Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
13 min listen
WhatsApps between officials in Boris Johnson’s government have been centre-stage at the Covid inquiry this week. Is the app encouraging on-the-hoof policymaking and nasty briefing? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Guido Fawkes chief Paul Staines.
I’ve never been sorry that I left education at 17, armed with nothing but my raw talent and splendid rack. The conformity and unworldliness which you need to have if you want to basically stay at school till you’re 21 are things I despise students for – and haven’t these character traits had a lovely outing during the current ugly outbreak of campus Jew-hatred? Jews have never been popular at universities; the phrase ‘too clever for their own good’ might have been invented for them, with a world population of 0.2 per cent taking a whopping 22 per cent of Nobel prizes. The mediocre spawn of the ruling class once
20 min listen
This week: Katy Balls reads her politics column on Keir Starmer’s ceasefire predicament (00:54), Matthew Parris warns us of the dangers of righteous anger (06:48), and Fabian Carstairs tells us how he found himself on an internet dating blacklist (14:29). Presented by Oscar Edmondson. Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson.
As Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’s atrocity, and TV images of dying civilian Palestinians flood the airwaves, some are worried that regional peace with Israel is dead. Such talk makes militants, from Tehran to Gaza, proud. They hope war will bring an end to Israel’s ‘normalisation’ and detente with Saudi Arabia, and halt the ground-breaking Abraham Accords. The reality, however, is more complex. It’s too soon to write off Arab-Israeli peace efforts – even amid the carnage of Gaza. Before 7 October, the buds of peace were quietly sprouting, because it was in the interests of both sides, Arab and Israeli, for this to happen.
One of the most shocking images in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 was the sight of Palestinians dancing in the street. Who would have known the murder of 3,000 Americans would elicit such delight? A larger number of Palestinians were on the streets of the West Bank in January 2015 following the slaughter of the staff of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Their angry placards and bellicose chants weren’t condemning the two Islamist gunmen who had committed the crime but the fact that the same magazine had, in defiance of the terrible attack, published a caricature of the Prophet in its next issue. ‘France is the
At times, the Covid public inquiry has had the appearance of a show trial – one that starts with the premise that lockdown was essential to saving lives and should have been imposed earlier in the spring of 2020, and that is seeking to find the guilty parties who prevented this happening. As Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, writes in The Spectator this week, the inquiry is failing to provide much illumination on the question that matters rather more: did lockdowns actually work, and did they do more good than they did harm? Another participant with an interesting perspective on the subject of lockdowns
Mums begging for help and being ignored, mums in labour turned away from hospital and sent home sometimes for days and days, midwives and obstetricians who are supposed to care instead shrugging and rolling their eyes, the most basic failures in care – observations not done, monitoring ignored, an air of lackadaisical ignorance and complacency. Babies fade away and die on the very brink of life, coming into the world silently, or die within hours or days of birth because of catastrophic failings of care during labour, or are born alive but their brains irreparably injured by oxygen deprivation, leaving them with serious disabilities and shortened lives. While Secretary of State Steve
36 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to Robert Bryce who is an author and expert on energy, power and politics. On the podcast, Robert talks about the economic implications of Europe’s net zero targets; why we should push for nuclear energy; and shares the human stories behind electrification.
14 min listen
This week the prime minister hosted his landmark AI summit at Bletchley Park which wrapped up with an interview with Elon Musk, who warned that AI will one day render all jobs obsolete. The who’s who of AI were in attendance over the two days as well the likes of Kamala Harris and Ursula von der Leyen, but what was actually achieved? Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Madhumita Murgia, AI editor at the Financial Times.
The Scottish government has launched another white paper on independence, this time on the subject of migration. It is the sixth paper in the ‘Building a New Scotland’ series setting out the SNP-Green administration’s vision for a post-UK Scotland. The substance of the document isn’t as important as the fact of its existence. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Scottish parliament cannot legislate for an independence referendum. The UK parliament shows no inclination to permit another referendum. So why is the Scottish government using public resources to promote a prospectus for a constitutional event that is opposed by Westminster and may never happen? This is yet another reason why
A new row is dominating Holyrood’s corridors of power. What is it this time? War, famine, the never-ending ferries crisis? No, far more important: desk allocation in the Scottish parliament. Yes, it seems that the prospect of, er, being next door to Ash Regan has thrown the Scottish Greens into something of a tizzy. Following her shock defection to Alba last weekend, the onetime SNP leadership contender now has to find a new office. But the only space available is unfortunately on the same floor as her erstwhile coalition partners. Now there are reports that transgender Green staff members have raised concerns about their potential proximity to the gender critical politician.
Nothing works anymore. If there is a mantra for modern Britain, including Scotland, this is it. If Westminster’s shame is the farce around HS2, Scotland’s is the two unlaunched ferries on the Clyde, spiralling inexorably in cost with a launch date disappearing into the future. They are emblems for so much else: after 16 years in power, the litter of the SNP’s unmet promises – from reform of education, to the closing of health inequalities, to the missed targets on net zero – continues to rise. Today, the sixth white paper on independence has been published. And its publication exposes the problem: the constitutional question has meant other serious policy-making
Wealthy foreigners are flocking to New Zealand, but not all Kiwis are happy about their arrival: not least locals who are fed up with their neighbour, Noel Edmonds, of Deal or No Deal and Mr Blobby fame. Edmonds moved last year with his wife to a small village called Ngātīmoti, in the Tasman region of New Zealand’s South Island. The couple purchased a vineyard and cafe called Dunbar Estates, which they set about adapting into a pleasant English enclave called River Haven, complete with restaurant, general store, and a traditional English pub called the Bugger Inn. The Bugger Inn offers a ‘Dickens Cider’. Edmonds reckons this is ‘Kiwi humour,’ but some locals
‘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
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
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
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
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
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
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
