Politics Archives

Wednesday

7 Feb 2024

Pakistani politics is like a Monopoly game

The levels of cynicism and disillusionment surrounding the upcoming parliamentary elections in Pakistan – due to take place tomorrow – are remarkable, even for a country with a chequered democratic tradition. Few people believe the vote will be free or fair, with widespread speculation that the country’s all-powerful military has already decided the result and will stop at nothing to get its way. Put simply, the election is a charade. This is how things stand. The country’s former prime minister, Imran Khan, is in jail. More on him later. Another former leader, Nawaz Sharif, who was in exile after his own spell in jail, has returned home, and all outstanding cases against

Tuesday

6 Feb 2024

Cindy Yu

What Liz Truss’s PopCon launch was really about

11 min listen

Liz Truss is back! This time with a conference called ‘Popular Conservatism’, bringing together voices in the Conservative party and aiming to ‘deliver popular conservative policies’. But what does the event really tells us about the state of right wing political thought in the UK today, and why were some of Truss’s key allies not there? Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Matthew Lynn

Does the EU’s tech ‘enforcer’ know what he’s talking about?

Thierry Breton is, on the face of it, well qualified to regulate Europe’s tech industry. After a brief spell as French finance minister, from 2009 to 2019 he ran the computing giant Atos, one of the champions of France’s IT industry. Yet Atos is now in deep trouble. Shares have plunged more than 90 per cent in the past five years; an issue of new shares to raise fresh capital has been cancelled. Whether the company will survive without a bailout is far from clear. It is, of course, a while since Breton left Atos for Brussels, where he works as the European Union’s internal market commissioner. A lot may

Steerpike

Watch: Jacob Rees-Mogg clashes with ‘left-wing’ broadcaster

Jacob Rees–Mogg’s speech at the Popular Conservatism launch went down well with the assembled crowd in Westminster, but the Tory MP was forced on to the defensive when he came off stage. Rees-Mogg was asked by News Agents journalist Lewis Goodall, formerly of the BBC, to defend his attack on ‘Davos Man’. ‘How much money did you make in the city?,’ Goodall asked Rees-Mogg. ‘That’s such a childish question,’ Rees-Mogg replied, before accusing his interviewer of being ‘a very left-wing broadcaster’: ‘You seem to be representing the left wing. Are you doing your bit of due impartiality?’, Mogg asked Goodall. “How much money did you make in The City?”@lewis_goodall asks

Katy Balls

Truss takes aim at left-wing extremists

This morning Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor, announced that he plans to step down at the next election. But there is still at least one senior Trussite who plans to fight on. This lunchtime Liz Truss herself appeared at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster to launch her new outfit, PopCon, a grassroots group to generate new Tory policies. Truss argued it was time for MPs to find ‘resilience and bravery’ to start making conservative arguments Addressing a packed room, the former prime minister criticised ‘left wing extremists’ as she took aim at Tory MPs pursuing policies that would make them popular at ‘London dinner parties’. Truss argued it was time

Liz Truss Launches 'Popular Conservatives' Movement

Freddy Gray

Is 2024 a ‘flip election’?

31 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by pollster and writer Patrick Ruffini. They talk about why the strengthening economy isn’t improving Biden’s numbers, and the other factors that will influence the 2024 election.

Niall Gooch

Who will oppose Labour’s racial dystopia?

Britain’s ruling class are currently conducting an enormous experiment – perhaps not consciously or intentionally, but with great enthusiasm – to discover the effects of extremely high levels of immigration on British society. We will not be sure of the result for some time yet. In the meantime, we need to be doing all we can to ensure that our multi-ethnic society remains as harmonious and peaceful as possible. Our overriding aim ought to be reducing and minimising, rather than heightening, the salience of ethnicity as a political issue. Once upon a time, this appeared to be the goal of self-proclaimed anti-racists. In my naïve way, I assumed that they,

