Day: July 12, 2016

    She's a vicar's daughter who's a fan of Geoffrey Boycott, kitten heels, colourful clothes and cooking. She drinks Earl Grey tea, has more than 100 cook books and lives in the same picture postcard village as George Clooney. Theresa May, who will be 60 in October, suddenly finds herself poised to become Prime Minister two months earlier than she expected. She will have Cabinet appointments to make, favours to repay and a Conservative Party badly split by the EU referendum to unite. But she will do all those in her usual unflappable manner, without fuss and with the steel and determination she has shown in her six years as Home Secretary. At her side, more than ever as she prepares to move into Britain's most famous address, 10 Downing Street, will be her loyal husband Phili...

    The FTSE 100 index burst into bull market territory after Theresa May emerged as successor to David Cameron, providing a further boost to surging stocks on both sides of the Atlantic. Within minutes of Andrea Leadsom announcing that she was leaving the field clear for May to become leader, the index of Britain’s biggest listed companies rose to the point where it had gained more than 20% since February’s low – the technical definition of a bull market. The FTSE100 has now risen by 1,145 points since it hit a 2016 nadir of 5537 on 11 February, when investors were anxious about the low oil price and threat of global recession. Share prices had already been supported by growing speculation that the Bank of England is ready to cut interest rates from 0.5% to 0.25% on Thursday ...

    I’m not even sure I should be writing this. I am, after all, a childless woman. Do I have enough of a stake in the future of our society to have an opinion? Can I really get my head around the complex, emotionally knotty issues of the day when my childless state means I’m incapable of understanding anything as profoundly as a mother can? I only ask because Andrea Leadsom – the woman who until yesterday was our potential future prime minister – seemed to be worrying about my ability to care. Her comments that she was more “directly” involved in the future of our country because she had children, while Theresa May had none proved to be the final nail in the coffin of her putative leadership bid. I wasn’t particularly surprised. Remarks like Leadsom’s go far beyond the usual ...