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Voices

<p>‘The tragedy is the failure to project confidence and communicate those changes have left them feeling uncertain. But if we do not act to increase business confidence, then we will be stuck in the doom loop of speculation, timidity and short-termism that holds our economy back’</p>
Anas Sarwar

Labour must deliver a Budget that people can believe in

If the chancellor can put a Budget with slogan-free integrity and deliverable plans for growth in front of the British people then we can finally draw a line under the missteps of the past, says Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar

<p>‘Right now, we are in a golden age only for regulators, fudge, cost and political cowardice’</p>
James Moore

Welcome to ‘Groundhog Britain’, where nothing ever gets done

<p>President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan must be rejected by Europe</p>
Tobias Ellwood

Why Europe must reject Trump’s Moscow-approved Ukraine peace plan

<p>‘Whatever you think of his politics, here is a man saying plainly: I got checked, it probably saved me, and you should do the same. That voice cuts through the fog of embarrassment far more effectively than any government leaflet’</p>
Jack Burke

I was diagnosed with cancer at 26. Men don’t expect things to go wrong

<p>‘Theatre has ever been part of diplomacy with China. So too has espionage’</p>
Michael Sheridan

China’s embassy nears approval – but MI5 spy alert hands Starmer leverage

<p>‘I’m not condoning severe absence rates. But the odd day off? What is wrong with giving your child a bit of TLC and space away from school politics?’</p>
Charlotte Cripps

I give my kids duvet days whenever they want for their mental health

<p>Home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s immigration policy could decide the fate of her party and the Conservatives</p>
John Rentoul

Shabana Mahmood holds the future of Labour and the Tories in her hands

<p>‘All this inevitably left us feeling vulnerable, even violated. Just getting in the car and plonking myself down where the thieves had sat was weirdly unpleasant’</p>
James Moore

Thieves stole my keyless car – but I had an ace up my sleeve

<p>‘A much better way to deliver control, maintain compassion and secure public confidence is to expand controlled routes at scale so there is a queue to join’</p>
Sunder Katwala

Do we really want to win the ‘League of Least Welcoming Nations’?

<p>US President Donald Trump host New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office</p>
Michael Day

Behind the smiles, Trump fears Zohran Mamdani reshaping US politics

<p>Leaders: ‘Women at the heart of growth don’t just build businesses, they build futures’</p>
Tamara Gillan

Women are the UK’s economic engine – why are they an afterthought?

<p>The Telegraph Media Group is set to be sold to the Daily Mail and General Trust</p>
Chris Blackhurst

The Mail’s £500m Telegraph takeover exposes a digital power dilemma

<p>What does the Labour Party need? And who is actually likely to win in any contest? Unfortunately for Labour, the answers to these questions pull in different directions</p>
Sonia Sodha

The Keir hunters – will it be Angela, Andy or Wes who pulls the trigger?

<p>Rachel Reeves: ‘I’m sick of people mansplaining how to be chancellor to me’</p>
John Rentoul

Rachel Reeves knows better than to dismiss criticism as ‘mansplaining’

<p>Gwynnie, right, before she was sold to her new owner</p>
Frieda Hughes

Selling a painting feels like getting rid of a best friend

<p>French police plan to use large nets to stop small boats crossing the English Channel</p>
Olivia Blake

Have we truly become a place that patrols its borders with large nets?

The ever-increasing hardening of the UK’s borders is a boon for the far right. By borrowing the language, logic and cruelty of Reform UK, ministers are not neutralising Nigel Farage’s views; they are legitimising them, says Labour MP Olivia Blake

<p>‘These shadows are what haunt those who are left behind. Is our loved one all right? Did we do something wrong? What will it take to bring them back?’</p>
Ian Rankin

What I learned about real-life missing person cases when writing Rebus

<p>Photo taken in 1946 during the Nuremberg trials: L-R, first row, in the dock: Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner</p>
Rob Rinder

The Nazis on trial: The enduring lessons of Nuremberg, 80 years on

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<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to deliver her second Budget on Wednesday</p>
The Independent View

Reeves must prove she has a plan to free us from this ‘growth crisis’

The Independent View

Reeves must prove she has a plan to free us from this ‘growth crisis’

Editorial
<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to deliver her second Budget on Wednesday</p>
<p>In October, the energy price cap was increased by 2 per cent by regulator Ofgem</p>
Home News

