The problem with the Tories’ ‘local heroes’
20 min listen
Are the Tories right to pick local candidates, over Westminster favourites, to be their next generation of MPs? Cindy Yu speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Heale.
Politics
Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
Sunday
Nadine Dorries blasts Sunak in first interview since resigning
It’s only been a day since Nadine Dorries announced her resignation as an MP – in a scathing letter released to the Mail on Sunday blasting Rishi Sunak’s premiership. But it seems that the former culture secretary still has plenty of ammunition left over. Dorries appeared on TalkTV this afternoon to explain why she felt she had to resign now, and to take another pop at the Prime Minister for good measure. In the interview, she claimed that she had actually told Cabinet Secretary Simon Case last summer that she planned to resign, but that ‘there was a huge amount of pressure not to go’ from her colleagues. She held out
The real origins of Putin’s war
In 1992, Richard Nixon assessed the future of Russia in a remarkably prophetic interview. ‘Russia is at a crossroads’, said the former US President: It is often said the cold war is over and the West has won. But that is only half of the truth. Communism has been defeated but the ideas of freedom are now on trial. If they don’t work, there will be a reversion not to communism but to a new despotism which would pose a mortal danger to the rest of the world. It will be affected by a virus of Russian imperialism which has been a characteristic of Russian foreign policy for centuries. Therefore,
The disturbing rise of the rural Greens
In the shire counties of England, a dark force is rising. No, this isn’t a dreadful attempt at Tolkien fanfiction, but rather the challenging electoral predicament we Conservatives find ourselves in as we confront a new kind of opposition. And this time, the little furry-footed gardening folk are not on the side of the angels. I’m talking, of course, about the rise of the rural Green. In Suffolk, they are now the protest vote of choice, having taken control of three local councils – one outright and two in coalition. They’re springing up from Surrey to Staffordshire. And this is, I’m afraid, just the beginning. We like to call them
Why is HS2 costing so much?
The members of the Denham Waterski Club are among the few people in the Chilterns who are grateful for HS2. They have a superb new clubhouse overlooking the tiny lake where their motorboats whizz round in ever tighter circles, thanks to the fact that their old one was in the way of the massive viaduct being built over the Colne Valley for the new line. The heavy concrete structure does somewhat blight their view but they are undoubtedly delighted with their Faustian deal. The escalating costs and the dithering of ministers have meant that many of the original advantages of HS2 have been lost The few hundred thousand pounds this
Saturday
Nadine Dorries is vindicating Sunak’s refusal to ennoble her
After waiting for months, Nadine Dorries has today served her resignation – as several MPs have done recently. But, enraged by Rishi Sunak’s refusal to put her in the House of Lords, she is also triggering a by-election which the Tories are highly likely to lose. In her letter, released in time for the Sunday newspapers, she makes some fair criticisms of Sunak. But the crux of it borders on delusional: a claim that Boris Johnson was forced out of office, even “assassinated“, by a small cabal of Sunak allies. I was never wild about the idea of defenestrating Johnson. Sunak’s assessment that the Tory poll lead would soon recover was (to
Nadine Dorries isn’t making life easy for Rishi Sunak
Nadine Dorries has finally bowed to pressure from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and her own party and quit as an MP. The former culture secretary has announced – through an interview with the Mail on Sunday – that she will today inform the Chancellor of her intention to take the Chiltern Hundreds, the formal process for quitting, therefore enabling the writ to be moved on September 4th when parliament returns. This means Rishi Sunak faces a potentially bruising by-election test in the autumn as he attempts to shake-up his premiership ahead of an election year. Rishi Sunak faces a bruising by-election test in the autumn as he attempts to shake-up his premiership
Nadine Dorries quits again with final blast at Rishi
Nadine Dorries is off – and this time it’s for real. Following weeks of criticism, the former Culture Secretary has finally announced that she will be quitting the Commons when parliament returns from recess on Monday 4 September. That will trigger a by-election in her Mid-Bedfordshire constituency, helpfully timed to coincide with Tory party conference. Dorries first declared she would leave the Commons at the same time as Boris Johnson and Nigel Adams back in June but has hung on ever since, giving the Lib Dems in her constituency time to organise. In a scathing letter published on the Daily Mail’s website, Dorries says Sunak has ‘squandered the goodwill of
Full text: Nadine Dorries’s scathing resignation letter
Nadine Dorries has just announced that she is stepping down as an MP. Below is the full text of her blistering resignation letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: Dear Prime Minister, It has been the greatest honour and privilege of my life to have served the good people of Mid Bedfordshire as their MP for 18 years and I count myself blessed to have worked in Westminster for almost a quarter of a century. Despite what some in the media and you yourself have implied, my team of caseworkers and I have continued to work for my constituents faithfully and diligently to this day. You flashed your gleaming smile in
Why did the Tories lose interest in free schools?
Katharine Birbalsingh has been releasing videos of pupils at her school, Michaela Community, getting their GCSE results. They’re incredibly moving, all the more so because you wonder how many of these same kids – many from disadvantaged backgrounds – would have done if she had not set up that free school. These results are testimony, yes, to pupil effort. But when this teenager runs through his exams and lists each teacher who helped him get each ‘8’ and ‘9’, it’s almost a tear-jerker. It’s testimony to the teachers who go against the grain and set up schools – under much attack – to give private-school style rigour and discipline to kids whose families could never afford the £25,000-a-year.
Who benefits from the SNP-Green alliance?
