Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Stephen Daisley

It’s too late for the SNP to rein in the cybernats

‘It is better to ride the tiger’s back than let it rip your throat out’ is reputedly how Tony Blair rationalised his close relationship with the Sun. The quote is thrown back at him by critics who imagine their preferred mode of politics untainted by tiger-riding. In fact, Blair is not alone: Bill Clinton rode the tiger of white male independents then spent much of his presidency pandering to them on crime, welfare and ‘values’.  For the Liberal Democrats, it was post-Iraq Labour discontents and students, who brought them two million votes across two elections and who turned on them when they teamed up with the Tories and put up

Robert Peston

Tory-Labour Brexit talks are on the verge of collapse

Labour’s negotiations on a Brexit pact with the Government may well be pronounced dead today – partly because the party is launching its EU elections manifesto tomorrow and would presumably need to say something about a possible pact other than “don’t know”. To be clear, there are more talks between the two sides this evening. But those involved tell me they have no expectation a breakthrough will be seized from the jaws of futility. Simultaneously Labour’s leadership is consulting “all the elements” in and connected to the party, so there’s no great backlash from MPs or union leaders as and when the hopes of a Brexit compromise are officially abandoned

Nick Cohen

Which party will fight the rise of Nigel Farage?

Who will fight the British far right? The centre right, the left, the liberals? The European elections are giving Nigel Farage the chance to push for a catastrophic Brexit, and build a formidable and ugly nationalist movement. Yet allegedly serious politicians, who have a duty to oppose him, forget the national interest and their own self-interest and sit on their hands. Farage poses a mortal danger to the Conservative party. You would not guess it from the reaction of its leaders and PRs. They have provided no coherent argument against the Brexit party. Indeed, I have been hard-pressed to find any argument at all. Go to the Tories’ website and

Is Jeremy Corbyn really anti-Semitic?

Is Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite? I began researching the answer to this question well before Danny Finkelstein’s recent revelation in the Times that eight years ago Corbyn had written a glowing foreword to a new edition of Imperialism: A Study, written by the radical economist John Atkinson Hobson, first published in 1902. Context is paramount. That’s why I feel obliged to censure Finkelstein’s exposé. We all know what Hobson thought of Jews and capitalism. But to conclude – as Finkelstein does – that in writing the foreword Corbyn had praised a ‘deeply anti-Semitic book’ is to give a totally false impression of what this influential study is actually about. In a text

What I learnt trying – and failing – to win election as a Tory councillor

“I’ll say this for you love, you’ve picked a great time to go into politics!” The man on whose door I had knocked guffawed loudly before adding kindly, “but I admire you anyway, I shan’t be voting this time, can’t trust any of them, but good luck to you all the same.” At least it was a friendly encounter. Not all of them were. My timing was impeccable. With the Brexit mess obscuring everything and Parliament in meltdown, I decided to stand in a marginal seat for District Council election. As a Conservative candidate. Demonstrating the same great timing back in the summer of 2008, bang on the eve of

Steerpike

Which Tory MPs have apologised to Roger Scruton?

What does it mean to be a Conservative? It’s a question that most of the Tory front bench might struggle to answer these days, but if they were looking for guidance, they could do worse than heading to a packed Emmanuel Centre in London this evening. There, author, journalist and Spectator Associate Editor Douglas Murray was joined by the philosopher and housing tsar Sir Roger Scruton, as they discussed the future of Conservatism. The pair covered a large amount of ground over the course of the evening, as they mulled over the reasons the Conservative Party had abandoned its right-wing roots, the left’s advantage in communicating slogans, and the role

Steerpike

Change UK / TIG’s Twitter name gaffe

Whether it’s the Remainer group’s shambolic name change, it’s bizarre choice of logo, or unwise decision to snub an electoral pact with the Lib Dems, Change UK / TIG has not exactly established a reputation for competence in the few months since it was founded. But it appears the group hasn’t given up making new gaffes just yet. Following the political party’s decision to change its name from the Independent Group to Change UK, it decided to update its Twitter handle today: from @TheIndGroup to the rather strange @ForChange_Now. Unfortunately, it seems the breakaway MPs didn’t realise that someone might take over their old account handle once it had been vacated.

Brendan O’Neill

What the ‘Stop Brexit’ brigade and Turkey’s Erdogan have in common

Guy Verhofstadt, the Brexit coordinator for the European Parliament, has got some front. This morning he slammed the decision to cancel the results of the municipal and mayoral elections that took place in Istanbul in March and to force the people of Istanbul to vote again. And yet Verhofstadt’s chums in the Remainer camp want to do exactly the same thing in the UK. Indeed this week Verhofstadt will visit London to campaign for the Lib Dems, whose slogan is ‘Stop Brexit’ and whose aim is to bring about a second referendum. Verhofstadt’s hypocrisy is staggering — he brands Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan a dictator for the overthrow of

Stephen Daisley

An SNP politician’s lonely fight in the gender identity debate

Joan McAlpine is an unlikely rebel against the Scottish political establishment. The SNP MSP is chair of Holyrood’s culture and external affairs committee, a former parliamentary aide to Alex Salmond and a past editor of the Sunday Times Scotland. She has a reputation as a firebrand Nationalist and, in the interests of full disclosure, I have previously been disobliging about her in print. Her exile has been quick, brutal and, inevitably in these days of viewpoint-patrolling, the result of voicing an incorrect opinion. McAlpine is gender-critical, or, in the prosecutorial terms of her detractors, a trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF). Recently she began asking awkward questions about the campaign to give force

