Politics

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

Thursday

29 Jun 2017

Sharia for feminists

Is Islam inherently misogynistic? That old charge arose again after the Manchester bombing in May, with the suggestion that Salman Abedi’s choice of target was driven by a deep-seated prejudice against women — above all against young western women, with their supposedly lax morals and corrupting ways. It was a subtext, too, of the timing of the London Bridge attack, 10 p.m. on a warm summer night, when the killers must have known the area would be thronged with young couples out enjoying themselves. Three of the dead were women under the age of 30. The media ‘face’ of the atrocity was Sara Zelenak, a strikingly beautiful 21-year-old from Brisbane. I

The Spectator

Letters | 29 June 2017

The Tory quagmire Sir: While the media has been preoccupied in divining what went wrong with the Conservatives’ appalling election result, Fraser Nelson (‘What are the Tories for?’, 24 June) neatly perceives some of the more obvious causes. Quite what possessed seemingly intelligent people to come up with so many half-baked ideas that found their way into a poorly thought-through manifesto is beyond comprehension. To witness the volte-faces was truly nauseating and not worthy of a party with such a long and distinguished record in government. The quagmire Mrs May finds herself in bodes poorly for both Brexit and a host of pressing domestic issues. The Tory party have an enviable economic

The Spectator

Barometer | 29 June 2017

Sharon and Tracy MP Darren Jones, the new Labour MP for Bristol North West, says he is proud to be the first person called Darren ever to be elected to Parliament. Other MPs whose first names have been subject to snobbish derision from some quarters: Gary Streeter CON Gavin Newlands SNP Gavin Robinson DUP Gavin Williamson CON Keith Simpson CON Kevan Jones LAB Sir Kevin Barron LAB Kevin Foster CON Kevin Hollinrake CON Lee Rowley CON Michelle Donelan CON Michelle Gildernew SINN FEIN Sharon Hodgson LAB Tracy Brabin LAB Tracey Crouch CON Proletariyurts Jeremy Corbyn told a Glastonbury crowd, ‘Nothing was given from above by the elites and the powerful.

The Spectator

Stronger together

There is unlikely to be much of a legacy from Theresa May’s premiership, which could yet be truncated a short way into its second year. Yet one very good thing looks like coming out of it: the strengthening of the United Kingdom. The Union suddenly looks in better health than it has done for several years. Nicola Sturgeon did not quite scotch her dream of a second independence referendum this week, but in delaying the required legislation until the autumn of 2018 at the earliest she has bowed to the inevitable. She has been sent, as the Scottish national anthem says, homeward tae think again. Meanwhile, the importance of Northern

Fraser Nelson

I, Iain Duncan Smith – the ex-welfare secretary on tower blocks and work assessments

This morning, The Spectator held a series of discussions about the future of Conservative welfare reform, chaired by Andrew Neil and made possible by the sponsorship of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It was a sell-out invent with a stellar panel, and we’ll bring you the full reports later. But I thought it worth mentioning what our keynote speaker, Iain Duncan Smith, had to say about tower blocks and the work capability assessments made notorious in the film I, Daniel Blake. There are 4,000 tower blocks in Britain which the former Work & Pensions Secretary says represent an “architect-led” planning mistake. “Tower blocks, by and large, are not part of the housing culture of

Melanie McDonagh

What part of ‘devolution’ does Stella Creasy not understand?

Abortion is a matter devolved to Northern Ireland’s representatives. Today, Belfast’s Court of Appeal ruled abortion law in Northern Ireland should be left to the Stormont Assembly, not judges – which overturns an earlier ruling that the current abortion laws are incompatible with human rights laws. Yet Stella Creasy has taken it on herself to carry on a campaign to undermine abortion law in Northern Ireland by requiring the NHS to fund terminations for women travelling from there to England. That’s why the government conceded today that when Northern Irish women travel to Britain for an abortion, it will be funded by the NHS, so they won’t, as now, have to pay

