Politics

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

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 15 September 2016

French intelligence Some interesting facts about the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, for the benefit of shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry. Ayrault was elected mayor of Saint-Herblain, a suburb of Nantes, in 1977 aged just 27. He went on to become mayor of the entire city. In 2012 he was appointed prime minister by incoming president François Hollande. His appointment caused a crisis in Arabic newsrooms because when pronounced properly his name sounds like Lebanese slang for penis. Ayrault resigned as prime minister in 2014 after disappointing local election results for the Socialists, but made a comeback as foreign minister in February. No visa necessary The EU threatened to force British travellers to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Leaked Corbyn abuse list shows the unbridgeable gulf in Labour

The leaking – accidental or otherwise – of a list of Labour MPs allegedly guilty of abusive behaviour towards Jeremy Corbyn is yet another illustration of quite how divided the party is, and quite how messy things are going to be when Corbyn tries to reassert his authority following what looks certain to be his re-election to the top job. We now have MPs such as Neil Coyle consulting legal opinion on whether to sue their party leader. If you wanted the antonym of ‘happy ship’, the Labour Party is a pretty good option. The Labour leader and John McDonnell today took questions on the matter after a speech on

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Questions over Ukip’s future on the eve of its conference

Ukip’s autumn conference kicks off tomorrow in Bournemouth. With the new leader set to be announced, there had been hopes the two-day event would mark the beginning of a new exciting post-Brexit era for the party. Instead, the party faces questions over whether there should be a second chapter at all. Steve Stanbury, Ukip’s former director, has appeared on the Daily Politics today to announce that he has defected to the Tories. In the interview with Jo Coburn, Stanbury said he believed the party’s best days were behind it now it has achieved the ‘principle objective’ of securing — and winning — an EU referendum. He says he hopes his Ukip colleagues will follow suit and ‘come

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will David Cameron only be remembered for Brexit?

At the moment, the consensus is that Brexit will be Cameron’s legacy, that the thing people will remember about his premiership is that he called a referendum on the EU and lost it. But I don’t think this will necessarily be the case. As I argue in the magazine this week, if Brexit — to use a phrase — turns out to be a ‘success’, then that will allow attention to turn to other parts of Cameron’s career. It will allow people to reflect on how, after three successive general-election defeats, he turned the Tories back into the natural party of government. On how he made them more comfortable with

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Theresa May has made the wrong call on Hinkley Point

Today’s decision to give the go-ahead for Hinkley C after a six-week review seems to confirm what was indicated in July: that Theresa May’s problem with the project was mostly concerned with security issues. What has been announced today is that the government will take a special share in all future nuclear power projects to prevent the plants being sold to unapproved investors. There is no indication that ministers have sought to renegotiate the price. Consumers will still pay EDF for the electricity generated by Hinkley for the next 35 years: £92.50 for every MWh – around double the current wholesale market price. The government has lost an opportunity to bail out of what

Steerpike Steerpike

Derek Hatton is left in the cold at Labour conference

In recent months, Derek Hatton has been taking to the airwaves to wax lyrical about Jeremy Corbyn. Although the former deputy leader of Liverpool Council’s request to rejoin the party 29 years after they expelled him was turned down, he remains a supporter of the Corbyn regime. So, with this year’s party conference in his home city of Liverpool, Hatton was keen to attend the event. What’s more, Mr S understands that the Liverpool Echo decided it would be a good idea to get Hatton to write a conference diary for the paper and so he applied for a press pass. Alas brains at Labour HQ have deemed Hatton to not be suitable press

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Inside David Cameron’s personal Brexit

In the days following David Cameron’s resignation as prime minister, Michael Gove tried to persuade the Cameroons to back Boris Johnson for the job. He argued that the former London mayor was the real continuity candidate. While Johnson would strike a very different path on Europe, Gove argued, he would keep Cameron’s domestic agenda going in a way that Theresa May would not. This was something Gove got right. But the referendum result was far too raw for this argument to work. The rest, as they say, is history. Since May became Prime Minister, it’s been clear that she does not represent continuity. May is her own woman. The Cameroons

