Politics

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

Monday

Posie Parker Posie Parker

Why the targeting of J.K.Rowling is so terrifying

I know from bitter experience that you don’t have to be a best-selling author to be hounded by the trans ideologues. You don’t have to be an evil witch to be cancelled by the spoiled kids you made famous. You don’t even have to say you think gender identity is a load of poppycock to be accused of transphobia. And yet, once again, J.K.Rowling has been targeted by trans activists. Her crime? To speak up for women’s sex-based rights. The Harry Potter author has revealed that on Friday ‘three activist actors’ turned up on her doorstep. According to Rowling, the trio ‘took pictures of themselves in front of our house, carefully positioning themselves

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Prime Minister’s rambling speech revives Johnson jitters

After three torrid weeks, Tory MPs were hoping for a better start to this one. Alas, it has got off to a rather bizarre start. The kindest thing that can be said about the Prime Minister’s speech this morning to the Confederation of British Industry is that it was peculiar.  The main thrust of the speech was meant to be about green growth as part of the government’s levelling up agenda — with an announcement that new homes and buildings will require electrical vehicle charging points from next year. But the announcements are not what is leading the coverage. Instead, it’s the Prime Minister’s confused manner as he had to stop and start before going off on a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is the Prime Minister’s shtick wearing thin?

13 min listen

During the last general election campaign, Boris Johnson’s persona as the improvisational, brash, comedian was endearing to many voters and those in his party. But with multiple weeks of own goals and bad press is this attitude beginning to look careless rather than amusing? ‘People are now looking out for the next banana skin’ – James Forsyth Isabel Hardman talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about the PM’s position in the wake Owen Paterson affair and the current migrant crossings in the channel. Subscribe to The Spectator’s Evening Blend email, from Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls, for analysis of the day’s political news and a summary of the best

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

The gap between Boris and business widens

Boris Johnson kickstarted the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference this week with a surprising performance. The plan was to emphasise his government’s commitment to regenerating the economy, post-pandemic, with a green agenda. In practice, it was a confused and muddled speech which even the speech-giver (let alone the audience) found difficult to follow. The highlights were dominated by awkward moments: Johnson asking the room early on who had received their booster shots, only to quickly follow up that everyone looked ‘young and thrusting’ – presumably to cover for an insufficient number of hands in the air. A chunk of the speech was dedicated to the PM reminiscing about what he said

Debbie Hayton

Eddie Redmayne shouldn’t regret playing a trans character

Eddie Redmayne was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Danish Girl, but now he is having second thoughts about the role he took on. Redmayne played the part of Lili Elbe, a Danish illustrator who is remembered as one of the first recipients of gender reassignment surgery. Highly experimental at the time, the procedure eventually led to Elbe’s death, aged only 48. Now, Redmayne has said he was wrong to play the part he did:  ‘I made that film with the best intentions, but I think it was a mistake.’  Redmayne should not worry about upsetting the trans lobby Why? Redmayne’s response was opaque:  ‘The bigger discussion about the frustrations around casting is because many

Steerpike Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s Peppa Pig disaster

Oh dear. Boris Johnson’s much-trailed speech to the Confederation of British Industry has caused something of a social media storm – but not for the reasons the Prime Minister will have wanted.  In a confused, shambling performance, the Tory premier lost his place repeatedly throughout the speech and spent three minutes riffing on his family trip yesterday to a theme park based on the fictitious children’s cartoon Peppa Pig. He asked the assembled businessmen ‘Hands up how many of you here have been to Peppa Pig World?’ before adding: A pig that was rejected by the BBC, now exported to 180 countries around the world. No Whitehall civil servant could have come

Sam Leith Sam Leith

The paradoxical integrity of our dodgy honours system

We are told that the Prince of Wales had no idea at the time that his underlings were offering to sell honours to random zillionaires. That’s lucky. Instead of being tarred by the sticky brush of corruption, then, he emerges from this minor scandal as a benign old nitwit, shovelled from one place to another by his suited aides, shaking hands and offering tea to this Russian biznizman, that Chinese philanthropist, that Saudi moneybags (‘Mahfouz bin Mahfouz, Sir. Very important chap. Great benefactor.’ ‘Yes, jolly good. Have you come far, Mr Mahfouz?’) I’m inclined to take the denial that he knew what was going on pretty much at face value. It’s

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Who is – and isn’t – welcome in Sadiq Khan’s London?

Right-wing Frenchman Eric Zemmour, who is expected to run for the presidency of his country next year, has been designated persona non grata in London by the city’s mayor.  ‘Nobody who wants to divide our communities or incites hatred against people because of the colour of their skin or the god they worship is welcome in our city,’ said Sadiq Khan in response to a question about Zemmour’s presence in the capital. A noble declaration, one with which few would disagree, but rather incongruous coming from the mouth of Khan. For this is the man who waxed lyrical about Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour party conference in 2017.  A legacy of

Steerpike Steerpike

New Mail editor’s plans revealed

Fear and unease have stalked the corridors of Northcliffe House since the announcement last Wednesday of Geordie Greig’s defenestration as editor of the Daily Mail. A ‘funereal’ atmosphere has lingered over the paper’s staff ever since, with nervy hacks fearing the return of expletive-riddled editorial explosions associated with Greig’s predecessor Paul Dacre. There’s also considerable unease about the decision to combine the editorships of the daily and Sunday papers into a single post. But on Saturday, Greig’s successor, Ted Verity, sought to reassure the Sunday journalists that their future were safe. Addressing the newsroom as his final edition of the Mail on Sunday went to print, the recently-promoted Verity told

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: NHS waiting lists will continue to grow