Steerpike

Kwasi Kwarteng quits the Commons

Happy PopCon day! Liz Truss will this morning launch her ‘Popular Conservatism’ movement in Westminster. The 49-day premier will be speaking alongside the likes of fellow Tory MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson – though, sadly, not Simon Clarke nor Ranil Jayawardena, both of whom dropped out after the former’s ill-fated call for Rishi Sunak to quit. And one Conservative who certainly won’t be at Truss’s launch is Kwasi Kwarteng, her Chancellor of the Exchequer for 38 of the 49 days she spent in office. In September, he revealed that the formerly close allies had not spoken about his sacking since the day she ignominiously fired him, eleven months prior.

Jawad Iqbal

Muslim voters are falling out of love with Keir Starmer

The Labour party has a problem with Muslims. A new poll suggests that British Muslim voters, who have traditionally supported Labour in huge numbers, are deserting the party over its handling of the Israel-Gaza war. Backing for Labour from the Muslim community has fallen massively since the 2019 general election from 86 per cent to 60 per cent, according to a poll conducted by Survation. It was commissioned by the Labour Muslim Network (LMN), which promotes British Muslim engagement with the party. Some within Labour’s ranks have now accused the party of being ‘outflanked’ by the Tories on Gaza This isn’t the only finding that will set alarm bells ringing:

Max Jeffery

Dmitri Trenin: the pro-West Russian radicalised by Putin’s war in Ukraine

The circus of American and European diplomats in Moscow loved Dmitri Trenin while he was on their side. Trenin was a former colonel in a Soviet intelligence agency. He became known in the early 2000s for writing books that argued Russia, diminished after the Cold War, should get friendly with the West by joining Nato and the European Union. He was a pro-West Russian, and it earned him the directorship of the Moscow branch of a rich American think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Trenin built contacts in the Kremlin, wrote for the New York Times, and was in the phone book of every foreign ambassador in the Russian capital.

Lisa Haseldine

Will Boris Nadezhdin be allowed to run for president against Putin?

Will the anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin be allowed to run against Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency? That’s the question Russians are wondering this week after the independent candidate submitted the signatures he needed to get onto the ballot for March’s election. Nadezhdin claimed to have collected 105,000 signatures from across Russia – the maximum a non-party affiliated candidate can submit to be considered for the presidency. But just days after he submitted them last Wednesday, Russia’s central electoral commission declared that the paperwork was littered with ‘surprising errors’ – including, allegedly, the signatures of ‘dozens of people no longer of this world’. There have been questions as to how and

Gareth Roberts

Why can’t Peter Tatchell leave Cliff Richard alone?

Leave Cliff alone! Peter Tatchell has weighed in on Cliff Richard’s refusal to declare his sexual orientation. Tatchell was spurred on by the reemergence of a video clip of Cliff declaring on Loose Women: ‘I don’t mind talking about things but there are things that are mine, that will go with me to my grave…I don’t talk about my family, I certainly don’t talk about my sexuality.’ This interview, from 2016, rattled Tatchell’s cage. As ever he can’t keep his nose out of anybody else’s business. ‘Sure, it is up to him,’ said Tatchell, ‘But –’. (As usual, everything after the ‘but’ is nonsense.) ‘Hiding his sexuality colludes with the

Monday

5 Feb 2024

Alexander Larman

What should Buckingham Palace do following the King’s cancer diagnosis?

The news, when it came, was as stark as anyone could have imagined. As a Buckingham Palace statement observed: ‘During the King’s recent hospital procedure for benign prostate enlargement, a separate issue of concern was noted.’ And then the line that cannot fail to produce a gulp of empathy. ‘Subsequent diagnostic tests have identified a form of cancer.’ There had been rumours of ill health ever since the King went into hospital last month, but there are always rumours concerning the health of the Royal Family, most of which are little more than tittle-tattle. The recent discussion as to what is wrong with the Princess of Wales has been particularly

William Atkinson

What’s wrong with Tory MPs supporting Trump?

