Politics

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

Saturday

Euan McColm

Scottish nationalists are deluding themselves

Angus MacNeil’s attempt to hold the SNP to ransom on the matter of independence has played out both predictably and rather entertainingly. After the SNP MP was suspended for a week over an unseemly public spat with Chief Whip Brendan O’Hara, MacNeil announced he would not consider seeking readmission to SNP ranks until October. Once the party’s autumn conference has taken place, MacNeil said that he will then decide whether the party has, to his satisfaction, redoubled its efforts to achieve independence. MacNeil has taken a hostage. The only problem is that the hostage is himself — and party leader Humza Yousaf has no desire to pay the ransom. A

Tom Holland

The desecration of Stonehenge

The Conservative party, over the course of its lengthy history, has been defined by two particular traditions. One emphasis the duty of care to the past. It nurtures a suspicion of grandiose and ill-founded schemes. It never forgets that the responsibility of a conservative is ultimately to conserve. Then, parallel to this, there is a second tradition. This emphasises the importance of sound money. It scorns to believe in magic money trees. It does not spray taxpayers’ cash around like there is no tomorrow. It pays scrupulous attention to the bottom line. Today, a supposedly Conservative government has made a mockery of both these traditions. It plans to blow upwards

Jawad Iqbal

Sunak is wrong to invite MBS to London

Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne, certainly leads a charmed life. He spent several days in Paris last month meeting the French president Emmanuel Macron. This has now been followed up with a reported invitation from Rishi Sunak to visit Britain this autumn. It would be the first such high-level diplomatic trip since the Saudi crown prince was accused of being behind the killing of the dissident Jamal Khashoggi. He has always denied involvement. The timing of his visit could hardly be worse: it would roughly coincide with the fifth anniversary of Khashoggi’s murder, serving to confirm that the brutal killing is all but forgotten and that the

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Cruise liners should apologise to Faroe Islanders

It is not pleasant to think of a poor bunch of creatures in distress, but the passengers who visited the Faeroes last Sunday aboard an Ambassador cruise liner have at least received an apology for their upset. Some 78 pilot whales were driven into a bay and slaughtered in front of them in a traditional hunt which goes back to the 16th century. The company issued a statement saying: We were incredibly disappointed that this hunt occurred, particularly at a time when our ship was in port, and have offered our sincere apologies to all those onboard who may have witnessed this distressing occurrence… While traditional hunts of this type

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Xi’s iron fist is hurting China’s economy

Mao Zedong had a big thing about contradictions. They were the basis of life, driving it forward, the old despot once mused. But even he might have struggled to understand today’s Communist party – which is desperately trying to drum up foreign investment while simultaneously hounding foreign companies out of the country. The latest figures on inward investment will have made grim reading for the elderly leaders in Zhongnanhai, their compound in Beijing. Foreign investment fell to $20 billion in the first quarter of 2023, compared with $100 billion over the same time last year, according to the research firm Rhodium Group. This comes as the economic recovery following China’s

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

How do we fix Britain’s stagnant economy?

21 min listen

Advanced economies are not seeing the economic growth that they once did, and none more so than the UK where there has been little productivity or real wage growth since 2008. What factors have contributed to this? Which industries will be at the forefront as we chart a path towards a high-growth British future? Kate Andrews speaks to American economist Tyler Cowen, at Civic Future’s Great Stagnation Summit in Cambridge.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Katy Balls, Olenka Hamilton, Damian Thompson

24 min listen

This week: (01:08) Katy Balls on the tricky relationship between Labour and the Unions, (07:11) Olenka Hamilton on why Poland is having a row with Brussels over migrants and asylum seekers and (15:29) Damian Thompson asks whether the Vatican is turning its back on tradition and beautiful art.

Friday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will the Tories lose all three of next week’s by-elections?

Despite winning a majority in the region of 80 in the 2019 general election, the Tories’ working majority currently stands at 60. After next week’s triple by-election it could be reduced even further. On Thursday voters will go to the polls in three seats currently held by the Conservatives: Selby and Ainsty (20,137), Somerton and Frome (19,213) and Uxbridge and South Ruislip (7,210). The working assumption among many of the MPs and activists who have gone to campaign is they they have a good chance of losing all three. As things stand, Somerton and Frome – sparked by the resignation of David Warburton – is seen by the Tories as

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris: Get Ukraine into Nato ASAP

Boris Johnson’s post-premiership crusade continues. The former PM has today attacked Nato for being too soft on Ukraine’s accession. The alliance decided earlier this week that any invitation would be handed out only once ‘conditions are met’ (Svitlana Morenets has more here). Johnson writes in his Daily Mail column: No country is in greater need of Nato membership. All the Alliance needed to do was to set out a timetable — not for instant membership; that makes no sense as long as the war is live — but for membership as soon as victory is won. It comes after an interview with CNN earlier this week where Johnson said there

Max Jeffery Max Jeffery

Zelensky was right to feel cheated by Nato

Gitanas Nauseda stood outside his palace and checked his watch. The Lithuanian President’s guests – the leaders of the other 30 Nato countries, VIPs from Europe and Asia, Volodymyr Zelensky – were an hour late for dinner. Nauseda idled on the red carpet with his wife, and the couple stared at the setting sky. An adviser muttered down his phone and shook his head. The President shrugged. Nato had just issued a statement saying that Ukraine would become a member of the bloc ‘when allies agree and conditions are met’. The alliance needed to see ‘democratic and security sector reforms’. Zelensky tweeted that the statement was ‘absurd’. He had come

Steerpike Steerpike

Ex-BBC presenters close ranks around Huw Edwards 

In the days since the Huw Edwards scandal broke, the television broadcaster’s wife has been praised for a dignified statement citing her husband’s mental health struggle – with the presenter currently in hospital. Meanwhile, the police finding of no evidence of criminal behaviour means that the BBC is allowed to resume its original investigation. Some staff are taking matters into their own hands – with reports that some journalists at the corporation were looking into the alleged behaviour of Edwards before the Sun story broke.  There is one group particularly unimpressed at the news: former BBC staff. Mr S has been curious to note that the ex-BBC presenters and correspondents that feature on Global’s ‘News

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Have we seen the last of the Wagner Group?

