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Tony Diver Political Editor |
There are electoral fortresses, and then there is the Labour Party’s grip on Wales.
For more than a century, no other party has come close to its level of political dominance there.
For many in the party, including some of Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet ministers, Wales is a political and personal home.
All that could be about to change. An exclusive MRP poll, released by The Telegraph, predicts that Labour will slip to third place in the Senedd elections on May 7, behind Plaid Cymru and Reform UK.
That is the most shocking fact in the seat projections for our Divided Britain series, but not the only bad news for Sir Keir. The data show Labour will also be routed by Reform in England, losing heartlands in the North, including Sunderland, which it has held for 50 years.
In London, Labour will remain the largest party but lose two boroughs, while the Greens will win Haringey and Hackney.
There are already sharks circling the Prime Minister, who is under pressure to perform at the local and devolved elections or face losing his job to one of his colleagues. The data show that risk is very real indeed.
This exclusive polling is available to subscribers only.
Continue reading ➤ |
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Akhtar Makoii Foreign Correspondent |
When Iran sent one of its largest-ever diplomatic delegations to Pakistan over the weekend, the world assumed it was about ending the war. It was. However, that wasn’t the only reason they were there.
For 40 days, US-Israeli strikes on command centres and leadership facilities had left Iran’s ruling class unable to safely meet in Tehran, Isfahan or Qom.
Senior generals, clerics and bureaucrats were scattered and isolated, a regime built entirely on face-to-face governance was suddenly unable to govern.
The peace talks gave them a room to regroup.
Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, Abdolnaser Hemmati, the central bank governor, and IRGC advisers – together, finally able to co-ordinate.
Left to right: Field Marshal Asim Munir, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker, and Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister |
One Iranian official told us that the Islamabad trip allowed leaders to exchange information and prepare for the possibility that war would resume. Whether a deal was reached almost didn’t matter.
Hovering over everything is the question: where is the new supreme leader? Is he even alive? Ghalibaf assured everyone that he was.
The talks lasted 21 hours before JD Vance walked out, citing Iranian positions on nuclear enrichment and the Strait of Hormuz.
Araghchi said they were inches from a deal. Ghalibaf said Washington never earned Tehran’s trust.
Both sides say talks could resume, but no date has been set.
For subscribers only ➤
Plus, Trump: Nato won’t be there for us in future – follow live ➤ |
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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard All Tehran must do is survive for another few months and wait for the oil crunch to really bite Continue reading ➤
Allison Pearson We want people jailed for failing to prevent the mass murder of our children Continue reading ➤
Sketch by Patrick Kidd The writing’s on the wall for Kemi and her bunch of scrubbers Continue reading ➤ |
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Giorgia Meloni – and her doppelganger secretary – at a wine fair in Verona |
Perry Power: ‘My father was furious when he discovered what my grandmother’s husband had done to me, but never told anyone about his own experiences’ |
The stigma of sexual abuse, especially within families, means that few survivors feel able to talk about it, spending years living in silent shame, writes Perry Power. I was still at primary school when my grandfather abused me. Only later in life did I learn that I was not the only victim. Continue reading ➤ |
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Graham Robinson is a typical ‘Henry’, earning more than £100,000 a year but not feeling the benefit |
Hitting a salary of £100k thanks to a SIM-card company was “the dream” for Graham Robinson, who grew up scraping by. However, he still drives an 18-year-old Audi, uses his full overdraft every month and holidays only in the UK. He is left scratching his head and told us: “When I started the business seven years ago, I did hope to be able to at least treat myself to something.”
Continue reading ➤
Think you could do a better job of making ends meet on a six-figure income? Try your hand at our choose-your-own-adventure game and see if you can close off the month with cash to spare.
Try it here ➤ |
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Potholes drive many of us mad, but spare a thought for rural motorists. Local amenity closures and reduced public transport mean they rely on their cars, yet funding cuts have left them with roads that look like Swiss cheese. Take Devon, the county with the largest road network in Britain, but relatively few council taxpayers to fund their maintenance. Add in poor connectivity, which makes electric car charging impossible in some areas, and you start to understand why countryside car owners feel left behind. Continue reading ➤ |
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Celebrities’ timeless airport style is an endless source of inspiration for us mere mortals. Make sure you get travel dressing right |
Not so long ago, people got dressed up to take a flight, writes Frankie Graddon. They didn’t wear tracksuits (or worse, pyjamas). Flying was a special occasion, and stars such as Joan Collins and Jackie Kennedy set the sartorial standards. We all need to put a little more thought into our aeroplane attire when we go on holiday this year – there’s no need to sacrifice comfort, but it is possible to look more stylish. Your ticket may say EasyJet, but your outfit doesn’t need to. Continue reading ➤ |
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Unfamiliar, a new six-part Netflix drama about Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, is one of Netflix’s most-watched non-English dramas |
Netflix’s spy drama Unfamiliar, the first to be made with the co-operation of Berlin’s Federal Intelligence Service, is a hit with both German viewers and real-life spooks. Yet it was created by a former Emmerdale writer who doesn’t speak a word of Deutsch. He tells Colin Freeman how he did it. Continue reading ➤ |
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We’ve travelled a long way from Margaret Thatcher’s dream of a property-owning democracy, and not in the right direction, writes Poppy Coburn, our Associate Comment Editor. Perhaps that’s why the radical Left policies of Zack Polanski have boosted the Green Party to be the number one choice for under-50s. It’s fashionable to sneer about meritocracy, but it’s the best hope of getting the country back on board with capitalism. To get there, we’ll need nothing less than a conservative revolution.
