Politics

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

Tuesday

David Toube

Did police really quiz this student over a ‘free Palestine’ badge?

Just over four years ago, the Sunday Times published a remarkable story. At a ‘Students not Suspects’ meeting at Goldsmiths students’ union, a young man called Rahmaan Mohammadi retold his account of being referred to Prevent by his school. He believed that his ‘Free Palestine’ badge had, in part, motivated the referral. The experience had, unsurprisingly, left him shaken: ‘When police come to your house and say, ‘I want to speak to you’, with this massive folder with your name on it, that’s intimidating. It makes you feel alienated.’ But was it actually true? ‘Students not Suspects’, a campaign run by the National Union of Students, undertook a nationwide tour

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Can Rishi Sunak prevent mass unemployment?

There is only one test for what the Treasury is billing – with all its magnificent talent for hyperbole – an ‘update’, which is the impact it will have on taming the looming ghoul of mass unemployment. Will Rishi Sunak’s stimulus package deter or even reverse decisions to sack people by those businesses that are most squeezed by the social distancing imperative? That are suffering both a reduction in capacity (tables removed from restaurants, for example) and demand? There are millions employed in such industries, from shops, to bars, to theatres. The expected targeting of VAT cuts on pubs, restaurants and so on may encourage us – for better or ill

James Ball

Unplugging Huawei will be harder than it looks

There is nothing some Conservatives like talking about more than Huawei. Each new development in global politics is a new chance to talk about the Chinese telecoms giant and the rollout of 5G. China and the US having a trade row? Huawei. Coronavirus originating in China? Huawei. The day of the week rhymes with Huawei? Perfect. Reports of a new review by the UK’s National Cyber-Security Centre (NCSC) on Huawei and security have, then, found a welcome audience among Conservatives looking for an excuse to pull the plug. But even the new NCSC review shows things are more complicated than they first appear: the agency is warning that US sanctions

Theo Davies-Lewis

It’s time to devolve the Welsh Conservatives

Coronavirus has exposed the main weakness of Welsh Conservatives: as an essentially regional branch of an English party, its success has always relied on its national parent. This structure has made it a strong political force too. In December, the sweeping majority Boris Johnson won was largely down to his successful penetration of Red Wall seats, many of which were in North Wales. But as Welsh support for the UK government’s response to the pandemic continues to plummet – while Labour first minister Mark Drakeford’s approval ratings soar, coinciding with an interesting surge of support for an independent Wales – it is evident that ahead of next year’s Senedd elections,

Matthew Lynn

Rishi Sunak should try something new: silence

A huge increase in job centre advisers; special grants for companies taking on trainees; free cash for anyone insulating their home; cuts to National Insurance; reduction in VAT, and a £500 shopping voucher to re-boot a collapsing High Street. Oh, and an emergency GCRF, or Garden Centre Rescue Fund, to subsidise anyone who helps our heroic horticultural industry by building a new rockery or water feature. Okay, I’ll admit, I made that last one up. But all the others are suggestions that have been put forward for the Chancellor’s mini economic statement tomorrow. But perhaps Rishi Sunak should try something new: silence. In truth, the government has done an extraordinary

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Starmer has exposed Corbyn the coward

Being a radical feels nice. You get to think you’re a morally superior being in a society full of evil-doers and sell outs. You can reduce the world to easily understandable, fixable problems. You get to reframe everything in life as good versus evil with you as the hero of the story. The only problem? It’s all a mirage. Human societies are complex and fixing them even more so. Affecting actual change requires compromise, both with others and with yourself. More than that, it takes courage – a courage that Keir Starmer is already demonstrating in his leadership of the Labour party. And one which was woefully lacking during Jeremy

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Politics Live facing the axe?

The coronavirus pandemic has posed challenges for organisations right across the country – including the BBC. Although the corporation has said it has had to slim down its current affairs output temporarily as a result of social distancing, they have still managed to put out a series of podcasts for the younger generation – including a recent discussion where guests told white women to avoid becoming ‘Karens’ (American slang for entitled women, natch) and to ‘stop being so loud’ – which was later taken down from social media following complaints. But with a sense of normality slowly returning to SW1 as MPs debate and Westminster waterholes reopen, surely the BBC

Monday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why the government’s arts bailout was so generous

13 min listen

Rishi Sunak has announced a £1.6 billion bailout for the arts industry, which was more generous than many were expecting. On the podcast, Katy Balls talks to Kate Andrews and James Forsyth about why this is. They also discuss Pret’s troubles and the coming Huawei u-turn.

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Keir Starmer’s bizarre Black Lives Matter re-education

So now we know what happens if you criticise Black Lives Matter. You’ll be packed off for re-education. You will be sent to have your mind cleansed of foul, dissenting thoughts. You will be reminded of the First Commandment of the strange year of 2020: Thou Shalt Not Question BLM. That’s the lesson of Keir Starmer’s bizarre confession this morning that he will submit himself for unconscious bias training after he dared, ever so mildly, to criticise a few aspects of the BLM worldview. Last week Starmer referred to the BLM protests of the past few weeks as a ‘moment’. That was crime No. 1. In reducing this movement to

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Bank of England governor postpones 1922 committee appearance

