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Connor Stringer
Chief Washington Correspondent
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Few could have predicted an intervention like it. Yesterday, JD Vance took it upon himself to deliver a devastating rebuke of Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran.
For the vice-president, it was now or never. The longer he was associated with the president’s failing war with Iran, the more likely it was he would be seen to be abandoning his America First values.
“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote. “The president himself said so last night.
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”
The rebuke came without Trump’s approval and was a play by Vance and his inner circle to claim the mantle of the leader of the American Right before it was too late.
This analysis is available only to subscribers.
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Go deeper with our coverage of the midterms:
Full story: Vance breaks ranks with Trump ➤
Democrats tell Republicans to ‘lawyer up’ ➤
The world’s richest man and his biggest waste of money ➤
Trump marvels at his ballroom as the House falls down ➤
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Allister Heath
JD Vance is wrong to blame the Iran war alone for the Republicans’ shellacking in the midterms. The truth lies closer to home
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David Blair
Defeated at home, Trump will wreak havoc on the world stage
Continue reading ➤
John Bolton
The Democrats will now take revenge on Trump and his ilk
Continue reading ➤
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• Police chiefs are at war over Shabana Mahmood’s plans which could see the number of forces in England and Wales reduced from 43 to as few as nine.
• Lisa Nandy has ordered regulators to carry out a review of Sky’s £1.6bn takeover of ITV, citing concerns that the broadcaster could fall victim to interference by Donald Trump.
• Anti-Semitism by a pupil “in and of itself” should not warrant a referral to the Prevent programme, according to government guidance for teachers.
• Andy Burnham is poised to ban new drilling for oil and gas to end exploration in the North Sea. The proposed law would need a parliamentary majority to be repealed.
• A London school’s old boys’ cricket club have been demoted from their league for not having a girls’ team and a junior section. The team is largely made up of alumni of Hampton School, an all-boys school.
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Bosses could be sent to prison for failing to prevent staff from repeatedly using the wrong pronouns under Labour’s proposed conversion therapy law. Critics say the legislation leaves company directors vulnerable to prosecution and threatens to saddle employers with millions in extra costs. The Telegraph is leading the campaign to have it scrapped.
For subscribers only ➤
Suzanne Moore: Labour’s trans law is a disaster for young girls ➤
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When Michael Mosey, a retired policeman, was beaten to death with his own truncheon, his daughters Rachel and Carla were shattered. Years later, after his killer died in custody, fresh floral wreaths appeared in a family plot just yards away in Lanarkshire’s Carnwath Cemetery. Convinced their father’s murderer was about to share his resting place, the twins mounted an extraordinary battle.
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They fall from a clear sky with no roar of jets. Cheap, precise first-person view drones built with Iranian know-how and Chinese parts have given the Houthi rebels the upper hand in the battle over Bab al-Mandeb Strait, now a vital shipping lane since Hormuz closed. The Telegraph spoke to Yemeni officials to unpick how fighters in flip-flops, often high on drugs, are rewriting the rules of Yemen’s brutal 12-year-long civil war.
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Between calls to protect terrified pets and a government consultation on decibel limits, Britain’s 400-year-old Bonfire Night ritual of blowing things up is facing an existential reckoning. While low-noise pyrotechnics and gender-reveal smoke displays gain ground, the fireworks industry warns that silencing the big bangs will only spark a dangerous underground market.
Continue reading ➤
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Diane Abbott is (accidentally) a national treasure
In this column, one of our writers takes an unfashionable position, either defending a subject that’s been unfairly maligned or criticising something that most people love.
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Michael Deacon
Columnist & Assistant Editor
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I appreciate that not every reader of The Telegraph will be a devoted admirer of the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, the Rt Hon Diane Abbott. Her detractors may, for example, point to the time she told the BBC: “Some people would judge that, on balance, Mao did more harm than good.” Or the time she tweeted: “White people love playing ‘divide and rule’. We should not play their game.” Or the time she was stripped of the Labour whip for suggesting that Jews do not suffer racism “all their lives” like black people do – and that instead, Jews are merely subjected to “prejudice”, like “redheads” are.
Abbott’s critics would be perfectly within their rights to raise such objections. Indeed, no doubt they could amass numerous others. None the less, I genuinely believe that, whenever our longest-serving current female MP decides to retire from politics, we will miss her.
