Politics

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

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Wanted: A Conservative policy agenda (two years late)

Theresa May has quite a few challenges to meet this conference season. One is obviously to avoid the sort of farce that her speech descended into last year. Another is to try to unite the warring wings of her party and convince her MPs that Chequers really is the only game in town. But equally as important is the need to show she has things she wants to do when it comes to domestic policy. This is hard: May hasn’t really managed to give that impression at any stage of her premiership, so to start in what feels like the swan song isn’t ideal. Added to that is the general

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Tory MEPs were right not to denounce Viktor Orban

You would never know it from the shrill media coverage, but Tory MEPs’ refusal to back the EU’s censure of Viktor Orban’s Hungary is one of the most principled things they have ever done. They are, of course, being denounced as Orban apologists, as cheerleaders for the authoritarian turn Hungary has taken under his prime ministership. Nonsense. They have taken a stand against authoritarianism. Against the authoritarianism of the European Union, whose technocratic arrogance has now reached such dizzy heights that it presumes the moral authority to punish nation states for doing what their own people, the electorate, have asked them to do. That is a far greater crime against

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Why should we listen to the IMF’s Brexit warning?

Why are we so addicted to economic forecasts? We’ll know they are going to turn out to be wrong because they always do. And yet still we can’t seem to stop ourselves hanging on their every word. This morning it is the IMF’s turn, once more, to have its forecasts for the UK economy treated with undue seriousness. The Guardian reports that the IMF ‘backs Theresa May’s warnings over no-deal Brexit’ – by saying a ‘no deal’ scenario would lead to ‘substantial costs’ for the UK. But even May’s Chequers deal will condemn Britain to economic mediocrity, according to the IMF. The FT reports that, in the case of a

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Theresa May, Sadiq Khan, Michael Gove

Theresa May – Boris Johnson’s remarks ‘completely inappropriate’ This morning the BBC released an extract from an edition of Panorama which will mark the six month countdown until the official conclusion of the UK’s Brexit negotiations under Article 50. The programme, hosted by Nick Robinson, features an in depth interview with the Prime Minister about her proposals for the United Kingdom going forward. Theresa May used the opportunity to make clear her disapproval of her former Foreign Secretary’s remarks that her Chequers deal had ‘wrapped a suicide vest around the British constitution’ and explained why she felt her deal had the UK’s best interests at heart. NR: Boris Johnson says

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Philip Hammond raises the prospect of delaying Brexit day

Philip Hammond’s political tin ear has struck again. As I write in The Sun this morning, he has twice been slapped down in Cabinet this week. On Tuesday, he talked about ‘squealing’ about universal credit and was chastised by the Chief Whip for his language. Those sympathetic to Hammond point out that he was referring to Labour when talking about ‘squealing’. But it was still a poor choice of words when discussing changes to the benefits system. Then at the ‘no deal’ Cabinet on Thursday, Hammond raised the prospect of delaying Brexit day. After the legislative timetable for getting ready for ‘no deal’—which is tight—had been outlined, Hammond pointed out

Friday

Dominic Green Dominic Green

Boris Johnson summons the spirit of Churchill in Washington DC

Boris Johnson landed in Washington, DC on Thursday evening just ahead of Hurricane Florence, and leaving far behind the attentions of the British media, which over the last week have shown more interest in Johnson’s amicable divorce than his less than amicable campaign to replace Theresa May. In town to accept the Irving Kristol Award at the American Enterprise Institute’s annual black-tie dinner, Johnson gave a self-deprecating, self-asserting explanation of why a US-UK free trade agreement was an ‘opportunity’ for the United States. This implies that Theresa May is pursuing the wrong Brexit strategy, and that he, like Churchill after the wilderness years, is the man of the hour, the

Steerpike Steerpike

Gina Miller’s manifesto to nowhere

Remain crusader Gina Miller has repeatedly denied reports that she has plans to become a politician – or, more specifically, leader of the Liberal Democrats. With Miller due to speak at the beleaguered party’s conference next week, it must be pure coincidence that today the campaigner has published a personal manifesto. She has said she wants to ‘take back control of Brexit’ by launching her manifesto to ‘End the Chaos!’ On the home page, Miller opines: ‘I believe it is morally and democratically right to give people as much unbiased information as possible.’ Unbiased being her advocacy for what she is calling ‘Remain Plus’: ‘You can’t have a better tomorrow if

