Politics

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

Sunday

Anonymous

I’m a junior doctor – here’s why I won’t be striking

The British Medical Association (BMA) has this week announced a new four-day strike for junior doctors, which will take place after the Easter bank holiday. The strike will lead to the NHS having a reduced service for ten days in a row, when you include the two bank holidays and weekends. I am a junior doctor, and have not and will not be striking.  Before explaining why, it is worth making clear who will be on strike this Easter. The term junior doctor encompasses the majority of doctors under consultant level, which for most doctors lasts around five to ten years after graduation.   My colleagues have bought nice houses, have children in private school, and the

Tom Slater Tom Slater

Frankie Boyle isn’t a victim of cancel culture

Has comedian Frankie Boyle become the latest victim of the BBC’s ‘right-wing purge’? Frankie Boyle seems to think so. Following news this week that his BBC Two show, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, has not been renewed for a seventh series, he took to Twitter, where he implied the cancellation was down to the rightward turn of the corporation: ‘Ah well, there’s to be no more New World Order on the BBC. Not surprising in the current climate, I suppose.’ In a similar vein, UK comedy bible Chortle has warned that ‘the cancellation will also fuel fears that the corporation is avoiding shows that are critical of the government’. Now,

Iain Macwhirter

Is Alex Salmond behind the SNP’s implosion?

Only six weeks ago the Scottish National Party seemed unchallengeable. Its leader, Nicola Sturgeon dominated Scottish politics at every level, was fêted by the metropolitan liberal elite and feared by Tory ministers in WhatsApp messages. Now she’s history, her party is in chaos and her key lieutenants including her husband, chief executive Peter Murrell, have fallen on their swords. One of Europe’s most successful political parties, which until recently threatened to break up Britain, has now broken itself in the most spectacular fashion. It’s hard to think of anything outside political fiction that equates to the self-inflicted misfortune that has engulfed the SNP since Sturgeon resigned, out of the blue, on

Saturday

Lucy Dunn

What is Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy?

Whatever your thoughts on the SNP, the Union or indeed Scotland, it cannot be denied that Nicola Sturgeon will leave a permanent mark on Britain’s political landscape. Whether that mark is good or bad will no doubt be the focus of intense debate for years to come. Making her 286th and final First Minister’s Questions closing speech this week, the usually immovable First Minister was close to tears. This resignation is to her likely bittersweet given she did not end up achieving Scottish independence. And this raises the question: after holding the first minister position for eight years, what actually changed in that time?  Soon after she became first minister

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Why Macron cancelled the King

Many on the French left were in buoyant mood on Friday after the success of the previous day. They claimed that three million people were on the streets to protest against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform bill, and they hope there will be a similar turnout on Tuesday for the next organised demonstrations.  Commentators have described the cancellation as a ‘humiliation’ for Macron. Is it? Or is the humiliation the Republic’s?  Few wished to dwell on the violence – the burning of town halls and the smashing of shops – and some, like Philippe Poutou, who stood for the New Anti-capitalist party in last year’s presidential election, claimed that protestors have

Roger Mosey

What’s wrong with the BBC? 

Being a senior BBC executive has never been a guaranteed route to national affection, but the past few weeks have been particularly bruising for director-general Tim Davie and his leadership team. The Gary Lineker affair didn’t please anyone – the presenter’s supporters railed against what they saw as a politically inspired move against him, while advocates of impartiality felt that the BBC caved in when they came to an interim settlement. Then choirs worldwide, and the classical music community in the UK, rose in protest at the decision to axe the BBC Singers just before their centenary; a decision now wisely ‘paused’. Around the country, the BBC’s local radio and regional

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

The remarkable fall of the once-mighty ERG

After the crushing majority won by Rishi Sunak for the ‘Stormont brake’ element of his new deal on the terms of trade in Northern Ireland, a single question is on the lips of many MPs: whither the ERG? For the once-mighty European Research Group – the Tory party’s formidably well organised Praetorian Guard which shielded the Brexit flame from Remain – was able to field fewer than two dozen votes against this key element of the Windsor Framework this week. At one crucial juncture back in 2019, a mere sub-element of the European Research Group, the ‘Brexit Spartans’, played a decisive role in killing off Theresa May’s terrible proposed sovereignty

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Ian Williams, Kara Kennedy and Oscar Edmondson

20 min listen

This week: Ian Williams asks how China will cope with the rise of AI chatbots (00:56), Kara Kennedy recounts her upbringing in the Welsh ‘murder capital’ of Pontypridd (08:11), and Oscar Edmondson makes the case for the BBC World Service (13:38).  Presented by Natasha Feroze. 

James Heale James Heale

Is it time to stop changing the clocks?

15 min listen

On this special Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots, The Spectator’s James Heale, journalist Peter Hitchens and the IEA’s Christopher Snowdon argue the cases for and against daylight saving time. Are we all being needlessly robbed of an hour in bed? Or should we lighten up and embrace the longer days?  Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson. 

Robin Ashenden

Why was the West so slow to see Putin’s true colours?

