Politics

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

Sunday

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

In defence of Shaun Bailey

It’s possible I am alone in not minding about Shaun Bailey’s observations during the hunt for poor Sarah Everard. Before her body was found, he tweeted that ‘as a father and husband it breaks me to think that my wife and daughter have to live in fear in their own city. It doesn’t have to be this way. As Mayor, I‘ll ensure that we are working to deliver for the safety of women and girls in London.’ Was that wrong? We saw last night at that catastrophically mismanaged vigil at Clapham Common that women’s safety is a live issue. The subject of women living in fear was all anyone could talk

Hasan Ismaik

Why Great Britain matters even more after Brexit

We in the Middle East have been watching Britain with increased fascination. No, not because of the drama involving Meghan and Harry. But because of how the United Kingdom speaks to us across so many issues.  Its renewed independence with Brexit, the unstinting loyalty of Her Majesty the Queen to duty and country, the miraculous vaccine innovation and delivery success, David Attenborough’s warning to the UN on climate change, JK Rowling’s defence of women.  Despite pioneering change in the modern world, Britain has conserved its long tradition of the rule of law. Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Dominic Raab, and Priti Patel – all children or grandchildren of migrants to Britain

Saturday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Ruth Davidson’s exit reveals Scottish Tories’ independence secret

Ruth Davidson has used her final speech to the Scottish Conservative conference to appeal to pro-Union voters. In a video streamed on the first day of the event, the former party leader said Scotland had passed ‘peak Nat’ and that, while the SNP was bound to emerge as the largest party after the May 6 devolved elections, the Tories could still deprive Nicola Sturgeon of an overall majority. This was imperative, she said, so that the Scottish Government could be ‘held in check’. She contended: If there’s no check on an SNP government after May, they will put their obsession with securing a second independence referendum above Scotland’s national interest.

Henry Hill

How Unionists can battle against devocrats

This week, the government published its first Union Connectivity Review report. You’d be forgiven for mistaking this for another boring sounding Whitehall transport initiative that inevitably fails to get off the ground. But this seemingly inoffensive review has triggered the latest round of allegations from the devolved administrations that Westminster is engaging in a ‘power grab’. Doesn’t the Prime Minister know that transport is devolved, they cry? If the Treasury has extra money to spend, it should simply hand it over to the governments in Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast to spend as they see fit. But there is an obvious problem with the ‘transport is devolved’ mantra. One can see

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Life as a Lobby journalist

30 min listen

The Lobby refers to the group of political journalists with access to the Palace of Westminster. On this episode, three former Lobby hacks – Fraser Nelson, James Kirkup (of the Social Mobility Foundation) and Francis Elliott (retiring political editor of the Times) – discuss their rehabilitation from the job, the old days of boozing lunches and the impact of social media on the job today, and much more.

Anil Bhoyrul

Anil Bhoyrul, Lionel Shriver and Melissa Kite

18 min listen

On this episode, Anil Bhoyrul starts by asking if it’s racist to wonder what colour your child’s skin will be. (01:05) Lionel Shriver is up next, and says the West has used China’s totalitarian tactics to suppress Covid. (05:05) Melissa Kite finishes the podcast, and describes her encounter with ‘obnoxious Surrey battleaxes’. (14:15)

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson’s new approach to an independence referendum

Unionists are finding reasons for optimism when it comes to saving the union. As Nicola Sturgeon comes under fire north of the border over her handling of the Alex Salmond inquiry, ‘No’ has taken the lead in several recent independence polls. A poll this week for the Scotsman also suggested the SNP is no longer set for a majority in May’s Scottish parliament election; instead it predicted a hung parliament. Of course, the SNP could still secure a majority in the upcoming elections. If anything, that is still viewed as the more likely scenario by Tories in Westminster. This is in part why ministers are having to carefully plan their response as to what do in such

Andrew Tettenborn

Clive Myrie, the BBC and the trouble with Ofcom

Ofcom’s tight grip on current affairs broadcasts has been likened by some observers to a choking collar. Clive Myrie, one of the BBC’s most decent and best educated correspondents, disagrees. But Myrie’s robust defence of Ofcom’s role, which he put forward in the inaugural Harold Evans Memorial Lecture this week, should trouble anyone concerned with preserving free speech on air. Myrie took a simple line: to compare the US and UK broadcasting landscapes. In the US there is not, and under the First Amendment probably could not be, any regulation of how news is presented. The result is overbearing influence exercised by presenters on channels such as CNN or Fox; a ‘trust deficit’ as regards

Bruno Macaes

After Covid, get ready for the Great Acceleration

Before the pandemic struck, there was talk of a ‘Great Stagnation’ – the idea that the world economy was doomed to lacklustre growth and had hit a technological plateau with no game-changers in sight. But Covid – and lockdown – has changed all that. There was such doubt about the vaccines because it normally takes at least ten years to develop a successful immunisation. Now, we have six working ones. The innovation will not stop there: breakthroughs are happening at rapid speed, from transport and energy, to medicine and science, and even when it comes to currencies. Take transportation and energy. Last October, for example, Waymo finally announced the launch

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Are the Tories trying to trash their reputation in London?