‘A national disgrace’: Readers on energy poverty this winter

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to lift the two-child cap on child benefit in the Budget</p>
Voices

Why the public won’t like Reeves’s £15bn child benefit ‘giveaway’

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves should tax society’s annoyances in the Budget</p>
Voices

Want a Budget millennials won’t hate? Start by taxing life’s nuisances

<p>Keir Starmer in Johannesburg on Saturday during the G20 summit </p>
The Independent View

On Ukraine, Starmer sees what Trump doesn’t: appeasement never works

<p>Keir Starmer in Johannesburg on Saturday during the G20 summit </p>
The Independent View

On Ukraine, Starmer sees what Trump doesn’t: appeasement never works

<p>Rachel Reeves will deliver her autumn Budget on Wednesday</p>
The Independent View

After the confusion, Reeves’ Budget must deliver clarity and direction

<p>Jeffrey Epstein appears in court in West Palm Beach in July 2008</p>
Voices

The Epstein story is making us forget about the true horror of abuse

Most commented

‘I own a £2m farmhouse - Reeves’ mansion tax is punishment for being well-off’

114 comments

Ukraine war live: Russia sinks hope of quick peace deal after trashing EU proposal

196 comments

Ukraine war latest: Kremlin sinks Trump’s hope of peace deal by Thanksgiving

135 comments

Rachel Reeves warned of growth crisis before make-or-break Budget

328 comments
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More Voices

<p>The chancellor admitted the government has ‘made a couple of unforced errors’ but insisted it is ‘fighting to win’</p>
Women

‘Calling her Rachel from accounts is sexist’: Readers defend Reeves

<p>Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman on 18 November 2025</p>
Voices

Trump’s in trouble – and it’s not just Epstein tearing Maga apart

<p>Former chancellor George Osborne</p>
Voices

The one good reason George Osborne shouldn’t be put in charge of HSBC

The Independent View

Conservatives must apologise for their disastrous handling of Covid

Voices

Labour promised cheaper energy bills. So why are they still going up?

<p>Boris Johnson could face legal action over pandemic failings </p>
UK Politics

‘We need leaders to lead’: Readers on UK’s delayed Covid response

The Independent View

Conservatives must apologise for their disastrous handling of Covid

Voices

Labour promised cheaper energy bills. So why are they still going up?

<p>Boris Johnson could face legal action over pandemic failings </p>
UK Politics

‘We need leaders to lead’: Readers on UK’s delayed Covid response

<p>Andy Burnham refused to rule out challenging Starmer as PM</p>
Voices

Andy Burnham may be King in the North, but could he rule No 10?

Voices

Andy Burnham may be King in the North, but could he rule No 10?

John Rentoul
<p>Andy Burnham refused to rule out challenging Starmer as PM</p>
<p>A fish rots from the head, and from Boris the bounder, the busker, the ultimate booster, the government took its cue</p>
Voices

The true cost of Boris Johnson’s Covid incompetence is now clear

<p>Boris Johnson himself was almost killed by the coronavirus but this did not heighten his sense of its potency</p>
The Independent View

This shameful Covid report leaves no way back for Boris Johnson

<p>Christian Bale as hedge-fund investor Michael Burry in ‘The Big Short’ </p>
Voices

What does Big Short investor Michael Burry know about AI?

<p>Imagine this: on a dank November morning, Dutch air defence radar warns that a swarm of military drones or subsonic cruise missiles is heading towards the Thames Estuary and central London</p>
Voices

Defenceless Britain is a sitting duck – when Ukraine falls, we’re next

<p>Imagine this: on a dank November morning, Dutch air defence radar warns that a swarm of military drones or subsonic cruise missiles is heading towards the Thames Estuary and central London</p>
Voices

Defenceless Britain is a sitting duck – when Ukraine falls, we’re next

<p>US president Donald Trump greets Russian president Vladimir Putin on the tarmac after their arrival at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, in August </p>
Voices

Sorry, Donald, but there is no Nobel Peace Prize for appeasement

<p>‘Around one-fifth of the aid budget is now consumed by in-donor refugee costs, predominantly asylum hotels, rather than reaching the world's poorest. Next year, that proportion is projected to rise to one-third’</p>
Voices

Yes, we must invest in defence – but not at the expense of soft power

<p>Polling shows the public thinks Brexit has harmed the country </p>
UK Politics

‘I never looked back’: Why readers chose a life abroad after Brexit

<p>Love Island popularised the phrase ‘the ick’</p>
Voices

The moment someone asks me out, I lose respect for them

<p>An inflation fall is a timely boost for Britain’s beleaguered chancellor, Rachel Reeves</p>
Voices

My four-point plan to get the tiger of inflation back in its cage

<p>Asylum seekers leaving Gravelines in northern France</p>
The Independent View

Let us try safe, legal routes before putting up nets to stop the boats

<p>Trump shouted at a reporter, telling her to be ‘quiet, piggy’ after she asked him a question about the Epstein files</p>
Voices

Who are you calling ‘piggy’, Mr President?