Katy Balls

Queen’s Speech clears the Commons

After a difficult few weeks, Theresa May can today breath a sigh of relief – the Queen’s Speech has passed. MPs voted for the government’s legislative programme by 323 votes to 309 – a majority of 14. The government successfully defeated each amendment put to the House. Labour’s official Brexit amendment was defeated by a majority of 26. Meanwhile Chuka Umunna’s single market amendment saw a Labour rebellion. The whips had ordered MPs to abstain, but it’s thought 51 Labour MPs defied the whip and backed the motion anyway. However, the fact that this amendment was still defeated by a majority of 221 shows that the House backs Britain’s exit from the single market overall. There was

Steerpike

Watch: Tory MP slams DUP deal – ‘I can barely put into words my anger’

Oh dear. Heidi Allen is fast establishing herself as one of the most rebellious MPs in the Conservative party. The Tory MP has spoken out against her party on issues like tax credits as well making her personal grievances with both George Osborne and Theresa May public. In today’s Queen’s Speech debate, Allen added her party’s £1bn deal with the DUP to the list. Ahead of the crucial vote on the speech, she said she could barely put into words her anger at ‘the use of public funds to garner political control’: ‘I can barely put into words my anger at the deal my party has done with the DUP.

Tom Goodenough

The Government backs down over Queen’s Speech abortion amendment

In the face of a possible rebellion over an amendment to the Queen’s Speech, the Government has backed down. Chancellor Philip Hammond announced this afternoon that women from Northern Ireland will be given the right to an abortion in England on the NHS. This wasn’t a change ministers wanted, but for a weak minority Government propped up by the slenderest of margins, this is the new reality. It’s unlikely this will be the last time in this Parliament that ministers relent where they would have once stood their ground. Ever since the amendment was tabled by Labour MP Stella Creasy, the Government had looked under pressure. There were reports that as many as 40 Tory MPs

Nick Hilton

The Spectator Podcast: The Corbyn delusion

On this week’s bumper episode we discuss the cult of Corbyn, sharia courts, the golden age of gossip, and orchid delirium. First: in this week’s magazine Rod Liddle examines the phenomenon that is Jeremy Corbyn, and describes how he has brought Labour voters together in a ‘bizarre coalition’. To discuss this subject, we were joined by Hugo Rifkind, who writes his column this week on witnessing Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury, and Ellie Mae O’Hagan, a Corbyn supporting journalist. As Hugo writes: “Honestly, the whole Corbyn thing still does my head in. I understand what his adoring fans believe he represents, but I’m buggered if I can figure out why they think he represents it.

Steerpike

Professor George Osborne makes it job number six

George Osborne has been keeping himself busy recently putting the boot into Theresa May at every opportunity. Not content with using the Evening Standard to bash the PM, the former chancellor has now added job number six to his CV, having been made an honorary professor of economics at the University of Manchester. This means that Osborne will have to balance his day job at the Standard – as well as his lucrative speeches, BlackRock gig, fellowship at a US think tank and his work on the Northern Powerhouse – alongside giving lectures to students on economics and austerity. Mr S thinks that before Osborne delivers any lectures, he would do well to

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Is it time for a tax hike?

The 48 per cent have spoken – and they want higher taxes, according to the British Social Attitudes survey. In the wake of a general election in which Labour won support based on a manifesto of free spending, is it time for a rethink on tax? And should we wave goodbye to the era of austerity? Here’s what today’s newspapers make of the case for a tax hike: We are ‘at a fiscal crossroads’, says the Daily Telegraph. During their dismal election campaign, the Tories ‘failed to make the case for living within our means’ and the ‘public appetite for prudence’ appears to be waning. Yet for all the cheer from

Steerpike

Michael Gove’s first Defra picket line

As Michael Gove settles into his new role as Defra secretary, word reaches Steerpike that the Conservative MP is already facing some opposition from the farming community. On Wednesday, Michael Gove boarded the Greater Anglia train from London Liverpool Street to Norwich in order to attend the Royal Norfolk Show. Unfortunately the intrepid minister found himself waylaid outside Ipswich for about an hour. The reason? Cows on the line. Having enraged teachers and lawyers in his previous roles, it’s taken Mr. Gove just 17 days in this job to unite livestock in a picket against him, observes a fellow passenger. Sterling work.

