| The Home Office's decision to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation was unlawful, the High Court has ruled. The judgement said the ban was "disproportionate" to the current nature and scale of the protest group's activities. The ruling could result in the collapse of hundreds of criminal prosecutions against the group's supporters. Pupils in England will be allowed to change their gender at school and use different pronouns, including, in "exceptionally rare" instances, at primary school. New guidance published by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson says staff must consult parents over the decision, and that the children will still have to use facilities in line with their biological sex. London will get its first official swimming spot in the River Thames as part of new government plans to clean up the water in 13 designated bathing sites. Other dipping destinations include a tidal inlet of the River Yealm in Devon, the River Avon at Wiltshire's Queen Elizabeth Gardens and Pangbourne Meadow in Berkshire. | | |  | Starmer with Rayner, pointing out his new political direction. Chris Radburn/Pool/Getty |
| The "soft left" are in charge now | Amid all the speculation and gossip and manoeuvring in Westminster this week, one outcome is beyond doubt, says Patrick Maguire in The Times: the Labour right's leadership of their party and the government is over. That's not my analysis – it's the "logical conclusion" of everything Keir Starmer has said and done. The people he has washed his hands of – Peter Mandelson, Morgan McSweeney, his former communications director Matthew Doyle – were "indispensable" to him only a few months ago. They "interpreted politics for him", and therefore set the terms on which his actions were interpreted by the media and the public. "Now he tells us those people were wrong." | All of which means we will soon see a "demonstrative, iterative, apologetic" shift in power to Labour's soft left: the likes of Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Lucy Powell. Some among them wanted to inflict the "coup de grâce" on the PM on Monday, but wiser heads prevailed. They know they have total control over the prime minister for the rest of his time in office. No doubt in the coming weeks we'll hear tributes to a man "at last prepared to govern as his authentic self". Don't fall for it. This new "authentic self" will be the opposite of the authentic self that was briefed to hacks like me six months ago, which in turn was different to the authentic self I was told about a year ago, and a year before that. The one consistent feature of Starmer's leadership is that he has always been defined by someone else. What comes next will be no different. As one of his friends tells me: "He's been liberated… back into captivity." | 📉😐 With Andy Burnham blocked from becoming an MP, the two remaining "big beasts" in the running to succeed Starmer are Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting, says Ben Walker in The New Statesman. And voters can't stand either. Rayner is popular with Labour members but her favourability ratings among the wider public are almost as low as Starmer's. Streeting has "no purchase on the rank-and-file", and among the small proportion of voters who have actually heard of him, "he is disliked". | | | | Advertisement | | An Italian Escape
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| At the end of January, the "most glamorous of the jet set" descended on the frozen Lake St Moritz in the Swiss alps for the "International Concours of Elegance", says Chandler Tregaskes in Tatler. The annual event sees Euro royals, society scions and deep-pocketed financiers gather to race their rarest cars – James Dean-era Porsches, fearlessly futuristic hypercars – across the icy lake before warming up in one of the many champagne bars. In keeping with the luxury vibes, winners receive not only a trophy but also a Roadster jacket worth thousands of euros, courtesy of sponsors Loro Piana. |
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