The Standard

After the Owen Paterson scandal, Tory sleaze claims are back in the headlines, particularly second jobs...but how damaging is it? And will voters care? MP Geoffrey Cox is facing calls to step down after his moonlighting as an almost £1,000-an-hour lawyer in the British Virgin Islands via his Commons office was revealed. And Andrew Bowie’s quit as Conservative vice-chairman in protest at the wake o...

The metaverse...it’s being sold to us as the next big thing in social media, using high-definition 3D online avatars to communicate with each other online. It’s boomed over the last year, with Big Tech wanting to draw consumers deeper into their worlds and Facebook rebranding as Meta. But with increasing concerns about the impact of compulsive social media use on our mental health, what are the ri...

Two passenger jets operated by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic took off in unison on the 3,500-mile route to New York’s JFK, 20 months after America’s entry ban for non-US passengers travelling from the UK as the pandemic took hold. How has the air travel experience changed, and can the government square its cheerleading of the aviation industry with Cop26 pledges to cut pollution? We speak to...

The Prime Minister is under pressure amid the fall out from the increasingly toxic Owen Paterson row. Senior Tories say Boris Johnson has been ‘weakened’ by the humiliating u-turn. Has this damaged his authority? The Evening Standard’s Political Editor Nicholas Cecil shares his insight on how we got here and where this all leaves the PM now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...

Is the end of coal in sight? It’s energy day at COP26 and the focus is on how the world can move away from fossil fuels. More than 40 countries have committed to moving away from coal but big users and producers like China, India, Australia and the US have not. The Evening Standard’s Deputy Political Editor, David Bond, walks us through the progress so far and the potential sticking points wi...

Cleo Smith, the missing four-year-old in Australia, has been found safe and well after disappearing 18 days ago from her family’s tent at a campsite. Police officials and the Australian Prime Minister have spoken about their joy and relief to have reunited the little girl with her family. John Dunne, Crime Reporter for the Evening Standard, walks us through this incredible story with a happy endin...

The UK has had to apologise to an Israeli minister who couldn’t attend the COP26 summit because the venue was not wheelchair accessible. Israel’s Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources tweeted that it was "sad" the UN "does not provide accessibility to its events". So, just how does the UK compare when it comes to disability rights and accessibility? Hosted on Acast. See...

In line with COP26, we find out about the celebrity comic book which is trying to combat climate change. We speak to Rewriting Extinction's Paul Goodenough and Hollywood star Andy Serkis who, with a host of other names, have teamed up to create 'The Most Important Comic Book on Earth' - a book full of original comics aimed at highlighting the climate and biodiversity crisis. They want more creativ...

Insulate Britain spokesperson and eco-home builder Craig Scudder discusses the group’s continuing protests, the need for public support and his hopes for the upcoming COP26.On Friday, some activists from the group decided to try and walk along the M25 into oncoming traffic to get their message heard. Craig tells the Evening Standard; the group is not officially changing tactics to walking along mo...

As reports of people being spiked by injections continue to rise, students and young women across the country have held boycotts against nightclubs to raise awareness of the issue. Data from a student survey as well as figures from The National Police Chiefs Council show there is a real problem growing for people on nights out. The Evening Standard’s feature writer Katie Strick discusses the growi...

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced his budget for the UK’s recovery from the pandemic. It was full of terms about the country becoming a ‘World Leader’ in things like innovation and science, as Mr Sunak laid out his plans to boost the economy post-covid. HSBC’s Senior Economic Advisor and Evening Standard columnist Stephen King discusses some of the highlights, which measures are questionabl...

New leaked documents show the cost of rolling out the government’s proposed ‘Plan B’ for tackling coronavirus could reach up to £18billion. The files, leaked to Politico London Playbook show the cost to the economy could be between £11billion and £18billion, if the measures were in place for five months. The back-up plan by the government includes a return to working from home, covid passports for...

Ross Phillips from the not-for-profit group the Cross River Partnership discusses the new ULEZ expansion in the city, how it works, why it’s needed, and how Londoners can live with it. The city’s pollution charge zone officially became 18 times bigger on Monday, in a bid to improve air quality across the capital. The Ultra-Low-Emission-Zone, also called ‘ULEZ’, now extends out to the North and Sou...

