Politics Archives

Thursday

13 Apr 2023

Amber Athey

Was Biden’s visit to Belfast gaffe-free?

12 min listen

President Joe Biden landed in Belfast this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. For the podcast, Washington editor, Amber Athey is joined by Lew Lukens, former deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in London to talk about the significance of this state visit for Biden who now embarks on a four-day trip visiting family in Ireland. With proud Irish roots, a hostility to Brexit, and someone famous for his gaffes, has the trip passed by without any awkward moments? Produced by Natasha Feroze and Saby Kulkarni.

Kate Andrews

The strikes are taking their toll on UK growth

February was a no-growth month, according to the latest update from the Office for National Statistics, published this morning. A rise in construction was offset by a fall in services, resulting in zero headline growth. The strikes are taking their toll. The biggest contribution to the fall in services came from education and public administration, as striking teachers downed tools. Education fell by 1.7 per cent. Meanwhile public administration fell by 1.1 per cent, as ‘this industry also saw industrial action take place within the civil service during February 2023.’ An optimist might note that while the strikes offset economic activity in other sectors, at least there was some growth to point

Annabel Denham

Junior doctors’ pay demands aren’t reasonable

Is a 35 per cent pay rise reasonable? That’s the question which, rightly or wrongly, is at the heart of the junior doctors row. We are part way through a 96-hour walkout which the NHS national medical director for England warned would cause ‘unparalleled levels of disruption’. Coming straight after the Easter weekend, coinciding with Ramadan and Passover, and lasting longer than any other walkout in NHS history, it has been timed for maximum impact. The health of sick people will be compromised: hernias will rupture, appendixes burst, cancer treatments will be delayed. But it will have subtler effects, too. One letter in yesterday’s Telegraph expressed dismay at the advice to ‘avoid

Katy Balls

Will Sunak’s charm offensive on Biden pay off?

Joe Biden’s trip to Belfast was seen in government as a chance to strengthen the special relationship. The initial hope had been that by the time the US President jetted to Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, power-sharing would have returned to Stormont. However, after the DUP voted against Rishi Sunak’s renegotiation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Biden instead used his speech in Belfast to praise the Windsor Framework and express his ‘hope’ that ‘the assembly and executive will soon be restored’. Such words from the US President – who often speaks of his Irish heritage with pride – were given short shrift by

Andrew Tettenborn

Europe is falling apart on the world stage

There is rather more than meets the eye to Emmanuel Macron’s inept visit to Beijing last week. The immediate fallout – Xi’s flat refusal to change tack on Ukraine, and Macron’s subsequent insistence that France was not beholden to the US or for that matter over-concerned with what China might do in Taiwan – looks like a stinging national rebuff to France and a face-saving retreat by Paris to curry favour with China. And so it is. But it goes further. There is a strong EU dimension to this whole debacle: what it really shows is the increasing weakness and disunity of Europe when it tries its hand at power projection

Wednesday

12 Apr 2023

Stephen Daisley

Resurrecting Scotland’s gender law battle is an error for Humza Yousaf

Humza Yousaf’s decision to challenge the British government in court over Scottish gender laws is a tactical play. And yet it confirms just how little the new First Minister knows about tactics. Yousaf is having a terrible old time of it. Almost half of SNP members voted against him becoming leader. He has stuffed his government with loyalists: just one of his 27 ministers endorsed his leadership rival. The SNP’s finances are under police investigation, former chief executive Peter Murrell was arrested, the home he shares with Nicola Sturgeon raided by officers, and Yousaf only just learned that his party’s auditors quit months ago. (Neither Murrell nor anyone else has been charged with any offence.)

James Heale

Rishi meets Biden: bi-latte or bi-lateral?

15 min listen

James Heale is joined by Katy Balls and Talk Radio political editor, Peter Cardwell who has been in Belfast for Biden’s state visit. A symbolic time as Northern Ireland marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Given the President’s proud Irish roots and vocal criticism of former Prime Ministers, was Rishi Sunak able to thaw the special relationship?

