Politics

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

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A beginner’s guide to the Salmond inquiry

For some months now it has been apparent that the greatest threat to Nicola Sturgeon’s position as the uncontested queen of Scottish politics lay within her own movement. Opposition parties could — and did — criticise the Scottish government’s record in government but their efforts were as useful as attempting to sack Edinburgh Castle armed with nothing more threatening than a pea-shooter. Meanwhile, in London, Boris Johnson and his ministers appeared determined to do all they could to inadvertently bolster Sturgeon’s position. As Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party complained, ‘the case for separation is now being made more effectively in London than it ever

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Shamima Begum’s citizenship should never have been taken away

The Supreme Court has today upheld the ban on Shamima Begum returning to this country to contest the Home Secretary’s decision to strip her of her citizenship. The judges ruled that her right to a fair hearing did not trump national security considerations. But Begum should never have been stripped of her citizenship in the first place. She was born in this country, grew up here and was educated here. This makes her British. To pretend otherwise is absurd. Stripping her of her citizenship allows us to ignore the fact that someone from this country – a liberal democracy with the rule of law – went to live in a self-proclaimed caliphate

Joanna Rossiter Joanna Rossiter

What Angela Merkel can learn from the Queen about vaccine scepticism

You have to feel for Germany. After a fraught vaccine procurement process, not only is the government struggling to persuade its citizens to take the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, but Angela Merkel has now stated that she will not be given the jab on account of her age.  ‘I do not belong to the recommended age group for AstraZeneca,’ the German chancellor told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. It could well be the final nail in the coffin for an EMA-approved, safe vaccine that has cost her country millions. Merkel’s view may be aligned with government policy – she is 66 and therefore, under the German rules which state that over 65s

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tory nerves grow over Sunak’s budget

14 min listen

The Chancellor is expected to announce tax hikes in next week’s budget as he looks to bolster the public purse and reassure markets. With capital gains and cooperation tax in his sights, how will the decision go down with Tory MPs? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Kate Andrews.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tory nerves grow over Sunak’s Budget

How will Rishi Sunak’s Budget land with Tory MPs? As reports circulate in the press that the Chancellor is considering raising corporation tax and capital gains tax as well as bringing in a stealth tax for pensioner savings, nerves are growing among Conservative politicians.  The Northern Research Group of MPs, chaired by Johnson’s old friend Jake Berry, have called on Sunak not to tax his way out of pandemic debt by raising business taxes in the budget. Tory MPs such as David Davis have warned they could refuse to vote for it if the reports are true. So who will Sunak listen to? Meanwhile, former prime minister David Cameron has popped up to

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Why I joined the trans debate

It was easy to miss because even at the best of times the House of Lords doesn’t grab public attention. But this week, something remarkable happened in parliament. In narrow legislative terms, peers have forced the government to accept amendments to the Ministerial and Other Maternity Allowances Bill. The Bill will make it possible for a minister who is pregnant — such as Suella Braverman, the Attorney General — to take leave from work without resigning ministerial office. That should be uncontroversial, but the language of the Bill left something to be desired. The Bill passed the Commons earlier this month using phrases such as ‘the person is pregnant’ and

Thursday

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

The break-up: Is Boris about to lose Scotland?

40 min listen

Could No. 10 infighting lose the Union? (00:40) When should the government tell us how to behave? (13:20) Can a relationship work without hugging for a year? (31:30) With The Spectator’s deputy political editor Katy Balls; The Spectator’s Scotland editor Alex Massie; vice chair of Ogilvy and Spectator columnist Rory Sutherland; Deirdre McCloskey, Professor of Economics, History, English and Communications at University of Illinois at Chicago; writer Rob Palk; and journalist Emily Hill.  Presented by Lara Prendergast. Produced by Max Jeffery and Charlie Price.

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Will teacher assessed grades work?

17 min listen

Teachers will assess pupil’s grades next year, the Education Secretary said today. Has the decision come too late, and will it disadvantage students? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Spare a thought for students

Spare a thought for those due to sit their A-Levels next summer. They have already had considerable disruption to their education. But today’s announcement that this year’s A-Level grades will be done by teacher assessment risks compounding their misfortune.  It means that the current lower sixth will be competing for university places — and jobs — against those who have received teacher assessed grades, which are bound to be more generous than those that an exam would produce. (For all sorts of understandable reasons, teachers will want to give their pupils the benefit of the doubt when awarding potentially life-changing marks). The disadvantage the current lower sixth cohort is being put

Steerpike Steerpike

Alex Salmond’s stubble trouble

For most of the past year, Alex Salmond has been engaged in a vicious and high-profile war against his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, with Salmond suggesting that the Scottish establishment has conspired against him to keep him out of public life and have him jailed. Now it appears that Salmond has been waging war against a Scottish newspaper as well. Today the press regulator Ipso published details of a complaint made by Salmond against the Scotland on Sunday, sister paper to the Scotsman. Salmond had taken issue with an article published by the paper in April in the aftermath of his criminal trial – at which the former First Minister was

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Too much good news could spell trouble for Boris

