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It seems a lost world now, but for right-wing Britons back in 2016 Donald Trump was the coolest guy around to be photographed with. His shock – in more ways than one – victory prompted frenetic predictions about a new age of nationalist populism. Trump’s victory in November did, after all, follow the equally anti-establishment revolt in the Brexit referendum five months before.In due course, Trump would claim that he predicted Brexit. Rightist politicians and commentators basked in a warm glow of mutual congratulation. Nigel Farage turned up at Trump’s rallies. Michael Gove rushed to New York to interview Donald Trump for The Times, with Rupert Murdoch in the room. He had the obligatory thumbs-up picture taken against a backdrop of framed magazine covers, some real, some fantasies, Gove beaming as though he couldn’t believe his luck. Farage and the rest of the “bad boys of Brexit” had their grinning mugs parked next to Trump’s in the gaudy gilded surroundings of Trump Tower. Farage must have been smiling from ear to ear when Trump publicly asked Theresa May to make him the UK’s ambassador to Washington. It’s fair to say, to borrow a phrase once deployed by Farage, they’re not laughing now.   More

Like football managers, political leaders are often harshly judged, their critics narrowly focused on the short run, and all too ready to discount past glories: you’re only as good as your last match, you might say.So it is with Boris Johnson. As the evidence builds that the prime minister’s unique approach to decision-making in the Covid crisis has cost lives, his MPs are getting nervous. Postponed elections from last year added to the usual May crop means that virtually the whole of Britain will going to the polls in the spring, assuming they’re not cancelled. The Scottish parliamentary vote will be particularly poor for the Conservatives and will be taken as a mandate for a second independence referendum. Votes, political careers and the union itself are at stake. Two unnamed members of the 2019 intake have reportedly formally stated that they have no confidence in Johnson’s leadership. They have submitted letters to that effect to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, the first steps towards a leadership election. A WhatsApp group of Tory MPs, nicknamed “Lockdown Loons” has also become a focus for discontent, particularly about the stop-go Covid restrictions. The group includes Iain Duncan Smith, Esther McVey and John Redwood. The deputy chair of the 1922 Committee, Charles Walker, among others has openly criticised the government’s habit of bypassing parliament over Covid restrictions. Some MPs have made stinging criticisms, albeit anonymously, one saying before Christmas: “He keeps making mistakes and doesn’t learn from them. We knew he’d have to U-turn on A-levels and free school meals over the summer. Now he forces us to vote to starve children over Christmas. You can be sure he’ll U-turn on that too. I’ve never seen such ineptitude”. Another said more recently: “I’m completely fed up. He just can’t lead and thus can’t go on.” More

By rights, the joint session, or convention, of both houses of Congress mandated by the constitution to ratify the election of a president and vice president should be a routine if not jolly affair, like a school speech day. Usually it has been; but this time round a so-called “sedition caucus” comprised of Republican Trumpite members of the House of Representatives and Senate is dedicated to overturning the result, or, in their terms, defending democracy from a rigged election. Senator Ted Cruz (Texas) is probably the most high-profile figure in the group, along with Senator Josh Hawkey (Missouri). Both may have an eye on gaining support from the Trumpite “base” to be contenders in the 2024 contest.The joint session promises, therefore, to be acrimonious, but talk of a coup seems overcooked.  The joint session will presided over by the president of the Senate, ex-officio Vice President Mike Pence. He will open the various state submissions, lawfully certified. There will then be unusually vigorous challenges and objections to some of the state results, such as those of Georgia and Wisconsin, and of the election as a whole. The claims about voting machines, postal ballots and interference will be familiar.   More

Welcoming in the new year, the education secretary Gavin Williamson declined to break with the tradition of eleventh-hour U-turns that seemingly characterised the government’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.With just days remaining until primary schools are due to reopen their doors after the Christmas break and rapidly rising transmissions of Covid-19, the Department for Education opted to override a schools’ policy announced just three days ago.Under the initial plan, secondary schools and colleges were set to be closed for two weeks at the start of term while some primary schools in London were still being asked to reopen their doors on 4 January. More