On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak will deliver an economic impact assessment to the House of Commons in which the Chancellor is expected to announce a number of measures to stimulate the economy. With a £1.5bn package pledged today for the arts industry, the expectation is that Wednesday’s event will cement Johnson’s government as a comparatively high spend to the Tory governments that came before.  That evening, MPs will have their weekly meeting of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers. Only rather than the Chancellor update the parliamentary party and take part in a question and answer session, Coffee House can reveal MPs have been told Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey will be the guest

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Labour’s wealth tax proposal is deeply flawed

Will Labour ever stop pushing for punitive taxation? Not content with gifting the Conservatives an 80 seat majority in December, the supposedly more moderate Labour party under Keir Starmer is already dreaming up ways it can extract large sums from our pockets. Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds floated a ‘wealth tax’ at the weekend, so that the burden of paying for the Covid 19 crisis might fall upon the ‘very best off people’. Except it won’t be the very best-off people who get whacked by a wealth tax, as she should surely know. The highly mobile global super rich wouldn’t hang around for five minutes after a Labour government announced a

Julie Bindel

Non-fatal strangulation needs to be a more serious offence

Imagine this: you are a victim of domestic violence, and your partner regularly strangles you to the point of unconsciousness. During each attack you think you are about to die. You lose control of your bladder during these attacks, and afterwards find it hard to speak, feeling like you have swallowed broken glass. You suffer from flashbacks and live in fear of the next attack, imagining that this time you will never regain consciousness. Being strangled during a domestic violence attack is as common as it is terrifying. Police routinely fail to recognise its seriousness. Non-fatal strangulation is often charged as the minor offence of common assault and it is often not

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Rishi Sunak launching a bailout or a menswear range?

The government had plenty of good news to share with the arts world today, after it unveiled a £1.57 billion support package for cash-strapped theatres and venues who are unable to open because of the coronavirus crisis. The £880m in grants and £270m in loans are the latest of several whopping support schemes signed off by the Treasury to keep the struggling British economy afloat. It was perhaps inevitable then that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, would want to celebrate the move with his own announcement this weekend. It also gave the Chancellor the opportunity to once again show-off his own unique branding. It’s become commonplace in recent months, after significant

Steven Fielding

Keir Starmer needs to find his own Guilty Men

This is a week of bittersweet anniversaries for the Labour party. It is now 72 years since Clement Attlee’s government created the National Health Service, its most popular achievement. It is also 75 years since Attlee led the party to its first ever landslide victory, a triumph that made the NHS possible. But if these memories warm the hearts of Labour members they should be cooled by the realisation that their party is some way from even scraping back into office, let alone marching into power armed with a manifesto as radical as ‘Let Us Face the Future’, which rejected pre-war poverty and laissez-faire economics and embraced a new world

Sunday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Scotland’s Covid nationalists

One of the rare upsides of living in a country run by nationalists is that nationalists are not great at hiding their true feelings. When you’ve got a superiority complex, it’s hard to prevent it from bursting out, often at the most inopportune times. Efforts to explain to outsiders that the SNP isn’t actually a more left-wing version of Labour, but a strategically savvier version of Ukip may fall on deaf ears but, sooner or later, the subjects of your hand-wringing will just come out with it by themselves. On Saturday, a modest band of Scottish nationalists just came out with it in dramatic fashion on the border with England.

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

This NHS clap is not for its carers

At 5pm, we are being encouraged to head to our windows and doors to clap for the National Health Service on its 72nd birthday – the idea is that we’d be doing, once again, what we did in lockdown. Except we wouldn’t. The original gesture was to show thanks to the many healthcare staff (and a broader scope of key workers) who were putting their lives on the line to help others, treating our sick at the peak of the virus in the UK. These are brave people at the best of times, but especially so in the early months of the pandemic, when we were still in the dark

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: ‘I’m pleased with’ Super-Saturday, says Health Secretary

Matt Hancock – ‘I’m pleased with what happened yesterday’ The Health Secretary was Sophy Ridge’s first guest this morning. Pubs and restaurants were allowed to reopen yesterday, prompting concerns from some quarters that the public would overindulge themselves. Ridge asked Hancock how he felt so-called ‘Super Saturday’ had gone: MH: From what I’ve seen… very, very largely, people have acted responsibly… Overall I’m pleased with what happened yesterday. We were ‘right to take firmer action’ on Leicester outbreak The city of Leicester has seen itself subjected to a lockdown extension after its rate of infection was found to have increased well above other areas of England (with cases reportedly reaching

Saturday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will No 10’s press briefing shake-up really deliver more transparency?

13 min listen

Downing St has announced that it will be televising its afternoon lobby press briefing, come October. Inspired by the daily coronavirus briefings, it’s a shake-up that supporters say could improve transparency. On the podcast, Katy Balls speaks to former No 10 comms chief Craig Oliver, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson. They also take a punt at which experienced broadcaster may be brought in to deliver the briefing.

Paul Mason

Can Labour win the Blue Fen?

The Labour Together election review makes grim reading. Unless Labour can take back a large part of Scotland, it needs a swing in England so large that it takes Jacob Rees-Mogg’s seat in Somerset. We’ll have to take back not only the Red Wall but the Blue Fen.  Realistically, the report says, there are three routes back to power: drop social liberalism and bring out the anti-immigration mugs; tack to the centre on economic policy while talking loudly about patriotism; or try to unite a culturally divided working-class base around a radical economic offer that is ‘credible and morally essential’.  That third option is effectively the strategy Starmer stood on,