Politics

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

Wednesday

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Remainers throw tantrum over lawsuit credit

Jolyon Maugham is a man of many talents. He’s a talented tax barrister, who helped enrich various millionaires via celebrity tax dodge film schemes. He’s a serial joiner of political causes, boasting more parties than Hugh Hefner though, sadly, with far less joy. And, of course, he is the remain-supporting QC who ended up on the front page of the Financial Times for bragging about battering a fox to death on Boxing Day with a baseball bat while wearing his wife’s satin green kimono. Sadly though, for all his many, many qualities, FBPE’s answer to Babe Ruth does not appear to count humility among them. The millionaire windmill enthusiast is never knowingly undersold online, regularly

Steven Barrett

The ECJ’s credibility is in tatters

Is the European Court of Justice (ECJ) a properly independent court? The damning verdict of two respected EU law academics on an episode involving the ECJ suggests it is not. This debacle also undermines the EU’s legal criticisms of Hungary and Poland – and raises worrying questions about how the Northern Ireland Protocol will be enforced. The sorry saga dates back to the aftermath of the Brexit vote, when one of the ECJ’s 11 advocates general, Eleanor Sharpston, was sacked. Sharpston had every legal right to carry on. After all, ‘she’ didn’t Brexit, the UK did; she also has EU citizenship and is an outstanding EU lawyer. Unsurprisingly she took legal action

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

David Frost’s protocol diplomacy

As a general rule in post-Brexit politics, when David Frost makes a public intervention on the Northern Ireland protocol, it tends to dampen rather than soothe UK-EU relations. Frost, charged with improving the protocol, is a divisive figure in Brussels who is seen to catch flies with vinegar rather than honey. His speech was expected to be an escalation in the current war of words between the two sides. In the end, the talk itself was slightly less confrontational than expected. Frost effectively declared the Northern Ireland protocol dead and called on the EU to work with the UK Frost effectively declared the Northern Ireland protocol dead and called on the EU to

Steerpike Steerpike

Harry and Meghan become ethical bankers

Broadcasting, writing, life-coaching and speech-making: there seems to be no end to the talents of Harry and Meghan. But now the Sussexes have announced their hitherto unknown ambition to be ‘ethical bankers’, alongside their existing gigs as occasional podcasters, exiled royals and infrequent guests on various Oprah shows.  With all their talk of ‘finding freedom’ abroad, Mr S never realised Wall Street was what Harry and Meghan had in mind In prose worthy of the Pyongyang press, the couple revealed in a fawning New York Times interview that they are joining Ethic, a fintech asset manager in the fast-growing environmental, social and governance space, as ‘impact partners’ and investors. The firm has $1.3 billion (£1

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Don’t bet on the EFFing crisis bringing down Boris

Boris Johnson is taking one heck of a risk by making labour shortages a deliberate part of his economic strategy. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom about the Prime Minister in the wake of party conference season.  If things go well, then businesses will raise productivity by investing heavily in new machinery and more training for home-grown workers who currently lack key skills. And then all will be fine for Johnson. But if things go badly, labour shortages will merely fuel rampant inflation, while gaps on shop shelves will become endemic. Key groups of voters will turn on the PM, hastening his demise. I might have found this line of

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Eco-activists rage at Insulate Britain in leaked messages

For the past month Britain’s roads have been held hostage by Insulate Britain (IB), the direct-action group spun out of Extinction Rebellion (XR). The favoured tactic of the eco-warriors is to initiate roadblocks at which activists glue themselves to roads to make them inaccessible to vehicles. The device has inspired much anger among motorists, with polling suggesting that most of the public believe it only serves to turn voters off IB and its green demands. Now it seems many within the XR movement are themselves growing sick of IB’s road-block methods, amid scenes of ambulances being detained in their traffic jams. Leaked screenshots from one of the WhatsApp groups by

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Rishi Sunak is heading for a lonely autumn

Has Rishi Sunak had to perform an embarrassing climbdown over an energy bailout? That’s the suggestion in the papers this morning as the Treasury considers formal proposals from the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to assist businesses struggling with the hike in fuel prices. It comes after a brutal briefing over the weekend in which a Treasury source suggested that Kwarteng was speaking out of turn when he suggested he was in conversation with the Chancellor over a financial package – adding that ‘this is not the first time the [business] secretary has made things up in interviews.’ Since then, Downing Street appear to have rowed in behind Kwarteng, with a

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The real reason Britain failed on coronavirus

The joint health and science super-committee’s report into ‘lessons learned’ on the UK’s coronavirus response may not want to ‘point fingers of blame’ for the grotesque failures, but my goodness it leaves the reader angry and upset. It confirms so much that we knew anyway, namely: 1) The early consensus among ministers, officials and scientists was that ‘herd immunity by infection was the inevitable outcome’. 2) That this led to lockdown being delayed, at a cost of thousands of lives. 3) That there was a ‘serious early error in adopting this fatalistic approach and not considering a more emphatic and rigorous approach to stopping the spread of the virus as adopted

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why Anglo-French relations will only get worse

The French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has given a very frank interview to the New York Times. It is principally about tensions between Paris and Washington post-Aukus, but it also shows why Anglo-French relations are, sadly, only going to get worse. The UK accepts, as Australia does, that balancing China is going to require US leadership. France thinks its interests are very different. Le Maire tells the paper that, ‘The United States wants to confront China. The European Union wants to engage China’. He thinks the key challenge for the EU now is to become ‘independent from the United States, able to defend its own interests, whether economic or

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Parliament hit by food shortages

