Politics

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

Friday

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Hamas’s victim complex

‘We are the victims… therefore nobody should blame us for the things we do.’ Who do you think said this? Some blue-haired campus activist who’s convinced they’re suffering from structural oppression? A trans campaigner, perhaps, who thinks being misgendered is an act of violence? Maybe some other social justice type who feels victimised by everything from statues of old colonialists to un-PC jokes? Actually it was Ghazi Hamad, a leading figure in Hamas. Yes, Hamas is now the armed wing of the culture of victimhood. The genocidal army of the cloying politics of self-pity. One headline paraphrased his comments as follows: ‘We are victims – everything we do is justified.’ If anyone

Eliot Wilson

Dominic Cummings is right about the trouble with cabinet leaks

It’s a pity that Dominic Cummings’s rude WhatsApp messages dominated the headlines following his appearance at the Covid inquiry this week. Boris Johnson’s estranged consigliere had plenty to say about the problems with Whitehall – much of which risks getting ignored because of the focus on leaked messages. One of his targets was the cabinet, which was sidelined during the pandemic because of leaks. ‘Cabinet was largely irrelevant to policy or execution in 2020,’ Cummings wrote in his inquiry evidence. ‘Its constant leaks meant it was seen by everyone in No. 10 as not a place for serious discussion.’ Cabinet became a cipher, and ‘real discussions happen(ed) elsewhere’. Cummings has

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Elon and Rishi’s unseemly love-in

Two of the world’s great unelected power-brokers met last night at Bletchley Park. Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak held a joint interview after the international conference about AI. Their topic was regulation. ‘What should a government like ours be doing?’ said the PM. What an odd start. Why is the Prime Minister asking a foreign billionaire to pre-empt parliament by shaping our internal regulations for us? But Elon seems to get a free pass. He’s regarded as a disinterested operator who supports the powerless against the mighty. And his air of eccentric innocence is fortified by his appearance. He hadn’t bothered to shave. His jowls are rimmed with bum-fluff and

James Heale James Heale

Sunak’s Bletchley Park gamble pays off

So, the AI summit – what was that all about? The great Bletchley Park jamboree concluded last night with an hour-long chat between Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk. As tech bros and world leaders depart today, Sunak’s team can reflect on a job well done. Prior to the summit, there was much sneering about whether anyone would even turn up. Sinosceptics protested the invitation to China. Others mocked the UK’s ambitions. And there were predictable barbs about the Musk fireside chat. But Bletchley was worth the gamble, with a list of attendees that reads like a who’s who of the AI world. The headline achievement was getting some 28 nations

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The banality of Elon’s chat with Rishi

It was hard to enjoy Rishi Sunak’s sit down with Elon Musk on stage at Lancaster House last night. It was hard to hate it, too. We saw two men, two different types of nerd, talking about how artificial intelligence can be good or bad, and how science fiction is a useful guide to this coming reality. They said that AI might provide companionship, make us all redundant, or chase us up the stairs. The language was dramatic – Musk called AI ‘the most disruptive force in human history’ – but the talk was essentially banal. We’ve all had pretty much the same conversation a thousand times this year. Sunak never

Cleo Watson

In defence of Dominic Cummings

Sometimes it’s tricky to be a friend of Dominic Cummings, especially if you’re also friends with Helen MacNamara. I worked with them both in government during the Covid pandemic and couldn’t have more admiration for either of them. I can remember with absolute clarity Dominic explaining in March 2020 how the NHS would crumble without a swift change of strategy. Helen was boundless in her support and sense. She was the most senior woman by a mile who, yes, had to argue for everything, from proper PPE for women to changing the rules on births and miscarriages to allow partners to attend, rather than open up pheasant shooting (incidentally Dominic

Steerpike Steerpike

Who is the No. 10 rabbit killer?