Sajid Javid – 5.9 million are on NHS waiting lists This morning the Health Secretary Sajid Javid took to the TV studios in a week where his departmental remit has been very much back in the spotlight. The Austrian government has announced that it will be going back into a nationwide lockdown, and there is heavy speculation that Germany might do the same. Javid told Trevor Phillips that the UK was still following ‘Plan A’ and that a winter lockdown was still very unlikely, but confirmed that things were far from rosy in the National Health Service: SJ: People waiting for elective procedures is around 5.9 million, and as I’ve

Steerpike Steerpike

How ‘Europe’s worst nightclub’ won Brexit

Mr S has been in his fair share of dodgy disco hot-spots but few captured his heart like Klute, the much-loved, much-hated Durham nightclub for generations of local students. With its sticky floors, cheesy tunes and lashings of cheap liquor, it’s no surprise FHM christened the Marmite establishment ‘the second worst nightclub in Europe.’ Klute subsequently inherited that dubious honour after the winner burnt down. But what makes this seedy citadel of student solace of such interest is that the club is owned by Dominic Cummings’s family. The Vote Leave architect even worked, according to various reports, as either a doorman or helping to take in the club’s earnings, during

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

Boycott beckons for ‘Genocide Olympics’

Tennis is in the news again and this time it’s not Emma Raducanu’s prodigious feats making the headlines. Chinese sensation Peng Shuai, a onetime Wimbledon doubles champion, has gone missing a fortnight after accusing a former top party official of forcing her to have sex after playing tennis at his home.  Unlike the craven apparatchiks of the International Olympic Committee or the National Basketball Association, the Women’s Tennis Association has threatened to pull tournaments out of China, with the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals demanding clarity from the Beijing authorities. It’s refreshing stuff from a top sports body, with Shuai’s fellow professionals queuing up to join the #WhereIsPengShuai protest. Serena Williams has declared ‘This must be investigated and we

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Katy Balls, Lionel Shriver, Nick Newman

22 min listen

On this week’s episode, we’ll hear from Katy Balls on the political power of Angela Rayner. (00:49) Then Lionel Shriver on the unscientific divisions between the vaxxed and unvaxxed. (06:52) And finally, Nick Newman looks at the differences between British and American cartooning. (15:47) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Priti Patel’s Hamas ban doesn’t go far enough

It’s been a rough old week for Hamas. The UK announced plans to proscribe the organisation, Justin Bieber ignored its call to cancel his 2022 concert in Tel Aviv, and even the recently friendly Labour party has vowed that it ‘does not and will not support BDS’. One minute, you’re going about your business, trying to drive the Jews into the sea, and the next you’re being treated like you’re the bad guy. Priti Patel’s decision to add Hamas to the Home Office list of terrorist organisations corrects a 20-year-old error which saw the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades — Hamas’s paramilitary wing — outlawed in 2001 but the rest of

Friday

Douglas Murray

I’m getting sick of the Tories

I suppose this happens to all of us at different speeds, but I am getting a little fed up of this government. In particular, I am getting fed up of the gap between its rhetoric and its actions. Most of the time this is most noticeable with the Prime Minister, who gives his base the occasional morsel of right-wingery only to then force-feed them great dollops of lefty-greenery. On a trip to Washington, Priti Patel has demonstrated that she is also no stranger to this tactic. So far we have had Patel (the DC version) talk about ‘the mass migration crisis’, as though she is merely an observer of the crisis

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Sturgeon’s 70-page dossier finds no evidence for vaccine passports

Nicola Sturgeon wants to extend vaccine passports in Scotland, and today her government released a 70-page document purporting to show evidence. The snag? There’s not a shred of evidence to show that her vaccine passports are having any effect. The document, entitled Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine certificationww: evidence paper update makes a very bold claim: that Scotland’s choice is more vaccine passports or restrictions. To suppress the virus further we are now faced with a choice. This is to limit social contacts and the risk of infection by limiting social contacts by closing venues, limiting group sizes and advising people not to meet each other. Alternatively we can enable people to meet

Steerpike Steerpike

Geordie Greig’s farewell speech at the Daily Mail

So farewell then Geordie Greig. The Daily Mail editor is leaving his post this week after just three years in the role, following an internal power struggle at Associated Newspapers. The supremely connected Old Etonian addressed the troops late this afternoon in the Northcliffe House newsroom, with many sharing in the ‘funereal’ atmosphere that greeted news of his departure. Fortunately Steerpike’s spies were in attendance and were able to record Greig’s (brief) farewell comments to his Mail men and women as they prepared to bang him out in age-old fashion… It’s a profound pleasure and privilege to be editor of the finest newspaper in the world. Three times in three years,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why the Channel migrant crisis is spooking Boris

The Tory position in the polls is weakening. Partly this is because of the vaccine bounce wearing off and a fortnight or so of sleaze stories. But, as I write in the Times today, ministers thinks that there’s another issue harming the government: small boats. ‘The sleaze is bad, but the issue that causes me most trouble with my constituents is the boats,’ says one cabinet member. Johnson himself has long been concerned about this problem. He worries about the sense of disorder that the small boats convey: he thinks they make a mockery of ‘taking back control’ of the borders. A long-serving No. 10 aide says that ‘other than Covid, no issue

Steerpike Steerpike

All hail President Kamala!

A new poll was released yesterday showing 50 per cent of Americans don’t think President Biden is in good health. Turns out: they are right, with the country’s oldest ever Commander-in-Chief today forced to transfer power to his deputy while he is under anesthesia getting a colonoscopy. That means, for a ‘brief period of time’ the leader of the free world will be none other than Biden’s bungling running-mate… Vice President Kamala Harris. Officials have been keen to stress that the arrangement has a precedent from the Bush-Cheney years when the former underwent the same operation in 2002 and 2007. Donald Trump meanwhile was alleged to have refused anesthesia when he had