What with an energy crisis, a fuel crisis and a food crisis, you would think MPs have enough on their plates. But word reaches Mr S that our long-suffering elected representatives have now been hit by a shortage of crucial goods as the supply chain chaos resonates in the halls of Westminster.  Ministers used to working late on the parliamentary estate – burning the midnight oil on a diet of KitKats and Mini Cheddars – will have been horrified to discover that their favourite snacks are currently denied to them, as they work to tackle Britain’s various crises. For this week signs appeared on Parliament’s vending machines, informing staffers that: Due to a continuing

Martin Kulldorff

Covid, lockdown and the retreat of scientific debate

Science is about rational disagreement, the questioning and testing of orthodoxy and the constant search for truth. With something like lockdown – an untested policy that affects millions – rigorous debate and the basics of verification/falsification are more important than ever. Academics backing lockdown (or any major theory) ought to welcome challenges, knowing – as scientists do – that robust challenge is the way to identify error, improve policy and save lives. But with lockdown, science is in danger of being suppressed by politics. Lockdown moved instantly from untested theory to unchallengeable orthodoxy: where dissenters face personal attack. Understandable on social media perhaps, but it has now crept into the

Monday

Julie Bindel

Why liberals must stand with Kathleen Stock

I know what it feels like to be bullied and vilified for expressing views with which, eventually, many right-minded people end up agreeing. I am talking, of course, about transgender ideology and the case of Professor Kathleen Stock which this week was belatedly picked up by the mainstream press. In short, a group of University of Sussex students started a campaign for Stock to be sacked on the spot, claiming she was ‘espousing a bastardised version of radical feminism that excludes and endangers trans people’. The group – a collection of poundshop Antifas – said Stock was a danger to transgender people, arguing: ‘We’re not up for debate. We cannot

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Sadiq Khan’s gift bonanza

When did you know the pandemic was over? For Mr S it was when Sadiq Khan began accepting freebies again. Safely returned to office in May, the Mayor of London has since resumed making full use of complimentary tickets, according to his latest entry in the Greater London Assembly’s register of ‘gifts and hospitality.’ Some 13 items were declared in 16 weeks – including a free pair of £100 Ray-Bans which Khan picked up at the All Points East festival in August. Indeed, given some of his pronouncements throughout the pandemic about the perils of mass gatherings, the Mayor seems to have not merely welcomed the return of normalcy but embraced it with relish.

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Liz parks her tanks on Chevening’s lawn

The biggest row in Westminster rumbles on. No, it’s not Rishi against the spending ministers; nor Keir Starmer’s uneasy truce with Angela Rayner. Like a Jane Austen novel, the question centres on a grand country house, where passions have been aroused by a question of succession. The issue is of course Chevening: the 115-room grace-and-favour residence traditionally been used as the Foreign Secretary’s country house which the demoted Dominic Raab refuses to relinquish. It’s not been a happy month for Raab; shifted in the reshuffle to the Ministry of Justice, he is reported to have demanded the post of Deputy Prime Minister as a consolation prize – a title which apparently now irritates him

Owen Matthews

The mystery of Vladimir Putin’s mistresses

There’s an odd thing about 18-year old Luiza Rozova’s instagram feed. You can see photos of her breakfasts (sliced exotic fruit on heart shaped plates); her bikini selfies and her smart Paris apartment; her new shoes and her trips to the Louvre (heavily masked). But you never see her face. Take a look at screen-grabs of her insta feed before it was purged of all recognisable images and you realise why. Luiza – born Elizaveta Vladimirovna Krivonogykh – bears a striking resemblance to Vladimir Putin. It’s the same story with her mother, Svetlana Krivonogykh. The blonde 46-year-old’s social media pages were once full of photos of Svetlana in a helicopter

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

How Christians can fight the menace of university ‘cancel culture’

30 min listen

The University of Nottingham has been forced to abandon its sinister attempt to ban Fr David Palmer from becoming its Catholic chaplain because his defence of unborn life might upset snowflakes. In this episode of Holy Smoke, I talk to one of Fr Palmer’s key allies, Ryan Christopher, UK director of Alliance Defending Freedom, about that appalling episode and its backdrop: a sneaky culture of below-the-radar censorship driven in large part by student unions. Needless to say, the latter are furious that this government is passing legislation to protect free speech on campuses. Ryan has the details.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will manufacturing shut down due to the energy crisis?

10 min listen

With the energy crisis showing no signs of improving, many industries warned over the weekend that they may have to shut down some manufacturing points due to the rising costs. This has lead to tensions between the Treasury and the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng about how to proceed. Isabel Hardman is joined by Katy Balls and James Forsyth to discuss.

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Watch: Ben & Jerry’s excruciating Israel interview

Ben & Jerry’s have never been shy about making politics part of their brand. The ice cream makers have made social activism a mainstay of their company’s brand in recent years, with stunts including the refusal to serve two scoops of the same ice cream flavour in Australia (in support of same-sex marriage) and unveiling an anti-Trump batch flavour called ‘Pecan Resist’ to ‘lick injustice.’ They’ve even found time to become involved in Britain’s little local difficulties, berating Priti Patel last year for trying to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in boats. Now though one of the company’s stunts appears to have backfired spectacularly. In July the ice cream manufacturers declared that Ben &

Debbie Hayton

Dave Chappelle isn’t ‘transphobic’

Transphobia is defined as the fear or hatred of trans people. But all too often, it is applied much more widely than that. Disagree with a trans person, and you could well be labelled as transphobic; look at us a ‘bit funny’ and we may report you for hate crime. Poke fun at us, and heaven help you. Comedian Dave Chappelle pulls no punches when it comes to the transgender community. In The Closer – his latest Netflix special – he is direct and uncompromising. But – and this is important – he plays the ball rather than the man. His target is not us but the ideology that has sprung