Politics Archives

Sunday

19 Mar 2017

Steerpike

Boris Johnson and the Cursed Theatre Trip

Spare a thought for Boris Johnson. Ever since the Brexit vote, the Foreign Secretary has struggled with the often hostile reception he now receives in London from angry remain-ers. Now it seems things have got so bad that he can’t even enjoy a quiet night out at the theatre. Thandie Newton — the Crash actress — tells the Sunday Times that her teenage daughter, Ripley, spotted Johnson in the audience on a recent trip to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre. Alas Ripley doesn’t hold such a high opinion of the Conservative politician and she proceeded to seek him out to alert him to this fact: ‘She

Matthew Taylor

Sunday political interviews round-up

Tim Farron’s fearsome foursome: May, Le Pen, Trump, Putin What can Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, do to get attention? He had an idea for the party’s conference in York today: suggest that the world is in the grip of a fearsome foursome: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Marine Le Pen… and Theresa May. He claimed that have the same traits in common: being “aggressive, nationalistic, anti-Nato, anti-EU. It is the post-war internationalist consensus unravelling in real time. Winston Churchill’s vision for a world that achieves peace through trade, common values and shared endeavour evaporating before our eyes.” Clegg: Bring on the election. The Lib Dems couldn’t do any worse BBC1’s Sunday

Ferdinand Mount

Is the main purpose of the cabinet secretary to frustrate the PM?

The minister’s private secretary wrote to another cabinet minister about the previous day’s cabinet meeting: They cannot agree about what occurred. There must have been some decision, as Bright’s resignation shows. My chief has told me to ask you what the devil was decided, for he be damned if he knows. Will you ask Mr G. [Gladstone] in more conventional and less pungent terms? That was in 1882. Twenty years later, the fog still reigned. Sir Robert Morant, the driving force behind Balfour’s 1902 Education Act, wrote: Impossible to find out after a cabinet meeting what has actually been the decision. Salisbury does not seem to know or care, and

Saturday

18 Mar 2017

Alex Massie

Nicola Sturgeon’s speech to SNP conference suggests she’s playing a long game

If Nicola Sturgeon is not the only star in the nationalist firmament, she remains the only one that can be relied upon to shine brightly. The SNP’s conference in Aberdeen this weekend reminded us of that fact. Angus Robertson commands a measure of respect but not even he would claim to be loved by the party. Nicola Sturgeon hasn’t always been either; she is now. And there was a reason—or, rather, many reasons—why Alex Salmond as denied the chance to address delegates from the conference stage. Yesterday’s man is considered an unfortunate embarrassment these days. And Sturgeon’s speech began well. ‘Our job is not to talk to each other’ she

Steerpike

Listen: Osborne applied for Standard job… after friends asked for help with their applications

Lesson No.1: Never ask George – ‘six jobs’ – Osborne for career advice. Or at least, never ask the former chancellor for career advice if you think it’s a job he could be tempted by. On the Today programme this morning, Rohan Silva — the former No 10 SpAd — took to the airwaves to try and defend his one-time boss’s decision to take on the role of Evening Standard editor while also continuing as the MP for Tatton and as a £650k per annum advisor to BlackRock. Alas, despite his best efforts, Mr S suspects that Silva may have actually made the situation worse. Explaining why Osborne had applied, Silva said the

Friday

17 Mar 2017

Pádraig Belton

Brexit, Ireland and the Trump question

We all have our roles. In the world order which we inhabit, Ireland has one chief international responsibility: each St Patrick’s Day, its Taoiseach (prime minister) sets off to the Oval Office bearing a bowl of shamrocks. Ireland’s current Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, has been in the job since March 2011. In Ireland’s last elections, last February, he fell 29 seats short of an overall majority. From then, he started to face calls to resign. In February 2017, a scandal broke involving a whistleblower in the Gardaí, Ireland’s police. Kenny survived a confidence vote in February, but barely. Later that month, he addressed his parliamentary party, saying he would make the

Steerpike

Was George Osborne sloppy second to City AM editor?

