Politics Archives

Tuesday

29 Dec 2020

Tory Brexiteers approve Boris Johnson’s deal

When Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal comes to a vote in the Commons on Wednesday, expect a bigger rebellion on the Labour benches than among Tory MPs. This afternoon, the European Research Group of Conservative eurosceptics have given their approval to the Brexit deal. After studying the agreement, the ERG ‘star chamber’ – led by Bill Cash – concluded that the deal is ‘consistent with the restoration of UK sovereignty’. In terms of the pros and cons of what has been agreed, the group say ‘the “level playing field” clauses go further than in comparable trade agreements’ they have concluded that their impact ‘on the practical exercise of sovereignty is likely to be limited

Steerpike

Jacob Rees Mogg’s Brexit deal dilemma

Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal continues to cause a stir ahead of tomorrow’s parliamentary vote. Nowhere is this more true than with the Conservative party’s most famous Brexiteer Jacob Rees Mogg who faces a somewhat unexpected quandary when it comes to deciding which lobby to walk through. Mr Rees Mogg said in March 2019 that he would not vote for a deal ‘under any circumstances’ if it wasn’t backed by the DUP, stating that ‘ultimately the United Kingdom is more important to me than the European Union’. However, Rees Mogg now finds himself caught between two conflicting camps. The DUP have said they will not vote for Boris’s new deal but

Brendan O’Neill

The school closures debate exposes Britain’s class divide

There have been many shocking sights in this cursed year. For me, one of the most shocking has been the sight of comfortably off, Oxbridge-educated experts and journalists agitating for the closure of schools even though they know this will hit poor kids hardest. This alarmingly cavalier attitude towards the education of the less well-off has exposed the class tensions that lurk behind the lockdown. Once again, depressingly, school closures are back on the agenda. SAGE says the only way we can get the current wave of Covid infections under control is by enforcing a proper lockdown, including the closure of schools and universities. Many in the media, long smitten

Patrick O’Flynn

Starmer’s Brexit slip-up could cost him the election

Amid all the euphoria about Boris Johnson sealing a final Brexit deal and the breaking-off of politics for pared down Christmas celebrations, perhaps you didn’t notice Keir Starmer losing the next election. Well, I did. And while I cannot be quite certain that Sir Keir has blown it absolutely for 2024 – events dear boy, events and all that – the evidence that he has done so would definitely pass a “balance of probabilities” test. Starmer’s momentum horribilis came during his Christmas Eve press conference responding to the news of Johnson’s deal. Asked what a future Labour administration would do about a deal that he clearly considered sadly lacking in

Ross Clark

Why the EU’s vaccine strategy is failing

What a joy it would be still to be in the EU. We could, for example, be part of the bloc’s Covid vaccine-buying programme. Or maybe not, to judge by the German experience. There has been a lot of comment in Britain regarding the relative slowness of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in approving the Pfizer vaccine – which led to the EU’s vaccine programme beginning two weeks after Britain’s. But that is a fairly minor issue. Far more concerning is the failure of the EU to buy enough vaccines to ensure that an effective inoculation programme can be completed before next winter. The reasons behind this failure are an object

Joshua Loftus

Is the new variant of Covid really more transmissible?

When the story of the new Covid-19 variant broke, my initial reaction was scepticism. I thought this new strain could just be a random genetic marker that coincided with an outbreak of cases that was caused by behaviour (or even “chance”) rather than by any important biological differences. We have more sophisticated measurement capability for biological data than for social data, and I worry that not enough has been done to rule out social explanations. For example, despite Covid-19 cases rising dramatically since September mobility indices have remained above the levels they saw in June, which were significantly higher than their April lows. So the UK’s November lockdown only temporarily

John Longworth

Why I’m backing the Brexit deal

What are committed Brexiteers to make of Boris Johnson’s deal? It’s said that some Tories are cheering a compromise out of blind party loyalty – but I’m not sure I can be accused of that. I have devoted the last five years in pursuit of Brexit, and stood against the Tories in the last European election. But the political part is over. We now have a deal, and the question is whether it’s the real deal. I’d like to do two things: point out the many problems with this deal – problems that other Brexiteers are quiet about. But I’d also like to explain why, nonetheless, the deal is worthy

Steven Fielding

What does Starmer stand for?

