Politics

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

Wednesday

Oliver Anthony

Read: Oliver Anthony’s speech at ARC

The below is an edited version of Oliver Anthony’s speech to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) on Wednesday, 19 February. Since August of 2023, I have received a flood of messages social media, email, handwritten letters. I’ve had I don’t know how many conversations with people face to face. Probably thousands at this point. And I realise now that we don’t have any clue as to how many around us are really broken. How many are silently suffering and barely hanging on. More often than not, they start the message with ‘hey, I’m a nobody, but’, followed by horrors of addiction, mental illness, financial and household struggles, oftentimes incredibly complicated stories

Matthew Lynn

Is X still worth £38 billion? Elon Musk thinks so

When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, his many critics gleefully predicted a catastrophe. We were told that everyone would quit the site for its rivals, such as Bluesky and Mastodon. The rebranding to X made Musk the object of ridicule. Musk was warned that he was unlikely to see a return on the $44 billion (£38.1billion) he had splashed out on the site. But hold on: today brings news that Musk is attempting to raise extra cash for his site at the same valuation as what he bought it for. Musk’s critics will no doubt say he is deluded. But his business acumen speaks for itself: this is a

Steerpike Steerpike

Which female minister did Sunak call ‘effing useless’?

There’s only one book which all of Westminster is talking about. Traditionally, the post of Chief Whip has been filled by various men in grey suits, the very embodiment of discretion and anonymity. But today Simon Hart has begun serialising his tell-all diaries. From 2022 to 2024, he served as Rishi’s enforcer, desperately trying to keep the Tory party together as it tore itself apart. Talk about a thankless task… There is plenty to digest in the first extract in today’s Times. There’s the tale of a hapless backbencher calling Hart to stump up £500 for a prostitute. There’s the story of Suella’s sacking on a voice call in No. 10.

Patrick West

Why is Tom Hanks mocking Trump supporters?

We have long become accustomed to actors holding and sharing their progressive political views. So when David Tennant opened the Bafta awards on Sunday with a dig at Donald Trump, repeating the line that the American President is a dangerous moron, many people were annoyed, but few were surprised. Mechanically reciting fashionable mantras is what actors do, and Tennant, hitherto known for his vocal support for the trans movement, is no exception. The entire film Team America: World Police (2004) was founded on this reality about thespians.  When his counterpart on the other side of the Atlantic, Tom Hanks, did similarly at the weekend, there was, however, genuine shock. Appearing on

Steerpike Steerpike

Reform makes more gains in Scotland

Well, well, well. As Nigel Farage’s Reform party continues to poll well across the UK, north of the border the right-wing group is making yet more gains in Scotland. Now yet another Scottish Tory councillor has defected to join Reform UK, with the party announcing this morning that Alec Leishman had switched sides – as Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay was delivering a keynote speech – before dubbing the move as a ‘bitter blow’ to the Conservatives. Another one bites the dust… The Renfrewshire councillor remarked today that he is ‘delighted’ to have joined Reform. Quick to blast his former party, Leishman proclaimed: Scotland badly needs change. The SNP have

Max Booth

Why is Birmingham council spending £14.5 million on taxis?

We’re less than a week into the Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding, and Spaff has already shone a light on hundreds of examples of government waste. So far, we’ve mostly focused on central government – and, no doubt, council officers throughout Britain have rejoiced at being left untouched by our watchful eye.  But no more. I’ve been looking at how some of Britain’s biggest councils have been spending their constituents’ cash. Here are some of my findings. The first thing that shocked me is the sheer amount of money spent by local authorities on taxis – in large part for ferrying children to and from school each day. I’ll start

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The BBC’s Gaza documentary omitted something astonishing

