Politics

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

Thursday

Tristram Hunt

Diary – 12 October 2017

I used to long for mid-October when I could say goodbye to the hot rooms, cold buffets, and warm white wine of party conference season. But ever since I swapped politics for the world of museums, I have happily rediscovered those autumnal weeks of blackberries, spider webs and London returning to life after summer. At the V&A, we opened our new opera exhibition, tracing the art form’s development from Monteverdi’s Venice to Shostakovich’s Moscow. At the British Museum, the Scythians have been reviving the art of ancient Siberia. And around the capital, Frieze Art Fair has been drawing the world’s aesthetes to London. What we don’t yet know is how

Will Heaven

George Osborne: the politically homeless ex-chancellor

Did the 2007-08 financial crisis cause Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn? George Osborne’s answer, 10 years on from it all, echoed Zhou Enlai on the French revolution: it’s too early to say. But at a Spectator event at Cadogan Hall, in conversation with Andrew Neil, Osborne defended not only his policies as chancellor, but also – by implication, and rather unexpectedly – Gordon Brown’s. Looking back, he said, even if Britain wasn’t particularly well prepared for the collapse of Northern Rock and all that followed that autumn a decade ago, there was nothing ‘radically different’ that could have been done to respond to the

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne: I’m just a journalist

Ten years on from the financial crash and Theresa May is Prime Minister, Jeremy Corbyn is leader of the opposition and George Osborne is editor of the Evening Standard. So, were the policies enacted by Osborne during his time in government partly to blame for this? Speaking to Andrew Neil at a Spectator event, Osborne suggested that this wasn’t the case, although he did admit that a historian looking back might see some link between the economic crash – and the response to it – and the rise of both Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn. The economic shock to the West has thrown up many political changes, suggested Osborne. ‘But

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

The Bombardier dispute leaves Britain at risk of looking like a powerless minor player

This is an extract from the ‘Any Other Business’ column in this week’s Spectator.  ‘Bombardier exposes post-Brexit realities’ was the FT’s headline after the Trump administration imposed a 300 per cent tariff on sales of the Canadian manufacturer’s C Series aircraft into the US, threatening 4,000 Bombardier jobs in Northern Ireland. Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar weighed in: ‘There’s been a lot of talk of a new trade deal between the UK and the US and how great that would be for the UK, but we are now talking about the possibility of a trade war.’ The truth of this story, however, is that it tells us little about prospects for the

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Lord Lawson says May should ditch Hammond

Philip Hammond’s refusal to spend money preparing for a Brexit no deal has not gone down well. Now, one of his predecessors as Chancellor  – Lord Lawson – has called on Theresa May to get rid of Hammond. On the Daily Politics, Lawson said it was ‘grossly irresponsible’ for the Chancellor not to prepare for a situation where Britain walks away from the EU without an agreement. When asked whether Hammond should stay on in his job, Lawson said: ‘I fear not…I fear he is unhelpful… what he is doing is very close to sabotage.’ Hammond isn’t a politician known for his smile. It seems he has even less reason to

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Michel Barnier and David Davis’s ‘very disturbing’ deadlock

For all the talk of a new ‘momentum’ to the Brexit talks since Theresa May’s Florence speech, today’s press conference between Michel Barnier and David Davis certainly had a whiff of déjà vu to it. The EU’s chief negotiator spoke severely of his concerns over a lack of ‘progress’ while the ever-optimistic Brexit secretary played up all the ‘progress’ that had been made. Despite that ‘progress’, Barnier confirmed – as expected – that he would not be recommending to the EU Council meeting next week that talks move to the second stage, of talking about a ‘future relationship’. However, he did suggest that he hoped this recommendation would come within

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Let’s resist the Corbynist mob and celebrate corporate capitalism