Shaun Bailey pulled off an amazing trick this week: he managed to unite Twitter. Left and right, Tory and Labour, Remainer and Brexiteer, all piled into a wondrously crass post by the Tory London mayoral candidate: ‘As a father and husband it breaks me to think that my wife and daughter have to live in fear in their own city. It doesn’t have to be this way. As Mayor, I‘ll ensure that we are working to deliver for the safety of women and girls in London.’ The message would have been in poor taste no matter what the timing. After all, why make crime in London about himself and his family? But

Josh Mcloughlin

Jordan Peterson and the cult of tidiness

The world is obsessed with clutter. Today, untidiness is seen as a moral failure and messy people are cast as incontinent reprobates lacking in all self-discipline. In his new book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson tells readers that cleaning up their homes and offices is nothing less than a ‘moral obligation’. Brits seem to agree. Princess Anne was recently criticised and urged to declutter after viewers glimpsed her living room at Gatcombe Park, whilst Channel 5 is planning a new TV show in which Nick Knowles helps messy homeowners tidy up. With the end of lockdown in sight, UK charity shops are expecting a huge boom

Steven Fielding

The trouble with Starmer’s quiet radicalism

After a solid 2020 Keir Starmer is now finding life hard. By the end of last year, it appeared he was dragging his party back from its disastrous 2019 election result. But YouGov now has Labour lagging the Conservatives by 13 points. The explanation for this might be simple and temporary: the government’s successful vaccination programme. But the positive reception to the recent Budget suggests voters are happy with the Tory approach to tackling the economic mess left by the pandemic. As Britons anticipate a post-Covid future, perhaps this is a significant turning point? Starmer’s reversal of fortunes has been accompanied by a darkening chorus of hostile commentators. It is

Felicity Graham

Why is going to Oxford being held against me?

Should going to Oxford be held against you? In my experience, some employers think it should. A month before the first lockdown of 2020, I attended an interview with a prestigious company in London. With nearly 1000 applicants for each place on their internship scheme, the stakes were high; making it to the interview may have been a success in itself, but now it was time to impress the recruiters in person. After a frantic journey on the underground, I arrived at the interview location. Having spent the previous few days researching the interview process, I expected an hour of rigorous intellectual interrogation, followed by a brief case study assessment. 

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris, Biden and the era of big government

Bill Clinton’s declaration that ‘the era of big government is over’ summed up the late 1990s political zeitgeist. Centre-left political parties could win if they accepted the small state model bequeathed by the Thatcher-Reagan consensus. Now things feel very different, as I say in the Times today. The stimulus Joe Biden signed into law is huge, $1.9 trillion (£1.4 trillion): three times larger than the financial hole created by Covid. Here there has been nothing as dramatic. But it is still telling that Boris Johnson is insistent that the public finances won’t be brought back into order by ‘austerity cuts’. Big government appears to be back. Politics is going to become

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

What’s behind the UK’s EU export slump?

16 min listen

Britain’s exports to the EU fell by 40 per cent in January 2021, new figures from the ONS show. Are the numbers a real reflection of post-Brexit trade, or should they be treated with caution? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

John Connolly John Connolly

Tory backlash over Cumbrian coal mine U-turn

Is there a clash between the government’s plans to achieve Net Zero and its aspirations to level up parts of the North and Midlands? It certainly seems that way, after the Planning Secretary Robert Jenrick last night U-turned and launched an inquiry into the construction of a new coal mine in Cumbria, which would provide coal for the construction of steel. His decision to ‘call in’ the planning application came after the US climate envoy John Kerry told the BBC this week that ‘coal is not the future’. Jenrick’s decision has exposed a rift in the Tory party, between a government keen to make a success of the UN climate

Steerpike Steerpike

When will Eddie Izzard get the message?

Eddie Izzard is a serial election loser, but try telling her that. The comedian has tried – and failed – three times to win a place on Labour’s National Executive Committee. But not put off by getting fewer votes than a man disowned by Momentum over anti-Semitism allegations in her last outing, Izzard wants to try again.  This time, Izzard is seeking to have a crack at winning a seat in the Commons. Asked by the Guardian whether the plan is to enter politics, she said: ‘Yep. I’m not mucking about with this. I’m going in.’ But what happens if – as is quite likely – Izzard’s attempt doesn’t pay off? According

Steerpike Steerpike

The Mash Report 2017-2021, greatest hits

So, farewell then, The Mash Report. This morning the Sun reports that the newly appointed BBC director general Tim Davie has ordered the axing of the notoriously unfunny BBC Two show after four series. The show’s creators were told at the time of the appointment to find a better balance of targets than ‘digs at the Tories’. Not that this seems to have been taken on board by the show’s hosts.  Sources close to the Beeb’s top man report reportedly thought it disproportionately critical of Brexit — perhaps unsurprising given its main star Nish Kumar declared to the Guardian in 2019 that he had ‘still not got over it’. With the programme canned to ‘make

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

The UK economy is suffering worse than most

Last week The Spectator highlighted new data from the OECD that offers a weekly update comparing a country’s current GDP levels to the previous year. It continues to show the UK experiencing some of the highest levels of economic damage. If you factor in lockdown stringency, you can also make out a rough correlation between countries under the strictest lockdowns and countries taking the biggest hits to GDP. Just how reliable are these calculations? A cross-check between the OECD data and the Office for National Statistics’ monthly GDP update would suggest it’s pretty spot-on, if not slightly more positive. Today’s update from the ONS shows the economy to be 9.2

Tom Slater Tom Slater

No, Nish Kumar’s Mash Report hasn’t been ‘cancelled’

It’s not been a good year for any of us. But it certainly hasn’t been a good year for Nish Kumar, alleged comedian and voice of perma-smug Britain. Last year, sensing a gap in the market for anti-Trump material, Kumar tried to break America with a topical Daily Show-style show hosted on some weird new streaming service called Quibi, only for it to shut down six months later. Now The Mash Report, the primetime BBC Two Daily Show-style topical show he fronted four four series, has been axed. Even among the politically monochrome BBC comedy stable, The Mash Report broke new ground for liberal sanctimony and woke hectoring. It was