The Spectator

In defence of Asquith

From ‘Mr. Asquith’, The Spectator, 16 September, 1916: King George has no other subject who is trusted so widely by his countrymen and who is respected so heartily by our Allies as the Prime Minister. Under his guidance we are now, after two strenuous years of war, an even more thoroughly united nation than we were at first, although we have parted one by one with what we regarded as our traditional and indispensable privileges and liberties.

Mark Mason

Aga can’t

Earlier this year my partner paid several hundred thousand pounds for an Aga. There’s no other way of putting it. A major cause of her excitement about our new house was the presence in its kitchen of the whacking great oven. I, on the other hand, was unsure how I felt about it — Aga-nostic, if you like. Six months later I’m sick of the bloody thing. What’s more, I’ve worked out why Aga lovers go on about them so much. For those of you fortunate enough never to have encountered one of these beasts, the facts are these. An Aga has to be kept on constantly, sapping your fuel

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Politics without fear

Remember how it was? Many fans of Westminster still recall with fondness the happy afternoons when the Tories used to greet Ed Miliband at PMQs with a storm of ironic contempt. Nowadays the Labour-shambles is barely worth a half-hearted jeer let alone a burst of orchestrated scoffing. When Corbyn stands up at the despatch box, with his Oxfam suit and his whopping tofu-tum, he gets something close to library-silence from the Conservatives. There’s a Chinese whisper of resentment, a few chuntering snuffles, the odd yawned harrumph. That’s all. It’s the sound of 300 well-fed hogs resettling themselves during an afternoon nap. What politics needs is the intoxicating roar of crack-troops

Steerpike Steerpike

Alex Salmond: Scotland should block Brexit

Although Alex Salmond is Scotland’s First Minister no more, luckily the public still have a chance to hear the SNP politician’s thoughts on a weekly basis thanks to his LBC phone-in. Today Salmond led the charge for Nicola Sturgeon blocking Brexit: ‘If Scotland could block Brexit, then I think Nicola Sturgeon should do that. I think Nicola Sturgeon should take her instruction from the verdict of the Scottish people; she’s Scottish First Minister. If you remember the Scottish people voted decisively to remain.’ With recent polls suggesting the appetite for Scottish independence is still at the level it was pre-Brexit (despite repeated warnings a Leave vote would destroy the Union), Mr

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Jeremy Corbyn comes out on top at PMQs over grammar schools

Today Jeremy Corbyn used PMQs to go on the attack over Theresa May’s plan to bring back grammar schools — a topic many had hoped he would lead on last week. Better late than never, the Labour leader put in his best performance to date as he used all six questions to take the Prime Minister to task over her proposals. Given that Corbyn separated from his ex-wife over her desire to send their son to a grammar, he was in his element as he argued that selection ‘can only let children down’. When May replied that she wanted a society with ‘opportunity for all’, Corbyn snapped back that ‘equality of opportunity is

Matthew Lynn

Mark Carney has a shot at redemption tomorrow. Will he take it?

There are not many predictions that are safe to make in the financial markets. M&S’s results will always be disappointing is perhaps one. Sir Philip Green will never apologise for anything is another. And there is one more that can now be added to the list. The Bank of England won’t raise interest rates when it meets this week. But it should. Why? Because the ‘emergency’ post-Brexit cut is already looking like an over-reaction. In truth, the Bank’s Governor Mark Carney is already looking dangerously over-committed to Project Remain. The best thing the Bank could do now would be to admit that it had a made a mistake – and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

