World

Monday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris Johnson’s lead Brexit negotiator sets out his red lines

What are the UK’s red lines in the upcoming trade talks with the EU? Although Boris Johnson has said publicly that he will pursue a Canada-style trade deal and move to an Australia-style deal should that fail, there’s concern on the British side that Brussels is yet to take Johnson at his word when he says divergence is a crucial aspect of any deal. On Monday evening, the Prime Minister’s Europe Advisor and Chief Negotiator David Frost attempted to fix this with a lecture to students and academics at the Université libre de Bruxelles. Frost  used the address to try to explain what type of new relationship the UK is seeking to

Saturday

Liam Halligan

The coronavirus is China’s biggest test since Tiananmen Square

Over 1,500 Chinese have died from the coronavirus, with tens of millions quarantined in their own homes. President Xi is keeping a low profile, mindful of the political dangers should China’s authorities fail to contain this killer bug. In the UK, nine people have been diagnosed with the virus, including two GPs. Several public buildings have been closed – including schools, medical centre and an old-age care home – with Health Secretary Matt Hancock warning of a ‘serious and imminent threat’. Amid fears of the human fall out from what the World Health Organisation has classified as Covid-19, concerns are growing, also, about the economic and financial impact of this

Fredrik Erixon

The death of the centre in European politics

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Leo Varadkar. He positioned himself as Ireland’s champion and even ended up with a decent deal. He expected some kind of electoral dividend in the snap election as he urged voters to stay away from the dangerous fringes occupied by Sinn Fein. Instead, they turned to Sinn Fein in record numbers — ending the two-party system that has governed Irish politics for a century. In Ireland, this is unprecedented, but it fits a trend for Europe as a whole. Voters have been rebelling against old, established ‘centre-ground’ politics, and all around Europe, established politicians have responded by attacking voters. They’ve called their own

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is Trump scared of Crazy Bernie Sanders?

 Manchester, New Hampshire Democrats almost all agree that Donald Trump is ruining America and must be removed from the White House in November. The trouble is, nobody is sure who can or should do that. Democratic or Democrat-leaning voters talk nervously about the various candidates using their first names, as if trying to pick a love match in an episode of Blind Date. Should it be Bernie? Or Pete? Or Amy? Or Liz? Or Joe? New Hampshire isn’t meant to be like that. ‘Live free or die’ is the state’s motto. New Hampshirites are famously independent: they know their minds, at least that’s what everyone says. But in the Democratic

Colin Freeman

The Shia Krays: The whole of Iraq is being held to ransom

It’s been only six weeks since the death of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, but already there are a number of local hardmen vying to take his place. Most notable are his sidekicks, the Kray twins of the Shia world: Qais al-Khazali and his brother Laith. Qais and Laith who? Unless you’ve scanned Washington’s latest list of designated global terrorists, these two names won’t be familiar. Yet when I mentioned the brothers in a Baghdad teahouse a few weeks ago, folk lowered their voices and looked surreptitiously around, as if discussing the Krays in a pub in 1960s Bethnal Green. The Khazalis lead an Iran-backed Shia extremist group called the

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Sinn Fein’s success doesn’t make a united Ireland more likely

It is obviously true that Sinn Fein’s success in the Irish Republic will increase nationalist pressure for a united Ireland. It does not automatically follow, however, that such pressure will make a united Ireland more likely. A powerful Sinn Fein in the South is a strong recruiter for Unionism in the North. The possibility of nationalists in the North winning a border poll has just receded. This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes, which appears in this week’s Spectator

Thursday

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Is Europe’s centre-ground shrinking?

41 min listen

As Sinn Fein enters coalition talks with Fianna Fail, economist Fredrik Erixon writes that the encroachment of fringe parties on the mainstream is a part of a wider European trend. What’s more, he argues that the only the mainstream parties that adapt can survive. On the podcast, Fraser Nelson bats for Fredrik’s thesis, and debates with Anne McElvoy, senior editor at The Economist. Plus, is citizenship a privilege that can be revoked, or a right to anyone who identifies as British? Earlier this week, a group of Jamaican nationals – all of them holding criminal records – were due to be deported. A last minute judicial review saved some from

Tuesday

Monday

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

The BBC has much to learn from Japan’s national broadcaster

NHK is Japan’s version of the BBC – it was actually modelled after the Beeb way back in the 1920s. It has four terrestrial, two satellite TV stations, and three radio stations. It is advert-free, and funded by a license fee. It could be seen as one of Auntie’s nephews perhaps, with many of the same family traits, but a few important differences that embattled BBC executives might do well to take notice of. Unless you have a weird fondness for the noisy and inane (see the Takashi Fuji episode in ‘Lost in Translation’) NHK is probably the only ‘terebi’ you would want to watch in Japan. It is renowned

Saturday

Yoram Hazony

Guilt by association at Rome’s National Conservatism Conference

This week’s National Conservatism Conference in Rome was an important meeting of national conservatives from all over the world. Sadly, it has been sullied by disgusting attacks from British liberals against the Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski for agreeing to take part. Publications from BuzzFeed to the Guardian pounced on Kawczynski’s decision to appear alongside European leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Italy’s Matteo Salvini as proof of ‘anti-Semitic’, ‘racist’ and ‘homophobic’ beliefs, held not only by Daniel but the political party to which he belongs, the Conservative party. The Tories subsequently proved themselves to be utterly witless in the face of the attack (a point to which I return