Asking Liz Truss for advice on how to make conservatism popular seems as wise as consulting Paula Vennells on how best to treat your employees. That hasn’t stopped the ex-PM from giving her blessing to the new Popular Conservatism group. But at least one of her fellow PopCons might suggest it isn’t their former leader that the Tories should look to for salvation, but across the Atlantic. Recently selected for the seat of Epsom and Ewell, Mhairi Fraser is a City lawyer who has dabbled in Donald Trump fangirling. She travelled to America to see the ex-president win in 2016 because she had ‘never been as excited’ about a politician.

Annabel Denham

The cynicism behind Labour’s Race Equality Act

Labour is desperate to come across as business-friendly. Last week, the party said it will no longer reinstate a cap on bankers’ bonuses, and that it will ‘unashamedly champion’ the financial services industry. But how to square that with the party’s new Race Equality Act? Most people understand equal pay to mean exactly what was intended when it became law in 1970: that remuneration must be the same for two identical jobs within an organisation, regardless of who is in post. But since the EU’s 2006 Equal Pay Directive it has taken on a new meaning: now, it covers ‘like work’ (where the job and skills are the same or similar),

Steerpike

Watch: Rishi bets Piers £1,000 on Rwanda

Proper prime time viewing this afternoon with a PM on the ropes. TalkTV today broadcast Piers Morgan’s interview with Rishi Sunak, reprising the double act from when the pair last met in Downing Street 12 months ago. The embattled premier no doubt spoke for many when he met Morgan, greeting him with the words ‘Not you again.’ Never mind Rishi: if the polls are correct there won’t be a third encounter in No. 10 this time next year… Sunak was in his Tigger-ish form, likening himself to Gareth Southgate and suggesting that everyone likes to have a pop at his leadership. But while the PM was prepared to admit his

Tom Slater

Why don’t Tories like Gillian Keegan want to talk about asylum?

Does the Tory party have a death wish? It’s a question we have been prompted to ask again and again over recent years, as the supposed natural party of government has self-immolated before the electorate’s eyes. But if an interview with education secretary Gillian Keegan on Sky News over the weekend is anything to go by, the answer is an emphatic ‘Yes’. Many prominent Tories are up to their necks in woke identity politics Last week’s horrific alkali attack in south-west London has exposed a dysfunctional asylum system that no sane person could support. That the Afghan national Abdul Ezedi – the man suspected of disfiguring a mother and her

Katy Balls

Rishi Sunak admits to failing on NHS waitlists

11 min listen

Rishi Sunak is in Belfast to mark the return of Stormont after a two-year deadlock. With Sinn Fein now the leading party, can the government pitch this as a win? Also on the podcast, the Prime Minister admitted he’s failed to meet the NHS waitlist targets from his five pledges last year. James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson.

Patrick O’Flynn

Christians are being played for fools in asylum claims

It came as quite a shock when we learned that many of our universities had moved into the lucrative trade of selling visas to foreign nationals, with a bit of higher education attached as a legacy sideline. Now there is a new question hanging in the air: is nothing sacred? For we are having to get our heads around the idea of churches apparently participating in the immigration racket too. It seems that something of a ‘pray to stay’ ruse has been in operation for people from non-Christian backgrounds who have illegally gate-crashed into Britain. Something of a ‘pray to stay’ ruse has been in operation for people from non-Christian

Brendan O’Neill

Of course the Clapham chemical attack is about asylum

The Clapham chemical attack is ‘not really about asylum’. An actual government minister said this. Not some junior scribe for the Guardian or a right-on irritant with his pronouns and the Palestine flag in his social-media bio. No, a minister. A member of the cabinet. One of the highest officials in the land. The Tories really have lost the plot, haven’t they? It was Gillian Keegan, the education secretary. She was on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News. He probed her about the horrific attack in Clapham on Wednesday night when a mother and her two young daughters were doused with alkali. The suspect is Abdul Ezedi, an