News about John Major

The Tories were braced for a brutal defeat. They have suffered a massacre, writes Leo McKinstry. Carnage on this scale has not been seen before in any set of municipal elections this century. The pattern of overnight results indicates that the Conservatives will lose more than half of all the council seats they have been defending. This unfolding disaster was compounded by the humiliation of the Blackpool South by-election (above right), where - at 26 per cent - the swing to Labour was the third biggest since the war.

PETER HITCHENS:Many years ago, I made Harriet Harman laugh. We were on a BBC Question Time panel in Cambridge , discussing the piteous state of the nation's trains. And I asked: 'What is the point of the Labour Party if it cannot renationalise the railways?' It still seems to me to be a good question. For last week's Labour document, designed to look like the return of British Rail, is in fact nothing of the sort. It is a lame acceptance that John Major 's weird privatisation scheme has utterly failed. As each rail franchise collapses back into the arms of the state, it will remain under government control. But the idiotic, dogma-driven structure of the railways will remain unfixed. As Labour's own document lamely admits, the carriages and locomotives on which passengers must travel will stay in the hands of rolling stock companies, because 'with ten current rolling stock companies owning and leasing trains and carriages worth billions, it would not be responsible for the next Labour Government to take on the cost of renationalising rolling stock'. In other words, they can't afford to do it. So-called 'open access' will also continue. This allows extra operators to cram trains on to crowded tracks, running in between the normal services. This is presumably to make it look as if competition has returned to the railways for the first time since about 1914, as if anyone cared.

On the 48,000-acre estate Mr Moran acquired, almost 60 turbines form the Dorenell wind farm whose operators pay rent estimated at more than £1million a year to the landowner.

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: China is not just any country. It is the ultimate surveillance state, obsessively watching its own citizens and aggressively spying on the rest of the world. The Communist regime's plan for global domination involves waging a constant and secret war against the West. It is also the world's largest producer of electric cars. And while it sounds like the plot of some dystopian sci-fi movie, these vehicles might be Beijing's latest intelligence-gathering weapon. As we report today, the Government has asked the National Cyber Security Centre to review urgently how these vehicles could be used for malign purposes.

Tory MP Mark Menzies was surprisingly upbeat as he entered the division lobby on Tuesday to vote for Rishi Sunak's flagship legislation to ban smoking for future generations. Only half his party were said to be backing the Bill and so, joked Menzies, the Prime Minister might reward any loyalist who did. But if he had fantasies of promotion, they proved fleeting. The next day Menzies, the MP for Fylde, Lancashire, was approached by a newspaper with the bombshell allegations that he had misused thousands of pounds of campaign funds.

Research by Ipsos put the Tories on just 19 per cent - a point down on last month and the worst since the company started doing comparable surveys in 1978. Reform UK was not far behind on 13 per cent, as Nigel Farage mulls a comeback. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak 's personal ratings have dropped to minus 59, matching the all-time floor set by John Major in 1994. Just 16 per cent were satisfied with the job Mr Sunak is doing as PM, with 75 per cent dissatisfied.

The world and his wife are convinced of these two things. The economy is in a dreadful mess. And, largely because of this, Labour will win the election by a huge majority, writes Stephen Glover. It's accepted not just in Labour circles but by many Conservatives that the Tories have squandered 14 years, 'crashed' (a favourite word) the economy, and will be leaving a terrible legacy, which our great-grandchildren will discuss in tones of wonder and amazement. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves never misses an opportunity to harp on this theme. The other day, she declared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that 'the economic inheritance that the next government will have will be dire... This is the worst economic inheritance since World War II'.

Was the ultimate success of D-Day due, in large part, to a single man?A man whose real identity was unknown until the 1980s - and, even today, is hardly a household name? It seems that it's just a tad too much like a Hollywood movie to be true. And yet, here's the suggestion of the brilliant, even obsessive,'molehunter' and spy tracker, Nigel West, a pseudonym for Rupert Allason, a Conservative MP under Mrs Thatcher and John Major's book about his espionage over the past 50 years.

Eclipses have been believed to herald dramatic shifts and are particularly associated with royalty since antiquity. The emperors of ancient China would abdicate in order to prevent what was believed to be negative electricity from an eclipse, and instead have a proxy emperor over the throne for the duration. Medieval archers will fire a volley of arrows to the Moon at the behest of a worried king in an attempt to prevent a looming lunar eclipse. Centuries later, celestial events and their links with beginnings and endings have underpinned significant milestones in our modern Royal Family — as well as our King.

The Conservative Party has already lost the next election. The only remaining question is the severity of the tragedy. That comes at the end of extensive recent constituency polling, which indicates that the party is on the verge of the worst result in its history.

All in all, this week has been the most glorious week for republicanism since a young Harry and Meghan leapt out of the royal landscape four years ago. Across the globe, journalists from around the world have a scathing commentary skewering the Royal Family of the United Kingdom. France Info, a public-service radio, sneered at the ongoing'fiasco,' while Italy's La Repubblica newspaper scornfully challenged the monarchy's legitimacy. The New York Times, which seldom misses a chance to criticize Britain and its institutions, penned a'storm of questions,' and issued a polite reminder that the King's family suffered from a "lingering credibility deficit."