A reader in the FTSE boardroom world told me sternly the other day that I should resist the temptation to join the Corbynist mob and most of today’s media in sniping at corporate capitalism, and instead celebrate its positive achievements. So, here’s a parable designed to do just that.  The Kensington Aldridge Academy is a state-of-the-art secondary school that opened in 2014 next to Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, and now has 960 pupils. ‘Aldridge’ refers to a charitable foundation created by Sir Rod Aldridge, the multimillionaire former chairman of the outsourcing giant Capita, to sponsor schools with a special focus on entrepreneurship. Some locals resented the school being built

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Britain’s chaotic approach to Brexit is helping the EU

Britain will now almost certainly have to wait until Christmas for the start of trade talks with the EU. This wasn’t the original plan, with the initial timetable suggesting these discussions could start in October. So what’s going wrong? Some are blaming the EU – and it’s true that the leaders of France and Germany are ‘behaving mulishly’ and ‘irrationally’, says the Daily Telegraph. But maybe the blame also lies closer to home. Deputy PM Damian Green has said he would still back ‘Remain’ if the referendum took place today, Theresa May ‘refused to say whether she would now vote for Brexit’ and the Chancellor is saying he won’t commit

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Interview: Centrica CEO, Iain Conn, on the energy price cap

Theresa May had wanted Ofgem to introduce a energy price cap: it said this would require new legislation and today the Prime Minister will promise to create them by capping the Standard Variable Tariff. The case for the prosecution is simple: about 70 per cent of energy users are not on cheap tariffs, but the ‘standard’ variable tariff which is about £300 more expensive than the best deals. Competition works for those who switch, but for those who tend not to (especially the poor and the elderly) the system is demonstrably not working for them. Centrica thinks otherwise and it sponsored a podcast, which we released yesterday, where I ask

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The plots thicken

‘Worst week ever’ is one of those phrases that journalists are, perhaps, too quick to use. Alastair Campbell once quipped that if you added up all Tony Blair’s worst weeks, you got a full year. The real worry for the Tories, however, is not that last week was Theresa May’s worst ever, but that it represented the new normal. Even inside Downing Street, there are those who worry that leadership plotting and the like will continue until Mrs May leaves the building. They worry that while they are strong enough to repel the plotters — as they did so effectively this time — she isn’t powerful enough to take back

Simon Courtauld

Trains in Spain

The first railway line in Spain, from Barcelona to Mataro a few miles up the coast towards the French border, was built in 1848 by British workers and with British expertise. I was reflecting on this, and the huge difference today between the services provided by our two countries’ railways, as the train passed through Mataro on the way to Girona. The 90-minute journey, for those of us of a certain age with a tarjeta dorada, cost five euros. The return journey to Barcelona by express train took 38 minutes and cost less than ten euros. Train travel in Spain is not only amazingly cheap; it is comfortable, efficient and

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Bombardier says more about aircraft makers’ dirty tricks than the future of UK-US trade

‘Bombardier exposes post-Brexit realities’ was the FT’s headline after the Trump administration imposed a 300 per cent tariff on sales of the Canadian manufacturer’s C Series aircraft into the US, threatening 4,000 Bombardier jobs in Northern Ireland. Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar weighed in: ‘There’s been a lot of talk of a new trade deal between the UK and the US and how great that would be for the UK, but we are now talking about the possibility of a trade war.’ The truth of this story, however, is that it tells us little about prospects for the future US-UK trade accord occasionally mentioned in the US President’s tweets — other

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Why May must stay | 12 October 2017

As from the Manchester conference hall I watched Theresa May’s big moment falling apart, as I buried my head in my hands while her agonies multiplied, I suppose I thought this could spell the end for her premiership. But even as I thought that, then reminded myself that the same failure of the larynx has afflicted me in front of a big audience and could strike anyone and is in itself meaningless, I knew such an outcome would be unjust. There may be reasons why the Tories should find a new leader, but the triple-whammy of a frog in the throat, some joker’s idiotic stunt, and the failure of two

