Politics

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

Wednesday

15 Mar 2023

Will the BBC own up to its Covid impartiality failings?

As Gary Lineker resumes his duties as the BBC’s highest-paid employee, it is worth appreciating that one of the Corporation’s greatest strengths is that its own journalists are willing and able to criticise the organisation in their coverage without professional repercussions. The broadcaster’s many critics should recognise this self-flagellation for what it is: a vital demonstration of transparency. Unfortunately, having worked at the heart of BBC News throughout the pandemic, I have learned that this readiness to admit errors publicly only extends so far. Impartiality should be the starting point of everything BBC News does. Instead, editors are working backwards when it comes to Covid. They are skewing contemporaneous coverage

Douglas Murray

The overuse and abuse of ‘fascism’

I would be very happy if I never had to hear the name Gary Lineker again. He was a vague presence in my childhood thanks to his playing the game of football and his advertising of a brand of delicious, obesity-inducing crisps. But after more than a week in which his name has dominated every news bulletin, I have serious Lineker-fatigue. I feel as one might had we just had a fortnight of discussion and talk of the collapse of major institutions due to a political view expressed by Russ Abbot. To speak plainly, I do not care to hear the views of a retired footballer or crisp-seller on the

Cindy Yu

Michelle Yeoh and Britain’s invisible East Asians

This week Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian to win Best Actress at the Oscars – and not by playing a wise mentor, a martial arts fighter or an exotic villain, those classic Asian pigeonholes. No, the 60-year-old played a struggling immigrant mum in the mind-bending film Everything Everywhere All at Once, which also won Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Yeoh, who is Chinese-Malaysian, dedicated her acceptance speech to ‘all the little boys and girls who look like me’. You don’t need to be little to appreciate the moment, though. For much of my life, Asians have been firmly out of the spotlight. But in the past few years,

Freddy Gray

Is capitalism melting down?

36 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Joe Weisenthal, co-host of the Odd Lots podcast at Bloomberg. On the podcast, Joe talks about the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the moral hazard of state intervention. How gloomy should people be?

Svitlana Morenets

Why did a Russian jet and a US drone collide?

The United States and Russia are blaming each other for an incident which led to an American drone crashing into the Black Sea. Yesterday morning, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with a US MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone. The US claimed that Russian aircraft struck the drone’s propellors, so US forces had to bring the Reaper down in international waters. Moscow has denied this, saying the US drone flew erratically and collided with the water’s surface. US general James Hecker said the drone was conducting ‘routine operations’ when two Russian jets ‘dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner’. He

Isabel Hardman

What Tory MPs want from today’s Budget

Jeremy Hunt’s most important Budget announcement today won’t be something that’ll take effect in the next few hours or weeks. What Tory MPs are looking for above everything else is a commitment to reducing the tax burden and to the Conservative party going into the next election as a low-tax party. They have largely accepted Hunt and Rishi Sunak’s arguments that big tax cuts can’t come yet, and instead are calling for a ‘do no harm’ Budget. The trouble is that their definition of ‘do no harm’ includes not pressing ahead with the planned rise in corporation tax from 19 to 25 per cent. The Chancellor is expected to defend

Mary Dejevsky

What striking doctors don’t like to admit

The more junior doctors have tried to justify their three-day withdrawal of labour over the past week, the more damage, or so it seems to me, they have done to their cause – whatever that cause may be. On the final day of their strike – in pursuit of a 35 per cent pay rise – reports are piling up of cancelled operations, postponed cancer treatments and more people pushed towards the private health sector. Some of the striking doctors’ work is apparently being covered by consultants – to which I, and no doubt many others, would say: bring it on. For years, consultants have delegated far too much of

Steerpike

Gary Lineker lashes out at ‘dangerously provocative’ Tory MP

Gary Lineker is back in his job as presenter of Match of the Day. He’s also back on Twitter commenting on the activities of Tory MPs. The BBC host has hit out at Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, who accused Lineker of being a member of the ‘Twitterati’. Gullis also said of Lineker: ‘Those are the (type of) people I don’t care about upsetting. Those are the people who want to call people up here racist, bigots, Nazis, like Gary Lineker has done…’ Lineker denied the accusation – and said Gullis’s words are ‘outrageous and dangerously provocative’. “Boris has a star quality that no other politician… could even get close to.”

Gavin Mortimer

Paris is stinking

They say Spring is a magical time to visit Paris but perhaps not this year. It’s not so much love that is in the air of the French capital but the stench from 7,000 tons of uncollected rubbish. The city’s refuse collectors have been on strike as part of the nationwide protests against the government’s pension reform. Workers at the three incinerators that dispose of Paris’s garbage have also downed tools and the walkout will last until at least Monday 20 March. It’s not a strike that affects all the capital. In some of the arrondissements, private firms empty the bins and it is business as usual for them. But

Tom Goodenough

Six key announcements in Jeremy Hunt’s Budget

Jeremy Hunt got the job as Chancellor because he is very different from his predecessor. If Kwasi Kwarteng was rash and unpredictable, Hunt is calm and dependable, if a little dull. Those characteristics will be reflected in Hunt’s Budget, which he will unveil in the Commons this afternoon at 12.30pm. There are unlikely to be any rabbits coming out of his hat. Hunt’s headline measure is an increase in the pensions lifetime allowance from £1.07 million to £1.8 million. The Chancellor hopes that this benefit, which will affect up to two million people, will encourage older workers to delay retirement if it allows them to build up a bigger pension