Keir Starmer has been leader of the Labour party for just eight months. But that hasn’t stopped analysts defining what it is that ‘Starmerism’ represents. To some, it is an empty space where ideas should be: technocratic, electorally-driven but otherwise strategically rudderless. Others – most obviously implacable Corbynites – even detect elements of free-market individualism. So what does Starmer really stand for? Commentators seem addicted to attaching the suffix ‘-ism’ to leading politicians’ names to capture what they are ultimately all about. Too often however this ‘-ism’ gives leaders’ actions a fake coherence. Margaret Thatcher certainly had a clear vision of where she wanted to go when elected Conservative leader

Ashis Ray

A UK-India trade deal is needed now more than ever

Within a year of being elected leader of the Conservative party, David Cameron made clear the importance with which he viewed Anglo-Indian relations: “I attach the highest priority to Britain’s relationship with India. For too long, the politics of this country has been obsessed with Europe and America.” That he meant business was underscored by the 2010 Tory general election manifesto which promised a “new special relationship with India”. The British head of state Queen Elizabeth ratified an “enhanced partnership” with India in her speech at the opening of parliament. Cameron, now prime minister, rushed to Delhi, where India endorsed the idea, but did not really execute it. The emergence of the

Ben Habib

The problem with Johnson’s Brexit deal

Boris Johnson has delivered a deal that I must admit is miles better than I had anticipated. Mind you, I had feared the worst. But this Brexit deal still does not justify the plaudits it is receiving. Let’s start with the good bits. Great Britain (as opposed to the UK) will, on 1 January, be out of the Single Market, largely free of the European Court of Justice and able to make its own laws. We will be able to trade in goods with the EU free of tariffs and quotas. Yet without wishing to detract from the importance of these achievements, there is very little else that is good

Alex Massie

Most-read 2020: Why Dominic Cummings had to go

We’re closing 2020 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 3: Alex Massie’s article from May on the Cummings’ imbroglio Most aspects of this present emergency are complex and resist easy solutions. Only a handful are elementary but one of these, and quite obviously so, is the Dominic Cummings affair. He must go and he must go now. There is no alternative, no other way out, no means by which this ship can be saved. The only question is the number of casualties Cummings will take with him. Judged by the cabinet’s performance on social media this weekend, the answer to that question is also simple: all

Monday

28 Dec 2020

Katy Balls

Ministers plan to push recess back

As ministers consider placing more areas under Tier 4 restrictions in the upcoming tier review, there are a growing number of Tory MPs keen to get back to parliament and scrutinise the government’s plans. However, they will likely have to wait. Coffee House understands that plans are afoot to push back recess dates by a week. When the Commons sits on Wednesday to vote on Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, MPs will also be asked to vote to extend recess until 11 January. It had been due to end 7 January. MPs have been told the reason for the change of plan is concerns over Covid rates – and that MPs travelling from various parts

Anthony Browne

Britain should now brace itself for a barrage of Brussels red tape

Should we be worried that the UK didn’t get all that it wanted for financial services in the UK-EU Trade deal, as the PM mentioned to the Sunday Telegraph? Financial services are our biggest export industry by some margin, including to the EU, as well as (arguably) our biggest taxpayer, so anything that hampers it could have serious economic repercussions. The EU for its part has said that it will consider in its own time if it will grant ‘equivalence’ to UK financial services, making it easier for UK based institutions to serve customers in the EU, and will only do so if it is in the EU’s interest. The

David Johnston

The trouble with Erasmus is not just the cost

It was curious to see the explosion of outrage over the UK no longer participating in the Erasmus scheme. We were told it broadened young people’s horizons by sending British undergraduates to study at a European university. We were told our young people are being deprived of this opportunity. But having spent my pre-politics career working with young people, Erasmus and deprivation are not things I’ve ever associated with one another. The outrage is largely coming from a collection of the firmly middle class and affluent anti-Brexit folk – TV broadcasters and QCs among them. They had been on Erasmus themselves and expected it to be a rite of passage