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

The Spectator Podcast: plots, politics, and the pains of leadership

This week, Tory in-fighting comes to the fore, but could the party be even more divided than we thought? Meanwhile, across the Pond, Donald Trump continues to cause backlash. Is he to blame for an ideological shift to the left in the country? Thankfully, our own Head of State isn’t on Twitter, though that doesn’t stop people speculating about her Majesty’s personal opinions. Is the Queen a Eurosceptic? First, the Conservative Party is taking up arms against each other. This week, back room plotting came to the fore with the Brexiteer group the ERG openly discussing Mrs May’s demise and Boris Johnson dominating headlines. But James Forsyth reveals in this

Thursday

Peter Jones

The art of persuasion | 13 September 2018

Boris the rhetorician is in full voice at the moment, delighting his followers and infuriating his enemies. But is this the purpose of rhetoric? It was the ancients who invented, or rather deduced, the rules. As the Roman professor of rhetoric Quintilian said: ‘Just as men discovered the art of medicine by observing that some things were healthy and some the reverse, so they observed that, when it came to speaking, some things were advantageous and others not. These they therefore noted for imitation or avoidance, while adding personal hints that logically followed. Experience then confirmed these observations, as a result of which people knew how to teach the subject.’

The Spectator

Barometer | 13 September 2018

The first suicide bomber Boris Johnson was criticised for likening Theresa May’s Chequers deal to a ‘suicide vest’ around the British constitution. — While the suicide vest is most associated with Middle Eastern terrorism, it was effectively invented by a Chinese soldier during the defence of the Chinese military HQ at the Sihang Warehouse during the Battle of Shanghai on 29 October 1937. — He strapped grenades around his chest and threw himself from the building, killing 20 Japanese soldiers who were besieging it. — His sacrifice did not prevent a Japanese victory in the battle, and it may have helped inspire Japanese kamikaze tactics. Anti-immigration parties The Sweden Democrats

The Spectator

Why can’t the Tories see that a Canada-style Brexit deal is the answer?

Loyalty, it used to be said, was the Tories’ secret weapon. No longer. Self-discipline has been discarded — along with commitments to lowering taxes, being strong on defence and keeping the streets safe. The Conservatives appear to have abandoned all of their beliefs and transformed into the party of Brexit. But, it seems, they can’t even get that right. Brexit is one of the most important projects any government has undertaken in our postwar history — a task that has been entrusted to Conservative MPs, most of whom voted against Brexit. The Prime Minister and her Chancellor, her Foreign Secretary and her Home Secretary all argued during the referendum campaign

Ted Harrison

Life on Unst

‘I’d like a copy of the Times,’ said the visitor from the south. ‘Yesterday’s or today’s?’ the shopkeeper asked. ‘Today’s, of course.’ ‘Come back tomorrow.’ Life on Unst has its idiosyncrasies, but personally, I blame the weather forecasters for giving the nation the impression that the place may not even exist. Their London-centric maps of Britain, showing Scotland fading into the distance, leave us off entirely. Not surprising, as we are the most northern of the Shetland Islands and nearer Bergen than Aberdeen. Newcastle is to us the deep south. Yet we hold a key position in defence. It wasn’t a coincidence that when Kim Jong-un started building rockets, it

Katy Balls & James Forsyth

Move aside, Boris

When Boris Johnson compared Theresa May’s Brexit plan to wrapping a suicide vest around Britain’s constitution, the harshest response came from a fellow Tory MP, Tom Tugendhat, who tweeted: ‘A suicide bomber murdered many in the courtyard of my office in Helmand. The carnage was disgusting, limbs and flesh hanging from trees and bushes. Brave men who stopped him killing me and others died in horrific pain. Some need to grow up. Comparing the PM to that isn’t funny.’ The response was a reminder of how high feelings are running in the Conservative party — and that Tugendhat is not one to pull his punches. A lieutenant colonel by the