Three weeks after marching on Moscow, the Wagner Group has seemingly been withdrawn from the battlefield in Ukraine, according to the Pentagon. Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder said there was evidence to suggest that the 25,000-strong mercenary group was not ‘participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine’. The Pentagon’s statement follows weeks of rumours and speculation about how successfully Vladimir Putin is dealing with the fallout of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion. Many Kremlin-watchers expected the President to crack down hard on the Wagner leader – and were subsequently puzzled when Prigozhin was allowed to nominally retreat into self-imposed exile in Belarus.  The Kremlin’s reaction to Prigozhin’s mutiny

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Where did it all go so wrong for Emmanuel Macron? 

It is Bastille day in France but few people are in the mood for festivities. The riots of a fortnight ago have left physical and psychological scars that won’t heal anytime soon.    It is Emmanuel Macron’s seventh Bastille day as president, and his special guest this year is Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, chosen to mark the 25th anniversary of the strategic partnership agreed by the two countries.    France is more divided, more angry and above all more frightened than it has been in decades The day’s celebrations will end in the traditional way, with a grand display of fireworks, although the cynic might wonder if the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Cleo Watson Edition

Cleo Watson is a former No.10 advisor to Boris Johnson and now author or the recently published book Whips, a novel set in SW1 filled with sex, politics and scandals. On the podcast, Cleo talks about her life growing up in a big family; her career into politics which began in America on Obama’s campaign and led to her advising the likes of Theresa May and Boris Johnson; and her recent departure from politics which gave her the chance to finish the book. 

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Moscow’s pyrrhic Nato victory

Despite the inevitable and performative expressions of anger, regret and dismay following this week’s Nato summit, Moscow feels it has reason to be moderately content with its outcome. It has seen Ukraine frustrated in its failure to secure Nato membership – and fractures emerge between Kyiv and the West. Moscow’s contentment, however, may well be misplaced. In fact, the summit’s inconclusiveness when it comes to Ukrainian membership has ensured a range of other initiatives which are rather less comfortable for the Kremlin.  The notion ahead of the summit that Ukraine would be invited to join the alliance before peace had been concluded – essentially forcing the rest of Nato into

Thursday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Would road pricing be fair?

Sometimes there is a problem so glaring that you wonder why no one is addressing it. Sooner or later, the government is going to have to deal with the black hole that will appear in the public finances as a result of the switch to electric cars. True, Jeremy Hunt has announced that electric cars registered from April 2025 onwards will have to pay road tax: £10 in their first year followed by £165 a year from then onwards. But that still leaves disappearing fuel duty. By 2030, according to Office of Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) calculations out today, that will deprive the Treasury of £13 billion a year in lost

William Moore William Moore

Barbie’s world: the normalisation of cosmetic surgery

39 min listen

This week: Ahead of the release of the Barbie movie, Louise Perry writes in her cover piece about how social media is fuelling the cosmetic surgery industry. She argues that life in plastic is not, in fact, fantastic. She joins the podcast alongside the Times’s Sarah Ditum, author of the upcoming book: Toxic: Women, Fame and the Noughties, to discuss the normalisation of plastic surgery. (01:11) Also this week: In anticipation of the BBC Proms Philip Hensher writes in The Spectator that classical music has gone from being a supreme cultural statement, to just another curious musical genre. He is joined by Sir Nicholas Kenyon, former controller of BBC Radio 3 and director of the Proms

John Keiger John Keiger

There is not much for Macron to celebrate on this Bastille Day

In January this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak outlined his five priorities for Britain against a hazy timetable. Meanwhile in France, after months of parliamentary opposition, strikes and demonstrations against his pension reforms, President Macron’s legislation gained assent by a constitutional sleight of hand. To appease the country’s heightened state of tension in May, Macron pledged to return France to stability and order within ‘one hundred days’. ‘We have before us 100 days of pacification, of unity, of ambition and action in the service of France’. That period expires on 14 July. An audit of either leader’s achievements to date has its challenges, especially given the recent most violent and widespread

Iain Macwhirter

How to save BBC Scotland

The sad thing about the BBC’s dedicated Scottish channel, which has suffered another collapse in viewing figures, is that it’s actually rather good. Their flagship news programme The Nine, broadcast from BBC Scotland’s cavernous HQ at Pacific Quay on the Clyde, is very professional. It is presented by the excellent Martin Geissler, whose name you won’t find on the Daily Mail’s plutocratic presenter list of shame. They don’t pay that kind of money up here — and what they do get paid, they have to work twice as hard for. When I was asked to come north from Westminster to present the Holyrood Live programmes many years ago, I found the staffing was

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Britain’s China policy has been completely demolished

China is engaged in a ‘whole of state’ assault on the UK and the government’s approach has been ‘completely inadequate’. That is the devastating verdict of today’s long-awaited report on China by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. The committee accepts that Chinese influence and interference activities may be difficult to detect, but questions whether the government has even been looking in the first place. ‘China’s size, ambition and capability have enabled it to successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s economy,’ it states. The committee notes that there is still no comprehensive list of areas of sensitive UK research which need protecting The nine-member committee, under the chairmanship of Sir