Politics

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

Thursday

11 Jul 2019

Barometer | 11 July 2019

Ode to all sorts Brexit party MPs were likened to Nazis for turning their backs on a recital of ‘Ode to Joy’, the EU’s anthem. Yet Beethoven’s melody itself has one association which liberal-minded folk might find unsavoury — between 1965 and 1979 it served as the national anthem of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, using the words: ‘Rise, oh voices of Rhodesia,/ God may we Thy bounty share./ Give us strength to face all danger,/ And where challenge is, to dare.’ It was during this period, in 1972, that the Council of Europe adopted the tune as its own anthem. It then became the European Community’s anthem in 1985. Police numbers Boris

Peter Jones

Glimmers of hope

With parliament irretrievably deadlocked over Brexit and the EU intransigent, there remains little belief that either of the prime ministerial candidates can find an even remotely happy solution to the problem. All they can currently offer are the tender leaves of hope. The ancient Greek farmer poet Hesiod (c. 680 bc) told the story of this ambiguous commodity. The gods, determined that life on Earth should be one of suffering, fashioned an irresistibly beautiful woman, Pandora, and sent her down among men with a large storage jar, which she proceeded to open. Out from it flew all the ills of the world, but Zeus ensured that she put the lid

The Spectator

For the few

In some alternative universe the Labour party, as under Tony Blair in the mid 1990s, is busily preparing for government, its confidence boosted by a massive lead in the polls over a shambolic Tory administration. Back in this one, however, Labour is crumbling even faster than the divided and unpopular Conservatives. Remarkably, while the Tories have seen a collapse in their share of the vote to just 22 per cent, according to one poll this week, Labour has sunk to just 20 per cent. Just how it succeeded in throwing away such a remarkable opportunity to seize power is going to trouble its remaining members for decades to come. Those

Petronella Wyatt

Diary – 11 July 2019

I am beginning to feel like a sort of fairground curiosity: one of those pickled things in jars that Victorians stared at. It is Boris’s fault. Because I once had a close friendship — all right, all right, a tendresse — with Mr Johnson, I am pointed at, photographed, and harried in the aisles of shops. Soon members of the public will be tearing off bits of my clothes — something Russian peasants used to do with anyone who had met the Tsar, as if this would bestow some of Batiushka’s divine status. Tabloid journalists doorstep me, believing I have the answers. I am a female Zoltan Kapathy; not so much an

Ian Acheson

How Theresa May’s war on the police backfired

British law enforcement is famous around the world for its brand of neighbourhood policing. But this now exists largely in memory in the place where policing was invented. Our capability to police in this way, that has protected society since the time of Robert Peel, has all but collapsed. The only surprise about the five ex-Metropolitan Police chiefs’ blistering attack on the ten years of Conservative policy that achieved this is how long it’s taken them to get their act together. For a period of time between 2009 and 2011, I had a pretty unique perspective on policing in Britain. By day I was the senior Home Office mandarin in south

Stephen Daisley

Nicola Sturgeon has fallen into a trap of her own making

Nicola Sturgeon is expert at laying traps for her opponents but this time she may have ensnared herself. During the May 2016 Holyrood elections, the SNP leader and occasional First Minister said a Leave vote in the upcoming EU referendum should be grounds for a second ballot on independence. This, of course, was when Remain was expected to win and when England voted Out while Scotland voted In, Sturgeon’s bluff was called. She has spent the past three years devising evermore elaborate ruses to distract her restive grassroots. The latest is a Citizens’ Assembly, a forum used in Ireland to ease in constitutional changes on gay marriage and abortion.

Ross Clark

Is Amber Rudd a hypocrite for shifting on no deal?

Amazing what a bit of discipline can do. No sooner has Boris Johnson warned that anyone who wants to serve in his Cabinet must accept that leaving the EU without a deal is retained as an option, than the work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd is telling TalkRadio: ‘Both candidates have said that no deal is part of the armoury going forward and I have accepted that’. This is remarkable because four months ago Rudd was one of three Cabinet ministers who helped block a no-deal Brexit on 29 March. She, along with David Gauke and Greg Clark, abstained on an amendment to block a no-deal departure is all circumstances.

Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg: the next Chief Secretary to the Treasury?

Liz Truss has made her pitch for No.11. But if she gets her wish, who might replace her as Chief Secretary to the Treasury? Step forward, Jacob Rees-Mogg. That at least was who Truss touted as a possible successor at a Press Gallery lunch this afternoon. Truss revealed that preparations for the handover are already underway – and Rees-Mogg’s nanny will be pleased to know that she hasn’t been forgotten. Rees-Mogg’s Bentley is also part of the picture, with Truss jokingly claiming that the Treasury car park has undergone extensive modifications to accommodate Mogg’s car: “I’ve been pleased to see that JRM has been touted as my successor. I’ve already trained up

Matthew Lynn

Meet the car boss who has finally realised the truth about no deal

Most of us probably decided Aston Martin was by far the coolest car company in the world the first time we saw Honour Blackman climb into James Bond’s DB5 in Goldfinger. But just in case there were still any doubters out there, there is now another reason to love them as well. Amidst the constant predictions of disaster from the auto industry that would follow from leaving the European Union without a deal, the company’s chief executive has pointed out an obvious fact: that at this stage, it would be better to simply leave than prolong the agony of our departure any further. The auto industry has been one of

Katy Balls

Liz Truss makes her pitch for No. 11

With Boris Johnson looking a shoo-in for No. 10, his supporters are battling it out in a bid to win a top job in his Cabinet. The most coveted position is Chancellor and Sajid Javid, Liz Truss and Matt Hancock are seen as the frontrunners. This afternoon, Truss used her appearance at a Press Gallery lunch to set out her stall. Referring to her rivals, she said of Hancock that she wouldn’t ever feel ‘threatened by someone with fewer than 5,000 instagram followers’. As for Javid, when asked who was better at maths out of the two of them, Truss pointed out that she had a Further Maths A Level.

Steerpike

The Corbynistas’ lucky escapes

You would never normally describe the various activists and journalists closely allied to Jeremy Corbyn as publicity shy. In fact, whenever the embattled Labour leader is in trouble, or being grilled about his Brexit position, it’s usually only minutes before you see a Corbynite in a TV studio, ready to defend him on air. But after a Panorama documentary was broadcast last night, which uncovered evidence of anti-Semitism within Labour, it seems that Corbyn’s supporters have become struck by a series of unfortunate events, preventing them from coming on air. This morning the Guardian columnist Owen Jones was due to speak on the Today programme about the documentary and Labour anti-Semitism, but

Stephen Daisley

The routine and horrific anti-Semitism in Labour

In the run-up to Wednesday night’s Panorama on Labour anti-Semitism, one whistleblower received a lawyer’s letter, the party demanded the BBC director-general ‘suspend and reconsider the planned broadcast’, and Momentum did a pre-emptive hit job on presenter John Ware. Now we know why. Panorama: Is Labour Anti-Semitic? levelled serious charges, chief amongst them that senior figures close to Jeremy Corbyn, including his spin doctor Seumas Milne and Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby, interfered in the disciplinary process. Ware interviewed more than 20 Labour officials for the documentary. Former head of disputes for the party, Sam Matthews, said there was now ‘a culture in the Labour Party that makes anti-Semites feel

Freddy Gray

The ties that bind

It seems a fitting end to an ill-fated premiership. As Theresa May prepares to leave No. 10, a major quarrel erupts between her government and its most powerful ally, the United States of America. Leaked diplomatic cables show Sir Kim Darroch, the British ambassador in Washington, calling President Donald Trump ‘inept’, ‘insecure’ and ‘uniquely dysfunctional’. The funny thing is, the words in his memo are just as applicable to Theresa May’s leadership. Within days, Sir Kim resigns. But every diplomatic crisis is a political opportunity, as President Donald Trump well understands. He even spelled this out in one of his Twitter rants. ‘The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is

James Forsyth

Boris’s most important appointment

After being backed by a majority of Tory MPs, Boris Johnson now looks set to win over party members by an even larger margin. Surveys suggest he will hoover up between two thirds and three quarters of the vote. A Tory leader with such a mandate would, normally, start his premiership with huge amounts of political capital and be able to dictate terms to their opponents within the party. But Johnson will have to watch his back from the moment he crosses the threshold of No. 10. Most new prime ministers arrive with a decent majority. Johnson will be clinging to power from day one. Even with the DUP, the

Anthony Browne

Who’s afraid of no deal?

