Politics

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

Friday

26 Jan 2024

What the UN court’s genocide verdict means for Israel

The International Court of Justice has handed down a preliminary ruling instructing Israel to prevent a genocide from happening in Gaza. Judge Donoghue, speaking at the court in The Hague, said the country must take ‘all measures within its power’ to prevent acts that breach the genocide convention and must ensure ‘with immediate effect’ that none of its soldiers are involved in any acts which contravene it. Israel was also ordered to take immediate action to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The convention defines genocide as acts committed ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group’. The ICJ ruling is legally

Steerpike

Watch: Angela Rayner heckled by Palestine activists

It looks like the ructions over Labour’s Palestine position aren’t ending anytime soon. Since the horrifying Hamas massacre on October 7th last year, Labour leader Keir Starmer has refused to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, instead making the case for a ‘sustainable ceasefire’ – which would involve Hamas handing over the remaining Israeli hostages and stopping its rocket fire into Israel. That position has been met with predictable outrage from the left, which has accused the Labour leadership of colluding in a genocide. Now it looks like the row is spilling over into MPs’ constituencies. According to a video posted by Manchester Palestine Action, activists interrupted a Labour fundraising

Melanie McDonagh

Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution is indefensible

Let’s park for a moment the morality of the death penalty. You know what you think. It’s one of those issues that is as divisive as it gets, and along all the predictable lines. It’s the method that exercises me. Last night, Alabama executed Kenneth Smith by the administration of nitrogen gas. Smith, who murdered a pastor’s wife in 1988, was strapped down as officials put a tight fitting, commercial industrial-safety respirator mask on his face. A canister of pure nitrogen was attached to the mask and set flowing. One local journalist who witnessed the execution said Smith struggled and thrashed about – well as much as the restraints on

Ross Clark

Why is Britain acting like a mini-EU?

The collapse of talks to renew a trade deal between Britain and Canada is a reminder that there is nothing automatic about Brexit. If we want to benefit from it we will have to make an effort, and approach matters like trade from a very different angle to the EU. At the moment, there is scant sign of that. Rather, Britain seems to be merely reinventing itself as a mini-EU: a European-style social democracy which is high on regulation and protectionist by instinct. If we want to enjoy the full, wealth-creating forces of free trade then we are going to have to be prepared to make concessions Following Brexit, Britain’s

Mark Galeotti

Putin’s Kaliningrad visit wasn’t a threat to Nato

President visits part of his own country. Shock. Vladimir Putin’s visit yesterday to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, perched precariously on the other side of the Baltic states, was not, as some overheated commentary has claimed, a threat to Nato. Rather, it was a sign of his renewed need to campaign domestically. The threat from Kaliningrad and to the Suwałki Gap is heavily mythologised Kaliningrad, once East Prussian Königsberg, is a territory a little larger than Northern Ireland that was annexed by the Soviets at the end of the second world war and subject to an intensive period of industrialisation, militarisation and colonisation. More than three quarters of the population

Jake Wallis Simons

Israel shows why conscription works

Take a step back and it’s a no-brainer: If you want a healthy society, you need a spirit of unity. As we saw in London during the Blitz – often romanticised for its fabled ability to ‘pull together’ – if citizens feel they are part of a national family, they can maintain their morale even in the face of great adversity. The same is true in modern times. It must surely be the case that, the more people feel a meaningful part of a nation, the less alienation, disenfranchisement, discrimination and resentment there will be. Deaths of despair from drug abuse or suicide will reduce, as will poverty, depression and

Gavin Mortimer

European voters are rebelling against the elites

A friend of mine intends to vote for the National Rally in June’s European Elections. That in itself is nothing unusual – 13.2 million people voted for Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election and 88 of her MPs were then elected to parliament in the legislative elections. What’s more unusual about my friend is that she is a French Algerian. She tells me that she is not an exception among her milieu. It’s the lawlessness, she explains, and the indifference of Emmanuel Macron and his government to thugs, extremists and drug dealers, who make life so miserable for the hard-working and law-abiding in the less fashionable districts of

