Politics

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

Wednesday

Theo Davies-Lewis

It’s time to upgrade the office of the Welsh first minister

Some of the most revealing detail from newly released 1997 government files relate to Welsh constitutional affairs. The Home Office advised against the Queen opening the new Welsh Assembly, for instance, judging the institution to be ‘wholly subordinate’ to Westminster even before the people of Wales had voted for it. Tony Blair and John Prescott even thought the leader of the Assembly should be known as ‘Chief Executive’, unlike the ‘First Minister’ title bestowed in Scotland. It has taken more than two decades, but attitudes to Welsh politics have finally changed, from both the public and politicians in Wales and Westminster. The Assembly-cum-Parliament now has primary law-making powers; our national

Henry Hill

Why the SNP fraud allegations matter

A common refrain from opponents of the Scottish National party is that ‘the SNP is not Scotland’. But it often seems they haven’t got the message, especially when Nationalist activists take it on themselves to stand guard on the border against the plague-ridden English. This week, the people who may really wish they’d done more to police the borders between themselves and the SNP are none other than grassroots separatists in the ‘Yes movement’. If you missed this story, the long and short of it is that a few years ago the SNP went on a fundraising drive. They secured hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations on the basis

Tuesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Who is Ron Klain and is he running America?

21 min listen

President Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, is set to have a large bash for his 60th with a whopping guest list of the rich and powerful, a list he has been compiling since the Clinton administration. But who is the real Ron? A man helping an elderly president or king of the Washington Swamp? Freddy Gray in conversation with Matthew Continetti, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and founding editor of the Washington Free Beacon.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Are vaccine refusers ‘selfish’?

14 min listen

On a visit to Glasgow today, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove went further than other politicians have in saying that those who refuse the vaccine for non-health reasons are ‘selfish’. It looks as if the government will continue pushing through its vaccine certificate plans, but what if it has to rely on Labour votes to get it through? Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth.

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Whitehall’s Covid gloom could harm our economic recovery

As the government continues to put forward an extremely cautious narrative about re-opening, more evidence emerged today that the economy is surging ahead. The International Monetary Fund has once again upgraded its forecast for Britain’s growth this year: its April prediction of 5.3 per cent growth in 2021 has now been revised upward to 7 per cent. If correct, the UK could boast one of the fastest growing economies amongst major countries, with a recovery looking to be on par with the United States. Today’s update from the IMF fits a trend. Just this weekend the EY Item Club forecast 7.6 per cent growth this year – the fastest rate

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why the Tories are losing support

Boris Johnson hoped to mark his two year anniversary with a series of big domestic policy announcements as part of his plans for the post-Covid recovery. Instead, the Prime Minister had to spend it in self-isolation on a weekend in which a series of polls pointed to a dip in support for his government.  The most striking was a YouGov poll on Friday that suggested the Tory lead had fallen by six points to 38 per cent of the vote: Since then, a series of other polls have emerged that also seem to point to a narrowing of the poll gap between the Tories and Labour, with Survation finding support for Labour

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Why is Vince Cable so liberal towards Chinese illiberalism?

On Monday, Vince Cable appeared on Nigel Farage’s ‘talking pints’ segment on GB News. This, if you haven’t seen it, is where Farage places a guest in front of a pint of beer while having his own and the two figures talk politics for a quarter of an hour. Really, it’s like any other political segment on a British news channel, only with Farage and alcohol involved. It started off well for Vince. Farage asked him about the coalition, and unlike most Lib Dem politicians who would have unveiled a litany of apologies for that government having ever come into existence, Cable staunchly defended it. ‘As a government, it worked

Steerpike Steerpike

Five experts who predicted daily Covid cases would hit 100,000

A lot was said and written about the UK’s decision to press ahead with July 19, the so-called ‘Freedom Day’ when restrictions on social contact were lifted. Some greeted this date with a mix of horror, outrage and fury with 1,200 scientists signing a letter which effectively declared the unlocking as ‘a threat to the world.’ Much of the commentary focused on claims that there would be 100,000 positive Covid tests a day by July 19 and that a mass unlocking would only increase this. The full effect of the unlocking will only be seen in the fortnight after July 19 and the possibility remains that case numbers will go back up again – as

Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

Boris’s crime crackdown will be harder than he thinks

Can crime be beaten with a beaten down police force? The government certainly hopes so. Today, the Prime Minister launched the much trailed ‘Beating Crime’ Plan. Not trailed enough, according to the boss of the cops’ union, The Police Federation, who says the first he heard about the plan was last Sunday — shortly after his organisation, representing 130,000 front line officers, passed a vote of no confidence in the Home Secretary. How has this fracture between police and politicians come to pass? In rhetorical terms, this is the most pro-police administration in the last ten years. It has certainly worked hard to exorcise the malign impact of Theresa May.

Debbie Hayton

The hounding of Rosie Duffield

I grew up in 1980s County Durham; it felt at the time like a People’s Democratic Republic. When the miners went on strike in 1984, Labour held 53 of the 72 seats on the county council. But whatever impression southerners might get from watching Billy Elliot, boys like me did not engage in ballet. Labour may have been in charge, but attitudes were socially conservative. We played football and supported the Toon, or Newcastle United to give them their official name. Allegiance to Sunderland raised eyebrows — in my town at least — while Manchester United was beyond the pale. If boys were ostracised for supporting the wrong football teams,

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Can businesses achieve Net Zero?

