Politics

‘The sea is in my blood. My father made his living as a fish merchant, as did his father before him. Generations of Goves have gone to sea, harvested its riches and fed families with the healthiest — and most renewable — resource on the planet, our fish.’ So begins Michael Gove’s passionate call to arms, inspired by Blue Planet II, to save the oceans from mankind. Gove is one of the most intellectually original people in politics, and a very likeable man. But if British politics is a box set series, he also has the best character arc of any politician – like Jaime Lannister after he loses his hand

Nowadays Brexit is blamed for a lot of things – in fact when good news does occur it’s often accompanied by the phrase ‘despite Brexit’. But up until now Mr S didn’t realise the dark force of Brexit had spread to a different time continuum. Steven Moffat, the creative force behind Doctor Who, has revealed the reason that it is only now a female has been cast as a Time Lord: Brexit voters. Asked why he never cast a woman as the Doctor, Moffat tells the Radio Times that he had to be mindful of viewers who voted for Brexit: ‘This isn’t a show exclusively for progressive liberals; this is

From the beginning, there’s been a whiff of the police state about the treatment of Damian Green. Free societies do not allow detectives to burst into an MP’s office because he or she has been embarrassing the government. That bad smell has risen to the level of a stench. The now ex-police officers, who claimed they had seen pornographic pictures on Green’s computer, raised the prospect, however fleetingly, of an authoritarian future. The police failed to find evidence that Green, then an opposition MP, had engaged in a ‘criminal conspiracy to solicit leaked information detrimental to national security’ when they raided Parliament in 2008. Not that it bothered them. Because

Alan Milburn – There is only so long you can push water uphill Last night Alan Milburn, the former Health Secretary who had been appointed by David Cameron as the government’s ‘social mobility tsar’ in 2012, announced that he would not be continuing in the role any longer, and nor will any of the current membership of his team. This morning, Milburn spoke to Andrew Marr about the reasons for his departure: Milburn: I care deeply about the issue and I believe that it matters profoundly to the country. I’ve reached the conclusion sadly that with the current government there is little, if any hope of progress being made towards

At this year’s Labour conference, John McDonnell went somewhat off message when the shadow chancellor announced at a fringe event that his party was ‘war-gaming’ for a ‘run on the pound’ if elected. Given that this hardly signs like a desirable outcome for a party of government, the shadow chancellor has since tried to retract his comments – claiming there will not be a run on the pound. But that hasn’t stopped them ‘war-gaming’. On today’s Sunday Politics, Richard Barbrook, a key member of the McDonnell’s Treasury ‘war-gaming’ team, made an appearance to explain how he is helping prepare the party for power. Barbrook, who runs an organisation called ‘Class Wargames’, said it

Not a good year for my small sector of the political sphere, Blue Labour. I say small because politically, at the moment, that is what it is: indeed, nigh on non-existent. And yet its basics – socially conservative, fiscally radical, mindful of tradition, patriotic – strikes a chord with so many voters outside London. Blue Labour’s influence in the Conservative Party was seen to have been a partial cause of Theresa May’s lamentable performance at the last election. I am not so sure that the policies promulgated by Nick Timothy were to blame, despite what my editor here may believe: presentation, arrogance and poor leadership were more crucial, I think.