Terry Barnes

The great shame of Australia Day

Captain James Cook has fallen. Not on the shore of Hawaii’s Kealakekua Bay on Valentine’s Day 1779, but in the Melbourne bohemian bayside suburb of St Kilda. His statue was sawn off at the ankles in the dead of night with an angle grinder; his plinth daubed in a blood-red, anti-colonial slogan. The culprits haven’t been caught yet. Their act of vandalism happened on the eve of Australia Day, celebrated on 26 January as the anniversary of the day in 1788 when a British penal settlement was established by a motley crew of seamen, marines and convicts, which ultimately became the great city of Sydney and the birthplace of modern

Sam Meadows

Can Javier Milei win his fight against Argentina’s strikers?

An alliance with the trade union movements helped catapult Juan Peron, the icon of Argentine politics, to the presidency in the 1940s, and the Peronist political movement he created has had a close relationship with the unions ever since. It’s little surprise that they have opposed Argentina’s new president Javier Milei – very much not a Peronist – almost from the moment of his election victory in November. They have already organised street protests against his sweeping economic reforms, and forced him to temporarily shelve some of his plans with well-directed court challenges. The latest of their efforts came when the powerful CGT union – which has an estimated seven million

Thursday

25 Jan 2024

Melanie McDonagh

Why are doctors being threatened for reporting late-term abortions?

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) this week threatened to use punitive measures against doctors who report late-term abortions to the police. Normally, medics have to respect patient confidentiality, but they can report individuals if it’s in the public interest. But now the college is saying in its latest guidance that any medic who reports their concerns to police must ‘justify’ the disclosure of patient data or else could face ‘fitness to practise’ investigations. The RCOG’s president Dr Ranee Thakar said it’s ‘never in the public interest’ to investigate or prosecute these cases. Where a foetus is capable of surviving outside the womb, we’re talking about a very unpleasant reality That’s plainly

Isabel Hardman

NHS consultants have created another headache for the Tories

The government has just lost one of its bargaining chips in the long-running junior doctors’ strikes: hospital consultants have narrowly voted against the pay deal that they were offered. The BMA had put to its members the offer of an additional 4.95 per cent, on top of the 6 per cent raise already given to them in April, and 51 per cent voted against it. The union’s strike mandate lasts until June this year, which means there could be further damaging walkouts from senior doctors. So far, the union has said ‘we have decided not to call strike action at the current time but instead enter discussions with government to

William Moore

McMafia: inside the SNP’s secret state

40 min listen

On the podcast: gangsterism or government? The Covid Inquiry has moved to Scotland and, in his cover story for the magazine, our editor Fraser Nelson looks at the many revelations uncovered by Jamie Dawson KC. Fraser describes how civil servants were enlisted into what he calls an ‘SNP secret state’ and how SNP corruption is threatening devolution. Joining us to discuss is the Coffee House Scots team: Times columnist Iain Macwhirter, The Spectator’s data editor Michael Simmons and The Spectator’s social media editor Lucy Dunn who coordinates our Scotland coverage. (01:26) Also this week: With the UK army chief raising the prospect of conscription in the event of war with Russia, spare a thought for Germany

James Heale

The Plot: part II

14 min listen

Rishi Sunak seems to be facing his own ‘plot’. But unlike in Nadine Dorries’ now infamous book, it’s not a secret cabal orchestrated by Dougie Smith hoping to depose him, but a mysterious rebel group, backed by Tory donors, who have been funding the polling we’ve seen in the Telegraph recently. The news today is that they have added Will Dry – Rishi Sunak’s former pollster – to their ranks. Is this plot a serious and organised threat to Rishi’s premiership? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Paul Goodman, editor of Conservative Home. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Ross Clark

The Covid Inquiry is finally hearing some enlightening evidence

The Scottish leg of the Covid-19 inquiry has, like the hearings in London, become bogged down in matters such as the deletion of WhatsApp messages on ministerial phones. But, with a slightly less attention-seeking counsel for the inquiry, it also seems to be getting to some of the nuts and bolts which should have been discussed in London. A few of the most revealing pieces of evidence so far have been presented by Mark Woolhouse, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and adviser to the Scottish government during the pandemic. Here are some of the highlights of his oral and written evidence. Woolhouse was deeply critical