Robert Peston

The cross-party Brexit talks are doomed to fail

In case you were in any doubt, there is zero chance of Labour and Jeremy Corbyn agreeing a Brexit deal with the Prime Minister, given that its central element is a pledge to keep the UK in the customs union till the next general election. The point is that Labour’s main criticism of Theresa May’s Brexit plan is that it is ‘blind’, that it makes gives no promises or commitments about the UK’s future relationship with the EU. And a pledge to keep the UK in the EU’s customs union only till 2022 would not turn blindness into perfect foresight. So May needs to commit to keeping the UK in

Katy Balls

Would a customs union pass the Commons?

It’s crunch day for the Labour/Tory Brexit talks. After a weekend of government leaks and briefings, both sides will today meet to see if a deal can be agreed. It’s clear that Theresa May is keen to make an agreement with Jeremy Corbyn in order to pass some form of Brexit. The hope in Downing Street is that the disappointing local election results for both main parties will be enough to prompt the Labour leader to cut a deal. As for what that compromise will consist of, the government is willing to move on the customs arrangement – committing the UK to something very similar to a customs union (most

It’s capitalism, not socialism, that will beat climate change

When John Glenn was asked what went through his mind as he became the first American in space, he said it was the nerve-wracking thought that ‘every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.’ It’s a revealing insight. Perhaps even more so than the ‘Blue Marble’ photograph of Earth taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, which inspired early environmentalists. Glenn was acknowledging that market economics made it possible for a government to achieve Herculean feats. True, the Soviets were in the race too, but then their system collapsed completely. Capitalism has staying power – and that’s what we need now in the fight against climate change. The UK’s

Steerpike

Brexit Party makes Peterborough wait for by-election candidate

With a Peterborough by-election scheduled for early June, there’s talk that it could lead to Parliament’s first Brexit Party MP. After disgraced former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya was forced out following a recall petition in light of her conviction for perverting the course of justice, Labour, the Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party are all vying to clinch the Labour/Tory marginal. The Brexit Party are currently surging in the polls – and could fare well in the Leave constituency. So, what better platform on which to reveal the party’s new candidate than Tuesday night’s Brexit Party rally in… Peterborough? So far, the rumour mill has been in overdrive with Nigel

How ‘right wing’ became the smear for those we disagree with

Until recently, the rules on political labelling were clear. If you voted Labour, supported Remain and expressed how much you cared about refugees on Facebook, you were left wing and therefore a good person. If you voted Tory, supported Leave or failed to signal your virtue on social media with the required frequency, you were right wing and therefore bad. Today, however, this system for dividing society into good and evil is crumbling under the weight of its own oversimplifications. It turns out that plenty of traditional Labour voters supported Leave, while many Tories went for Remain. The emergent Brexit Party has a broad range of candidates from both sides

Melanie McDonagh

The BBC’s obsession with diversity has ruined Gardeners’ Question Time

There’s nothing wrong with radio continuity announcers; one is a friend of mine and he’s very sharp. But the doubts about whether reading the news and the jokes between one item and another is a qualification to present programmes that actually require you to know what you’re talking about remain, now that Kathy Clugston has completed her first session as presenter of Gardeners’ Question Time. She’s got nice diction, Kathy, but as a gardener she hasn’t got a clue – and in fairness she did let this be known at the outset. She started off by getting her audience at Tiptree in Essex to shout out – on the basis

Sunday shows round-up: John McDonnell says he doesn’t trust Theresa May

Andrew Marr’s chief guest of the day was Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. McDonnell put considerable pressure on the ongoing Brexit negotiations between the government and the opposition. He said this was due to the Prime Minister having allegedly briefed the media on areas of potential compromise such as a ‘comprehensive but temporary customs agreement’, while Labour had been keeping quiet: #Marr: “Do you trust the prime minister?” Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell: “No… she’s blown the confidentiality… she’s jeopardised the negotiations” #Brexit https://t.co/v2NrEb2YJB pic.twitter.com/I6RI2nyQro — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 5, 2019 AM: In a word… do you trust the Prime Minister? JM: No. Sorry, not after this weekend, when she’s

Interview with Andrew Adonis: a master of social media

The news over Easter that Lord Adonis, the counterweight to nominative determinism, was standing as a Labour Remain MEP was greeted with a fair degree of scepticism. Many commented that it would be a novelty for him to stand for anything — in his early twenties he became an SDP councillor in Oxford, but that’s the last time he was elected to anything. His career has been based entirely on patronage, mainly from Tony Blair, who plucked him from journalism (he worked for the Financial Times and then the Observer) to run his policy unit, and then made him a peer so that he could become minister for education. (Adonis

James Forsyth

What a May / Corbyn Brexit deal would look like

The local election results showed that both main parties are paying a price for the Brexit impasse. This, as I say in The Sun this morning, means that the cross-party talks have a better chance of succeeding than they did. Those in the talks are more optimistic than they have been about getting some kind of agreement, if not a full-blown deal. But they know that things could change very quickly. I understand that the compromise being drawn up goes as follows. The UK would initially enter into a ‘comprehensive customs arrangement’ with the European Union. This would be very similar to a customs union. But the two parties would