Politics

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

Wednesday

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Watch: Boris Johnson’s OJ Simpson gag

Boris Johnson was in Wales today visiting a mass vaccination centre – as part of the government’s victory lap after meeting its target of giving 15 million people their first vaccine dose by mid-February. The occasion was perhaps the perfect opportunity to highlight the good work the government has done on vaccines in recent months. The Prime Minister though appeared to have somewhat darker preoccupations on his visit.  While struggling to put on a disposable glove at the centre, the PM joked that he felt like OJ Simpson, who infamously ‘struggled’ to put on a glove at his murder trial. Mr S isn’t sure that’s a comparison Number 10 aides will be wanting

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Where are Keir Starmer’s ideas coming from?

Exactly what a Keir Starmer government would look like in terms of policy still remains a mystery to most people. During his leadership campaign Starmer ran on a platform consisting of ‘ten pledges’, which were essentially just reheated Corbynism. Without publicly disavowing them, Starmer seems to have been trying to move away from these pledges toward something that represents a solid break with his predecessor since winning the leadership contest. Yet we still don’t have a clear idea on what that would look like in real terms. Starmer has defined himself so far not on who he is, but rather, who he is not. To this end, Starmer’s people are

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Will the economy really rebound after lockdown?

Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane last week described the UK economy as a ‘coiled spring’ waiting to rebound just as soon as lockdown restrictions are eased. But is it a spring like the one on which Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout used to bounce around, or is it like a Slinky – the toy you place at the top of the stairs and watch, fixated, as it furls and unfurls itself right down to the bottom? Haldane, it is fair to say, sees it much like the former. He describes the economy as full of ‘pent-up financial energy’. While the bank sees lockdown number three causing output to

Tuesday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The SNP’s education ‘stitch-up’

For anyone who assumes the SNP government’s secrecy and obstruction is limited to inquiries into itself and its past leaders, the fate of a major report into Scottish education is an instructive tale. Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), introduced in 2010, was the SNP’s grand idea for better learning in Scottish schools. Its ‘progressive’, ‘child-centred’ philosophy was contentious among teachers but was eagerly bought into by educationalists, educrats and teachers’ unions. Dissenters were generally caricatured as stuffy old reactionaries who wanted children bolted down in rows, facing a blackboard, as an authoritarian dominie catechised them in the rote memorising of formulae, dates and rules. Needless to say, the caricatures turned out

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Will rapid testing bring back nightclubs?

9 min listen

Nadhim Zahawi this morning said that scientists are working on rapid Covid tests to reopen large events. The vaccine deployment minister said that ‘new technologies’ are being trialled at the Porton Down laboratories, and ruled out the government introducing vaccine passports. Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Steerpike Steerpike

Lansman plots his Cornish comeback

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Five years ago, Tony Benn’s former bag carrier was staging the most extraordinary Labour coup, ushering in the disastrous Bennite restoration that was Jeremy Corbyn’s rule.  Then he went on to found Momentum — Labour’s party within a party, the vanguard of the proletariat that would keep Labour’s wayward liberal MPs on the narrow path of socialism. That path so nearly reached its conclusion at the 2017 general election when Corbyn came within a few thousand votes of No. 10. Since then, catastrophe. Labour obliterated, the leadership lost to a competent social democrat.  And yet the true path of socialism continues, meandering as it does

Steven Fielding

What Starmer can learn from Miliband’s mug

Since becoming Labour leader, Keir Starmer has single-mindedly been trying to persuade red wall voters that Labour is ‘patriotic’, just like them. He thereby hopes to clear away those cultural barriers that have arisen between Labour in the north and midlands where voting for the party used to be almost instinctive. As he said in his first leader’s speech back in September, Starmer wants red wall voters to ‘take another look’ at Labour now it is under his leadership: he wants to show them that it is no longer the party of Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters. But many in his party don’t like what Starmer is doing, because a significant

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Bryan Fogel on turning Jamal Khashoggi’s murder into a film

Bryan Fogel seems to have done it all. It’s hard to think of a showbiz figure with a more varied career. He began as a stand-up and moved to play-writing and then to directing movies. In 2013, he reinvented himself as the producer of hard-hitting documentaries that focus on international scandals and cover-ups. He talks to me via Zoom from Los Angeles about his latest movie, The Dissident. ‘I was seeking what my next film was going to be – something that spoke to human rights and freedom of expression. It checked all those boxes’. The subject is the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident journalist who was murdered in

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How did an enigma like Theresa May become PM?

Theresa May is not the easiest person to speak to in Westminster. She is reluctant to get drawn into a conversation unless she knows what the outcome of it is going to be. But it is still surprising to find the lengths that her colleagues had to go to, to get an understanding of what she wanted to do as Prime Minister. In an interview with Britain in a Changing Europe, Gavin Barwell recalls going to see her after the 2017 election – which had seen May lose her majority and Barwell his seat. In an attempt to reset her premiership, May had invited him to be her chief of

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is Boris Johnson opening the way for vaccine passports?

