Politics

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

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Ann Widdecombe parts ways with the National Trust

The National Trust has been making headlines of late over its decision to dip a toe into woke waters. As well as a previous drive for rainbow lanyards and trading antique furniture for beanbags, they recently came up with a dossier listing the country pads of Winston Churchill, Rudyard Kipling and William Wordsworth as properties with connections to ‘colonialism and slavery’ – the latter because his brother captained an East India Company ship. In this week’s issue of the Spectator, Charles Moore describes the manifesto as shameful.  Now its costing them visitors. Eighteen months on from rousing crowds at Brexit Party rallies across the UK, Ann Widdecombe is on the charge once more – announcing she has had enough and

Ronald Sandee

Britain is the weak link in Europe’s counter-extremism network

Europeans see the UK as an outstanding centre of counter-terrorism — but one that is wholly incapable of counter-extremism. Britain has a world-class security and counter-terrorism apparatus. MI5, MI6, the police, military and GCHQ together have unrivalled capabilities when it comes to disrupting domestic and international terror plots (at least 25 in the last three years alone). The country is seen as a cornerstone of shared European security, working harmoniously with allies to combat the evolving terror threat, share new tactics, intelligence and technologies. Yet until the United Kingdom is able to take decisive action against extremist ideology, Britain’s streets will once again see bloodshed. Counter-terrorism alone cannot stop every

Steven Barrett

Did Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s talents go to waste?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away. America has lost one of its finest lawyers. An outstanding lawyer is a gift to a nation. But RBG is one America never actually used. The same is equally true of her friend Antonin Scalia. Two brilliant lawyers that most nations would give their right arm for. I think it is fair to highlight how little law either actually did. Both were sadly reduced by the constitution they lived under, to being mere politicians. They both contrast sharply with how we have tried to practice law here. A month ago, I had lunch in a pub with a friend and three children. At the

Wolfgang Münchau Wolfgang Münchau

Is this the man who will replace Angela Merkel?

Markus Söder is the one to watch in German politics. The ascent of the Bavarian Minister-President and leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union is probably the closest modern Germany has come to Macron-style disruption. The situation is less dramatic than France in 2017 — there is no great disaffection with Chancellor Angela Merkel or with politics in general — but there is a sense that the country needs a shift in direction. Bavaria symbolises that new direction. When I grew up in Germany’s deep west in the 1960s and 1970s, we went to Bavaria on holiday and admired its quaint backwardness. We did not take it very seriously until

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

The end of the line for the rail franchise fiasco

Good riddance to the passenger rail franchise system which has finally been killed off by Covid, though a majority of the travelling public might say it should long ago have been put out of its — and, more pertinently, their — misery. The complex scheme to privatise British Rail launched by the Major government in 1993 defied those who said it couldn’t be done and was designed by the Treasury to maximise proceeds to itself. In doing so, it fractured the industry into a myriad of separate owners, operators and service providers that rarely worked in harmony or created competition for the benefit of users. The consequences of this structural

Douglas Murray

All protests are not equal in the eyes of the police

I’ve never been a great fan of public demonstrations. When I was at university, one of the great causes du jour involved a bus company owned by a man accused of not much liking the gays. My generation were short on causes, so intermittently there would be a call for direct action against the bigoted buses. I slipped along once, not sure whether I really wanted to join in. Apart from the sight of a few dozen callow students preventing one of the guilty buses from progressing up the High Street, my main memory is the almost animalistic rage of a number of the bus’s passengers. Unable to be heard

Charles Lipson

Who rules supreme in America?

Within hours of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Democrats and Republicans began fighting over how to fill her seat — and when. The stakes are high because the Supreme Court is so important. It can invalidate any federal, state or local law by ruling that it violates the US Constitution. And its decisions set precedents that lower courts must follow. Its rulings are final, made by judges with lifetime appointments. Donald Trump intends to fill Ginsburg’s seat as quickly as possible. He will announce his nominee by the end of the week. That nominee will then face hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by the Republican Lindsey

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Closing time: the Tory brawl over Covid rules

‘The mood of the parliamentary party has noticeably worsened in the past five days,’ one senior Conservative backbencher says. He’s not talking about Brexit — these days, the majority of Tory MPs continue to back Boris Johnson’s hardball approach — but about Covid. No. 10 favours a pre-emption strategy when it comes to the pandemic. They want to clamp down on the virus long before it has a chance to get out of control. ‘Go tight, go early,’ as one Johnson ally puts it. But that approach is triggering considerable resistance among Tory MPs. Broadly, they believe that the government should stick to its previous policy of trying to keep

Wednesday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Ben Wallace should resign – but he won’t

There are two kinds of people in this life: people who say Gavin Williamson is the least capable member of the Cabinet and people who have heard of Ben Wallace. The Secretary of State for Defence, in an intemperate answer in the Commons, claimed the UK waged ‘illegal wars’ under Labour.  Wallace was speaking during the second reading of the overseas operations (service personnel and veterans) bill, which is intended to protect British soldiers from lawfare. It was rather unfortunate, then, that in the middle of trying to pass such a piece of legislation, the Defence Secretary would make a jibe about ‘illegal wars’ to the Labour benches. Steerpike has

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The SNP’s hate crime u-turn isn’t enough

‘Is that all there is?’ a dejected Peggy Lee mused in her sixties jazz number of the same name. Humza Yousaf’s statement in the Scottish parliament this afternoon left me musing along much the same lines, and no less dejectedly. The SNP justice minister had come to Holyrood with a peace offering for opponents of his hate crime bill, but it turned out to be half a piece at most. Such is the bill’s authoritarian overreach, it has prompted an unlikely alliance between Catholics and secularists, cops and lawyers, and, even more remarkably in Scotland, nationalists and unionists.  The draft legislation proposes to create a new offence of ‘stirring up