Matthew Goodwin

The death of populism has been greatly exaggerated

Have we reached peak populism? This is the question being asked after a recent regional election in Italy delivered a setback to Matteo Salvini, the de facto head of Europe’s populist family. In the affluent and historically left-wing region of Emilia Romagna, Salvini’s right-wing alliance finished more than seven points behind the Left. It wasn’t even close. It is not a surprise that some have breathed a sigh of relief. For much of the past three years, Salvini has seemed unstoppable. While the 46-year-old has miscalculated – like last summer when he tried but failed to bring down the government – he has transformed his ‘Lega’ movement from a small

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Britain leaves the EU, coronavirus evacuations and a great day for Trump

Home The United Kingdom quietly left the European Union at 11 p.m. GMT on 31 January. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said in a speech about trade negotiations: ‘We have made our choice — we want a free trade agreement, similar to Canada’s but in the very unlikely event that we do not succeed, then our trade will have to be based on our existing withdrawal agreement with the EU.’ Britain would also pursue trade deals with other countries. The government brought forward from 2040 to 2035 a ban on selling new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars. David Cameron, the former prime minister, declined an offer from Boris Johnson to

The Spectator

Barometer: Is the Wuhan coronavirus really that deadly?

Mumbo jumbo The Prime Minister called opposition to imports of US-produced food ‘mumbo jumbo’. The expression was introduced to the English language in 1795 by Mungo Park in his Travels in the Interior of Africa. It was his way of writing down ‘Maamajomboo’ — the name used by the Mandinka people of West Africa for a pagan god, played by a male dancer, who was sent to intercede in disputes between the multiple wives of local men. Mumbo Jumbo would decide which woman was guilty, then strip her naked and scourge her with a rod. It is a wonder that Boris’s enemies haven’t seized upon his use of the expression

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

After Iowa, Donald Trump looks invincible

Any future history of the decline and fall of the American Republic ought to include a page or two on the Iowa caucuses of 3 February 2020. It’s a meltdown story for the ages. The Democratic party, desperate to undo the victory of Donald Trump in 2016, somehow managed utterly to cock up its first meaningful vote in 2020. The calamity is so great that it may turn the whole Democratic primary — and therefore this presidential election year — into a farce. That suits President Trump. ‘Big WIN for us in Iowa tonight,’ he tweeted, on Tuesday night, as news of the Democratic imbroglio spread. ‘Thank you!’ He then

Friday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Five things to know about the new UK ambassador to the US

When diplomatic cables leaked to the Mail on Sunday last year revealing that the UK’s man in Washington Sir Kim Darroch had described the Trump administration as ‘inept’ and ‘incompetent’, the ambassador was forced to resign. Since then there has been much speculation over who would succeed him and work to rebuild UK/US diplomatic relations. While everyone from Nigel Farage to Sir Mark Sedwill had been tipped for the job, today the government announced that Karen Pierce – the ambassador to the UN in New York and Permanent Representative at the UN Security Council – has been appointed to the role. At the UN, Pierce developed a good working relationship

Thursday

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

Why is this French MEP pretending the country’s crippling strikes are over?

Watch Nathalie Loiseau, Emmanuel Macron’s Europe sherpa, simultaneously mislead and patronise Andrew Neil on his show last night. I assumed Neil would chew her up and spit her out. But on the night, it was even more bizarre: Asked by Neil if it was the time to take a hard line on Brexit negotiations, when Europe’s economy is already fragile after continuing labour unrest, Loiseau opted for brazen contempt for reality seasoned with special arrogance sauce. This is well known to those used to dealing with the high echelons of the French state. There are no more strikes in France, she declared, adding for good measure she was ‘surprised’ a journalist

Dimitri Simes

Putin is resurrecting Russia’s Cold War pact with Cuba

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov kicked off his tour of Latin America this week with a visit to Cuba. The choice is not a mere coincidence. Lavrov’s visit comes at a time when Moscow and Havana are enjoying their closest relationship in decades. The Soviet Union was once Cuba’s greatest patron. It lavished the island with economic subsidies and favourable trading arrangements in an attempt to bolster the lone communist outpost on America’s doorstep. Infamously, the United States and the Soviet Union neared the brink of nuclear war in 1962 over Moscow’s attempt to deploy ballistic missiles in Cuba. But as the Cold War approached its end, Cuba became less

Will Lloyd

A night with Bernie Sanders’s brother

Larry Sanders, Bernie’s literal bro, moved to England in the late 1960s and settled in picture postcard Oxford. I was told that Bernie visited Larry there some time ago and was taken to historic Blenheim Palace. Bernie walked around the galleries, he viewed the state apartments, he breezed around Hawksmoor’s library and strolled through Vanbrugh’s colonnades. We do not know if he stopped at the room where Winston Churchill was born. But we do know that Bernie, according to Larry, was not impressed by Blenheim. It didn’t do much for him. He had other questions. He pointed at the great lake in the grounds and asked who dug it, what

Conrad Black

Of course president Trump was acquitted

The impeachment of President Trump was unfounded in law and in fact and was never anything but a smear-job organised by the Democratic House intelligence chairman (Adam Schiff) with a pretend whistleblower. Trump asked the president of Ukraine for the facts about the association of former vice president Biden and his son’s activities in Ukraine, not a condemnation; that was not inappropriate. president Zelensky has said there was no pressure, the investigation seems not to have occurred, and the assistance to Ukraine was sent within legislated deadlines. The House of Representatives procedure was spurious; the president received none of the rights accorded to defendants in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights,