surely, is worth repeating: zero views. Stride’s unloved ‘short’...

10.09.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

How social media ‘clippers’ are shaping politics

When Mel Stride put out a YouTube Short last month, it got zero views. That, surely, is worth repeating: zero views. Stride’s unloved ‘short’...

10.09.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Burnham’s ‘clear diagnosis’ of Britain’s problems doesn’t add up

Andy Burnham said this week that he has made a ‘clear diagnosis of what has gone wrong’ in Britain since the 1980s, when he returned to Parliament...

05.09.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

What Burnham gets wrong about centralisation

On Tuesday, Andy Burnham returned to the House of Commons after almost ten years in the wilderness, bringing with him ‘a clear diagnosis of what...

04.09.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

Burnham can’t blame Sunak for Britain’s bond woes

At Prime Minister’s questions today, Andy Burnham was pressed by Kemi Badenoch on the sharp rise in government borrowing costs over the last few...

02.09.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

Is social media causing dangerous driving?

Earlier today we found out there has been another fatal traffic accident related to a police chase, following the death of five men and two police...

25.08.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

Reservoirs are not about to run dry

The ‘worst drought in decades’ is how Novara headlined an article attacking data centres at the beginning of this month. ‘This summer isn’t...

17.08.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

The many claims of Jason Arday

Jason Arday has resigned from his post at the University of Cambridge, but as the story rumbles on and new revelations about him emerge by the...

10.08.2026 250

The Spectator

John Power

Fact check: the many claims of Jason Arday

Jason Arday has resigned from his post at the University of Cambridge, but as the story rumbles on and new revelations about him emerge by the...

06.08.2026 350

The Spectator

John Power

Can Burnham raise care workers’ wages without raising taxes?

In a speech yesterday Andy Burnham promised that there will not just be ‘fair pay’ in social care but ‘bigger reform to improve the...

30.07.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

John Healey is more left-wing than you think

The appointment of John Healey as Chancellor sends a signal about defence funding. Healey resigned from Keir Starmer’s government over the former...

24.07.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Is Ed Miliband preparing to take on Donald Trump?

Just one day after Ed Miliband was made Foreign Secretary we heard in the Telegraph that the White House is upset about the appointment, and even...

23.07.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

The new Energy Secretary hates North Sea oil

Miatta Fahnbulleh, who has just become the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero – and has been very involved with helping Burnham’s...

22.07.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

Yvette Cooper carries a lot of baggage as Health Secretary

Yvette Cooper, who has been an MP since 1997, is by far the most experienced health secretary we’ve had in the past decade. She has had a range of...

21.07.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Can Zia Yusuf really complain about inflammatory language?

Zia Yusuf gave a speech yesterday on the security of MPs, in which he accused several politicians of inciting violence against Ann Widdecombe through...

16.07.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Funny business / Social media has saved comedy

In 2022, a 16-year-old called Kane Parsons began to post a web series called ‘Backrooms’ on his YouTube channel, drawing inspiration from a famous...

16.07.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Scroll position / Inside Labour’s plot to sideline alternative media

Labour came to power in 2024 with five stated missions: to improve economic growth, the NHS, street safety, clean energy and the distribution of...

09.07.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Inside Labour’s plot to sideline alternative media

Labour came to power in 2024 with five stated missions: to improve economic growth, the NHS, street safety, clean energy and the distribution of...

09.07.2026 20

The Spectator

John Power

Farage isn’t the first MP to force a protest by-election

Reporting on the news that Nigel Farage is planning to resign his seat to force a by-election, Le Monde described the stunt as a ‘highly unusual...

08.07.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Burnham won’t be the first prime minister to have tried levelling up

Every generation of politicians seems to believe that they are the first to discover the North. In Andy Burnham’s speech today he said...

29.06.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

How popular will Starmer’s social media ban actually be?

Yesterday, the think tank the IPPR released YouGov polling showing that a majority of Britons, 83 per cent, believe there should be some form of...

15.06.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

What Kemi Badenoch told Tim Shipman

Kemi Badenoch was interviewed last night by The Spectator‘s Political Editor, Tim Shipman, in front of a live audience at Church House in...

09.06.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Sixteen times that Trump nearly ended the Iran war

Today marks a hundred days since America and Israel began launching strikes on Iran on 28 February. The very next day, Donald...

08.06.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Sixteen times that Trump nearly ended the Iran war

Today marks a hundred days since America and Israel began launching strikes on Iran on 28 February. The very next day, Donald...

08.06.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Why don’t striking doctors tell the full story?

The British Medical Association announced yesterday that junior doctors will be going on strike again next month, with a four-day walkout beginning at...

28.05.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

If kids are banned from social media, adults will be next

‘Technology is addling young people’s brains, impacting on their education and attainment, impacting on their health and wellbeing,’ Wes...

26.05.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Net emigration isn’t soaring

This morning the government was able to celebrate some sorely needed good news. Long-term net migration has fallen sharply to 171,000 per year, down...

21.05.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Burnham’s fate will be decided in the Strait of Hormuz

In the last few days, the government has performed two extraordinary about-turns. On Tuesday, it was revealed that the Treasury is covertly pressuring...

21.05.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

What Streeting won’t tell us about his record as Health Secretary

Wes Streeting’s resignation letter began with a paragraph praising his own record in managing the NHS. He said: “The results are in and I am...

15.05.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Support for independence is not surging in Scotland

Yesterday was the news that Keir Starmer has agreed to have a face-to-face meeting with John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, following the...

13.05.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

BBC Verify’s greatest hits

BBC Verify is in retreat. Last June the Beeb launched the ‘Verify Live blog’ as part of its push for ‘greater transparency’. But already the...

11.05.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Hantavirus doesn’t look like the next Covid

Over the past few days, more parts of the press have been reporting that the Hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius has spread beyond the boat,...

08.05.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Hantavirus doesn’t look like the next Covid

Over the past few days, more parts of the press have been reporting that the Hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius has spread beyond the boat,...

07.05.2026 30

The Spectator

John Power

Is life expectancy really falling?

On Sunday, the Health Foundation published new analysis of ONS data, finding that between 2012/14 and 2022/24 the average Healthy Life Expectancy...

30.04.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Drug deaths would only rise under PM Polanski

Yesterday, Zack Polanski told Sky News that ‘the war on drugs has clearly failed over and over again. In fact we have the highest drug deaths in...

28.04.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Does banning social media for under-16s work?

On Monday, the House of Lords threatened to derail the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill by reintroducing an amendment which...

22.04.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Petrol shortages aren’t coming for Britain

Oil prices rose this morning thanks to the fact no one really knows if the Strait of Hormuz has reopened or not. But no matter what happens, there is...

20.04.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power

Flat out: the property squeeze crushing the young

Last month, a new account called London Price Drop appeared on X. It has already gained more than 14,000 followers simply by posting screenshots from...

16.04.2026 60

The Spectator

John Power

Let teenage boys discover the English countryside

John Power has narrated this article for you to listen to. When I was four, the progressive teachers at my primary school thought it would be wise to...

11.04.2026 40

The Spectator

John Power