<p>Activists protest over the planned embassy in central London in February (PA/Jordan Pettitt)</p>
Voices

There’s only one way to deal with a bolshy Beijing, prime minister

<p>Dating apps and social media were blamed for funnelling people into echo chambers</p>
Lifestyle

‘Expectations are too high’: Readers on why they’ve giving up dating

<p>‘I want the world to know that Jamal was more than a journalist. He was my loving husband, a proud father of four, and a doting grandfather of three’</p>
Voices

I lost everything when my husband Jamal Khashoggi was murdered

<p>Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has at last put some fire in Labour’s belly</p>
The Independent View

Shabana Mahmood is showing leadership on the issue of migration

The Independent View

Shabana Mahmood is showing leadership on the issue of migration

Editorial
<p>Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has at last put some fire in Labour’s belly</p>
<p>‘For now, Mahmood has the support of Starmer, who knows that failing to tackle the asylum crisis is the single biggest threat to his long term survival as prime minister’</p>
Voices

Mahmood’s controversial asylum reforms could cause a political storm

<p>Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has won praise from fans of the former PM</p>
Voices

Is Shabana Mahmood now the true heir to Tony Blair?

<p>Trump has been calling for interest rate cuts as the US economy shudders</p>
Voices

Is it time to brace for a US recession?

<p>A decade on, children are still suffering the effects of explosive weapons in Aleppo</p>
Voices

The Syria I love is in ruins. I want to stop history repeating itself

<p>A decade on, children are still suffering the effects of explosive weapons in Aleppo</p>
Voices

The Syria I love is in ruins. I want to stop history repeating itself

<p>The Home Secretary also vowed to narrow the UK’s interpretation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the right to respect for private and family life</p>
UK Politics

‘Narrative of far-right lies’: Readers debate Labour’s asylum plans

<p>Home secretary Shabana Mahmood says illegal immigration is ‘tearing our country apart’ and ‘dividing communities’</p>
The Independent View

Labour is at a crossroads on illegal migration

<p>‘Trump’s facility for keeping his personal behaviour and his political fate in separate boxes should not be underestimated’</p>
Voices

Trump is playing a dangerous game with the Epstein Files

<p>‘Imagining role models like Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton doing a ‘hot girl walk’ when they inevitably collect their MBEs in the New Year Honours list 2025 isn’t just patronising – it’s offensive’</p>
Voices

Sky scored a huge own goal with its ‘girl sports’ TikTok channel

<p>‘Trans is Human, which started as a photography exhibition created by myself and my wife Hannah, was designed to help rehumanise a group of people that has been widely vilified and misrepresented, in a way that was relatable and accessible’</p>
Voices

My Trans is Human campaign will save lives – it’s as simple as that

<p>Ministers are set to announce a major overhaul of the asylum system in a bid to stop small boat crossings in the Channel (Ga</p>
Voices

Why the ECHR and its tone-deaf Strasbourg court need reining in

<p>Some 62 per cent of men believe that ‘women have too many expectations of how men should be in relationships’</p>
Voices

Women are the reason men are giving up on dating

<p>‘Any political party seeking to serve the public cannot dismiss the public’s concerns. Some of the measures Mahmood has announced are both long overdue and should command widespread support’</p>
Voices

Is Mahmood right to use the Trump playbook to curb small boats?

