Politics Archives

Sunday

15 Sep 2024

Will France’s school uniform experiment foster égalité?

As the new school year begins in France, pupils across the country are putting on school uniforms for the first time in decades. In a pilot program spearheaded by the government, approximately one hundred schools across the country are testing whether uniforms can reduce bullying, improve classroom tranquillity, and foster equality. While some see uniforms as common sense, others – particularly on the political left –dismiss them as a superficial fix to deep-rooted social issues. The schools participating in the experiment are primarily located in right-leaning towns, where support for the initiative has been strongest, while more left-leaning areas are resisting uniforms. Brigitte Macron, herself a former schoolteacher, is said

Graham Watts

Is it time to cancel Strictly?

The BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing returned this weekend, but rather than being met with the usual fanfare there is a growing feeling that the glitter ball may have been irreparably tarnished. Some former contestants have alleged that they were subject to bullying by their professional partners and – having already used almost 300 contestants in its now 20 year history – many think that the producers have been scraping the bottom of the celebrity barrel in recent years. Such criticisms have led to speculation that it might be time to cancel the show. Cancel culture won’t yet claim Strictly as another victim. There are signs of life, however. This year

Ian Williams

What’s behind China’s overseas policing drive?

So China wants to make the world more ‘safe, reasonable and efficient’ by training thousands of police officers from across the globe to ‘help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities’. The offer came this week from Wang Xiaohong, China’s minister for public security, at a police forum attended by officials from 122 countries in the eastern city of Lianyungang. There were few details, but then few are needed. Authoritarian countries will see China’s frequently brutal approach to law and order, coupled with its zero tolerance for dissent, as rather appealing – and many will already have invested in the technical side of China’s surveillance state. However, even

Laurie Wastell

Why the ‘two-tier Keir’ jibe isn’t going away

Popping champagne, skulking off to smoke a spliff and pledging to become a life-long Labour voter. Anyone concerned about criminal justice in Britain will find the well-documented glee of the 1,700 prisoners given early release around the country this week galling indeed. As domestic abusers and career criminals walk free, many will have been struck by the contrast with the government’s response to last month’s riots, bringing to mind that most irresistible of epithets: ‘two-tier Keir’. In the Commons, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage duly used his first ever question at PMQs to punch this bruise. Many of those leaving prison will be effectively swapping places with those arrested last month in the disturbances following

Saturday

14 Sep 2024

Steerpike

Starmer facing ethics probe over undeclared gifts

Oh dear. It seems that the ‘passes for glasses’ row isn’t going away any time soon. A month after it was revealed that Lord Alli had received a Downing Street pass after bankrolling Keir Starmer’s wardrobe, today’s Sunday Times contains a fresh development. Not content with dressing up the Prime Minister, it seems that Alli has also been kitting out his wife Victoria too. Perhaps he bought the couple matching outfits? Unfortunately for Sir Keir, while his clothes were declared in line with parliamentary rules on donations, the same cannot be said for those worn by his wife. The Sunday Times reports that the clothes were given to Lady Starmer

Ian Williams

Are Hong Kong trade offices just Chinese propaganda machines?

China has reacted with anger at American threats to close Hong Kong’s trade offices in the United States, pledging to ‘take practical and effective measures to resolutely counteract it’, while the territory’s Commerce Secretary accused Washington of ‘slander’. In reality, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs), which were set up to oversee the territory’s external commercial relations and have some diplomatic privileges, are an anachronism. Now that Hong Kong has been stripped of its autonomy, they appear to have little purpose other than to parrot Beijing. There are three such offices in the US – in Washington DC, New York and San Francisco – and on Tuesday the US

Michael Evans

Biden inches towards authorising Storm Shadows in Russia

Storm Shadow, Britain’s highly-prized, air-launched cruise missile, is not going to win the war for Kyiv against the Russian invaders. However, this particular weapon, along with the American ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) are literally waiting in the wings for Kyiv to launch a new-style, more deadly and more provocative strike on air bases and missile sites deep inside Russia. They could transform the near-31-month war into the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. President Putin has warned that if authority is given for these weapons to be used against targets inside Russia, it would mean war between Russia and Nato. Storm

Casey Michel

Tony Blair wants to launder his past

America is known for its lobbying industry, from PR shops and law firms to former federal officials acting as agents for tyrants. K Street is not just a Washington DC address, it is a metonym for the business of influence. London too has plenty of consultancies and PR agencies gleefully signing up autocratic clients. There is, however, one key difference. While the US industry has many fathers, in the UK there is one man who single-handedly launched the modern lobbying industry, laundering the reputation of tyrants, and showing others how much money can be made in the process: Tony Blair. Blair is also influential in Keir Starmer’s Labour party, with multiple former Blairites

Julie Bindel

How gender ideology corrupts rape crisis centres

Yesterday, Mridul Wadhwa – a trans-identified male and the head of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) – resigned, after a scathing report on the centre revealed how it had been corrupted by gender ideology. The report was commissioned by Rape Crisis Scotland, which was forced to act after the ‘serious failings’ of the ERCC were exposed in an employment tribunal judgment in July this year. The case had been brought by a former ERCC employee, Roz Adams, who had been victimised by the centre because she held gender-critical beliefs. A judge found that she had been unlawfully discriminated against and unfairly dismissed, simply because she asked whether rape victims could be

James Heale

Is Gordon Brown back?

14 min listen

Last week, there was a surprise visitor to the Treasury: Gordon Brown. The former prime minister and chancellor secretly returned to his old digs for the first time since he left office 14 years ago. According to onlookers, Brown visited his old office as he caught up with the new chancellor – and his friend – Rachel Reeves. What was discussed? Many have speculated that among the topics on the agenda was the winter fuel allowance, a policy ushered in by Brown and now amended by Reeves. Elsewhere, Tony Blair has been doing the media rounds promoting his new book and giving his thoughts on leadership. Should Keir be listening?

