Politics

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

Friday

Henry Hill

Devolution doesn’t work in a crisis

One of the worst features of devolution is the tendency of devocrats to insist on doing their own thing in all circumstances and at whatever cost. The idea that decentralisation would lead to experimentation and the sharing of best practice now seems hopelessly naive. Instead, politicians in Edinburgh and Cardiff try to use nationalism to earth criticism, treating an attack on their records as an insult to the Scottish or Welsh people. Perhaps the most abject example was when a Welsh minister accused Michael Gove of harbouring ‘colonial attitudes’ when the then-education secretary penned an article comparing English and Welsh school outcomes. Even the evidence base that might have supported

Matthew Lynn

Jonathan Miller, Matthew Lynn and Melissa Kite

19 min listen

On this week’s episode, Jonathan Miller, author of France, a Nation on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown talks about the French ‘vaccine passport’ protests; Financial columnist Matthew Lynn reflects on 50 years without the gold standard; and Melissa Kite tells us about her own ways of treating Covid.

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Will Britain regret the Afghanistan withdrawal?

14 min listen

With things on the ground in Afghanistan accelerating from bad to worse so fast that the Americans are now even worried about the safety of their embassy. Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman about what the UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s attitude towards this 20 year conflict has been like in statements both past and present.

Steerpike Steerpike

Winning here: the Lib Dems’ links with China

Earlier this week Mr S brought you news of the latest interminable row splitting the Lib Dems: what to do about Vince Cable? The ex-leader has alienated his party’s youth wing with his comments about the Chinese Communist party and Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Cable has denied that genocide is taking place in Xinjiang and also defended the Hong Kong government’s crackdown on protesters on the grounds that ‘there’s got to be order.’ Bull in the China shop stuff indeed. Now Mr S has been delving into the links of some of Cable’s colleagues from the Coalition government. Back then, it was the so-called ‘golden era’ of UK-China relations with Sinophilia all the rage in

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Is the Catholic Church falling apart?

18 min listen

In the last episode of Holy Smoke, I discussed Pope Francis’s brutal and petty new document which seeks to ban as many Latin Masses as possible. This week we look at the other recent developments, which are arguably just as disturbing: two criminal prosecutions in which close allies of the Pope are accused of a range of hair-raising offences – and the question of how much Francis knew about their activities still hasn’t been answered, either by the Vatican or its tame press corps.. Also, I touch on a new explanation for Rome’s dreadful pact with China. Did the Pope’s Secretary of State sign away the freedom of Chinese Catholics

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Where is Britain’s anger about Afghanistan?

This is an age of anger. Social media amplifies rage and exaggerates polarisation. Twitter isn’t Britain, but too many people in politics and journalism spend too much time on the site and – consciously or not – start to mistake its shallow extremes for real public opinion. The result is a public discourse more often driven by fury than understanding. Just about any question or issue can unleash this lab cultured rage. Some people are angry about being asked to wear a mask to avoid spreading a disease that might kill someone else. Some people are angry about an alpaca. So where’s the anger about Afghanistan? A Suez moment is

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Devi Sridhar blunders (again)

The antics of Scottish Covid advisor Devi Sridhar have been one of the few bright spots throughout the pandemic. During the last fifteen months, Sridhar has become something of a pin-up girl to the SNP’s online army of so-called ‘cybernats.’ This has been due to her repeated jibes at the Westminster government, her demands for more power which Holyrood already had and her effusive praise for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘wise words’ and ‘strong leadership’. Not to mention of course her suggestion that an independent Scotland would have done better against Covid. More seriously, Sridhar has also been accused of spreading misinformation about the Oxford vaccine. Back in March, as government ministers on

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Is the Taleban’s success a surprise?

11 min listen

The Taleban are continuing their advance through Afghanistan, and are on the cusp of taking control in the major cities of Herat and Kandahar. The group’s fighters have predictably ignored the Doha Agreement, but has the speed of their success taken politicians by surprise, and how much of an embarrassment is the deteriorating situation for the White House and Downing Street? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Afghanistan will be a stain on the Biden presidency

Afghanistan will be a stain on the Biden presidency. His decision to continue with a US withdrawal from the country – he wants America out by the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks – reflects both the war-weariness of Washington and how Afghanistan and the ‘war on terror’ have dropped down the country’s list of strategic priorities. The consequences of the US withdrawal are all too apparent, with the Taliban now in control of two thirds of Aghanistan. American intelligence is worried that Kabul might fall within a month. In an awful historical irony, the Taliban could once more be in control of the Afghan capital by 11 September. The New York Times reports that

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Britain’s economic bounce back is less impressive than it seems

The UK economy is rebounding at the fastest rate in Europe, and faster even than the United States: that is the general tone of reporting of today’s GDP figures, which show that the UK economy expanded by 4.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2021. That is compared with 0.9 per cent in France, 1.5 per cent in Germany and 1.6 per cent in the US. But hang on, dig a little deeper and there is something a little odd going on with the figures. Compare nominal and real changes in GDP during the second quarter and it produces the following: UK, nominal growth in second quarter: +3.6 per cent;

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The cost of net zero

35 min listen

In this week’s podcast: First up, to deny the man-made climate crisis we now find ourselves in would be an act of wilful delusion. But what is the right way for the UK to try and minimise this looming disaster? In our cover story this week Ross Clark looks at the financial viability of the government’s central proposal: getting to net zero. Lara Prendergast talks to him along with James Kirkup, chair of the Social Market Foundation, who writes in this week’s magazine saying that the cost for net zero is more than worth it. (00:48) ‘Ten years ago, electric cars were a work of science fiction, now the best-selling

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

How do we stop the next David Cameron?