Alexander Larman

Why isn’t Meghan going to the coronation?

Today’s announcement that Prince Harry will be coming to London for his father’s coronation is not a surprise. Yet it comes with a sting in the tail. It has been revealed that Meghan will not be attending; the official statement from Buckingham Palace, while saying that they were ‘pleased’ that the Duke of Sussex would be present, also announced ‘The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’. Usually, there would be some face-saving explanation for her absence, but as none has been offered, speculation will begin immediately. No doubt the ever-active ‘friends’ of Harry and Meghan will soon start spreading discord more or less

Andrew McQuillan

Will Northern Ireland ever learn to solve its own problems?

If the relationship between the UK and the United States is allegedly special, the relationship between Northern Irish politicians and the US presidency is a whole different level. In the mythologised, Derry Girls telling of the Troubles, Bill Clinton turning on Belfast’s Christmas lights in 1995 heralded a transformative US intervention. One which allegedly managed more in delivering the Belfast Agreement than the hard yards trod by UK and Irish civil servants, the security forces and the more constructive figures involved in local politics. How can Northern Irish politicians be encouraged to take some responsibility for providing stable, local government? Since then, Northern Irish politicians have revelled in the purported glamour of

Kate Andrews

What junior doctors really earn

How much money do junior doctors really earn? If you’ve been listening to the British Medical Association – the trade union which represents junior doctors – this week you will have seen comparisons made between their salaries and the wages of Pret A Manger employees. The union talks about members having to ‘cut back on food and heat to pay bills’. To think of notoriously overworked junior doctors in such circumstances is outrageous. But how typical is that scenario of those demanding a 35 per cent pay rise? First-year junior doctors are still some of the better-paid workers in Britain, and this is only the jumping-off point A doctor can

James Heale

The gloves are off in the Labour party

When Rishi Sunak became Tory leader, the party was 30 points behind Labour: that kind of deficit has historically been terminal for a political party. But since then, inflation has slowed, the Northern Ireland Protocol has been resolved and a deportation deal with Albania meant small boat arrivals fell for the first time on record. That Labour lead has fallen closer to 15 points; one poll last weekend put it as low as 11. A Keir Starmer defeat is now at least conceivable. As one Labour party insider says: ‘Nice doesn’t win elections’ This is the context in which Labour has tried a new tactic: attacking the Prime Minister personally.

Steerpike

Now Humza gets his day in court

Is Humza Yousaf set to repeat his predecessor’s mistakes? He’s certainly not doing much to avert fears: today, his government has confirmed that it will be launching a legal challenge against the UK government’s section 35 order that blocked the bill. Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet secretary for social justice, wrote in response to a parliamentary question: The use of section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 to stop the legislation proceeding to Royal Assent is an unprecedented challenge to the Scottish parliament’s ability to legislate on clearly devolved matters. To uphold the democratic decision of the parliament, and ensure proper protection of devolution, Scottish Ministers will now lodge a petition

Charles Moore

The apotheosis of Starmerism

To celebrate this week’s 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the European Movement has launched a ‘powerful intergenerational film’ which, it says, ‘exposes Brexit as the biggest threat to peace since the 1994 ceasefire’. The film contains ‘true stories of how… Europe’s mission, commitment and hope for a peaceful future transformed Northern Ireland, changed the course of history and inspired the world’. Not a lot of people know that. Even fewer know that ‘the only organisation with the courage and commitment to… win the Battle for the Soul of our Country – is the European Movement.’ Mere raving? Such thoughts are not a million miles from EU/US orthodoxy. In

Paul Burke

How the Tories should respond to Labour’s attack ad

When I was writing ads for Labour’s 1997 election campaign, I’d never have presented an idea as factually, creatively and strategically wrong as Labour’s recent ‘attack ad’ on Rishi Sunak. If I had, I’d have been the one under attack for failing to understand the simple principles of advertising. What you need when writing any ad is calm, dispassionate advocacy rather than silly, partisan evangelism Let’s start with the first and most obvious one: ‘Don’t tell lies.’ Labour’s ad suggests that the Prime Minister would be quite happy to let sex offenders go unpunished. Nobody – not even the person who wrote it – believes this to be true and

Lucy Dunn

How damaging will this junior doctors’ strike be?