Steerpike Steerpike

Defence Secretary says UK waged ‘illegal wars’

Gasps abounded in the Commons this afternoon after a testy exchange between Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and his Labour opposite number. A clearly riled Wallace decided that he had had enough of John Healey’s interventions during the second reading of his bill to limit prosecutions of servicemen and women. The cabinet minister told the House:  Much of the mess we are having to come and clean up today is because of your illegal wars, your events in the past and the way you have run this, the, the, the… the safety for our forces. Readers don’t need to be told that neither the invasion of Iraq nor the war in

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Starmer’s brain is Boris’s secret weapon at PMQs

Martial law was declared yesterday. And today Boris was expected to arrive at PMQs dressed in jackboots, an olive tunic and wraparound shades, with a Glock 18 machine-pistol tucked into his holster. Instead he wore a plain business suit. Perhaps he wanted to give his people a friendlier impression of their overlord. He seemed unusually jovial and upbeat at the despatch box, despite all the barmy rumours swirling around the internet. He was as bouncy as a spaniel on a trampoline. And he was helped by his secret weapon, Sir Keir Starmer’s over-active legal brain. The Labour leader had spotted a discrepancy between two prime ministerial utterances. ‘Three months ago today,’ he said, in his menacingly toneless voice,

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Should the government admit its mistakes?

12 min listen

In a televised address to the nation last night, Boris Johnson hailed Britain as a ‘freedom loving country’, but said that a lack of adherence to existing coronavirus restrictions meant new measures are needed. Is the government right to blame the public for a rise in Covid cases, or should they adopt a more contrite tone and admit to mistakes in areas like testing? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will furlough be extended?

When Chancellor Rishi Sunak extended the furlough scheme back in May, he committed more support than anyone expected. In June and July, the government continued to pay 80 per cent of employee wages (with a cap of £2,500 per month) and has also picked up the majority of the tab in August and September.  But as the scheme comes to an end after 31 October, calls have grown louder for it to be extended again. So far Sunak has been adamant that it won’t be, telling the House of Commons in July that it could not continue forever. But, as with many Covid-19 policies over the past six months, it

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Sweden’s virus expert briefs No. 10

One of the questions regularly asked by Tory MPs on the libertarian wing of the party: why isn’t the UK taking the Swedish approach on coronavirus? After the Prime Minister announced this week that the public ought to expect at least six more months of restrictions, Johnson has faced a backlash both within his own party and among certain sections of the scientific community over his strategy of nationwide measures to suppress the virus.  Tegnell was key to Sweden’s decision to avoid a full lockdown The chair of the 1922 Committee Graham Brady is attempting to amend the government’s emergency powers so MPs have more of a say over coronavirus measures. Speaking this week, Brady

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Does Biden really attract young voters?

26 min listen

A new poll from Harvard suggests that Joe Biden could win the votes of 60 per cent of under-30s in November’s election. But does the Democratic candidate really energise young people, or are they simply repelled by Donald Trump? Freddy Gray speaks to Marcus Roberts, director of international projects at YouGov, about the numbers dictating the race.

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Who cares what Harry and Meghan think about Trump?

Well, who can the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have in mind in their video message to Time 100 – for the magazine’s issue on influential people – when they talked about the need to reject ‘hate speech, misinformation and online negativity’ in the context of the US election?  There are precisely two possibilities. Do you reckon these things might, just possibly, be code for the president, Donald Trump? In which case – I may of course be wrong here – it looks as if they’re urging people to vote Democrat. As for lovely Meghan’s observation that this is ‘the most important election of our lifetime’ it does seem to

Steerpike Steerpike

Maitlis goes to Hull and back

As the BBC’s new director general Tim Davie works to change the perception of the BBC – with social media crackdown and an alleged plan to tackle left wing comedy bias – there seems to be an acceptance across the corporation that they need to work harder to reflect modern day Britain. So, it was perhaps bad timing for Emily Maitlis last night that she made a comedic slip of the tongue as she spoke to a guest dialling in all the way from Hull. Introducing Alan Johnson, the Newsnight presenter said that the former health secretary was joining the programme down the line from ‘hell’.  Whether a Freudian slip indicating her internal feelings towards the

Steven Fielding

Keir Starmer’s hardest task lies ahead

Keir Starmer’s first conference speech as Labour leader took place in exceptional circumstances. Thanks to Covid, there was no party conference in the conventional sense. His speech lacked the usual enthusiastic audience primed to punctuate a leader’s rhetoric with cheers; nor was there a ten-minute-long standing ovation at its conclusion. It was a desperately low-key event. If the lack of conventional theatrics made the speech unique, Starmer’s address was in terms of substance exactly what we might expect from the leader of a party which has suffered four successive defeats, especially as the last one was Labour’s worst since 1935. For Starmer’s main theme was – other than criticism of

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Boris defends new Covid rules

Boris Johnson addressed the nation this evening to update the public on his government’s coronavirus strategy. After announcing the broad details of the new measures at the despatch box this lunchtime, tonight’s statement was focussed on justifying the new restrictions. The Prime Minister said that while there were no easy choices ahead, he was confident the country would succeed as they had done so in March — insisting the government had followed the scientific advice to the letter and as a result protected the NHS and saved thousands of lives.  As for why there are now issues, rather than mention difficulties on testing, he suggested that the ‘freedom loving’ nature of Britons had meant