On this subject and much more, join Allister Heath, Michael Gove, Suzanne Moore and Charles Moore and me on Wednesday, April 22, for a lively debate in Westminster’s beautiful Emmanuel Centre, where you’ll have the chance to put your questions to our panel in a live Q&A. Sign up here ➤ Below are two more articles I hope you’ll find helpful this morning:
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‘Aura farming’: The latest addition to Gen Z slang
Anna Wintour has been aura farming for decades, recently seen doing so alongside Tilda Swinton and Nicole Kidman at Paris Fashion Week in January |
It’s hard to keep track of what’s in and what’s out when it comes to Gen Z. In today’s edition, LA Robinson, our youthful Lifestyle Writer, investigates a new addition to young people’s vernacular.
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LA Robinson Lifestyle Writer |
On a walking tour of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University last week, our guide, a dignified woman of 60-something with tortoiseshell glasses and crisp diction, began to explain the meaning of the term “aura farming” to our group. Pardon me? I thought. Is a representative of this revered academic institution endorsing the use of a term borne from Gen Z’s social media school of thought?
Allow me to explain the internet phrase’s meaning. In this case, “aura” refers to the energy or vibe that radiates from a person. “Farming” is what said person does in order to cultivate this aura. Social platforms are rife with the term, but examples can be found everywhere.
Take Daniel Craig as James Bond when he slowly, luxuriously took his time exiting the ocean wearing those little shorts in Casino Royale. He didn’t rush and splash about like a whale at Sea World. Or Anna Wintour, sitting front row at fashion weeks gone by with those big, black, bug-eyed glasses, emanating ice queen authority.
Both were practising the art of aura farming.
Or even King William III of Orange, specifically as he is depicted holding a candle in a 17th-century portrait by Godfried Schalcken. On a visit to Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum recently, I witnessed a teenage boy post a picture of it to his Instagram with the caption “bro is aura farming [fire emoji]”. At least the youth still appreciate fine art.
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Godfried Schalcken’s ‘William III (1650–1702), by Candlelight’ |
However, back to my Oxford tour guide. She was explaining that “aura farming” was the runner-up for the most recent Oxford English Dictionary word of the year, so it’s worth paying attention to. That is, if you can get over your feelings at such a term being considered at all. Perhaps I should direct you to the winning entry: “rage bait”.
Are you scratching your head over any Gen Z trends and need them explained? Let me know here and I will try my best to translate them in a future edition. |
Stage frightsEvery weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal reader correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
It’s a scenario echoed in countless anxiety dreams: the stage is set, the lights are glaring down and the whole audience awaits your turn. Mark Twain was so nervous on his first public appearance that he packed the theatre with friends who could be relied upon to pound the floor every time he said anything amusing.
For actors who must tread the boards night after night, this option is not so readily available. Instead, they must endure the gazes of the uncomprehending, the uninterested, and, increasingly, the technologically distracted.
Lesley Manville recently expressed her frustration with audience members filming during the curtain call: “Why can’t they let it live in their souls for five minutes? Clap – or don’t clap – but don’t just stick up your phone in our faces. I find it insulting.”
Her objection resonated with several readers. Short of an outright ban, “a new rule should be embraced worldwide, forbidding any filming of the first curtain call,” wrote Tony Parrack.
“This is the Zen question,” observed another: “Do you pluck that beautiful flower or treasure the memory? I know people whose default setting is to whip out the phone, photograph the meal and make their friends assume false smiles. They don’t seem able to enjoy the moment.”
Then we were on to further examples of misbehaviour: in particular, the vexed question of food and drink. Ann Miles invoked a sympathetic shudder in me with her recollection of a production of Macbeth during which “I endured a member of the audience sucking on Cadbury creme eggs”.
Other countries seem to strike a balance between individual enjoyment and public-spiritedness. “A very kind friend of ours bought us tickets for a matinee at the Kabuki theatre in Tokyo”, recalled Mario Spinazi. “The audience opened and closed their sushi lunch boxes synchronized almost to the seconds of the interval.”
Historically, standards haven’t always been so high. “In 19th-century America”, Paul Scrivener told us, “it was not unusual for people to go on stage and join in the fight scenes or for people to show disapproval of actors by throwing vegetables, bags of soot and, in one case, live geese at the actors.”
I’ve never been a great fan of participatory theatre, but I must applaud the level of advanced planning on display here. Where do you stand on phones in theatres? Would you tackle a rogue in the stalls? Send your responses here and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of this newsletter.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. |
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The Head of a Woman by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1941, has a new owner. How much did they pay for it?
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was FRETFULLY. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. |
Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here. |
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