Julie Burchill

A Priti poem: an ode to the Home Secretary

Priti Patel, Ms Priti Patel, Burnished by sunshine of far Israel, How we all cheered when on Marr you did smirk, And as he got rattled, we yelled ‘O, good work!’ – Love-thirty, love-forty, oh weakness of joy, With the speed of a swallow you mangled the goy, With carefullest carelessness, gaily you played Marr, And like a Hindu princess you cheeked and you slayed Marr. – Priti Patel, Ms Priti Patel, Mandarins you mangle, and at police chiefs you yell, Illegals you find where others have missed ’em, But you’re no xenophobe with your lovely points system. – Conference loves you, especially on crime, When you praise execution, and

Mark Galeotti

Putin is finally waking up to Russia’s climate change problem

The snow is falling in Moscow, but that is after the warmest autumn there on record. Meanwhile, perhaps reflecting that with the arrival of vaccines, there is at least the prospect of an end to the Covid-19 crisis, the climate change debate is rekindling – and with a particular geopolitical angle. Much of the conventional wisdom is that it is a perverse boon to Russia. Representative of this perspective, for example, has been a recent study that led the New York Times to predict that Moscow will ‘win the climate crisis’ – while its partner, ProPublica, warned that ‘Russia could dominate a warming world.’ Stirring stuff, and no doubt music

Sunday

27 Dec 2020

Steven Barrett

The small print of Boris’s Brexit deal makes for reassuring reading

The new UK/EU Treaty is needlessly long and turgid in its prose: this document was not drafted by people who think the law should be understood by all. Close inspection of the small print reveals that none of the details undermine sovereignty. It has been restored and the UK has the power to control its own laws. To understand what’s happened, consider the last two big treaties. Under the Maastricht Treaty the EU’s ability to control UK law was extended on what came before but was confined to specific areas only. That was called ‘spheres of competence’. The 2007 Lisbon Treaty vastly expanded the EU’s power and the idea of

Kate Andrews

Is a high-spending, high-debt economy the new normal?

35 min listen

After a year battling coronavirus, the UK’s debt now totals more than £2 trillion. In an effort to keep the economy afloat, the Treasury has paid wages, given tax relief, and even paid for people to eat out. As recently as five years ago, Conservatives would have thought this spending unsustainable. But with Boris Johnson’s government being elected on a promise to ‘level up’ the country, will this high-spending, high-debt economy become the new normal? With Paul Abberley, CEO of Charles Stanley Wealth Managers; Jake Berry, Conservative MP and chair of the Northern Research Group; and David Miles, an economist at Imperial College London and former member of the Monetary

Steerpike

Most-read 2020: Six questions for Neil Ferguson

We’re closing 2020 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 5: Steerpike’s questions from April for Neil Ferguson. It was a tale of two interviews on the Today programme this morning. First up on the show was Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, who has been instrumental in forming the UK government’s response to the coronavirus crisis, and whose virus modelling led to the current lockdown being put in place. On the show, the professor received an almost deferential line of questioning from Sarah Smith with his views seemingly taken as near-Gospel as he declared that a ‘significant level’ of social distancing could

Saturday

26 Dec 2020

Steerpike

Boris Johnson’s Christmas reading

Boris Johnson will be hoping for at the very least a brief break after securing a Brexit deal on Christmas eve. So, how will the Prime Minister choose to unwind? Perhaps a clue can be found in a photo recently uploaded to Flickr by 10 Downing Street official photographer Andrew Parsons. There has been much amusement online over the new photos by Parsons which document the fateful hours leading up to Johnson securing a deal with the EU. In a range of pictures, the Prime Minister is photographed deep in conversation with his closest aides as well as swigging from a can of beer and near a bag filled with Five Guys burgers. However, one