On the SNP’s list of regrets, where does the Bute House Agreement with the Greens rank? Since the agreement, the Scottish government’s deposit return scheme has been delayed, Highly Protected Marine Areas halted and the gender reform bill blocked. This month marks the two-year anniversary of the SNP-Green coalition, but has the partnership – and the pro-independence majority that comes with it – been worth it for the nationalists? ‘There’s a huge amount that’s been achieved,’ says Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Greens along with Lorna Slater. Certainly the deal resulted in Harvie and Slater becoming the first Green politicians in the UK to gain ministerial portfolios. But more
There’s no worse alternative to Putin
Well it took two months, but the inevitable happened this week: Yevgeny Prigozhin, one time chef and later war-criminal extraordinaire for Vladimir Putin, was publicly executed in the most extraordinary way. While flying on his private jet with the upper echelon of his Wagner Group, he was shot down by a Russian military operated anti-air system. For a short period there were the weird but expected rumours circulating, asking if Prigozhin was faking his own death, or asking if the Ukrainians did it. The answer seems clear, however. Putin had Prigozhin executed for his armed mutiny two months ago. Always go with the simplest explanation. Not pressing Russia fully because
James Heale, Svitlana Morenets, Melanie McDonagh and Richard Madeley
28 min listen
This week James Heale describes the mess the Conservative Party has got itself into when selecting its parliamentary candidates (01.17), Svitlana Morenets is in Ukraine witnessing first hand the tragedy of how troops are dying for want of proper medical supplies and training (06.59), Melanie McDonagh discusses the art of kissing and when a kiss is not just a kiss (18.22) and Richard Madeley shares with us his diary in which he ponders Queen songs and cancel culture and the shocking case of Lucy Letby (22.07). Produced and presented by Linden Kemkaran
The Kremlin is sanctioning me – but why can’t they get my name right?
Journalists love being put on blacklists. In a profession that prides itself on holding the powerful to account, there’s no better accolade than being banned from a politician’s press conferences, put on some spin doctor’s dossier of ‘unfriendly’ hacks, or better still, declared persona non grata by some tyrant’s regime. It’s the hack’s equivalent of combat spurs, to be gathered alongside Pulitzers and war wounds. So what greater backhanded compliment could there be than to be banned by Vladimir Putin from visiting Russia? This was the honour conferred on me last week, when myself and 14 other British journalists were put on a Kremlin sanction list for our allegedly hostile
Friday
Ukraine steps up its drone warfare against Crimea
In the early hours of this morning, Ukraine launched 42 unmanned drones at the annexed territory of Crimea, the Russian ministry of defence has claimed. Announcing on Telegram that the attack had been ‘thwarted’, the Russian MoD said nine of the drones had been shot down, while the remaining 33 were electronically jammed and downed ‘before they reached their target’. If the number of drones Russia claims to have been attacked with is correct, this would amount to the largest Ukrainian air attack on Russian-held territory since the beginning of the war. This could amount to the largest Ukrainian air attack on Russian-held territory since the beginning of the war. Mikhail
Violence is becoming worryingly common on the streets of France
It’s been a brutal month in France but one would barely know it from the reaction of much of the political and media class. Their attention has been focused on a rapper called Médine, who was invited at the start of August to appear at the Green party’s summer conference, which opened in the Channel port city of Le Havre on Thursday. In the time between being invited and the conference, the 40-year-old rapper of Algerian descent became embroiled in a social media brouhaha after he described the Jewish writer Rachel Khan as a ‘ResKHANpée,’; this is a crass play on words, ‘rescapée’ (survivor) being the word for someone who survived the Holocaust.
Trump’s mugshot released following Georgia arrest
The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived: Donald Trump’s mugshot has been released to the world. With a furrowed brow and scowl, the former President posed for his mugshot at Fulton county sheriff’s office in Georgia in his trademark navy suit and red tie yesterday. Trump was booked by the sheriff’s office in Georgia after announcing his intention to surrender, following his indictment for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. At the jail, Trump was formally arrested and will have had to have his fingerprints taken and his height and weight measured. He was released ahead of the trial in October after
Scotland shouldn’t pay climate reparations
Lucky old Scottish homeowners. Not only are they being told that they could be forbidden from selling their homes if they fail to achieve a ‘C’ rating on an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC); they now have the pleasure of knowing that £24 million worth of their taxes will be going to pay climate reparations. The Scottish government has just made such a handout to charities working on climate issues in the developing world. While First Minister Humza Yousaf didn’t quite use the term ‘reparations’ he did say ‘the countries which are the worst affected by the climate crisis are often those which have done little or nothing to cause it.
Thursday
Trumpvision: he’s making America watch again
27 min listen
On the podcast this week: In his cover piece for the magazine, The Spectator’s deputy editor Freddy Gray says that he was hardly surprised that Donald Trump chose not to participate in last night’s Republican candidates debate. He argues that Trump no longer needs the TV networks and joins the podcast alongside Douglas Murray, who profiles the no-hoper Republican candidates looking to pip Trump to the nomination in his column. (01:21) Also this week: Mark Millar, the comic book writer and producer behind Hollywood hits such as Kingsman, Kick Ass and a host of Marvel films, writes The Spectator’s notebook. He discusses everything from London’s fading glory to his new Netflix series The Chosen One,
Why is Rishi delaying his reshuffle?
12 min listen
Rishi Sunak is reportedly going to delay a planned major reshuffle. A Cabinet switch-up was expected next month, but it now seems that only ministers like Ben Wallace, who has already indicated that he wants to step down, will be moved from their posts. What changed the Prime Minister’s mind? Max Jeffery speaks to James Heale and Craig Oliver, former director of communications in No. 10. Produced by Max Jeffery.