It’s the book that all Westminster is talking about. At long last, Nadine Dorries’ account of the plot to bring down Boris Johnson has started its serialisation in the Daily Mail. The former Culture Secretary has never been shy of making headlines and day one is a belter. Dorries claims that a ‘shadowy Tory No.10 fixer’ had a ‘pet rabbit butchered’ in a ‘Mafia-style warning to his ex-girlfriend.’ Makes a change from a No. 10 dead cat at least… Sadly, the Glenn Close of the Commons has not been named by Dorries, who prefers to call him ‘Dr No’ after the megalomaniac Bond villain. But she paints a vivid picture of

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Oleksiy Arestovych is no friend of Ukraine

The debate over the necessity of Ukraine’s presidential elections is creating chaos in a nation at war. The ceasefire among Ukrainian politicians is crumbling as some of them start to chase votes. Oleksiy Arestovych, a scandal-hit former adviser to the head of the presidential office, has called Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator and announced he will run for office in the next presidential election, whenever it happens. Arestovych now wants to surrender Ukraine’s occupied territories to Russia Arestovych, 47, was one of the most famous members of Zelensky’s team and gained popularity at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He was the calm voice on TV that conveyed simple messages and

Mosab Abu Toha

The smell of flesh is everywhere: A dispatch from Gaza

When the bombs fell, I was at home. My family has been staying at the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, since 12 October. On Tuesday, Israel targeted the camp. The explosions were about 70 metres away from my house. One bomb landed; there was a two-second pause; and then more bombs hit. I couldn’t move my eyes from looking at the ceiling because I was expecting a missile to fall on us. I ran into the street and saw the most horrible massacre and destruction my eyes have ever seen. I tried to help but the shock crippled me. Since Jabalia was first bombed, there has been a strange

Dalibor Rohac

The unfortunate reality about US support for Ukraine

Pranked by a Kremlin-friendly comedy duo, Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, spoke for many when she confessed her ‘fatigue’ with the war in Ukraine. But there is some bad news for all the Europeans ‘tired’ of the conflict. Europe’s real job will only begin when the current war of attrition eventually congeals along more or less static lines, with or without a formal armistice.  The task ahead will not only involve physical reconstruction, budget support, or bringing Ukraine closer to EU membership. Much more importantly, it will involve guaranteeing the stability of whatever formal or informal settlement arises from the war.  The prospect of a sizeable US deployment in post-war Ukraine

Thursday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What has Sunak’s AI summit achieved?

What was the point of Rishi Sunak’s landmark AI summit at Bletchley Park? The Prime Minister has just given a press conference at the end of it in which he tried to underline his achievements. These included bringing together more than 100 of the leading AI nations and leading companies handling the technology and reaching a commitment to state-backed testing and evaluation before any AI technology is released. For Sunak, Britain being at the front of conversations about AI is also about the country’s identity post-Brexit He did, though, have to acknowledge that the UK is not going to be leading the world on AI safety and regulation. He made

William Moore William Moore

The Covid farce

38 min listen

This week: The Covid Inquiry has reached its more dramatic stage this week with the likes of Domic Cummings, Lee Cain and Martin Reynolds giving evidence. But in his cover piece for the magazine Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at the University of Oxford and director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, says that the Hallett Inquiry is asking all the wrong questions, and is preoccupied with who said what on WhatsApp. He joins the podcast alongside Tom Whipple, science editor at the Times to go through this week’s revelations. (01:43).  Also this week: will Israel succeed in its stated aims? In the magazine this week Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour flails on Israel (again)

Another day and another Labour U-turn. The current crisis in Gaza has split the Starmer Army as they walk the thin line between supporting Israel and not alienating their core vote. The current total of Labour MPs who are calling for ceasefire – in breach of party policy – now stands at 65, a third of the total parliamentary party. There has been much anger over Sir Keir’s disastrous LBC interview in which he appeared to suggest that Israel ‘has the right’ to withhold water and power from Gaza: comments which Starmer has repeatedly and painfully tried to ‘walk back’ over the past fortnight. But it appears that the long-suffering

Natasha Feroze

Has the Bank of England done enough to stave off recession?