Following the announcement that George Osborne is the new editor of the Evening Standard, the BBC’s media editor Amol Rajan was quick to brand the appointment ‘a remarkable move that will dazzle the worlds of politics and media’. But — as dazzling as it may or may not be — did Evgeny Lebedev only turn to George Osborne after the editor of London’s rival free sheet rebuffed his advances? Word reaches Steerpike that it was City AM‘s Christian May who was first approached — but decided to stay put in his current role rather than jump ship. While May has not responded to Mr S’s request for comment — should Osborne need

Steerpike

Revealed: George Osborne’s speech to Evening Standard staff – I know how to run a country, not a newspaper

Although George Osborne has many questions to answer regarding how he can take on the role of editor of the Evening Standard while remaining the MP for Tatton and a £650k per annum advisor to BlackRock, the former chancellor shied away from addressing any of the numerous conflicts of interest when he addressed staff in the Standard newsroom this afternoon. Mr S’s mole reports that the MP for Tatton — whose last editorship was on Oxford University’s Isis Magazine — received a lukewarm reception from the paper’s staff as he gave a short speech to the shocked hacks. Osborne complained that he had been ‘keeping it secret for weeks’ and went on to

Freddy Gray

On trade, and much else, Donald Trump and Angela Merkel are worlds apart

Oh dear. Anybody who thought that, contrary to expectations, Angela Merkel and Donald Trump might get along seems to have been gravely mistaken. The meeting between the two world leaders was meant to have been held on Tuesday, but was put off by a snow storm. Things still looked pretty chilly in Washington today. Seated next to each other in the White House for the first photo-op, the Donald and the Angela – two leaders with obviously antithetical worldviews – looked terrifically awkward. They didn’t shake hands. Angela seemed slightly more civil. She tried to talk to the president. He just ignored her. The press conference was only slightly warmer. The closest moment to friendliness was when

Steerpike

David Cameron cheers Osborne from the Whole Foods aisles

Today George Osborne has managed to get MPs and hacks alike in a spin over his appointment as the new Evening Standard editor. Giving an interview to the BBC at the paper’s headquarters in High Street Kensington, Osborne said he could see no issues balancing the role of MP with editor as he can do one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. As Osborne celebrated his new job, it turns out his old colleague David Cameron was just around the corner — getting the weekly shop in at High Street Kensington Whole Foods. When an eagle-eyed hack spied the former prime minister browsing the ribs, they asked

Ross Clark

George Osborne is the archetypal part-time MP

For once, Jeremy Corbyn was spot-on. Learning of the news that George Osborne is to be made editor of the Evening Standard he didn’t bleat about Tory domination of the press, but tweeted ‘It’s taking multi-tasking to an extreme level – what a joke’. What is wrong about Osborne’s new job is not that it confirms that the Evening Standard is a Conservative-supporting newspaper. That is there for all to see, but why does it matter when there is absolutely nothing to stop a Labour-supporting entrepreneur, or anyone else, setting up a rival London newspaper? What ought to concern all taxpayers is that we are already paying the former chancellor

Fraser Nelson

An MP as editor? It’s been done before – at The Spectator

What on earth does George Osborne know about journalism? How can someone with no journalistic experience go straight in as editor – editor! – of the London Evening Standard? What were its proprietors thinking? To have dinner with an MP is one thing, but to hire him as an editor? And what does this sacked politician know of the demands facing an editor in the digital era? How can he combine such a demanding job with his duties in parliament and towards his constituents in Tatton? If I wasn’t an editor, these might be a few of my reactions to the extraordinary news today. But much as I hate to

Steerpike

MP for Tatton takes up part-time job as… Evening Standard editor

Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Freddy Gray grapple with Osborne’s shock appointment: In recent months, Mr S has kept readers up to date with the multiple jobs (and large salaries) George Osborne has taken up since returning to the back bench. Just last week, the former chancellor used Budget day to sneak out the news that he would be earning an extra £650,000 per annum in his part-time role as an advisor to BlackRock. However, Osborne’s latest job takes the biscuit. Osborne has been announced as the new editor of the Evening Standard. Former Independent editor — and Lebedev sidekick — Amol Rajan managed to somehow bag the exclusive: 1/ EXCLUSIVE: @George_Osborne

Fraser Nelson

How can the Scottish Greens reconcile their manifesto promises with backing Sturgeon?

