Politics Archives

Thursday

1 Oct 2020

The fall of Golden Dawn

Next week, the biggest Nazi-related trial since Nuremberg will come to a close. Following the murder of Greek musician Pavlos Fyssas by a member of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn seven years ago, the entire leadership and dozens of members were charged under counter-terrorism legislation with running an organised crime syndicate. The case file, which runs at more than 3,000 pages, includes charges of murder, arson, possession of guns and explosives, and even trafficking. A combination of the famously sclerotic Greek justice system and circumstance held up the trial for years. The pandemic and the lockdown that followed it pushed the verdict back even further. But now, at last, it’s

James Forsyth

Prime ministers can’t pick the crises that define them

In a non-Covid world, next week would be the Tory party conference. Boris Johnson would march on to the stage in Birmingham to receive the adulation of his grassroots supporters. The biggest Tory majority since Margaret Thatcher’s final victory in 1987 would have been celebrated. There would have been cheer after cheer for the new intake of Tory MPs, elected in seats that had been Labour for generations. It would have been a triumphalist conference with much talk of how the Tories had won a two-term victory. The virus has changed everything. Tory conference is now an online only event with short speeches. Instead of attempting to set the agenda

Martin Vander Weyer

Could ‘clean tech’ save the aviation industry?

What advice can I offer Alok Sharma, who took a pasting in the weekend press for his lacklustre performance as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy? While Rishi Sunak knocks up as many runs as he can on a difficult wicket with his job support scheme and VAT deferrals, Sharma is the ‘dead bat’ (in one business chief’s phrase) at the other end — accused of offering no Brexit clarity, not much personal energy and no strategy at all. In defence of this former City accountant, we might say that his rag-bag department, operating under many different names since 1979, has rarely been regarded as an engine

Wednesday

30 Sep 2020

Katy Balls

Vallance says virus is not under control

Boris Johnson announced no new restrictions in Wednesday’s coronavirus restrictions — but there was still little reason for cheer. Those ministers hoping for a change to the 10 p.m. curfew were left disappointed. Johnson and his advisers — Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Vallance — offered a series of graphs and maps to show the spread of the virus. Each made the point that infections are going in the wrong direction. It was clear from the address that they all believe new restrictions are more likely than not. It was clear from the address that they all believe new restrictions are more likely than not While Whitty

Lloyd Evans

Starmer was firing blanks at PMQs

It was another ‘worst week ever’ for Boris. The highlight being his successful bid to make mincemeat of himself by garbling his own lockdown rules at a press conference. At PMQs, he presented an open target and the Labour leader struck early with a highly specific question: Why has Luton emerged from lockdown when other communities haven’t? ‘They’ve pulled together to depress the virus,’ said Boris, sounding tentatively jubilant. Everyone awaited the springing of the booby-trap. But it didn’t come. Luton was an irrelevance. It was a bait without a hook. Sir Keir was firing blanks. He left Boris free to complain that the Labour party was behaving like a

Steerpike

Revealed: Natalie Elphicke’s bumper £25,000 payday

When former Tory MP Charlie Elphicke was found guilty of sexual assaulting two women, his wife Natalie – who has succeeded him as MP in his Dover seat – immediately announced the end of their marriage. Three days later, Natalie then gave a tell-all interview to the Sun, in which she explained why she had to leave her husband. Speaking for the first time of what she described as her ‘horrible, humiliating and unpleasant’ court ordeal, Elphicke told the paper: ‘Charlie was keen to get things back on track but I had already made clear to him I was very, very hurt by the allegations and by his behaviour with other women.’

Steerpike

Corbyn’s £50k Momentum loan written off

When Jeremy Corbyn was battling to retain the Labour leadership back in 2016, Corbyn was given a helping hand from Momentum. The pro-Corbyn group handed Jez’s campaign a £50,000 loan to help in his bid to fight off Owen Smith’s challenge. With Corbyn’s time at the top now over, however, it seems that Corbyn will not have to pay back the money. Why? Because happily for Jez, the ‘unsecured loan’ has now been ‘converted to a donation’. Mr S is glad Momentum’s money went to a good cause…

Carl Heneghan

How is the Vallance Covid projection working out?

Prediction, projection, illustration — call it what you wish, but when you make a statement about what’s going to happen next, people are going to assess whether you’re correct or not. Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, said last week: At the moment we think that the epidemic is doubling roughly every seven days…If, and that’s quite a big if, but if that continues unabated, and this grows, doubling every seven days… if that continued, you would end up with something like 50,000 cases in the middle of October per day. Making projections is fraught with danger, but there are ways to caveat such statements that allow better understanding. For

Katy Balls

Is the whack-a-mole lockdown strategy working?

12 min listen

Keir Starmer attacked Boris Johnson in PMQs today over the effectiveness of local lockdowns, saying in some areas ‘things are getting worse not better’. After the PM himself got the rules mixed up yesterday, is the government’s strategy working, or is a change of strategy needed? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth.

Freddy Gray

Was that the worst debate of all time?

19 min listen

Donald Trump and Joe Biden met in the first head-to-head debate of the campaign yesterday evening. The result was a frenzied 90 minutes of outbursts and interruptions from which neither candidate emerged well. Biden lambasted the President as a ‘clown’, while Trump ruthlessly attacked the Democratic challenger’s family, ignoring the tragic death of his son, Beau. Freddy Gray speaks to Kate Andrews about whether the debate could possibly have been any worse.

Steerpike

Watch: Speaker blasts Boris over Covid laws

Back when John Bercow was in the Commons’ hot seat, a Tory telling-off was part of the daily run of events. Things have changed under his replacement Lindsay Hoyle. But today the speaker took no prisoners as he berated the government over its use of emergency coronavirus powers. At the start of PMQs today, Hoyle accused ministers of showing ‘total disregard’ and ‘contempt’ for parliament. He said: ‘The way in which the government has exercised its powers…during this crisis has been totally unsatisfactory. All too often, important statutory instruments have been published a matter of hours before they come into force. The government must make greater efforts to prepare measures more

Stephen Daisley

Who will hold the SNP to account?

Everyone forgets the third article of impeachment. The charge sheet against Richard Nixon, adopted by the House judiciary committee following the Watergate burglary and a conspiracy to impede its investigation, famously accused the president, first, of obstruction of justice and, second, of violating citizens’ constitutional rights. Thirteen days later, on August 9, 1974, and with impeachment all but certain, Nixon became the first president to resign the Oval Office. What did for him as much as what could be heard on the Nixon tapes was his refusal to hand them over until forced to by the Supreme Court. This formed the basis of Article III of the indictment: that the president

Greg Rosen

A Covid vaccine could be Boris’s ‘Falklands moment’

Keir Starmer’s achievement is remarkable: ten months after Boris Johnson’s resounding victory, he has transformed Labour from no-hopers into a force that is terrifying the Tories. As the Conservative tribe prepares to gather for its virtual party conference, the obvious question is whether defeat at the next election is a realistic prospect. The answer, unlike in January 2020 must be: yes. Its likelihood, however, is a different matter. A wise Tory strategist would be looking at the contrasting elections of 1992 and 1997 and taking note. At the same time, they should heed an important addendum to Denis Healey’s well known First Law of Holes (‘If in a hole stop digging’) that

Tuesday

29 Sep 2020

Katy Balls

Live at Alternative Conference

28 min listen

The Prime Minister was forced to apologise this afternoon after misstating new lockdown rules brought into force overnight in the North East. Is government incompetence costing it support? In a live episode of Coffee House Shots for The Spectator’s Alternative Conference, Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and James Johnson, co-founder of polling company JL Partners.

Tim Smith

Boris is right, it’s time to reform adult learning

Forget gender, race, or whether you will or won’t wear a mask in polite company. The biggest dividing line in the UK is education. The new focus on non-university routes could be the healing balm we need. Picking over the pieces after the 2016 referendum, pollsters discovered the single most dramatic split between Leave and Remain voters was education. Britain splintered into two societies: graduates who, by and large, voted Remain and those who tended not to have been to university, who did not. Nancy Mitford’s division of U and non-U language was finally slain by the big U of university. Of course, any splintering involves rough edges rather than perfect

Steerpike

Watch: Boris confused over new lockdown rules

The Prime Minister has never been known as a details man — and he shows no sign of changing his style anytime soon. Boris Johnson was unable to explain the details of his newly announced lockdown rules in North East England. During a Q&A after a speech in Exeter this morning, the PM was asked about the new restrictions but ended up getting himself into a bit of a muddle, telling BBC News that in the North East: ‘six people can meet at home, six in hospitality, but not six outside’. For clarity, Mr S would like to point out that, from today, the new rules in the North East prevents households mixing in any indoor

Ross Colgan

Steve Baker resumes his role as government tormentor-in-chief

Steve Baker has returned to his former role of government tormentor-in-chief this week, piling pressure on the government over its use of emergency powers on coronavirus. Speaking at The Spectator‘s Alternative Conference, Baker criticised documents from the government’s Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) as ‘dreadful’. The papers, published earlier this year, proposed a strategy to use fear as a strategy in coronavirus communications: ‘A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened…personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.’ In response, Baker said: ‘There’s this assumption that people can be forced to comply.’ The Tory MP went on to question whether this

Steerpike

BBC threatens to remove stars from social media

Tim Davie has this month taken on the role of BBC director-general in spectacular fashion, announcing plans today for auntie to be given the authority to strip its stars of their Twitter accounts if they breach impartiality guidelines. This will no doubt come as a shock to some. Gary Lineker, a staunch Boris Johnson critic, has been regularly chastised for voicing political beliefs on Twitter, which he also uses to promote his work on the BBC. Mr Davie, told the House of Commons Culture Committee today: ‘In my view party political statements are not the right thing for people to be making if they are part of an impartial news organisation.’ There has been

Katy Balls

NHS chief warns against ‘age-based apartheid’ in coronavirus response

When Boris Johnson addressed the nation last week to give an update on his coronavirus strategy, the Prime Minister offered a rebuke of the idea put forward by some Tory MPs and scientists that vulnerable groups ought to be shielded and the rest of the population allowed to live close to normal lives. He argued that suggestions the vulnerable could simply shield were misguided, as it was likely the virus would still reach these groups. Now he has won backing from NHS chief Sir Simon Stevens. Speaking at The Spectator‘s alternative conference, the NHS’s chief executive officer said ‘we are not going to have aged-based apartheid across this country’. Stevens argued: ‘The idea that you

Monday

28 Sep 2020

Isabel Hardman

MPs can no longer stomach government by decree

Monday night’s Commons debate showed the extent of Tory backbench frustration with ministers over their refusal to consult parliament on increasing coronavirus restrictions. But it also showed that the situation isn’t beyond repair. MPs were blunt in their criticism of the government but were also polite and clearly keen to avoid a stand-off. Parliamentarians just want the government to move to a new phase of managing the pandemic; one involving greater scrutiny. Almost everyone who spoke in the debate took care to praise ministers for dealing with an unspeakably difficult situation. Aside from Desmond Swayne, who fulminated that Boris Johnson may have been ‘abducted by Dr Strange-glove’, most Tories weren’t