Politics

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

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Ofqual boss’s algorithm malfunction

Gavin Williamson has taken a lot of stick for the A-level exams debacle, but Mr Steerpike thinks we should perhaps look to Roger Taylor, the chair of Ofqual, who also happens to be head of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. Not many people think that using an algorithm to decide exam results was the best option, but it becomes even more questionable when you realise that Taylor led a study last year, warning of algorithms propensity to ‘make decisions which reinforce pre-existing social inequalities’. The study states: ‘concerns are growing that without proper oversight, algorithms risk entrenching and potentially worsening bias.’ Unfortunately, concerns hadn’t grown enough to prevent

John Connolly John Connolly

Why has the government scrapped Public Health England?

12 min listen

Matt Hancock today confirmed that Public Health England will be scrapped and replaced by a new National Institute for Health Protection, which will be led by Baroness Dido Harding – who currently runs the Test and Trace scheme. John Connolly speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews about why.

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The rise of Scotland’s Covid nationalism

Whenever some London celebrity with a hamster’s grasp of Scottish politics simpers about moving north to escape the flaxen-fringed Franco in No. 10, the cybernat rank-and-file briefly down pitchforks to assure them ‘we’ll get the kettle on’. Like all megachurches, Scottish nationalism loves nothing more than a convert and English progressives all the more so for their loathing of the political and cultural character of England today. In so far as Scottish nationalism has anything as coherent as a philosophy, it is that Scotland is more politically progressive and therefore more virtuous than England. This fusion of national identity and moral superiority claims to be civic nationalism and, while it

Theo Davies-Lewis

What Boris can learn from David Lloyd George

The question of nationalism within the United Kingdom is not a new one. The popularity of self-governance and separatism has ebbed and flowed, but it has been a constant force that has strafed against the Union. If Boris Johnson is truly intent on preserving the United Kingdom then he would do well to look to others who have navigated the nationalist question. One such figure is surely David Lloyd George, the architect of the modern UK settlement who secured the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by resolving the Irish question during the post-war coalition. For all this, however, he spent much of his career as the gadfly on Welsh

Monday

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

What’s behind the government’s dramatic U-turn?

13 min listen

Gavin Williamson announced this afternoon that pupils receiving A-level and GCSE results this year would be awarded teacher-predicted marks. Why has the government finally changed its mind, and will Gavin Williamson stay in the Cabinet? Cindy Yu speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.

Steerpike Steerpike

Gavin Williamson’s Twitter gaffe

Not content with criticism from virtually all sides of the political arena, Gavin Williamson appears to have turned even his own Twitter account against him in an act of online sadomasochism. The most recent like on his account is of a tweet by the children’s author Michael Rosen, in which he argues that under the current government: ‘People get promoted to positions of power (and nice pay) to abuse teachers and run a system that judges young people on two or three hours splurge that bears no resemblance to life’s tasks.’ Unless Williamson is the most self-critical minister in British political history, it would appear the like was an accident…

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Why the exams debacle was so predictable – and predicted

Bit late now, isn’t it, to complain about the exams debacle? Where were they, Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer, the teaching unions, Nicola Sturgeon and the BBC on 18 March when Gavin Williamson fatally decided to scrap this year’s A-levels and GCSEs? If they were throwing their rattles out of the pram, it wasn’t loud enough to be heard.  The grounds for that idiot move was ‘to give, pupils, parents and teachers certainty, and enable schools and colleges to focus on supporting vulnerable children and the children of critical workers’. That, you note, was before the start of lockdown. Yet if ever there was a problem that could be seen a mile

Steerpike Steerpike

Five times Gavin Williamson suggested he wouldn’t U-turn

Gavin Williamson has performed a big U-turn today and announced that pupils in England receiving A level and GCSE results this year will be awarded their teacher-assessed grades, to avoid any student being downgraded by an algorithm. In a statement this afternoon, the Education Secretary said: ‘We worked with Ofqual to construct the fairest possible model, but it is clear that the process of allocating grades has resulted in more significant inconsistencies than can be resolved through an appeals process’. Williamson added that he is ‘sorry for the distress this has caused young people and their parents but hope this announcement will now provide the certainty and reassurance they deserve.’ That’s

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The exams U-turn is an act of damage limitation

After a bruising few days for Boris Johnson and his ministers over the grading system for A-levels and GCSEs, the government has today performed a U-turn. Following growing outrage both from disappointed students and frustrated MPs, the chair of exams body Ofqual has announced a change in the grading system. In a pre-recorded clip, Roger Taylor said:  Expecting schools to submit appeals where grades were incorrect placed a burden on teachers when they need to be preparing for the new term and has created uncertainty and anxiety for students. For all of that, we are extremely sorry. We have therefore decided that students be awarded their centre assessment for this summer – that is,

Ruth Dudley Edwards

In defence of Claire Fox

I have been so unremitting and harsh a critic of the IRA and Sinn Fein since the early 1990s, that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness tried hard to have me silenced. Sinn Fein still try to shut me up with the help of libel lawyers, and an army of Shinnerbots hurl insults at me on social media, often begging me to die. I have also worked for years with organisations representing victims of terrorism, including Innocent Victims United, whose spokesman, Kenny Donaldson, recently called the Brexit Party’s endorsement of Claire Fox ‘appalling and indeed borderline contemptuous’ because of her past membership of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) which supported the

John Connolly John Connolly

Is the government about to U-turn on exams?