One of the enduring charms of British politics is how slight the pecuniary rewards are for taking up the job of prime minister. American presidents can look forward to stonking great advances on their memoirs. (Barack and Michelle Obama received a joint up-front payment of £47 million from Crown publishing group.) They claim rock-star appearance fees in exchange for a few platitudes to sandalled Silicon Valley execs. (Bill and Hillary Clinton raked in £110 million in speaking fees between 2001 and 2015.) A stint in the White House boosted George H W Bush’s net worth by 475 per cent and Richard Nixon’s by 650 per cent, pocket change compared to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

When will exams get back to normal?

It wouldn’t be credible to say that this year’s A-Levels grades are comparable with 2019’s: almost 45 per cent of entries got an A or A* compared to 25 per cent two years ago. But, as I say in the magazine this week, the problem is that you can’t simply snap back to normal next year. Many of those who got their grades this year won’t go to university until next year. This — and the fact that the education of those in the year below has been disrupted too — means it wouldn’t be fair for exams to return to normal next year. That would leave the class of 2022 competing for

Mary Dejevsky

Should locals be allowed to work at British embassies?

It is just short of 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and suddenly there comes a reminder of how the world used to be. A member of staff at the British Embassy in Berlin has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia. The arrest took place in Potsdam, which used to be in East Germany, and the Glienecke Bridge separating the town from Berlin proper is where Cold War spies used to be exchanged. The suspect has been identified only as David S, and it is believed he worked in a security role at the embassy. Two details that are known, however, are that

Steerpike Steerpike

Cambridge XR academic brags after prosecution dropped

Since being formed in May 2018, the eco-warriors of Extinction Rebellion have done their best to endear themselves to commuters across the country. Known for their outlandish stunts, apocalyptic rhetoric and garish attire, members of the movement have deployed new forms of non-violent civi disobedience – much to the irritation of those whose roads and bridges they blockade. One such member is Jason Scott-Warren, a lecturer in English literature at the University of Cambridge. The academic tweeted on Monday that he was due to appear in court for a one man protest in May in which he repeatedly obstructed the highway wearing a sandwich board. The summons prompted him to declare ‘I was hoping that the court might burn down

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How to burst the grade inflation bubble

The Tories regard a return to rigorously marked exams as one of their big achievements in education. In 2010, the year they took office, more than a third of A-level entries received an A or A* grade. By 2019, following an overhaul of the curriculum, only a quarter did. Despite the havoc wreaked by Covid on education, the government was determined to carry on this trend. That’s why last year, after exams were scrapped, the Department for Education tried to further control grade inflation by using an algorithm. It worked, in part, by assessing the past results of schools — but a consequence was that exceptional pupils from historically underperforming

The Spectator

Working from home is a decision for businesses, not government

After seizing so much power during the pandemic, Boris Johnson’s government is having trouble working out where its remit now ends. The division used to be fairly simple: the state provided public services but left people and companies free to organise their own affairs. Ministers now talk as if they are in charge of everything — including whether people should or should not work from the office. Lockdown would not have been possible without digital technology, which enabled so many to work from home. For many companies, remote working has opened up all sorts of new possibilities. But the drawbacks are obvious. Younger workers are denied the training that the

John Ferry John Ferry

The SNP-Green alliance is a victory for the cranks

The SNP’s nationalist outriders, the Scottish Green party, are reported to be within touching distance of agreeing the terms of a formal cooperation agreement that will see them enter government for the first time. What will this mean for Scotland and its governing party? On the face of it, not a great deal. Some Green MSPs (the party has seven, including co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie) will get ministerial posts but will have minimal impact on SNP policy, which will likely remain tightly controlled by Sturgeon and her inner sanctum. The SNP will hope that the optics of hooking up with the Greens will boost their environmental credentials in

Steerpike Steerpike

Margaret Ferrier’s staffing crisis

It’s not just the hospitality sector struggling to recruit this summer. Steerpike has been amused to see a number of job postings appear on the ‘Working for an MP’ website in recent months for the exciting opportunity to work for the member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Margaret Ferrier. Ferrier of course has been suspended from the SNP since October after she admitted travelling down to London, having developed Covid symptoms. Not only did the MP fail to stay at home to prevent potentially spending the disease, she also decided to speak in Parliament, and then decided to travel back to Scotland on the train after receiving a positive Covid test. The subsequent

Wednesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Why did Andrew Cuomo resign?

24 min listen

Andrew Cuomo has resigned as governor of New York after an inquiry found he sexually assaulted multiple women. Why was the Governor so loved by Democrats, should he really have resigned over the state’s care homes scandal, and might we soon see him as a CNN contributor? Freddy Gray speaks to Spectator World contributor Grace Curley.