Cast your mind back just over a decade, to a charity benefit gig in St. Petersburg in 2010. Sharon Stone, Kevin Costner, Gerard Depardieu, Vincent Cassel, Goldie Hawn and Monica Belluci are in the audience. But the star-turn is performed by a man from another branch of entertainment altogether (‘show-business for ugly people’) who in a warbling voice is giving us his rendition of Fats Domino’s ‘Blueberry Hill.’ The stars clap and beam at this new addition to their ranks – the man then taking time off as president to play Russia’s prime minister and, on special occasions, chanteur to the stars: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. In this, you might argue, the celebrities

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Liz puts the Trussketers in the Lords

Even out of office, she’s still causing chaos. Details of Liz Truss’s resignation honours list have been leaked to the Sun this afternoon, with the newspaper reporting that the former Tory leader is considering awarding at least four peerages to mark her 49-day premiership. The names in the frame for Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister are allegedly Mark Littlewood of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Matthew Elliott of Vote Leave, Brexit donor Jon Moynihan and Ruth Porter, Truss’s former No. 10 deputy chief of staff. Talk about a Tufton Street mafia… The suggested names are being billed by Truss’s allies as a ‘modest’ resignation honours list despite calls for her to

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Why Russian priests are being expelled from a monastery in Kyiv

In my hometown we have three Orthodox churches, two of which are formally aligned with the Moscow patriarchate. They mostly say Russian prayers but, growing up, this was not seen as important. My family would go to both and see them as interchangeable: you’d stand, pray, kiss icons, take communion. Many Ukrainians never gave it much thought. This all changed when Vladimir Putin invaded last year. Only then was it clear just how he had been using the Russian church as a tool of his state: not just in Russia, but in Ukraine too. Previously neutral priests publicly prayed for Putin’s success, telling their parishioners how to help the invading

Matthew Lynn

Deutsche Bank’s collapse would be a threat to the whole eurozone

It could be next month. It might be next week. Or it might well happen over the weekend. But today’s collapse in the share price of Deutsche Bank, and the huge rise in the cost of insuring its debt against default, means it is probably only a matter of time before there’s an intervention. It looks increasingly inevitable that Deutsche will require some form of rescue, led by the German government and the European Central Bank. The trouble is: that will be a threat to the entire eurozone. If you have any money in Germany’s largest bank, the only rational move right now is to get it out To market

James Snell

Benjamin Netanyahu has made his troubles even worse

Israeli politics is rarely quiet, but recent events have taken the drama and volubility to another level. The country has faced 11 weeks of protests against the make-up of Israel’s governing coalition and reforms to the country’s judicial system. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets. Roads have been blocked. The Knesset and politicians’ homes in Jerusalem have been targeted. Israeli police have used mounted officers, stun grenades and water cannon to disperse demonstrators. With the protests showing no signs of abating, last night – ahead of his visit to London – the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a tone deaf television address. ‘We can’t let any

James Heale James Heale

What’s going on in France?

16 min listen

This morning Buckingham Palace has announced that King Charles’s State visit to France has been cancelled as the country struggles with nationwide strikes against the government’s pension reform. The King was due to visit Paris and Bordeaux, two of the cities which have been hit by the most extreme violence. Will his trip to Germany go ahead as planned?  Also on the podcast, Rishi Sunak has been buoyed by a successful week in which he pulled off his Brexit plan. Will he be able to weather the storm next week when small boats are back on the agenda? Is there a world in which Sunak could pull off an election

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Marcon removes luxury watch during pensions TV clash

Oh dear. It seems that Emmanuel Macron has done it again. The preening French president was in the middle of a television interview last night, discussing his unpopular attempt to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, when he realised that his, er, €2,400 (£2,100) watch might be causing him difficulties. Hardly the best way to rebut criticism that you’re just a ‘president of the rich’… So what did Macron decide to do? During the half-hour prime time interview, Macron attempts to subtly remove his Bell & Ross timepiece around eleven minutes into the grilling. He placed his left arm under the table while casually answering answering a question

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Nadine Dorries savages the Privileges Committee

Boris Johnson was all probity and contrition on Wednesday when it came to the small matter of the Privilege Committee’s integrity. He oozed praise on the ‘distinguished’ panel of MPs and assured them, in his most sincere tones, of his believe that it isn’t a ‘kangaroo court.’ But it seems that not all of his supporters got the memo. First Jacob Rees-Mogg went on GB News that very evening and declared that the committee was ‘determined to get Boris’, insisting ‘it was never really about cake or curtains… it was fundamentally about Brexit.’ And TalkTV have now released a trailer ahead of Nadine Dorries’ show tonight in which she labels

Debbie Hayton

Why did it take Seb Coe so long to see sense over transgender athletes?

World Athletics has decided to protect women’s sport by restricting it to females. From 31 March, transwomen will not be allowed to compete in elite female competitions if they have gone through male puberty. Following yesterday’s meeting of the World Athletics Council, Seb Coe – the governing body’s president – explained that the decision was ‘guided by the overarching principle which is to protect the female category’. That decision should be welcomed by everyone, but why did it take them so long? Swimming’s world governing body came to the same conclusion last summer; world rugby got there in 2020. Athletics, meanwhile, dithered and fiddled with rules based on the level

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Dmitry Medvedev and the weakness of Putin’s Kremlin

It’s a long time since Dmitry Medvedev was last considered a potential liberal hope for Russia. Most recently, after all, he has threatened to bomb any country that seeks to apply the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recent arrest warrant on Vladimir Putin and separately read a working group of the Military Industrial Commission a 1941 telegram from Stalin that threatened anyone who failed to meet their targets with being ‘smashing as criminals who disregard the honour and interests of the homeland’. What is going on? A lawyer by training, who got to know the Russian president in St Petersburg during the 1990s, Medvedev ran Putin’s first presidential election campaign in