Politics

‘White Lives Matter Burnley’ said the plane’s banner as it circled the club’s stadium just after the teams had ‘taken the knee’ in support of Black Lives Matter. I must admit that my very first reaction on hearing the news was pleasure at the idea that the self-righteousness of Black Lives Matter was being guyed. My second, more considered response is that the banner was bad — and for precisely the same reason that BLM is bad. It takes a statement which any decent person would consider true and turns it into a weapon of race war. Of course black lives matter. Of course white lives matter. The question is:

I was a borough commander in west London and come from a long line of officers — and I can tell you that it’s fast becoming impossible to police the streets. The police are attacked on all sides. They’re told both that they’re too aggressive and too politically correct; too understanding and too intolerant. They’re required to reduce the level of violent crime on the street and yet told they’re racist if they stop and search young black men and ‘put hands in pockets’ to check for knives. As a society we can shout and scream at the police, regulate them, scrutinise them, sack a few, bring in external bosses

Of the many admirable demands made by supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, such as dismantling capitalism and making white people pay for centuries of vile oppression, none commended themselves to me more than the demand that we should defund the police. This is a hugely attractive proposition, I thought, as I watched the chief constable of Kent, Alan Pughsley, ‘take the knee’ in solidarity with people who want him abolished. I felt much the same upon hearing the words of Superintendent Andrew ‘Andy’ Bennett of Avon and Somerset Police, who watched as BLM protestors threw a statue of Edward Colston into the river. ‘Andy’ instructed his men to

Barristers say there are two types of performers in court. The rhinos use brash, crude, overpowering blows. The snakes are subtle, unpredictable and deadly. Today at PMQs, the two beasts met. Boris came out of the jungle at full charge. ‘I think the honourable gentleman has been stunned by the success of the test and trace operation,’ he bellowed. He was responding to Sir Keir Starmer’s criticism of the government’s testing regime. ‘Contrary to his prognostications of gloom,’ Boris went on, ‘it has got up and running much faster than expected.’ Sir Keir, all serpentine cunning, asked him about the failure of the app to trace every relevant contact. Boris

The clash of styles continued at PMQs today. Keir Starmer came with a set of detailed questions and Boris Johnson attempted to push him back with a sheer weight of rhetoric. Johnson’s approach isn’t particularly edifying but it does deny Starmer the opportunity to land many blows in these sessions. The Labour leader hasn’t quite worked out how to adapt to Johnson’s tactics. He finds himself vulnerable as the Tory leader changes the subject, as he did today effectively to ding Starmer on schools. Starmer used his last question to come back on an answer the Prime Minister gave last week on child poverty. Starmer accused Johnson of giving ‘dodgy

The decision to significantly ease lockdown from early July marks a new chapter when it comes to the government’s approach to coronavirus. After a miserable few months, the hope in Downing Street is that with the number of confirmed new cases down to pre-lockdown levels, the government can return some form of normality – and get back to delivering its election manifesto promises. It was this message that Dominic Cummings was keen to get across in his meeting with special advisers on Monday night. Boris Johnson’s senior aide acknowledged that recent events had made this difficult. First, Brexit, which dominated Boris Johnson’s first few months in office. Second, a global pandemic