Across England, around 50,000 junior doctors are currently taking part in industrial action over a long-standing pay dispute. The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), has calculated that junior doctors have watched their wages fall by 26 per cent in real terms since 2008. Now, they are striking for pay restoration of 35 per cent to compensate for 15 years of below-inflation wage increases. Predicted to be the ‘most disruptive’ strike to hit the NHS so far, the four-day walkout has been condemned by senior health service officials for the high risk of ‘real harms’ it will cause by putting patient care ‘on a knife edge’. Hospital leaders have

Nicholas Farrell

Why Giorgia Meloni is key to ‘stopping the boats’

Ravenna, Italy Whatever Rishi Sunak does to ‘stop the boats’, the fight to prevent illegal immigration to Britain and Europe will not be won or lost in the English Channel. It will be decided in the sea between Italy and Africa. At a recent EU summit in Brussels, Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s new right-wing Prime Minister, warned that if the crisis-torn dictatorship of Kais Saied in Tunisia falls, then there will be ‘an invasion’ of Italy this year of ‘up to 900,000 migrants’. Tunisia has become a new major departure point for migrants coming to Europe. An Italian secret service report, meanwhile, warns that another ‘685,000 migrants’ are ready to cross

Steerpike

Are Labour’s attack ads that successful?

Over at Labour HQ, there’s a mood of triumphalism about the party’s string of attack adverts. Newspapers are full of gloating quotes about the success of its strategy, as sophisticated as, er, accusing Rishi Sunak of being indifferent to paedophilia. Glee is in the air at Friars House, with the Tories expected to lose up to 1,000 council seats. But are Labour’s attack adverts really as successful as some within the party would like to make out? Perusing his copy of the Times over breakfast this morning, Mr S was struck by a line in that august paper of record: Labour is set to pause the release of any more

Lee Cohen

Joe Biden’s hostility to Britain only harms the United States

This week Joe Biden is swanning around Ireland in what must be, according to his Irish-American fantasies, the climax of his foreign policy agenda. As part of his trip he is due to spend only half a day in Belfast, before dedicating two and a half days to Ireland. While most US presidents pride themselves on being ‘American as apple pie’, Biden identifies as ‘Irish as Paddy’s pig’. There are some in America, where those of Irish descent are a significant demographic, who find this quaint. But indulging his distant inherited grievance at the cost of a strong relationship with Britain, our most stalwart of allies, is pernicious and self-indulgent.

Tuesday

11 Apr 2023

Kate Andrews

Biden needs Trump

As Joe Biden tours Northern Ireland this week to mark the 25-year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the big question is not what he might say or do while abroad, but rather what he will decide to do back at home. Will he be running for president again? The question emerged after Biden told NBC over the long weekend that he has ‘plans’ to run again, though he won’t be formally announcing anything yet. These hints have been dropping for months, from both Biden and his wife. But others are more sceptical. The simple fact of his age – Biden is the oldest president in American history – and

Andy Maciver

Is Douglas Ross wise to champion unionism over conservatism?

The SNP’s internecine warfare has dominated political chatter for the past two months and the Scottish Conservatives, it seems, have been feeling left out. So, at the weekend, the Tories piped up. Douglas Ross, the Scottish leader, suggested that unionists should use their vote at the next general election for the candidate most likely to defeat the SNP incumbent. The party in London was indignant with Ross’s apparent approval of Tory voters crossing the box for Labour and arming Sir Keir Starmer with more MPs. This is hardly the first time that the Scottish party and its London HQ have had a difference of opinion. This particular disagreement has the