14 min listen

The Bank of England has once again taken the decision to hold interest rates at their 15-year high. There is growing market consensus that this second pause is a sign that interest rates have peaked, or nearly reached their peak. Will the Bank be able to tread the thin line between tackling inflation but also keeping the country out of recession? Will Rishi Sunak hit his target to ‘halve inflation’?  Natasha Feroze speaks to Kate Andrews and Isabel Hardman.  Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson. 

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Hancock accused of wanting to decide who lived or died in the pandemic

Matt Hancock argued that he – rather than medical professionals – should be the one to decide who lived or died in the event of a shortage of medical supplies and the NHS being overwhelmed during Covid. This revelation comes from evidence given by Simon Stevens, who until 2021 was chief executive of NHS England, at the Covid Inquiry this morning. Stevens didn’t like Hancock’s assertion, saying: ‘I certainly wanted to discourage the idea that an individual secretary of state, other than in the most exceptional circumstances, should be deciding how care should be provided. I felt that we are well served by the medical profession, in consultation with patients

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Has the Bank of England done enough to stave off recession?

The Bank of England has held interest rates at their 15-year high for a second time. Markets were expecting another pause, but there was no guarantee: once again the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was split on the decision, voting 6 – 3 to hold rates at 5.25 per cent. The minority on the committee were in favour of increasing rates by 0.25 percentage points.  The Bank’s governor warned these votes would be ‘tight’ and hard to predict for the foreseeable future. But some are taking this second pause as a sign that rates have peaked. Capital Economics says it is ‘all-but confirmed’ now, while also noting that the ‘Bank is

Angus Colwell

Kamala Harris doesn’t get AI

At least Kamala Harris managed to avoid the dreaded phrase that we should ‘harness AI’s ‘potential’. But that was just about the only blessing in the Vice President’s impressively rubbish speech yesterday at the US embassy in London. Artificial intelligence, it is generally agreed, is the most important issue facing humanity, yet all we had was 14 minutes of waffle from the Veep. Still, it was nice of her to turn up. Joe Biden has put Harris in charge of artificial intelligence. You can read that one of two ways: either Biden thinks that Kamala Harris is perfectly suited to grappling with the gravest existential threat, or that he thinks this

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

We’re still recovering from lockdown’s impact on children

Some 140,000 children missed more than half of the school days they should have attended this spring. Research by the Children’s Commissioner, published today, finds that only 5 per cent of these ‘severely absent’ kids go on to achieve five GCSEs. For year ten and 11 pupils who are persistently absent – meaning they miss one day of school a fortnight – just over a third get the minimum five GCSEs. For rarely absent children the figure is 78 per cent. The Commissioner, Dame Rachel De Souza, is calling for attendance league tables to be set up.  It’s no surprise that attendance dropped during Covid. But after lockdown many children just

Jawad Iqbal

How does releasing mice in McDonald’s help Palestinians?

It is hard to know what to make of the sheer mindless stupidity of some people who claim to support the cause of Palestinians in the Israel-Gaza conflict. Boxes of live rodents have now been released at a number of McDonald’s restaurants, apparently as part of pro-Palestinian protests. One incident took place on Monday in Birmingham. Video footage widely shared on social media shows a man wearing a Palestinian flag on his head, carrying a box filled with mice from the boot of his car and into the McDonald’s branch in the Star City leisure complex. He tips the mice — painted the colours of the Palestinian flag — on

Andrew Tettenborn

Why did the United Nations hand a human rights job to Iran’s ambassador?

What does Iran have to teach the world about human rights? The United Nations appears to think we have plenty to learn from a pariah state which backs Hamas, arrests and beats women for failing to wear a hijab, executes protesters and hangs gay people. In Geneva, the Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council – essentially a human rights jamboree – opens today; its chair is Ali Bahreini, Iran’s UN ambassador, who will oversee a conference discussing the contribution of science, technology and innovation to the promotion of human rights. Iran, which has used facial recognition technology to identify dissidents, is likely to have some expertise here. It’s beyond