Tory MP’s reaction to the lockdown easing plan is a mixed bag. In general, they would have preferred a quicker timetable. But, as I say in the magazine this week, there is also relief that Johnson has explicitly ruled out going for a zero-Covid strategy and that there is an end date for all restrictions. A big fear on the Tory benches was that unless a date was set, restrictions could drag on for years in the way that rationing did after the second world war.  If the data on vaccine take-up and efficacy continues to beat the government’s models, there will be some very impatient Tory MPs One senior Conservative

Anthony Browne

The EU is stepping up its raid on the City of London

It is not usual for the Governor of the Bank of England to ask permission to make a statement about a completely unrelated issue when giving evidence on inflation to the Treasury Select Committee. So we knew it was serious when Andrew Bailey yesterday told us his concerns about Brussels trying to force banks to relocate their euro clearing from London to the EU.  It is not a surprise that the EU wants to do this – France has been pushing for this for years before Brexit, leading to it losing a case to the UK at the European Court of Justice – but what is concerning is the desperate

Kristina Murkett

Prepare for the next A-level fiasco

When I was at school, the best grade you could hope to achieve on your termly report card was A5, with A being the highest grade for attainment, and 5 being the lowest grade for effort. I expect there will be a lot more students hoping for, and outright expecting, their own A5s this summer.  In light of the news that GCSEs and A-levels exams will be cancelled this year, Ofqual has now confirmed that grades will be decided by teachers. Schools can use mock exams, coursework and essays, or assessments set by exam boards, but these are optional, will not be taken in exam conditions, nor decide final grades. Make no mistake:

Alex Massie Alex Massie

It’s a pity that both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon can’t lose

Henry Kissinger’s sardonic appraisal of the Iran-Iraq War is increasingly applicable to the war between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon: it is a shame they can’t both lose. Disinterested observers, however, are under no obligation to pick a team. It is wholly possible neither protagonist has offered a convincing version of events. Treating Salmond’s claims sceptically imposes no requirement to swallow Sturgeon’s and, indeed, vice versa. Salmond’s allegations are so extraordinary they risk seeming incredible. It is one thing to allege that senior officials within the SNP – including but not limited to Peter Murrell, the party’s chief executive and Nicola Sturgeon’s husband – wished to destroy Salmond’s reputation. It

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

The cautionary tale of the Christian teacher who criticised Ruth Davidson

When Richard Lucas, a maths teacher, uploaded a video criticising former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson for having what he called a ‘fatherless child’, he anticipated some controversy. But, nearly three years on, Lucas is still shocked by the reaction it sparked. Lucas, who is a Christian, was hauled in front of the General Teaching Council for Scotland. Finally, this month, a panel threw out allegations that his comments were ‘offensive and discriminatory’ and allowed him to continue to work as a teacher. Lucas believes his teaching career is effectively over In reality the decision means little: the controversy sparked by the video, in which Lucas says that ‘children have

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Blair’s back – and advising Tories on vaccine ID cards

When the Prime Minister mentioned ‘Covid status certification’ as part of his route back to normal life, one man must have enjoyed the moment. For Tony Blair it was yet one more little victory in his UK comeback tour, made all the sweeter because Boris Johnson was once a principal opponent of the idea of any ID card system. Blair has been pushing vaccine passports like nobody’s business. A recent paper published by his Institute for Global Change advocated that we carry ‘digital health passports’ on our smartphones, which we could scan on entry to bars, theatres and other places. If you don’t have a smartphone, the paper suggested, the

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The break-up: is Boris about to lose Scotland?

At the stroke of five o’clock last Friday, the new head of No. 10’s Union unit was due to brief government aides on the robust new strategy to counter the SNP. It was urgently needed: campaigning for the Scottish parliament election starts in a few weeks and if Nicola Sturgeon wins a majority — as looks likely — she’ll demand another independence referendum. Even if Boris Johnson refuses, the SNP will attempt to push on regardless. Any plan to save Britain must be put into action sooner rather than later. But an hour or so before the briefing, an email went around to say it was cancelled. What’s more its author, Oliver

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What will life look like after 21 June?

‘Alas’ is a word used many times by Boris Johnson during the pandemic. It is how he prefaces announcements that the data is getting worse and so the government has to impose further restrictions. In recent weeks, though, the numbers have been going in the right direction. The first stage of the vaccination programme was completed two days ahead of schedule. For the first time in this crisis, government targets are being moved forward, not back. Early results seem to show that the jabs are more effective than expected: a Public Health Scotland study suggests that the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca vaccine, the workhorse of the UK immunisation programme, cuts the risk of

Wednesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will Gove greenlight immunity passports?

19 min listen

Michael Gove will lead a government review into immunity passports. Does his appointment make IDs a foregone conclusion, what will they look like, and when can we expect to see their domestic rollout? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Can Boris Johnson help struggling students?

Helping children catch up on the best part of a year out of the classroom is one of the biggest tasks facing the government. On Wednesday, Gavin Williamson announced an extra £400 million in funding which schools can use to run summer programmes and other catch-up projects. That’s on top of £300 million allocated last month and £1 billion announced last year. Ministers hope that their Recovery Premium will help schools support particularly disadvantaged pupils, who have fallen further behind than their peers as a result of having to do remote learning for so long. But they are also under pressure to show that they are thinking about the long-term,