<p>Bellingham had impressive moments on the ball but was booked late on</p>
Football

‘England must learn to deal with genius’: Fans divided on Bellingham

<p>‘These are scavenger technologies. They know nothing, have zero experience and have no sense. They simply parrot what’s appeared online, rubbish or not, then recombine and synthesise the old data into a plausible-looking response’</p>
Voices

Relax, humans! Here’s why I find ChatGPT reassuringly stupid

<p>Anna Atkins’ now adult daughter, Lara, photographed at her sister’s wedding</p>
Voices

Our daughter went missing for 36 hours. The grief lasted a lifetime

Voices

Our daughter went missing for 36 hours. The grief lasted a lifetime

Anne Atkins
<p>Anna Atkins’ now adult daughter, Lara, photographed at her sister’s wedding</p>
<p>‘Rayner did not need to give an interview this weekend, however focused it was on her constituency work’</p>
The Independent View

Rayner’s reappearance is a further damning of Starmer’s leadership

<p>‘The Telegraph requires a great deal of cash to buy and then to invest, even for an asset that has fallen in value since it was acquired by the Barclay twins for £665m in 2004. Whoever buys it to must contend with a fired-up newsroom and coterie of pundits armed with a sense of entitlement and believe they know best’</p>
Voices

The deal that can’t get done. Who will buy The Telegraph now?

<p>‘Treating a friend like a subordinate can be an unconscious way to exert control. It can also be because somebody feels entitled and expects everyone around them to serve them’</p>
Voices

Why do my closest friends treat me like staff?

<p>Jack Harlow’s number one hit, ‘Lovin on Me’, contained the lyrics: 'I'm vanilla, baby, I'll choke you, but I ain't no killer, baby'</p>
Voices

Ministers will struggle to stop men strangling their partners

<p>Jack Harlow’s number one hit, ‘Lovin on Me’, contained the lyrics: 'I'm vanilla, baby, I'll choke you, but I ain't no killer, baby'</p>
Voices

Ministers will struggle to stop men strangling their partners

<p>Home secretary Shabana Mahmood is announcing measures to alter the asylum and immigration systems (Stefan Rousseau/PA)</p>
The Independent View

Shabana Mahmood must take care not to stoke xenophobia

<p>Krish Ramineni, left, and Sam Udotong, co-founders of Fireflies AI, which started out with them taking notes on meetings and pretending they were AI-generated</p>
Voices

The troubling case of the fake ‘genius’ AI assistant

<p>Attempts have been made to shore up Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure at No 10 this week (Stefan Rousseau/PA)</p>
Voices

Starmer’s week of chaos brings us closer to Farage as prime minister

<p>A front page from Nigeria’s This Day newspaper earlier this month</p>
Voices

Nigeria needs foreign military support to eliminate insecurity

<p>Jennifer Cahill and her baby daughter, Agnes, should still be alive. The answer to a system that traumatises women isn’t to trap them in it, it’s to fix it. If you still believe that hospitals are automatically safe places to give birth, then you’re simply not listening</p>
Voices

If you think hospitals are safe for mothers you’re not listening

<p>Many said their most productive years were spent under supportive leaders</p>
Lifestyle

‘She screamed in his face’: Readers share toxic boss stories

<p>‘Like a consultant tracing symptoms back to their root cause, we need to step back and ask what truly lies behind the unrest. And though this might not fit neatly with what the British Medical Association wants to say, I don’t think it should focus on pay’ </p>
Voices

I’m a doctor – and even I’m not sure we should be striking

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer may be repeating their tax errors from last year</p>
The Independent View

Rachel Reeves’s U-turn on income tax is needless, cowardly – and wrong

<p>The White House says Epstein’s emails about the president ‘prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong’</p>
Voices

Is this the beginning of the end for Trump and MAGA?

<p>The chancellor Rachel Reeves will unveil her Budget later this month</p>
Voices

If income tax isn’t going up… what is, chancellor?

<p>‘When you're a 16-year-old kid with no family, and then an 18-year-old kid who is grieving, it's hard to sort anything out when you can barely think straight, let alone get your life straight’</p>
Voices

At 16, I was cold, wet and homeless – I wish I’d known there was help

Voices

At 16, I was cold, wet and homeless – I wish I’d known there was help

Matty White
<p>‘When you're a 16-year-old kid with no family, and then an 18-year-old kid who is grieving, it's hard to sort anything out when you can barely think straight, let alone get your life straight’</p>
<p>‘Reeves promised to restore financial stability. Instead, we have had weakness, U-turns and mounting chaos’</p>
Voices

Britain has no idea who exactly is running this government

<p>A screenshot from an Instagram AI video 'The gorilla swings from the branch when the branch breaks, but his fingers remain on the stump'</p>
Voices

AI video fakes have destroyed what I used to love about Instagram

<p>Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the Budget in 12 days</p>
Voices

The tax ‘waffle bomb’ has detonated under Labour

<p>Outgoing director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, admitted that the corporation had ‘made some mistakes that have cost us’</p>
Home News

Have your say: How can the BBC adapt after Trump and various scandals?