In case you don’t believe me, let us take a moment to reflect upon all the joy she has brought us – if not always, or indeed ever, on purpose.
Take the day of the 2019 general election, when she went out to vote, wholly oblivious to the fact that she was wearing two left shoes. Think too of her memoirs, when she revealed what exactly it had been like, in her youth, dating Jeremy Corbyn.
“After I lamented our lack of social activity as a couple,” she wrote, “he pondered it for a few days and told me we were going out. Feeling excited, I dressed up nicely and we bundled into the car. I had no idea where we were going – perhaps a nice wine bar? It turned Jeremy’s idea of a social outing was to drive me to Highgate cemetery and proudly show me the tomb of Karl Marx.”
I could also mention the romantic holiday to France on Jeremy’s East German “socialist” motorbike (“It broke down regularly”), or the Christmas they spent at the home of his parents (“Dinner seemed mostly about boiled vegetables… The house was freezing and there was no alcohol”).
Delightful stuff. The main reason we should feel forever grateful to Abbott, however, is this: in 2017, she gave the most sublimely hilarious interview in the history of politics.
Speaking to LBC, she began by pledging that a Labour government would recruit 10,000 police officers at a total cost of £300,000. As her bewildered interviewer pointed out, this would give each officer a salary of £30 a year. Undeterred, Abbott then proclaimed that, in the first year alone, she would recruit “250,000” officers. After her interviewer queried this figure, she re-examined her notes – and corrected it to 2,250.
Rarely have long-suffering voters been treated to such glorious entertainment. So for that, dear Diane, you will always deserve the nation’s heartfelt thanks.
Do you agree with Michael? Send your replies here. Please confirm in your response that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name.
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Wicked little letters
Every 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...
Good news from John Andrew as we limber up for the festive period: Royal Mail is doing its usual sterling work.
“On Oct 1, I posted a large letter from Pinner to my accountants in Evesham, enclosing the documents they needed to prepare my accounts,” he explained.
“I sent it by Royal Mail’s ‘Tracked 24’ service, which aims for next-day delivery and requires a signature upon receipt. Weighing 275 grams, it cost £5.95. It was not delivered until Oct 28. One could walk from Pinner to Evesham in less time.”
Such premium service sounded all too familiar to Patricia Beard: “On Tuesday I received a text message from a friend, thanking me for her birthday card. It had been posted from Hereford on July 2, giving it plenty of time to arrive for her birthday on July 9. She lives in Kent.
“I am wondering if I should enclose all of next year’s birthday and anniversary cards in this year’s Christmas cards to ensure that they arrive on time. That, of course, is assuming that the Christmas cards arrive before Easter 2027.”
My daughter turned two a few weeks ago, and I still have thank-you cards to send. Sounds like I’d better get my act together if they’re going to be delivered before her next birthday comes round.
Emma Lines had a suggestion, however: “Our daughter, currently travelling in rural Japan, posted us a stamped card from a matcha farm. It arrived at our home in Surrey five days later. Perhaps the fastest way to send a letter in Britain is to take it to Japan first.”
I can see it: legions of British Christmas card-writers, scribbling away in Tokyo.
Do you have an even more spectacular delay to report? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of this newsletter.
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1605 | Guy Fawkes fails to blow up the Houses of Parliament
1937 | Adolf Hitler informs his military leaders in a secret meeting of his intention to go to war
2020 | Joe Biden is elected US president, defeating Donald Trump. The former Republican president also claims a win, and launches a legal challenge in an attempt to stop votes being counted
2024 | Donald Trump is re-elected to the White House, defeating sitting vice-president Kamala Harris after Joe Biden, the former president, drops out of the race over health concerns (see our front pages from both elections years below)
Birthdays: Alexa Chung (43) Jonny Greenwood (55), Sam Rockwell (58), Tilda Swinton (66)
Plus, in the news this week, Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband played the steel drum while in Antigua for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. What was their song of choice?
1. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
2. Baa Baa Black Sheep
3. Mary Had a Little Lamb
4. The Wheels on the Bus
Click one of the options to reveal the answer...
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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 ENDORPHIN. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle.
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Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.
Chris Evans, Editor
I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk.
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