Tuesday

14 Mar 2023

Isabel Hardman

Rishi Sunak has a scrutiny problem

Rishi Sunak is in a hurry to fulfil his ‘five priorities’, especially on small boats. He’s in a hurry because there isn’t much time before the public use the general election to judge how well the Tories are doing. So legislation that promises to ‘stop the boats’ is moving through parliament swiftly. Most people agree that something must be done to prevent the deadly crossings in the Channel. But ministers are trying to get their own version of ‘something’ through parliament so quickly that MPs might not notice whether it will actually make the situation better – or indeed make it worse. Principles are important, but if they are embodied

Steerpike

Rishi’s Richmond flourish in No. 10

During Boris Johnson’s tenure, No 10. Downing Street seemed to anthropomorphise into being political actors itself. From partygate to wallpapergate, Britain’s most famous address frequently featured in the headlines amid a myriad of Brexit and Covid dramas. So perhaps it is no surprise then that Rishi Sunak has already begun putting his stamp on the building and making the house feel like home. Mr S can reveal that the Prime Minister has raided the Government Art Collection to hang an eighteenth century print of ‘The South West Prospect of Richmond’ on his walls, in a nod to his Yorkshire constituency. Other artwork now proudly displayed in No. 10 include Graham

Steerpike

Will Rishi invite Biden to his California pad?

When Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister last October, Joe Biden phoned him to reaffirm the ‘special relationship’. But when the two leaders appeared at a press conference last night to launch the Aukus pact with Australia, Sunak probably wished Biden hadn’t been so chummy. Biden seems to have given the Red Wall, and Sunak’s political opponents, plenty to chew over ‘First of all, I want to welcome him back to California,’ Biden said of Sunak. ‘He’s a Stanford man, and he still has a home here in California. That’s why I’m being very nice to him, maybe he’ll invite me to his home,’ he continued, just in case anyone had missed where this home

Julie Bindel

Fiona Bruce shouldn’t be punished for her Stanley Johnson comments

It is not the first time Fiona Bruce has been slated on social media. She has long been accused of being a Tory sympathiser and denounced for impartiality when it comes to party politics. She has also been accused, since Dimbleby’s departure, of being a dreadful chair of Question Time. I am genuinely impartial when it comes to Bruce and have no cause to defend her. But I do have skin in the game when it comes to violence against women. That’s why I think it is wrong that she has now had to stand down as an ambassador for the domestic abuse charity Refuge, after responding to allegations made about

Katy Balls

Is the SNP establishment worried by Forbes?

15 min listen

After a tumultuous two weeks, voting is now open for the SNP leadership elections until 27 March. But are members any closer to knowing who they’ll vote for? The deputy first minister of the SNP, John Swinney has backed Humza Yousaf to be SNP leader. What could be seen as an influential endorsement by some, can also be a sign that the Yousaf campaign is worried things are tighter than hoped. Michael Simmons speaks to Katy Balls and Alex Massie.

Stephen Daisley

Kate Forbes is a terrifying prospect for Unionists

If you believe in the United Kingdom, it’s hard not to revel in the bitter infighting occasioned by the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon. Senior SNP ministers are monstering one another on TV, trashing their government’s record and talking about sacking their rivals if they win. After 16 years of iron discipline, which helped them steamroller through election after election, it’s all gone horribly wrong. And by ‘horribly’, I mean ‘gloriously’. But Unionists are in danger of becoming complacent. On its face, the Sky News poll that accompanied Monday night’s SNP leadership debate was encouraging for supporters of the United Kingdom. Eight years after 45 per cent of Scots voted to break

Iain Macwhirter

Is ‘Operation stop Kate Forbes’ working?

The SNP establishment – the Sturgeonites – are trying to give the SNP membership an offer they can’t refuse. Swallow your doubts and just vote as you are told: that is, for Humza Yousaf. If you don’t, beware the consequences: a split in the party, the collapse of the Green coalition, the departure of key figures and even the loss of government itself. A number of ministers, including Nicola Sturgeon’s closest ally, social justice secretary, Shona Robison, are saying they would have trouble serving in a government led by Kate Forbes. In other words, if Humza loses they’ll take their support away. Nationalists like the former SNP minister, Marco Biagi, have been

Natasha Feroze

Has small boats united the Tories?

10 min listen

MPs voted through the second reading of the Illegal Migration bill last night with a 62-vote majority. There was a handful of Tory MPs that abstained from voting but importantly, despite threats of a rebellion, no Conservative MPs voted against it. Seen as an election-winning issue, is this a rare sign of unity from the party? Also on the podcast, Katy Balls and James Heale take a look ahead at the Budget tomorrow.

Nigel Jones

Humza Yousaf and the SNP’s curious stance on the monarchy

Humza Yousaf, the frontrunner in the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon, says Scotland could ditch the monarchy if it leaves the UK. ‘I’ve been very clear, I’m a republican…Let’s absolutely, within the first five years (of independence), consider whether or not we should move away from having a monarchy into an elected head of state,’ he told the National. Yousaf is seen as the SNP’s continuity candidate. But his pop at the monarchy marks a sea change from the official line under his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon: that an independent Scotland should retain the institution. As the coronation of King Charles on 6 May approaches, this difference, with the potential for another split

Kate Andrews

Britain’s cooling labour market could spell trouble for Hunt

Is the UK’s labour market cooling down? While unemployment remains unchanged at 3.7 per cent, according to today’s update from the Office for National Statistics, the number of job vacancies ‘fell on the quarter for the eighth consecutive period’, down 51,000. The overall number of vacancies, however, still remains above a million. But the biggest indicator things are changing is wage growth: the rise in average total pay fell to 5.7 per cent between November last year and January this year, down from 5.9 per cent in the previous three months. Adjusting for inflation, this means real wages fall by 3.2 per cent – the biggest fall since the pandemic hit, not