According to figures from the Office of Budget Responsibility, the government's insurance premiums are now higher than those from much despised inheritance tax.

Sir John Major blasted Tory MPs for attempting to topple Rishi Sunak and install a fourth new prime minister since the 2019 general election. The former prime minister, who led the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, came out at Tory'malcontents' who were eager to carry on the party's recent years of violence. Sir John said that it was not 'contributive to high morale or a charitable government' in a scathing attack at Westminster. When she arrived No. 10, she slammed ex-PM Liz Truss for the dismissal of the Treasury's top civil servant, although he did not spare Mr Sunak while criticizing the Rwanda refugee policy. Sir John teamed up with fellow former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to defeat calls for a reform of how Britain is run. The UK's cabinet ministry had been 'too large and cumbersome,' he said.

According to the Department, the freeze in service would save drivers by around £5 billion-per-year. Yet, taxable fuels will still make up more than half of what drivers pay at the pumps. Here's a deep dive into fuel duty, including how much money the 14-year freeze has cost the Treasury, how much the tax has been invested, and how it compares to duties on petrol and diesel in other European countries.

The former London minister revealed he would resign later this year despite gloom surrounding the party's chances of remaining in power. He announced that he would not contest his Sutton and Cheam post, saying that the party had 'lost its way' and needed more attention. After weeks of public wrangling over the economy, migrant, and race relations, he cautioned that it was in a 'ideological cul-de-sac' and could have pushed it even further if it did not attract younger audiences. In a pithy summation, he advised the party to return to the center ground by saying, 'We can work with the bell curve or become the bell-ends.' We need to make that decision. I fear the electorate already is!'

Figures have revealed that 254 of England's 314 councils charge to collect green waste, also known as a 'garden tax.' The number of charging residents has increased in recent years from around two-thirds (62 percent) in 2019 to less than half (48 percent) in 2016. Annual fees average £56, but a handful of councils charge as much as £100. Any town halls now bill families for a garden waste can.

Prince Andrew, his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York's daughters, Princess Beatrice d's niece, Prince Charles' niece, Zara Tindall, and other guests of the Greek royal family were all welcomed to Camilla's funeral service. FEMAIL follows a closer look at the guests who attended the service.

This follows the decision of club owner Bill Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire's uncle, to lift the ban on women in an attempt to resurrect the basement party, which was mainly motheaten Tories. According to reports, 40 percent of them have either resigned or threatened to do so as a result of her election. But there is a drawback for the former home secretary, who will now have to warn all male serving staff'George' and all females 'Georgina', a Pratt's tradition.

To see power in formation, to be on Glasgow's Scottish Event Campus last weekend. During Anas Sarwar's bruising address on Saturday, lobbyists and companies gathered for coffee and croissants in a break from manning the hundreds of stalls constructed for the occasion. A few grand got you into the venue and the hope that you might have a 'brush past' with Mr Sarwar, or, better still, a shadow UK minister up for the day.

John Bruton, the former Irish prime minister who paved the way for the Good Friday Treaty, has died at the age of 76. Mr Bruton, the former prime minister of Fine Gael from 1990 to 1996, served as the head of the 'rainbow coalition' government from 1994 to 1997. Mr Bruton 'contributed notably to the early days of the peace process' and sacrificed 'political self-interest to move the course toward the end of violence,' says ex-UK Prime Minister Sir John Major.

Derek Draper's name became synonymous with the Coronavirus pandemic's horrific toll in his last years. With Covid-19, the former 'ruthless political strategist' spent more than a year in hospital beginning in early 2020 and eventually not recovering. However, it was as a central New Labour figure that he was remembered by his former colleagues after he died at the age of 56 last month. The respect shown today by the presence of Labour's leading lights in the 1997 election at Primrose Hill, north London, was evident. Derek, who was instrumental in Labour's victory over John Major's Conservative government, was honoured today by figures led by former Prime Minister Tony Blair (inset today with wife Cherie). The New Labour spin doctor attained a slew of influence in the 1990s but he was best known for his involvement in the 'lobbygate' scandal. He began working as a researcher for Blairite Peter Mandelson, who attended his funeral. Derek joined GPC Market Access in 1996 and created Progress with Liam Byrne, a former minister who went on to become an MP. Mr Draper, 1998 (left) with Labour colleagues Neil Kinnock, John Prescott, and Peter Mandelson in the early 1990s (top right); with his wife during her time on I'm a Celebrity in 2019.

Rishi Sunak's allies are growing outraged over what they see as a calculated attempt to overthrowrown the entire government. However, the events of the last week have shown that the rebels aren't about to stop. They will continue to attack and humiliate the Prime Minister until such MPs confirm it's time for another party leadership contest, or the general election to force the British people to vote. That's why Rishi Sunak now has to do a John Major.

West Bromwich Albion is also haunted by a feeling of anxiety as they look forward to resurrecting one of England's most formidable rivalries against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday. For the first three years, Albion's supporters have been worried about the city's very existence. However, although this 146-year-old team is still in danger, there is growing hope that Albion will be sold in the coming weeks to bring an end to one of the most troubling chapters in modern history. Shilen Patel, a US businessman, is expected to be the front-runner to take over. However, there is still some mystery and worry before the agreement is concluded.

This week Bel advises a reader who fears her marriage is in trouble