James Forsyth

Why May must stay

Sometimes crises end simply because all of the participants are exhausted. Essentially, this is what has happened with the post-election Tory leadership crisis. No one has the energy for a fight, so Theresa May carries on as Prime Minister. Conservative MPs say it is now almost certain that she will make it to the summer break and will still be in place at party conference. If the coronation of a new leader could be arranged, things would be very different. But it can’t be. From the great offices of state down, the Tories are simply too split – over both policy and personnel – for the succession to be resolved

Rod Liddle

The Corbyn coalition

One of the most disappointing things about the general election for me was how few people must have read Nick Cohen’s article ‘Why You Shouldn’t Vote For Jeremy Corbyn’ before entering polling booths on 8 June. Or perhaps they did read it and thought: up yours, mate. The more I think about it, the more I suspect it’s a case of the latter. Mr Cohen, quoting from a Labour party member, listed the perfectly sensible reasons why sane people would not want Corbyn as prime minister. These included, but were not confined to: his support for the IRA and opposition to the Northern Ireland peace process; his admiration for the

Martin Vander Weyer

The next financial crisis is coming ‘with a vengeance’, says the expert. But when?

There’s a passage in Philip Larkin’s All What Jazz, the collection of his writings as the Daily Telegraph’s jazz critic, that imagines his typical readers. Husbands of ‘ageing and bitter wives they first seduced to Artie Shaw’s “Begin the Beguine”’ who take comfort from collections of ‘scratched coverless 78s in the attic’, they are ‘men whose first coronary is coming like Christmas’. The same sense of gloomy inevitability often pervades the so-called ‘dismal science’ of economic commentary, amplified by political uncertainty and traumatic events: the one thing we know for certain is that economic life is cyclical and that any run of benign signals can only ever be temporary. It’s

Mary Wakefield

Lessons in love and loss

Some of the time, most of the time, it’s tricky to believe in God. There’s just too much that’s sad — and behind it all, the ceaseless chomping of predators. Then sometimes the mist lifts and just for a moment you can see why the saints insist that everything’s OK. There’s a documentary out now, Summer in the Forest, that for a while cleared the mist for me and made sense of faith. It tells the stories of a group of men and women with learning disabilities who live alongside volunteers without disabilities in Trosly-Breuil, a small French village north of Paris. The community is called L’Arche — The Ark

Hugo Rifkind

Did Glastonbury love Corbyn as much as it loved pirates in 2007?

I saw him — the loneliest man at Glastonbury. He was wearing a neon-green Hawaiian shirt, and he was next to a stall selling baguettes, and he was standing on a path facing a stage, and he was screaming that Jeremy Corbyn was a cunt. This was not, actually, a stage that had Corbyn on it. His speech was being shown on the giant screens, yes, but only as a prelude to the Kaiser Chiefs. Possibly the man in the Hawaiian shirt didn’t know this. ‘You lost the election, you wanker!’ he shouted, and ‘Get the fuck out my life!’ and ‘IRA sympathiser!’ and ‘Hezbollah lover!’ and so on. He

Isabel Hardman

Orchidelirium

The lady’s slipper orchid, Cypripedium calceolus, is both a beautiful and silly–looking plant. It is the strangest of our native orchids, with a fat yellow pouch and burgundy twisting petals. It doesn’t quite look as though it belongs in the gentle English countryside and, for a while, it didn’t belong at all. Why did I drive for two hours just to see one flower? In part because of its strange backstory. It’s not just a fabulous flower; it’s a plant that tells us about our society and the madness of all human nature. This flower sent Victorian botanists bonkers. They were so gripped by what was known as Orchidelirium that

Wednesday

28 Jun 2017

Katy Balls

Conservatives defeat Labour’s amendment to Queen’s Speech

After much confusion today over the Conservative position on whether the party ought to lift the cap on public sector pay, tonight MPs voted to reject Labour’s proposal to the Queen’s Speech to end the pay cap. The government won by 323 votes to 309. While Jeremy Corbyn has since complained that ministers missed an opportunity to ‘put their money where their mouth is’, this result shows that the agreement between the DUP and Tories is working out. Conservatives worried about living hand-to-mouth in Parliament can take heart that the pact is already securing the Tory party’s longevity. While the final vote will take place tomorrow, tonight’s events will help to