It has been barely two years since the last Scottish referendum, with no sign that opinion in Scotland has changed since then. Yet still Nicola Sturgeon hopes to vote to request a new referendum in the Scottish Parliament next week. But here’s the thing: last year, Scots voted to strip the SNP of its Holyrood majority, precisely so they could stop pretending that their agenda is the will of the nation. Thus stymied, Ms Sturgeon would need help in her vote for a new referendum from the six Green MSPs who support secession. But how could they reconcile this with their manifesto pledge (pdf, p19)? Scotland can champion a more open

Stephen Daisley

MPs can no longer employ family members – and SpAds are delighted

It wasn’t quite our answer to the West Wing — too young, too cynical — but it filled a Bartlet-shaped hole in the TV schedule. Party Animals followed a clique of sexually bipartisan political advisers at Westminster in the dying days of New Labour. Matt Smith and Andrea Riseborough played researchers to a Caroline Flintish Home Office minister, pragmatic and idealistic in the right measure, while Shelley Conn and Pip Carter worked for her shadow number, a sort of dishy Ed Vaizey eager to modernise the Tories one decriminalised spliff at a time. There was little in the way of Sam Seaborn idealism and the implausibly attractive leads seemed to

Thursday

16 Mar 2017

The Spectator

Letters | 16 March 2017

Pope Francis’s mission Sir: Despite Damian Thompson’s intimations (‘The plot against the Pope’, 11 March), Pope Francis is going nowhere except onwards and upwards. Jorge Bergoglio has a loving family background which gives him a mature, balanced personality. He is gifted with a fine, open mind, underpinned by an Ignatian spirituality which reminds him of his sinfulness and his constant need for God’s grace. He also has vast experience of the pastoral ministry in the Buenos Aires slums. No doubt there is a ‘Borgia’ element in the Vatican. This lust for power is not at all what the crucified Christ encouraged in His disciples. As the Pope presses on with

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 16 March 2017

The great achievement of the Scottish Nationalists is to persuade people outside the borders of their own nation — including the London-based media — to equate them with the Scottish people. Obviously, they are their chief elected representatives just now, but the result of the referendum on Scottish independence quite clearly showed that the equation is false. So when Nicola Sturgeon says there has to be another referendum because of Brexit, the equation should be much more firmly challenged. There is no moral reason why the result of a declaredly UK-wide referendum should require another vote in part of the kingdom (next, UDI for London?). Nor is there a constitutional

The Spectator

Hammond’s humiliation

After Philip Hammond delivered his Budget last week, he went to speak to a meeting of Conservative backbench MPs. Several were deeply alarmed about his tearing up of their manifesto pledge not to raise National Insurance. One asked him how sure he was about all this. Would they find themselves going out to defend this tax rise to their constituents, only to find him abandoning the policy later? No, the Chancellor replied, he would not change his mind. This tax rise was the centrepiece of his Budget, and it could not be scrapped. He was not for turning. For a Chancellor to abandon his main Budget policy within a week is nothing

David Turner

Does it always pay to switch?

When Isobel Walters guides parents through the process of switching a child’s school, she speaks from first-hand experience. In the 1990s she stayed at her first independent senior school for only eight weeks before changing to another. ‘The second school was just as academic, but it focused a lot more on sport,’ she says. ‘I started on the sport, and I was away — the move worked well.’ Walters, who runs IW Schooling Consultants, has used her own life lesson to advise clients. She quotes a recent example of a girl who came from abroad to study at a girls’ boarding school in a London suburb, only to find that,

Steerpike

Government’s ‘plan for Britain’ isn’t working

Theresa May’s omnishambles of a week is showing no signs of improvement. As the Budget U-turn and expenses probe play out, many have been left asking: is this a government that is ready for Brexit? But fear not — they have a plan. In fact, Theresa May has even had a website built so she can share her ‘Plan for Britain’ with the nation. Only there’s a snag. The website isn’t working. On the day of its launch, it’s down as a result of technical issues. Visitors to the page are told that it ‘isn’t working’ — much like Theresa’s government at the moment.