Thirty-five years after the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl - or Chornobyl in Ukrainian - Professor Tom Scott, a nuclear expert at the University of Bristol and Royal Academy research fellow, is using robo dogs to help local scientists decommission the exploded reactor entombed in a decaying “sarcophagus”. A sarcophagus is the size of a small cathedral and was built over Reactor 4 foll...

A possible 100,000 Covid cases a day - that was the warning from Health Secretary Sajid Javid. It’s looking like another difficult winter for Londoners going about our working lives, and we know how those everyday tasks become logistical challenges - no wonder the London Chamber of Commerce is urging “decisive” government action about the road ahead. So how will this uncertainty hit the pound in o...

Winter is coming...and as the nights draw in there’s a warning from our recent past - could we see Covid cases overwhelm hospital beds, and should we ride it out or batten down the hatches once more?   As Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng rules out another lockdown, we talk data and risk for the months ahead with Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Government’s vaccination advisory body the...

Heat pumps and electric cars...it’s all part of a £1 billion vision meant to help us reach carbon “net zero”. With all eyes on Britain ahead of Cop26 kicking off in a few weeks, the Government’s been laying out its eco hopes for the future. So is today’s announcement just window dressing ahead of Cop26, and more fantasy maths à la Boris Johnson’s infamous NHS Brexit ‘promise’? Alice Bell, co-direc...

As anti-terror police question the suspect in the killing of Sir David Amess, MPs hold a minute’s silence in the Commons for their fallen colleague. So just how safe are Parliamentarians to go about their constituency business, and when does online hate become real-world risk? We speak to former Met Detective Inspector Philip Grindell, who advised Parliament following the murder of Jo Cox and is n...

After six long years Adele is back with new music Easy On Me. We speak to the Evening Standard’s Celebrity Correspondent Lizzie Edmonds about the megastar’s return to the spotlight. Adele’s hotly anticipated album 30 is out next month, we discuss everything we know so far about the project and whether or not a 2022 tour is on the cards.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...

The Duke of Cambridge wants the likes of Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk to focus on saving this planet rather than trying to reach the next. Is he right? We talk it over with physical geographer Dr Eloise Marais from University College London. She tells us about the impact all these rocket launches are having on the planet right now as well as potential problems in the future. We also a...

The Evening Standard’s Jack Kessler joins us to explain what’s been renegotiated between the UK and the EU over Brexit. The European Union’s relaxing rules on checks for goods like chilled meats going into Northern Ireland, which the UK says are causing disruption for supplies. But with Brexit minister Lord Frost warning Britain could invoke Article 16 and unilaterally revoke the whole thing, will...

Evening Standard columnist Emma Loffhagen joins the podcast as former Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson’s forced to deny claims she’s appropriating black culture. The ‘Boyz’ singer’s not the first person in the entertainment industry to be accused of “blackfishing”, with stars such as the Kardashians also having similar claims made against them. Emma tells us how the problem appears to be getting wors...

The Evening Standard’s Reveller editor, David Ellis, joins us to discuss Salt Bae’s new restaurant in Knightsbridge, which serves a steak for £840 and a cappuccino for a bargain £50. Nusr-Et’s been slammed by critics, including our own Jimi Famurewa, but remains packed with punters and celebrities keen to have the internet-famous chef slice up their meat at their table. But can a restaurant surviv...

Thousands of people have been flocking to travel agents and airlines after the UK government lifted red list restrictions on all but seven countries. We speak to our political editor Nicholas Cecil who tells us that one travel agent says enquiries are up 400% as the country leaps on the opportunity to take a foreign break. He also tells us about the new testing rules that are being brought in, whi...

The Evening Standard's associate editor Jonathan Prynn joins the show to explain why the cost of living in the UK's apparently about to rise by a huge amount. Energy companies are warning of big price increases next year as the wholesale cost of gas goes up along with demand for supplies with the world waking up from the Covid pandemic. Tax increases are also expected, and the Bank of En...