David Cameron is only partly to blame for Libya’s problems

David Cameron is not having the best of weeks and the Foreign Affairs Committee’s highly critical report on his Libya intervention will not improve his mood. When the Chilcot Report came out, Cameron made much of how the National Security Council structure that he had put in place had improved policy making. But the FAC report states that despite the National Security Council, there was still no coherent strategy for the intervention. Indeed, it calls for an inquiry into how the NSC actually makes policy. The Libya intervention might have prevented a massacre in Benghazi. But the chaos in Libya since, the migrant crisis and the increase influence of Islamic

Steerpike Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn donates fruits of his labour to Momentum

In the aftermath of ‘traingate‘, one of the most striking things about the incident was not that Jeremy Corbyn had a seat despite claims to the contrary, but that the Labour leader and his team kept providing conflicting versions of events. Although Corbyn eventually admitted he had just wanted to sit next to his wife, this was only after his representatives had told hacks that the issue was not that he couldn’t find two unreserved seats next to each other. In the end, this communications breakdown was put down to Corbyn… making jam. A source told the Guardian that the ‘leader was impossible to reach for some time on Tuesday because he was

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Shami Chakrabarti makes her Lords debut

Although David Cameron’s resignation honours were widely criticised for cronyism, it’s fair to say that Jeremy Corbyn’s one appointment to the House of Lords caused just as much upset. The Labour leader was accused of a conflict of interest for giving Shami Chakrabarti a peerage after she chaired his anti-Semitism inquiry. Apparently unfazed by the negative publicity, Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington was introduced into the Lords today. Alas, it seems she couldn’t find reason to smile.

Steerpike Steerpike

Liam Fox doesn’t have a job – he just doesn’t know it yet, says Nick Clegg

Given the fragile egos of Theresa May’s three Brexiteers — Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and David Davis — Mr S suspects it’s for the best that none of them were present at today’s press gallery lunch with Nick Clegg. After accusing David Cameron of engaging ‘in a brutal act of one upmanship’ by quitting as the MP for Witney on the same night as his book launch, Clegg went on to launch an attack on the government — focussing on Liam Fox. While Clegg refused to comment on what Cameron really made of May, he was happy to share his thoughts on the Secretary for International Trade. The former deputy Prime Minister said he felt pity

Nick Hilton Nick Hilton

Jeremy Corbyn has decided to campaign like New Labour

Jeremy Corbyn has today announced the launch of the Labour Organising Academy, a new body designed to look at methods of turning the party’s newly engorged membership into an effective campaigning body. In the pamphlet he produced, Corbyn observes that ‘Labour is now Europe’s biggest political party’ and that the ‘party’s membership will transform how Labour campaigns’. The launch of this might feel somewhat hasty. After all, the leadership campaign won’t be concluded until the announcement at party conference in Liverpool on 24 September – but it represents a big change for Corbyn. It is a tacit acceptance of the notion that his supporters are too inward looking, too concerned with

Daisy Dunn

From paper to the £5 polymer: the origins of the banknote

Kublai Khan, said Marco Polo, had ‘a more extensive command of treasure than any other sovereign in the universe’. There were no jangling pockets of coins in Kanbalu. Bark had been stripped from the mulberry trees and beaten into paper notes. The notes carried delicate little pictures of earlier currency — long, frayed ropes weighed down with coins. It was as though they were mocking the old ways. Paper money had been produced in China from as early as the 7th century, but that did not stop Marco Polo from gushing that the Great Khan had discovered ‘the secret of the alchemists’. Back home, there was much curiosity but apparently

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boundary review fuels Labour MPs’ reselection fears

This week the Boundaries Commission has released its proposals for new constituencies in England and Wales. Although this is part of a wider effort to reduce the number of MPs in the Commons from 650 to 600, the Labour party feel as though they are being unfairly picked on. While the plans mean George Osborne and Boris Johnson are among the politicians who would have their seats redrawn, it’s the Labour party as a whole that would be worst affected with a potential loss of 25 Labour-held seats. However, this is not the party’s only problem when it comes to the proposals. There are concerns that the process could allow Corbyn’s supporters to