40 min listen

Responsible for 17 per cent of the UK’s carbon usage, government will be looking to the private sector to reduce its emissions in the years to come. But what does it really mean for a business to achieve ‘net zero’? Should companies – and their sectors – account only for their direct emissions, or must they also measure their indirect impact, related to supply chains or digital carbon footprints? How should businesses address their historic emissions – and what might this mean for once carbon-intensive sectors? In partnership with Velux.

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Starmer faces a difficult summer

Like Covid data, polling data has a built-in time lag of several days. Those sifting the evidence on coronavirus typically expect to see about a four-day lag between someone becoming infected and them showing up as a positive case after getting tested. Indeed, the Financial Times has just produced a graph showing distinct Covid case spikes among young men four days after every England football match in the recent European championships. Opinion pollsters would recognise a similar lag when it comes to events that influence the standing of parties. It takes time for those events to percolate through the public consciousness. So the latest rash of opinion polls, which are

Annabel Denham

Covid has revealed the limits of the big state

When Rishi Sunak turned on the spending taps last March, a triumphant Jeremy Corbyn said he had been proved ‘right’. History would be written by the losers. In the 16 months since, government spending on the pandemic has swelled to an eye-watering £372 billion. Wages have been nationalised, along with the railways. Individuals have radically altered their behaviour to shield a state institution. Many now hold the view that coronavirus demonstrates government can borrow and spend a large amount of money quickly and wisely — and that it can therefore continue to do so. But two new reports from the Commons Public Accounts Committee decisively debunk that myth. The picture

Steerpike Steerpike

Dom Cummings urges Britney to take back control

They say politics is show business for ugly people. And now Dominic Cummings has taken that axiom to new heights after throwing himself behind the campaign to ‘release’ American pop princess Britney Spears. Spears, the noughties sensation behind a string of successful songs, is currently battling to end her 13 year-long conservatorship – a controversial legal process whereby a guardian is appointed by a judge to manage the affairs and life of another. This was placed on Spears in 2008 after a year of mental health concerns. A California court case has now begun to determine if she can have a new conservator, with Spears accusing her father, family and management team of abuse. The case has attracted worldwide

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How can the government boost vaccination rates?

13 min listen

University students could need to be double-vaccinated if they want to attend lectures or stay in halls, according to reports today. Young people have the lowest jab uptake, and these reports follow the announcement last week that clubbers will need a vaccine passport to enter venues from September. Will it work? James Forsyth speaks to Katy Balls.

Steerpike Steerpike

LSE campaign demands Hayek Society abolition

Another day, another student fiasco. This time the scene of the crime is the London School of Economics and a new campaign called LSE Class War, launched earlier this month with its own radical manifesto. Among the (fairly standard) demands for this groups are call for a ‘private school free’ LSE – a policy which would necessitate the removal of many of its international students – and calls to ‘decolonise LSE’ with ethnic minority quotas for the hiring of academics. More unusual is the demand to ‘install a David Graeber lecture series to celebrate the life of the revered professor’ – a reference to the left-wing academic who died last year. This

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour heralds the changing of the guard

It’s been a busy few months for Keir Starmer. Following the Hartlepool by-election disaster, the Labour leader opted to reshuffle his team and bring in a string of new signing. Out went old faces like Ben Nunn and in came, err, even older faces from the Blair years such as Sam White, Deborah Mattinson and Matthew Doyle. Not content with shaking up his own team, the former Director of Public Prosecutions has opted to put opponents in the dock, with the National Executive Commitee voting last Tuesday to expel four left-wing groups ‘not compatible’ with the party’s values. The proscription of the groups — Resist, Socialist Appeal, Labour in Exile

Tom Slater Tom Slater

Britain’s creeping authoritarianism

When a top Edinburgh school announced earlier this month that it would stop teaching To Kill a Mockingbird, citing the novel’s ‘white saviour motif’ and use of the n-word, the response ranged from uproar to bafflement. We may be living in increasingly censorious times, it seems, but banning books, even just on a school’s curriculum, still has a bad smell around it. Well, perhaps not for much longer. In an alarming new poll, conducted for The Spectator by Redfield and Wilton Strategies, 40 per cent of respondents said they supported the UK government censoring books with content that it deems sexist, homophobic or racist. Just 30 per cent were opposed while 24 per

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Welsh First Minister dismisses hospitality fears

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford is widely regarded as having had a good pandemic. Re-elected in May with an increased Labour representation in the Senedd, the member for Cardiff West has earned plaudits for his un-showy style of leadership. Still, Mr S can’t help but wonder how Drakeford would fare if his gaffes were treated in the way that the London press pack jumps on those by ministers in SW1. A typical example of this came just a fortnight ago, at a Senedd session that went largely unnoticed by the Welsh media, when the minister was asked by James Evans MS about restrictions on hard-pressed pubs. Given the dire financial pressures on

Sunday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Don’t fall for Rishi Sunak’s ‘Britcoin’

Do we need an officially-sanctioned, government-backed crypto-currency underwritten by sterling — a ‘Britcoin’ — as Rishi Sunak is said to be advocating? At first sight it is hard to see the attraction. Surely, there are two principle reasons why people feel attracted to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Firstly, if you are a drug dealer, you might hope that it is a way of keeping your stash of wealth beyond the reach of law enforcers. This hasn’t quite proved true, but you can understand why cryptocurrencies have their fans in the criminal world. Secondly, there is the hope of making a quick, speculative profit. The wildly gyrating values of Bitcoin and