The BBC’s documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone at first glance seemed to offer a raw and intimate portrayal of life in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict. However, the programme, which aired on BBC Two on Monday, was deeply flawed. The documentary, narrated by a Palestinian child, Abdullah Ayman Eliyazouri, presented a personal account of the suffering endured by Gaza’s residents. But the investigative journalist David Collier has reported that the BBC seems to have omitted something astonishing. Eliyazouri is not just a random child caught in the crossfire, but the son of Ayman Eliyazouri, the Hamas-run Gazan government’s deputy agricultural minister. Collier’s investigation cross-referenced social media profiles and other publicly available

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Trump is making sure that Zelensky is re-elected

Ukrainians don’t like it when foreign leaders tell them what to do – whether they are Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump. Last night, Trump blamed president Volodymyr Zelensky for ‘starting’ the war with Russia and demanded that elections take place in Ukraine if it wants to be involved in the peace negotiations. Trump also expressed his disappointment that Zelensky hadn’t struck a deal with Russia before now, and said that Zelensky only had a ‘4 per cent’ approval rating in Ukraine. Trump may have been trying to put pressure on Ukraine to make peace faster, but his comments are actually only helping Zelensky secure a second presidential term.  Zelensky’s approval

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Was ‘free trade’ really working?

29 min listen

Oren Cass, founder and chief economist of think-tank American Compass, sits down with Freddy Gray at the ARC conference in London. They react to the announcement by President Trump over the weekend of reciprocal tariffs: the decision by the US to match import duties levied by other countries.  What’s the strategy behind Trump’s decision? And what could the consequences be for American companies and for global trade? They also discuss the broad political consensus behind free trade in the US since the 1990s. Given the ‘lived reality’ that faced many American investors and companies – for example competing with Chinese Electric Vehicles – was the free trade really working anyway?

Steerpike Steerpike

Could Jeff Bezos face jail under Labour’s knife reforms?

It’s a gaffe day with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot and now the spotlight is on policing minister Diana Johnson. The Labour MP took to the airwaves this morning to sell Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s announcement that the maximum prison sentence for people selling knives to children under 18 will be increased in light of the Southport murders – from six months to two years in prison. Golly. But there’s more to it than that. Not only will those directly making the sales be punished, company CEOs are in the firing line too. If, for example, under-18s are found to have purchased knives from online shopping sites like Amazon, the

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Inflation rises to 3% – should we panic?

Prices are rising. Inflation rose to 3 per cent in the twelve months leading up to January, up from 2.5 per cent in December. It’s a bigger jump than expected, with markets and the Bank of England expecting a rise to 2.8 per cent, driven largely by higher transport costs, as well as higher costs for food and non-alcoholic drinks. Is there reason to panic? While the CPI figures are higher than expected for January, they are not far out of line with the Bank’s latest forecast, which expects inflation to peak closer to 4 per cent this summer, due to rising energy costs. As Capital Economics notes this morning,

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Are 3.1 million Brits really too sick to work?

Is it any wonder that the economy is struggling in spite of an apparently booming jobs market, with employers finding it difficult to hire recruits and average earnings rising by 5.9 per cent in the past year? Here is a shocking statistic which goes a long way to explaining the apparent paradox: there are now 3.1 million people claiming Universal Credit with no requirement to seek work – a number which has doubled in just three years. We have to be careful with the absolute numbers, because as benefit claimants are gradually moved onto Universal Credit the figures are bound to grow. But as the chart from the Department for

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Trump’s support for Taiwan has infuriated Beijing

They were only six words on a website, but they helped maintain Beijing’s fiction that Taiwan is part of its territory. Their disappearance has infuriated China’s communist leaders. ‘It gravely contravenes international law and the basic norms of international relations,’ raged Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s ministry of foreign affairs, on Monday. The website in question was that of the US State Department. The words – ‘we do not support Taiwan independence’ – have been removed from its ‘fact sheet’ along with a tweak to another section that implies stronger support for Taiwan’s right to join international organisations, which Beijing has consistently blocked. The changes were welcomed by the

Monica Porter

What Labour can learn from the glory days of British Rail

The Department for Transport has just launched an eight-week consultation to determine the shape of its much-vaunted Great British Railways – our renationalised railway system. Will it, I wonder, be anything like the earlier nationalised incarnation, British Rail (BR)? I do hope so. Because, although BR was disparaged for being old-fashioned and a bit creaky, inefficient and loss-making, I was very fond of those trains of yesteryear. John Major’s privatisation of the railways in the 1990s was meant to introduce competition, improve services and reduce costs. It didn’t work out that way though, did it? Trains today have never been so unreliable or so expensive. Not to mention overcrowded. So,

Eliot Wilson

Can the British army stretch to peace-keeping in Ukraine?