<p>Outgoing director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, admitted that the corporation had ‘made some mistakes that have cost us’</p>
Home News

Have your say: How can the BBC adapt after Trump and various scandals?

<p>‘Reeves really doesn’t have much choice but to raise taxes because the alternative is a Liz Truss-style meltdown on the markets, which would obviously make a difficult situation very much worse’ </p>
Voices

No 10 needs to grow up – or we’ll wheeze our way into a recession

<p>The political reluctance even to ‘do the right thing’ and repatriate Afghan forces at risk of torture and execution at the hands of the Taliban was apparent almost from the first days after the hasty evacuation of Kabul</p>
The Independent View

The casual cruelty of the MoD’s Afghanistan cover-up is clear to see

<p>Prime minister Keir Starmer and home secretary Shabana Mahmood</p>
Voices

Dare we go the full Danish and make Britain a ‘zero refugee’ zone?

<p>Ed Miliband ruled himself out from standing to be Labour leader, saying having done it before, it was that ‘best inoculation’ against wanting the job</p>
Voices

How being PM became the top job that suddenly no one wants

<p>Karidja Toure and Idrissa Diabate in Girlhood: a 2014 French coming-of-age drama about Marieme, a Black teenager living on the outskirts of Paris</p>
Voices

My 14-year-old daughter is going too far, too fast with her boyfriend

EEUU-ARANCELES-DIVIDENDO-QUÉ SABER
Voices

The four-word message the BBC should send Trump about his $1bn lawsuit

<p>‘Far from being long-standing political foes, Wes Streeting and Morgan McSweeney are political kindred spirits. Streeting was a key figure in the Labour Together campaign group set up by McSweeney and credited with toppling Jeremy Corbyn as leader and replacing him with Starmer’</p>
Voices

Can Starmer’s chief aide Morgan McSweeney survive PM’s latest fiasco?

<p>Arne Slot reacts following the English League Cup fourth round football match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace at Anfield </p>
Football

‘Slot has wrecked the team’: Fans clash over Liverpool’s lost spark

EEUU-ARANCELES-DIVIDENDO-QUÉ SABER
Voices

The four-word message the BBC should send Trump about his $1bn lawsuit

<p>‘Far from being long-standing political foes, Wes Streeting and Morgan McSweeney are political kindred spirits. Streeting was a key figure in the Labour Together campaign group set up by McSweeney and credited with toppling Jeremy Corbyn as leader and replacing him with Starmer’</p>
Voices

Can Starmer’s chief aide Morgan McSweeney survive PM’s latest fiasco?

<p>Arne Slot reacts following the English League Cup fourth round football match between Liverpool and Crystal Palace at Anfield </p>
Football

‘Slot has wrecked the team’: Fans clash over Liverpool’s lost spark

<p>‘My citizenship means I can give service to God and the Church in my role as a diocesan bishop, and one who sits in the House of Lords – a role only afforded to those who are citizens’</p>
Voices

As a refugee, British citizenship changed me. Don’t deny others that

Voices

Can the PM survive winter ‘coup season’?

<p>Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has said the prime minister should now fire those who were plotting against him (Leon Neal/PA)</p>
Voices

No 10’s senseless attempt to save Starmer has backfired spectacularly

<p>US President Donald Trump during his state visit to the UK</p>
Voices

Trump has taken his media war global – and the BBC is helping him

<p>Florence Pugh with her then boyfriend Zach Braff, who was 21 years older</p>
Voices

I’m with Florence Pugh – what women really want is an age gap

<p>Donald Trump has threatened the BBC with a lawsuit over its editing of his January 6 speech, which led to the resignation of director general Tim Davie</p>
Voices

The BBC should stand up to Trump’s $1bn legal demand

<p>Tim Davie is right to be proud of the BBC’s journalists, but he and his most senior colleagues should be ashamed of the way they have handled the issues raised concerning the Trump ‘Panorama’ documentary</p>
The Independent View

This BBC crisis is about more than one stupid error

<p>Matseliso Lekhoele, 36, who is HIV-positive, with her two children, Bohlokoa, eight, and Maseabata, four, inside their home in Thaba-Tsoeu, Lesotho. Aid cuts will make medication harder to get</p>
Voices

The UK used to proudly lead the world on international aid – no longer

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