How bad would a no-deal Brexit really be? This is now perhaps the most important question in politics, and the one provoking greatest disagreement. The answer will help decide whether parliament allows Brexit to happen, and whether Tory MPs bring down their own government. If they think calamity would follow, patriotic rebels might risk a general election to stop the Tories. But what if it would not be so bad? And is there any way of finding out? Almost everyone accepts it will cause problems, but views range from manageable to ‘national suicide’. It is difficult to predict complex events without historic precedent, but there are other reasons for the

James Delingpole

Girl’s gone to Magaluf and it’s hard not to worry

At the Leavers’ Ball held to mark our daughter’s last day at boarding school, there were only two topics of conversation among the anxious parents. How early could we decently slope off without being rebuked by our girls? And the dreaded Leavers’ trip to Magaluf. Magaluf — Shagaluf as the kids all call it — is the post-A-levels destination of choice for what seems like every school leaver in the country. If you’ve seen The Inbetweeners Movie you’ll know what it’s like: charmless, garish avenues of overpriced bars and clubs with pushy greeters, expensive party cruises, grotesque drunkenness, epic hangovers, sunburn, STDs and gallons of vomit. Quite how much Shagaluf

Wednesday

10 Jul 2019

David Paton

Why the Labour party deserves to be destroyed

So after months of prevarication, Labour have announced that they will back a second referendum under any circumstances and will campaign for Remain to stop a ‘no deal or a damaging Tory Brexit’. The reaction has dismayed Labour MPs in vulnerable Leave-leaning seats, but delighted Nigel Farage. Indeed, the decision has played perfectly into the Brexit party’s strategy of targeting working-class voters in the North and Midlands. Three months ago, many assumed that a Tory wipe-out at the next election was inevitable. But now the tables are turned and it is difficult to see anything but electoral doom for Labour. The Brexit party will surely siphon off Leave voters in

James Barr

Kim Darroch and the myth of the special relationship

Like a priest standing before the bronze gates of a temple, the British ambassador to Washington serves as the guardian of one of the great modern myths: the idea, conceived by Winston Churchill, that a special relationship exists between the UK and the US. The impression that British ambassadors can wield disproportionate influence in Washington is a legend successive British governments have been keen to burnish – so much so that it has arguably become the central pillar of UK foreign policy since 1945. But the reality – as Donald Trump’s spectacular defenestration of Sir Kim Darroch shows – is rather different. Perhaps only one ambassador has really ever lived up

John Keiger

The moment the European project first went wrong

At a time when the EU is at its least popular and, worse still, least respected, it is worth reflecting on how the idea for a united Europe developed – and where it went wrong. The Spectator’s reprint last week of Christopher Booker’s 2014 article ‘How the first world war inspired the EU’ is a timely reminder of the real genesis of the EU. Yet it was only after the Second World War amid fear of a renascent Germany, that the concept of an ‘ever-closer union’ became the shibboleth of European construction. It was here that the European project took a mistaken turn. The First World War led to France

Steerpike

Sajid Javid’s Tory leadership reflections: Bailey, Boris and Brexit

Although Sajid Javid was knocked out of the Tory leadership contest, the Home Secretary could soon have a consolation prize in the form of the keys to No. 11. Javid is tipped as the frontrunner for the hotly coveted role of Boris Johnson’s chancellor. Speaking at Tuesday night’s Policy Exchange summer reception, Javid reflected on what he was proud of from his campaign: ‘As for the leadership campaign, I’m not sure what more I could have done! I showed off my little dog, Bailey, I showed off my mother and her cooking, even my daughter’s letter. Although I didn’t have to reveal any unusual artistic hobbies that I might have.