It has been a traumatic week for Europe’s political and military leaders. Last Wednesday, without warning, US President Donald Trump announced that he had spoken to Vladimir Putin by telephone for 90 minutes. During a ‘highly productive call’, he and the Russian leader had ‘agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately’ to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had not been informed of the conversation beforehand, much less involved. The transactional high-handedness of Trump’s approach, ignoring the injured party in the conflict and making direct and friendly overtures to the aggressor, should not have come as a surprise. But it left

Jawad Iqbal

Why did the Foremans travel to Iran?

A British couple detained in Iran have been charged with espionage, according to the Iranian judiciary news agency. Craig and Lindsay Foreman have been accused of entering the country ‘under the guise of tourists’ and of being ‘affiliated with intelligence services’. No actual evidence to back up the spying charges has been provided by the regime in Tehran, which has a habit of ignoring such legal niceties.  The Foremans were arrested last month during a round-the-world motorbike trip. After staying in the cities of Tabriz, Isfahan and Tehran, they travelled to Kerman in the centre of the country, where they were detained. According to their social media feed, the couple were in

Matthew Lynn

Does it matter if Rachel Reeves fibbed on her CV?

Rachel Reeves is in the headlines again, for all the wrong reasons. The Chancellor’s entry in Who’s Who lists her as a contributor to the Journal of Political Economy. The problem? Reeves has, in fact, only published a single article in a far less prestigious publication, the European Journal of Political Economy. At this rate, it is hard to feel confident she is actually called Rachel The latest revelations follow claims that Reeves exaggerated the amount of time she spent working for the Bank of England. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as working at Threadneedle Street for nine months longer than she actually did. Reeves has also previously said she

Sam Meadows

The crypto crash haunting Javier Milei

When Javier Milei took power in Argentina there was one group whose ears pricked up with interest: the global crypto bros. After all, here was a president who seemed perfectly aligned with their values. A lover of economic freedom who harbours a deep hatred for state regulations and government spending. Surely this ‘anarcho-capitalist’ was a fan of cryptocurrencies? Twitter filled with threads about why Milei’s election victory was a ‘big moment for Bitcoin’. Once in power, however, he did not seem all that interested. That is until Friday, when he took to his X account to post about a new crypto coin that was ‘dedicated to boosting the growth of

Tuesday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

The US and Russia must not force Ukrainian elections

After four hours of talks in Saudi Arabia, Russian and American negotiators have reportedly come up with a three-stage plan to end the war in Ukraine. According to Fox News, the plan includes a ceasefire, elections in Ukraine and the signing of a final agreement. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who was neither informed nor invited to the talks, said that Russia and the US are discussing the same old ultimatum Moscow set at the start of full-scale war. ‘I wonder – if we didn’t accept such ultimatums in our most difficult moment, why does anyone think we would now?’, he said. Back in February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin said he

Catriona Stewart

What’s behind Scottish Labour’s gender U-turn?

At long last, Scottish Labour has clearly and decisively set out its position on gender self-identification. Party leader Anas Sarwar and his deputy Jackie Baillie have now robustly stated the case that Scottish Labour supports single-sex spaces based on biological sex. Good, clear, precise messaging of the type entirely absent from the SNP leadership – and long overdue. Yet that clatter you hear is the sound of jaws dropping violently at the audacity. Shock at this astonishing volte face by Sarwar will be most keenly felt by two of his MSPs, Claire Baker and Carol Mochan, who were forced to resign their frontbench posts in the Scottish parliament when they declined to