HENRY DEEDES: Like 007 facing his foe, Boris Johnson served charm with menace at his return to PMQs

Bond aficionados will know that early in each story comes an inaugural meeting between hero and foe. A chance encounter over highballs, perhaps, or a high-stakes hand of chemin de fer.  The tone is formal yet courteous. Compliments might even be exchanged. Yet beneath this faux chumminess lingers a whiff of menace.  There was a … Read more

HENRY DEEDES: Boris Johnson and the Boffins were back – and the trio had some new material!

HENRY DEEDES: Boris Johnson and the Boffins were back — and the trio had some new material! By Henry Deedes for the Daily Mail Published: 22:15 BST, 30 April 2020 | Updated: 23:28 BST, 30 April 2020 The old band was back together. Boris And The Boffins finally reunited yesterday, their month-long absence from the … Read more

HENRY DEEDES: Keir Starmer’s tribute was surprisingly decent… then he started babbling on

Rarely do tributes between political opponents extend beyond leaden platitudes.  Before yesterday, the most sincere words of support I’ve heard between party leaders came after David Cameron’s son Ivan died aged six, prompting Gordon Brown to address the House.  Watching the hitherto emotionally impregnable Brown, whose own daughter died as a baby, shattered with grief … Read more

HENRY DEEDES: Boris Johnson is a man still adjusting to life

He emerged hesitantly, tiptoeing gently down the steps of Downing Street like a winter swimmer wading into the icy foam. Gone was the rhinoceros charge we are used to seeing flying out of that famous black door, that head-first, shoulders-down barge, which he would throw himself into with the same boundless energy he uses to … Read more

Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding’s newly fostered pitbull accused of mauling small dog in park 

Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding’s newly fostered pitbull accused of mauling unleashed small dog in park By Dailymail.com Reporter Published: 16:01 BST, 23 April 2020 | Updated: 17:59 BST, 23 April 2020 Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding’s newly fostered pitbull is accused of injuring an unleashed smaller dog in a Los Angeles area … Read more

HENRY DEEDES: All we got from Dominic Raab was fun-free gloom

Restock the drinks cabinet. Break out the emergency hair dye.  Joe Wicks, if you’re listening, don’t let up on those burpees… yet. Fellow citizens, you ain’t going anywhere. It’s official, people. Three more weeks of lockdown. Yup, that’s nearly another month of this carry-on and still no end in sight. To be fair, Raab had … Read more

HENRY DEEDES watches baffled boffins at the Downing Street briefing 

Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, looked mildly blank when the thorny issue of care homes was raised at yesterday’s Downing Street press briefing. Someone had made the not unreasonable point that NHS Nightingale hospital was largely empty, so why couldn’t it be used to provide support for elderly patients from care homes? … Read more

HENRY DEEDES: Dominic Raab the grouch is gone… now he’s a far springier stand-in

Dominic Raab the grouch is gone… now he’s a far springier stand-in: HENRY DEEDES sees the caretaker boss raise his game at briefing By Henry Deedes for the Daily Mail Published: 22:52 BST, 13 April 2020 | Updated: 00:06 BST, 14 April 2020 Dominic Raab’s mood, to use a phrase we hear rather a lot … Read more

Cricket commentator HENRY BLOFELD reveals how Spanish wine is a fine medicine

There is something that is genuinely frightening about this whole self-isolation business. It might bring us new opportunities, but it is strange territory and that naturally brings great uncertainty with it. However, having just clocked in at 80, I know I am really at risk. Self-isolation for me, therefore, is in many ways a blessing, … Read more

Dominic Raab looked like someone who’d lost a pools coupon: HENRY DEEDES watches Foreign Secretary

With the Prime Minister confined to the Number 10 sick bay, Dominic Raab was entrusted with Monday’s daily Downing Street press briefing.  It was not so long ago Mr Raab was staking his claim to be the occupant of this Georgian property.  There was an irked, irritable air as he took to the lectern. Ah, … Read more