The government’s position on vaccine passports is a cause of continuing intrigue. Although Downing Street has insisted on several occasions that they will not be brought in domestically, there have been several statements that suggest otherwise. As well as looking at vaccine passports for international transport, Dominic Raab appeared to at least entertain the idea of vaccine certification when it comes to reopening hospitality. Speaking at Monday’s press conference, Boris Johnson sought once again to offer assurances on the issue. Rather than domestic vaccine passports, he said that in terms of reopening the economy, mass vaccination and testing would be the go-to mechanisms. The Prime Minister said that when it

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson hints at Covid exit strategy

What will the government’s roadmap out of lockdown look like? That’s a question being asked frequently as ministers get to work on a plan for easing restrictions. Given that Boris Johnson isn’t due to announce the details until next Monday, it’s a moving picture — with new data continuing to inform the proposals. Speculation aside, the Prime Minister spoke in a broadcast interview today over his strategy for easing the lockdown.  Johnson said that he would be pushing for a ‘cautious but irreversible’ approach — in the hope that a cautious approach would mean that a fourth lockdown was avoided. He said that where possible the government would give dates for

Matthew Lynn

Biden’s rift with Brussels is only set to grow

It was meant to be a special relationship. After the tumultuous Trump years, President Biden was planning to reset relations with the European Union, Inherently liberal, rules-based, and engaged with climate change, it would be a natural ally, and far more so than a UK still tainted by Brexit. The Biden team were no doubt looking forward to working closely with officials in Brussels, Paris, and Berlin to repair the damage of the last four years and put the world on a more rational course.  But hold on. It is not going according to plan. There are already reports that the White House is growing increasingly frustrated with the EU.

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Labour’s revealing support for reparations

The most extreme measure in the entire Labour Party manifesto of 2019 – and this is a high bar – was a pledge that Keir Starmer ought to have disavowed explicitly on day one of becoming leader. It committed a future Labour government to ‘conduct an audit of the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy to understand our contribution to the dynamics of violence and insecurity across regions previously under British colonial rule.’ This planned wallowing in national self-abasement was, to my mind, clearly conceived as a precursor to a demand for the payment of reparations by Britain for the excesses of empire. That such an unpatriotic measure made it into

Steerpike Steerpike

The view from Brussels: EU vaccine rollout better than Britain’s

Boris Johnson may have just hit his target of 15 million vaccines to the top four priority groups two days early but don’t get ahead of yourself and mistake that for success. Just as ministers begin to pat themselves on the back over a rare government success story in the UK’s vaccination programme, the Grauniad has published an article attempting to offer an explainer as to why things are not as they seem. While EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is under fire from all sides over the bloc’s sluggish vaccine rollout, Jean Quatremer — the Brussels correspondent of the French daily Libération — has penned a piece entitled ‘Brexit Britain’s victory over the

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Mandelson’s return is a sign of Labour’s problems

It is instructive that, faced with his first wobbles as leader of the opposition, the person Keir Starmer has reached for is Peter Mandelson. From the sounds of things, Mandelson is working with Starmer’s team on communications and strategy. I certainly don’t think this is a bad idea by Starmer, at least as far as recent Labour party appointees go, but I can’t help but feel that Mandelson’s return to the top says a lot about Labour’s problems, how they got into their current mess and where those issues might lead the party from here. Part of the problem is that the Labour party has been hollowed out talent-wise. Under

Steerpike Steerpike

Hancock’s vaccine passport confusion

Will they, won’t they? Only yesterday the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was saying vaccine passports were ‘under consideration’ — going directly against what Nadim Zahawi said just days before when he ruled out vaccine passports as discriminatory and un-British.  Raab was clear that the UK was looking at both domestic and foreign passports: that as well as looking at the possibility of their use for flights and international travel, the British government is also investigating whether such a document could be used for vaccinated individuals wanting to go into a restaurant or visit the supermarket.  So what does Matt Hancock have to say on the subject? On the Today programme just now, the Health

Joanna Rossiter Joanna Rossiter

Bezos vs Musk: who will win the new space race?

While the West gets itself into a lather on a weekly basis about the evils of past colonialism is anyone paying attention to the new empire builders in our midst? Although their ideas for space travel often read like the pages of an Arthur C Clark novel, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have done little to disguise the colonising instincts of their space projects. Both have outlined competing intentions to mine the moon and put humans on Mars. And, with Bezos stepping down from Amazon to devote more time to his space venture Blue Origin, we could be witnessing the beginnings of a galactic power struggle – executed not by States but by corporations. Bezos and

Sunday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris hits vaccine target – what happens next?

The government has good news to shout about on Sunday with ministers reaching their target of offering a first dose vaccine to the top four priority groups. In total, 15 million first injections have been offered to the most vulnerable in society. This is two days ahead of the government’s target.  Announcing the news, Boris Johnson said ‘we have reached a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s national vaccination programme’. So far the programme has exceeded expectations with the UK one of the fastest countries in the world on vaccinations. This is down to a number of factors including a lot of work on manufacturing and supply chains which took place last year.  The

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Vaccine passports for internal use are ‘under consideration’, says Raab

Only last week, vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi assured us that the government is not looking at vaccine passports as they would be discriminatory and un-British. So imagine Mr S’s astonishment when Dominic Raab admitted that they are indeed being considered in Britain – for internal and external use. When asked on LBC whether a domestic vaccine passport – ‘where you have to show a bit of paper to go into a supermarket’ – could be brought in, Raab confirmed: ‘It’s something that hasn’t been ruled out and is under consideration, but of course you’ve got to make it workable.’ The Foreign Secretary continued: ‘You’ve got to know that the document