10 min listen

As the backlash to the government’s exams fiasco continued over the weekend, Gavin Williamson has been steadfast in not U-turning. But with GCSE results out later this week and Ofqual’s algorithm revealing significant inequalities, is this position sustainable? John Connolly talks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson.

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Keir Starmer’s potential Brexit playbook

Throughout the last four years, you could be forgiven for thinking that everyone in Britain has been extremely passionate about Brexit one way or another. The truth is, most people are sick to death of the whole debate. This was the reason ‘Get Brexit Done’ was such an effective slogan; most voters wanted the topic laid to rest. It is this general apathy that I believe is informing Keir Starmer’s approach to Brexit as Labour leader, combined with the knowledge that while most people are sick of Brexit, we are about to enter a whole new phase of it that can’t be ignored. Passionate Remainers complain that Starmer hasn’t been

Sunday

Bruce Anderson

Why Gavin Williamson must go

You could not make it up – and if you did, no-one would believe you. I am trying to think of a more comprehensively farcical example of total, grotesque ineptitude in the history of modern British politics. Trying, and failing.  Fortunately, there are two instant remedies. The first is a U-turn: dump the algorithm and grant pupils the grades which their schools had predicted. The same would apply to GCSEs. This is anything but an ideal outcome, but it would at least prevent the collapse of the university admissions system, mass legal action and mass unhappiness. The second also involves dumping – of Gavin Williamson. It seems inconceivable that he

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Can Gavin Williamson get a grip on the latest A-levels confusion?

Any hope in government that the row over A-level results would die down over the weekend has been dashed. As opposition MPs and students call for Gavin Williamson’s resignation as Education Secretary, the general process has been thrown into doubt after Ofqual – the exams regulator – suddenly announced it is reviewing its guidance on how to appeal against A-level and GCSE grades using mock exam results (a point of contention is what happens when a mock result is higher than a teacher’s prediction). This announcement came only hours after that initial guidance was published. This move has triggered a fresh wave of criticism over the overall handling of this year’s A-level results – which saw a statistical

Steerpike Steerpike

Russell Brand: Margaret Thatcher was a ‘woman-man’

Was Margaret Thatcher a feminist icon? Given that the Iron Lady was Britain’s first female prime minister, you would think so. But not according to Russell Brand.  The comedian and Corbyn fan has released a video in which he explains feminism. Brand then asks whether Thatcher – who defied the odds to rise to the very top of British politics – could in any way be seen as an inspiration to women. ‘No’, according to Brand. Why? ‘…because the values she extolled, espoused and conveyed were male values. She was a woman-man. She was a very, very powerful person…but her premiership did not lead to more opportunities for women…conventional female values such

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Why Keir Starmer is failing against Boris Johnson

The way to beat Boris Johnson is to offer a stark contrast to his political persona. At all points radiate seriousness, professionalism and competence and in times such as these the electorate will soon tire of his joshing and clown-like antics and flock to your banner instead. That’s the theory anyway and it seems to be working fine for Nicola Sturgeon, as evidenced by the SNP’s stratospheric poll ratings. But it isn’t working for Keir Starmer, whose Labour party remains way behind Johnson’s Tories in UK-wide polls, despite the Labour leader matching Sturgeon’s demeanour comb for comb and furrowed brow for furrowed brow. Starmer overshadows his own party’s top team

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Coronavirus and the BBC’s anti-American bias

One keeps hearing, particularly on the BBC, that the United States is ‘the worst in the world’ for coronavirus, stated as fact. The next worse, by the same BBC measure, is Brazil. Not coincidentally, the BBC hates the presidents of both those countries. Statistically, this is fiction, although neither Trump nor Bolsanaro has done well. It is true that the US has more known cases than any other country, but comparisons are hard since figures in countries like China and Iran are highly unreliable.  Besides, the key measure is proportion, not overall size. The most telling Covid-19 statistic is deaths per million of population. Currently, the United States stands at 498,

Saturday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Public Health England scrapped over handling of Covid crisis

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is set to scrap Public Health England (PHE) – the body that was tasked with preparing the UK for a pandemic – according to the Sunday Telegraph. The paper reports it will be replaced by the National Institute for Health Protection. Its remit will include pandemic planning and oversight of the NHS Test and Trace programme. The government is moving quickly, with plans to overthrow PHE and have the new body up and running by September. The timeline of a potential resurgence of Covid-19 this autumn is firmly in mind. PHE, a seven-year-old quango, has faced waves of criticism during the Covid crisis. Its focus on international work and lifestyle

Steerpike Steerpike

Dawn Butler’s VJ Day blunder

When Dawn Butler was stopped by police last weekend she was not in a forgiving mood: It later turned out that the vehicle Butler was travelling in was stopped after an officer made a mistake when typing in the car’s number plate. ‘As a result of an officer making a human error as he inputted the car registration, the Police National Computer returned details of a car from another part of the UK’, the Met’s deputy commissioner Steve House said. But it seems that Butler herself isn’t immune from making a typo. After attending an event to mark VJ Day today, the Labour MP got her J and E muddled up, using

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Kaya’s story: why the government’s exams triple lock doesn’t help

20 min listen

Kaya Ilska is a free school meals student, coming from a single mother family. She is incredibly bright – and was predicted 4 A*s by her teachers, a set of grades high enough to meet her offer to study Medicine at UCL. But the government’s exams algorithm this week downgraded her results down to AABB, which means she not only misses the UCL offer but also her back-up at Cardiff. On the podcast, Kaya and Fraser go through her options to conclude that the government’s so-called ‘triple lock’ does very little to help cases like hers.