Claire Fox

Language barrier

Since the EU referendum result last June our nation has been divided: not only by the vote but also by language. If 62 per cent of Britons (many of whom undoubtedly voted for Brexit) now say Britain ‘sometimes feels like a foreign country’, it’s not anti-foreigner prejudice so much as a feeling that people in authority are speaking at them in a foreign language. Not Polish or Punjabi but PC-speak, that opaque code that connotes whether you are ‘on message’ and one of ‘our kind of people’ or one of those racist lizard-brained Leaver oiks. Look at the new language of diversity that is now being prescribed in much of

Wednesday

Heidy Rehman

Why a nation’s productivity isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ matter

The outlook for UK productivity is hardly encouraging. The Office for Budget Responsibility is suggesting only anaemic growth over the next five years while a recent survey by the ONS points to the lag between the UK and most of its G7 peers. Before we lament our lot, it is worth considering some of the differences between the UK labour market and those of its contemporaries. UK labour force participation is very high and unemployment is low. This would illustrate that the UK has been successful in getting as many people as possible into productive employment, which is not the case in most European countries.   The main reason for

Jacob Heilbrunn

Donald Trump and Theresa May desperately need each other’s help

In June, I mooted the possibility that Theresa May might consider emigrating to the United States to join the Trump administration, preferably as chief of staff. I’m sorry to see that she has spurned my request and that the charms of No. 10 Downing Street are proving more alluring than decamping for the White House. But I am somewhat consoled by the Telegraph’s report yesterday that May and her advisers are contemplating something even more radical—British entry into NAFTA, an accord that President Trump has dubbed the worst in the history of the American republic. This move could help make not just America, but also Britain great again. A revived

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Theresa May has yet another bad day at the office

Theresa May needed to play a blinder today. But she left herself looking heartless and complacent. Jeremy Corbyn attacked her on the Universal Credit system which seems as useful as a windmill on the moon. He said UC was leading to ‘debt, poverty and homelessness.’ Mrs May replied that tremendous improvements had been achieved since January. Only 20 per cent of initial payments are late, she trumpeted, (although she used the formula ’80 percent are on time’). Corbyn asked about delays twice more, and Mrs May’s patience dissolved. She did a little pantomime of being bored. Her eyes glazed over. Her chin tilted upwards. Her focus went into the middle-distance. A

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Scottish nationalists need a plan B – but so do Unionists

The SNP has become so accustomed to setting the agenda that the situation in which it presently finds itself – one of uncertainty tinged with the mildest dose of ennui – is modestly disconcerting. Nicola Sturgeon played all the right notes during her conference speech yesterday but there was still something perfunctory about her address. The delegates liked it but it wasn’t greeted with the kind of joyous rapture prompted by Ms Sturgeon’s previous conference speeches. She still believes in a place called independence, of course, it’s just that she doesn’t know – and, worse, cannot say – when it will next be glimpsed. It exists, of course, but seeing

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s bid to sound authoritative at PMQs falls flat

Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions wasn’t exactly comfortable for Theresa May, but neither was it catastrophic. The session has been running along the same lines since the snap election result: Jeremy Corbyn has plenty of material to play with in terms of a government in disarray that isn’t confronting some of the most important domestic issues, but he never really manages to leave May looking less authoritative than when the session started. Today he focused on the problems with the roll-out of Universal Credit, which is spreading from being the concern of welfare policy specialists in parliament to being a political row. Conveniently, the Tory rebel ringleader on this matter Heidi

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Philip Hammond’s Brexit no-deal bind

Philip Hammond has got himself into something of a bind over planning for a Brexit ‘no deal’. The Chancellor has ruled out – at least for the time being – spending money on contingency plans for a scenario in which Britain walks away from the EU without an agreement. The problem with this strategy is that it undermines Theresa May’s ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’ approach. Put simply, how credible is the government’s line on being ready to walk away empty-handed if planning for such an outcome takes a back seat for now? It’s also surprising for the Chancellor to rule out preparing for a scenario seen