Imogen Yates

Fraser Nelson, David Whitehouse, Imogen Yates, Sean McGlynn and Ruari Clark

31 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Fraser Nelson reflects on a historic week for The Spectator (1:15); David Whitehouse examines the toughest problem in mathematics (6:33); Imogen Yates reports on the booming health tech industry (13:54); Sean McGlynn reviews Dan Jones’s book Henry V: the astonishing rise of England’s greatest warrior king (20:24); and Ruari Clark provides his notes on rollies (26:18). Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Mark Galeotti

Moscow wants to ruin your weekend

When is slower internet better than none at all? When are travel delays more serious a political challenge than threats of nuclear war? These questions acquired particular significance with the news that Stockholm’s Arlanda airport was temporarily closed this week when several drones intruded into its airspace. Investigations are still in progress, but the police are suggesting this was deliberate sabotage and suspicion is already falling on Moscow. It has highlighted what is likely to be a central element of Russia’s emerging political warfare against the West: a strategy of inconveniences. What is the strategic value in such seemingly petty and spiteful acts? The FBI has been accusing Moscow of

Owen Polley

Republicans are trying to twist the truth about the Troubles

For many years, republicans have clamoured for a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, who was gunned down in front of his wife and children by the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA). This week, they finally got their way: in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Northern Ireland Secretary, Hilary Benn, announced an independent probe into the 1989 killing of the Belfast solicitor who frequently represented IRA men. While his loved ones are no doubt delighted, the relatives of other Troubles’ victims are unhappy that this level of scrutiny will not be applied to the deaths of their family members. During the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, at least 3,500 murders were

Friday

13 Sep 2024

Steerpike

Women’s committee chair struggles to define a woman

To the Women and Equalities Committee, to which Labour’s Sarah Owen has been elected chair. The Labour MP for Luton North achieved a majority of 7,500 in the July election and now has a select committee chairmanship under her belt too. But not everyone is especially thrilled by the announcement – not least because Owen seems to have more than a little difficulty defining, er, a woman… The day after Owen was elected committee chair, the Luton North MP appeared on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour with Anita Rani. But when Rani got to the all-important question of what a women is, the chair of the Women and Equalities Committee struggled

Steerpike

Watch: Andy Haldane attacks Labour’s blackhole narrative

Sir Keir’s Labour government hasn’t been in power for long but already his administration is causing quite the stir. Pub owners have fears about Starmer’s outdoor smoking ban, food companies are concerned about the junk food ad crackdown and, it turns out, everyone is rather down about Labour’s ‘£22 billion blackhole’ narrative. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has insisted since her party got into power that the conniving Conservative government hid the true scale of Britain’s financial woes, and has used almost every opportunity available to her to harp on about it. But it seems as though the tactic has only weakened the public’s trust in Sir Keir’s lefty Labour lot… Andy

Steerpike

Will the SNP ban Guinness glasses?

While Sir Keir Starmer is trying hard to ban fun, the Scottish National party is hot on his heels. Now it transpires that, er, pint glasses with logos are proving too offensive for the Nats – with a possible crackdown on the horizon. Priorities, priorities… The SNP government has, it emerged, ordered experts to investigate the impact of a ban on branded pint glasses, t-shirts and umbrellas in an attempt to get a handle on alcohol-related deaths – which in Scotland rose to a 15-year high of 1,277 mortalities in 2023. In a bid to cut the figures, SNP Health Secretary Neil Gray informed parliamentarians that Public Health Scotland will

James Heale

Will Starmer call Putin’s bluff?

10 min listen

Keir Starmer and David Lammy are in the Washington for a planned foreign policy summit with Joe Biden. They will principally be talking about a new deal regarding the use of UK long range missiles in Russia, a move which Putin has warned would constitute an escalation of the war and the formalisation of NATO’s involvement. Also up for discussion is support for Israel after the foreign secretary announced a partial embargo on arms. Is the UK diverging from the US on foreign policy? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Keir Giles, fellow at Chatham House and author of Who Will Defend Europe? Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Melanie McDonagh

The sham of an assisted dying ‘citizen’s jury’

It is remarkable that the BBC decided to give the latest PR exercise in favour of assisted suicide a big push by running it as news today that the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ citizen’s jury of 28 people has decided that euthanasia should be legalised. In a kind of broadcasting imprimatur it declared that the jury was ‘representative’ of the population as a whole and should therefore be regarded as indicative of the way sentiment is going. Now that’s power: to frame dubious propaganda exercises organised by people already committed to change as the state of the nation. What wouldn’t I give to have the job of writing headlines for

Steerpike

Could Starmer face a smoking ban rebellion?

Oh dear. It appears that Sir Keir Starmer’s own MPs are rather unhappy about the Prime Minister’s proposed smoking ban that would see a crackdown in beer gardens and shisha bars – so much so that one has even tabled a motion to oppose it. Talk about trouble in paradise… It transpires that Mary Glindon, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, has launched a bid to fight back against Starmer’s ban – warning that the move would be rather detrimental to the nighttime economy. Not that Labour’s night czar hasn’t done enough on that front already… The Newcastle politician insists the ban will: Unduly restrict individual liberty where

Eliot Wilson

Russia started the war. Don’t forget that

It is easy to become frustrated when politicians make statements that are blindingly obvious. Sometimes, however, it can be a useful corrective, a reminder of fundamental truths that commentary can obscure. Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away. To reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully. These remarks to the media by Keir Starmer yesterday were prompted by Vladimir Putin. The Russian president, eternally the injured party in international relations, had warned that if Britain and America lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western-supplied munitions, it would