Steerpike

Sturgeon’s separatist scheme confirmed by Covid probe

No wonder so many SNP politicians deleted their WhatsApp messages: they really are rather damning. In today’s Covid hearings, former Nicola Sturgeon aide Liz Lloyd is being grilled by the bulldog-like Jamie Dawson KC. If the Dear Leader’s liberal cussing wasn’t bad enough, the Inquiry has now unearthed some startling admissions… Throughout the pandemic, the-then First Minister sought to present herself as a unifying ‘national’ figure above petty party politics. But back in November 2020, Sturgeon discussed a UK government proposal with one of her closest confidants. She begrudgingly admits that ‘on this, I (reluctantly) think there’s merit in UK-wide position’. Whatever happened to fostering constructive cross-party relations… Sturgeon’s natural

Katy Balls

Why Sunak’s critics won’t stop plotting

Simon Clarke’s call this week for Rishi Sunak to go didn’t exactly inspire others to follow. Instead, it’s had a unifying effect on the Tory party. ‘He’s given us all a common cause to rally behind: uniting against him,’ says a former cabinet minister. After the publication of Clarke’s Daily Telegraph op-ed declaring that ‘it is now beyond doubt that whilst the Prime Minister is far from solely responsible for our present predicament, his uninspiring leadership is the main obstacle to our recovery’, Clarke has received criticism from all sides. The Tory WhatsApp groups are filled with MPs venting that ‘it simply burns the party to direct it all at

Steerpike

Sturgeon’s foul-mouthed Boris-bashing revealed

If there’s one thing that both Covid Inquiries have reliably provided, it’s expletives. Use of foul-mouthed language was popular among Boris Johnson’s top team, but members of the Scottish government were prone to the odd swear word or ten. And today’s Covid hearing has revealed that some obscenities came from, um, none other than the Dear Leader herself. This morning’s hearing in Edinburgh heard from former Sturgeon aide and self-confessed close confidant of the former first minister, Liz Lloyd. Lloyd is unusual in the fact she did actually retain all her WhatsApp messages (and even handed them over to the inquiry ahead of time) – although she may now be wishing she

Arash Azizi

Airstrikes won’t stop the Houthis’ Red Sea attacks

It was less than two weeks ago that the US and UK introduced a new element to the multi-faceted conflict in the Middle East. On 12 January they carried out joint strikes against the Houthis, a militia that controls Yemen’s capital Sanaa and large parts of Yemeni territory and is recognised as the country’s government by its main backer, Iran. The UK and US strikes came in response to weeks of Houthi attacks on ships passing through the Red Sea. The militia claimed its attacks were in response to Israel’s assault on Gaza but in practice it was targeting any and all shipping in the area as well as US

Jawad Iqbal

Is Saudi Arabia softening its booze ban?

Saudi Arabia, an Islamic nation where drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden, is to get its first official liquor store. There’s just one catch: only foreign diplomats will be able to buy booze there. The store in the capital Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter will remain off-limits to Muslims and, needless to say, ordinary Saudis. For a handful of lucky diplomats, the shop’s opening will spell an end to having to import alcohol via a diplomatic pouch or sealed official package. Yet the purchase of their favourite tipple won’t be straightforward. They will need to apply for clearance through a mobile app administered by Saudi officials. There will also be strict limits on how much

Freddy Gray

Could Dean Phillips be President?

New Hampshire Joe Biden likes to say that ‘democracy is on the ballot’ in 2024. Yet Joe Biden was not on the ballot on Tuesday in New Hampshire. In his absence, a 55-year-old former congressman called Dean Phillips, who started his campaign just ten weeks ago, won 20 per cent of the vote. Biden still won easily as more than 65 per cent of Democratic voters wrote his name in. But the President’s ducking of New Hampshire, and Phillips’s sudden emergence, says a lot about the sorry state of Democratic politics and the gnawing fear that Biden is going to lose to Donald Trump in November. Dean Phillips’s hair is