Steerpike Steerpike

Peter Willsman welcomed back into the fold at Labour conference

When Peter Willsman was re-elected onto the Labour NEC this month, there was a sense of shock in the party. It wasn’t that it was surprising a Corbyn ally had beaten a moderate in a party vote – that’s now the status quo. Instead, it was curious that Willsman was elected despite being recorded saying that Jewish ‘Trump fanatics’ are ‘making up’ anti-Semitism allegations within the party. The incident led Momentum to revoke their endorsement of his candidacy. So, with Willsman back on the NEC, questions had remained as to how the party would handle his re-election, with many MPs calling on him to stand down and spare the party (any

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories are conspiring to chuck the Chequers plan

Right now, as I say in the magazine this week, Theresa May doesn’t have the political space to make further significant concessions to the EU. Without significant concessions, the EU isn’t going to agree to the Chequers plan. This is why a growing number of Cabinet Ministers are already talking about when the government should move on from Chequers and put a different offer – closer to a Canada-style deal – on the table. One influential member of the cabinet insists that this is the key issue: whether Theresa May has ‘the agility to change tack’. Another explains that his faction is doing their bit to try to persuade the

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: John McDonnell’s call for ‘direct action’ against Tory MPs

Jacob Rees-Mogg won support from across the political spectrum on Wednesday when the MP and his children were ambushed outside of their home. Class War activist Ian Bone took it upon himself to inform the Conservative politician’s young children that their ‘daddy is a totally horrible person’: ‘Lots of people don’t like your daddy, you know that? He’s probably not told you that. Lots of people hate him.’ The incident led to mass condemnation from the Left as well as Tories. So, why would people come up with the idea of harassing an elected Member of Parliament in this way? Mr S wonders whether the answer can be found in a statement

James Forsyth James Forsyth

All battle, no plan

It looks as if the Conservative party is already at war. Fifty or so Brexiteer Tory MPs openly meet to discuss deposing the Prime Minister —  yet they have no strategy and (at present) no chance of defeating her in a confidence vote. On Twitter, Tory backbenchers and even ministers can be found threatening to destroy each other. This isn’t just about personality. In the last few months, the question of what Britain’s relationship with the EU should be and who should be Prime Minister have fused together — so the most divisive issue in British post-war politics has been combined with a drawn-out leader-ship contest. The Prime Minister has

Robert Hardman

The Eurosceptic Queen

There has been much inconclusive speculation on the Queen’s views on Brexit. In 2016, the Sun asserted that she was in favour (later overruled by Ipso as ‘significantly misleading’). Last year, pro-EU commentators claimed that the blue hat with yellow stars she wore to open Parliament showed coded support for Remain. For now, we are none the wiser. What we do know, however, is that the monarch must be finding things a good deal easier on the way out than on the way in. Rewind to 1972 and a damp May evening at the Palace of Versailles. The Queen and president Georges Pompidou of France, dressed in their finest, worked

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

One discouraging word and you’re a transphobe

This column is not in my interest. But then, not for the first time. I cannot count the conversations conducted in recent years with reasonable, moderate people when expressing what should be reasonable, moderate views, during which my companions exhibit signs of drastic anxiety: fidgeting, darting pupils, twisting hands. The mumbling under the breath can border on unintelligible. If we’re in public, they will look wildly around to see who might be listening. Even in private, friends and colleagues emphasise that they’re speaking off the record. These must have been the kind of uneasy, secretive exchanges whispered between folks not wholly on board with National Socialism in 1930s Berlin. But

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Armed with partisan missives, May outgunned Corbyn at PMQs

Poor Jezza. The Labour leader had a decent showing today but he was outgunned by Mrs May who performed with astonishing prickliness and aggression. Mr Corbyn claimed that Universal Credit has forced millions onto the bread-line. The PM countered that reform was vital. She cited a young mum in Maidenhead who’d been advised to skive, not work because benefits paid more. The advice came from the Job Centre. The PM received an unexpected stroke of fortune. One of Mr Corbyn’s ploys is to recite weepy letters from constituents whom he identifies, rather like lost puppies in need of a good home, by their first names only. For once, Mrs May