Is the Brexit-bolstered bulletproof screen around Boris Johnson’s Conservative government about to shatter? The UK prime minister is embroiled in yet another sleaze scandal after a thwarted attempt to bend parliamentary standards rules, in order to shield a now ex-Tory MP who was found to have been lobbying for private firms.
As our lead story explores this week, it’s the latest in a long list of sleaze episodes to have eroded the government’s public standing. We look at all the claims – and ask whether the next person on the standards committee’s list might be the PM himself.
And, in a week when Johnson welcomed the world to the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow – before departing in a private jet – we find out how his part-statesman, part-standup patter went down with international delegates.
Cop26 moved towards its final stages this week. How close is the climate conference to delivering the changes needed to limit global heating to a manageable level? Global environment editor Jonathan Watts rounds up what has been achieved in the early stages – and where efforts have fallen short.
A decade has passed since the death of Jimmy Savile, the British DJ and TV presenter posthumously exposed as a sexual predator and a paedophile. But the story of the BBC reporters who risked their careers to break the news is less well-known. Poppy Sebag-Montefiore reveals a sorry tale of institutional failure at the broadcaster.
Our culture reads this week include a deep delve into the world of non-fungible tokens, the digital crypto-artworks tearing up the staid norms of the art world.
Then there’s an interview with Jane Campion, the feted New Zealand film director whose brooding new western, The Power of the Dog, is about to hit screens.
