Politics Archives

Thursday

22 Dec 2016

Rein in excessive executive pay before it’s too late

For anyone old enough to remember the 70s, the strikes that have broken out in the past few weeks are a reminder of the industrial strife that was a regular feature of life back then. As a child at the time, power cuts and picket lines seemed quite fun. They were not so amusing, of course, for the adults. Today’s union activism might not quite add up to a winter of discontent, but it is certainly a Christmas of irritation. It’s easy to blame it all on the swaggering rabble-rouser union leaders who have crawled out of the woodwork. But those union barons are tapping into a deep sense of

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Labour’s ‘new low’, ‘meddling’ EU courts & ‘Merry Brexmas’

The hunt continues for the man thought to be responsible for the attack on Berlin’s Christmas market. But despite the urgency of the situation, the Sun says Germany – and the EU – continue to get their priorities all wrong. After all, the paper says, their ‘first duty’ should be keeping ‘their people safe’. Instead, the Sun says, they have released a photo of the wanted man with his eyes censored to protect his privacy. And the European Court isn’t doing much more to help keep people safe, according to the paper. Its ruling against the so-called ‘snoopers’ charter’ yesterday means that security services will lose out on a vital weapon in

Wednesday

21 Dec 2016

Isabel Hardman

Labour MP Jamie Reed takes the nuclear option and quits parliament

Jamie Reed, the Labour MP for Copeland, has announced he is stepping down from Parliament from the end of January 2017. He is leaving to work at Sellafield, which is in his constituency. Reed is a well known critic of Jeremy Corbyn, and though his resignation letter is warm and polite, it makes frequent and pointed references to the need for a Labour government. It closes with Reed wishing Corbyn well in his endeavours to become the next Labour Prime Minister, something the MP has made pretty clear in previous statements that he thinks is impossible. So why is he leaving? Reed’s constituency is now a marginal seat, with a

Alex Massie

Nicola Sturgeon’s Baldrick moment

Yesterday, the Scottish government published its ‘plan’ for life after Brexit. It was, at 60 or so pages, more detailed than anything we have yet seen from Theresa May’s ministry. But then it would be, given that Nicola Sturgeon will not be leading the UK’s negotiations as and when they begin. Still, plenty of nationalists crowed that, whatever else might be said of the Scottish government’s document, at least Sturgeon has a plan. But so did Baldrick. That a plan exists does not make it a good plan. Or even an achievable one. And since we are still in the early stages of the Brexit waiting game the Scottish government’s proposals

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Thin-skinned Theresa May and the merits of Sturgeon’s Brexit plan

If any one still doubts the merits of Britain controlling its own borders, look to Germany, says the Daily Telegraph. While it’s true that we still don’t know who was responsible for this week’s devastating attack on a Berlin Christmas market, ‘Germany has already suffered fatal terrorism facilitated by the EU’s failure to control its borders,’ the paper says. The Telegraph goes on to say that, after Brexit, Britain will be able to renew its commitment to the ‘first duty of a state’ – ensuring ‘people’s security’. And all the signs of Theresa May’s leadership so far suggests the country is in good hands. In its editorial, the Telegraph says that the

Nick Cohen

The uses of terror

I mean no disrespect to the dead when I say that Islamist terror in the developed world can seem a pathetic affair. Instead of fanatics executing elaborate plots to attack the Twin Towers and Pentagon, we have ‘lone wolves’ radicalised online, who more often than not turn out to be mentally deficient losers, rather than grand villains executing an intricately planned conspiracy. There is a temptation to dismiss the killers as freaks. Like violent storms, they just happen. And like violent storms, there is little you can say about them and even less you can do to stop them. If it ever made sense, dismissiveness is now a clearly inadequate

Piers Morgan

Donald Trump has more time for me than for Theresa May

When I spoke to Trump after he won (I got 15 minutes, five more than Theresa May; not that I’m suggesting for a moment I’m more important than the Prime Minister. Obviously) it was clear that he, too, is highly amused by the sheer scale of the unctuously sycophantic U-turns he’s had to endure since landing the White House. ‘Everybody suddenly loves Trump again!’ he chuckled. Perhaps my most delicious schadenfreude arising from Trump’s ascendancy is the abject humiliation it’s imposed upon that other billionaire Apprentice host, Lord Sugar. The pair of them had a very bitter Twitter exchange a few years ago, during which Sugar informed Trump: ‘Success is

George Osborne

My time in the ‘Naughty Corner’

An unexpected silver lining to leaving government is that I have a much nicer parliamentary office. The Chancellor’s traditional room in the House of Commons is rather dank and gloomy, with peeling ceiling plaster. Despite repeated efforts by pest control, it is overrun with moths. As a backbencher, my new office is, by contrast, a large, bright room overlooking the Thames and the London Eye. The office used to belong to David Davis, who was — rather reluctantly, I understand — forced to vacate it on entering government. So far I have resisted the jovial advice from various fellow MPs to have my new room swept to make sure it

Tuesday

20 Dec 2016

Sophie Sandor

The SNP is failing Scottish pupils by blocking free schools

The SNP is consistently criticised for failing to close the achievement gap between the best and worst Scottish state schools. After nine years in control of education, the latest statistics from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) underline just what a failure the SNP has been when it comes to education; this year, Scottish schoolchildren recorded their worst ever performance in the international survey. While policy-makers in England are looking at the next wave of reforms to follow the ongoing free schools revolution, things north of the border are rather different. In Scotland, the new Cabinet Secretary for Education, John Swinney, has ruled out any change which would involve removing

Matthew Parris & Matt Ridley

A conversation about Brexit

Now that almost six months have passed since the EU referendum, might it be time for old enemies to find common ground? Matthew Parris and Matt Ridley, two of the most eloquent voices on either side of the campaign, meet in the offices of The Spectator to find out. MATTHEW PARRIS: Catastrophe has not engulfed us yet, it’s true. But I feel worse since the result, rather than better. I thought that, as in all hard-fought campaigns, you get terribly wound up and depressed when you lose. Then you pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again. But my animosities — not just towards the Brexit argument,

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May answers her own questions as MPs try to grill her on Brexit

‘So… was that a yes or a no?’ A number of MPs on the Liaison Committee asked the Prime Minister that question during her evidence question today. They weren’t doing it to make a point: Theresa May spent most of the hour and a half stubbornly answering a set of questions that she had clearly decided in advance with lines also decided in advance, regardless of whether those questions were very close at all to the ones being asked in the Committee room. She was most opaque on the question of whether Parliament will get a vote on Brexit, circling around the issue by listing the opportunities for MPs to

Hamish Macdonell

Nicola Sturgeon’s Brexit plan is flawed

There is a smart, hi-tech media room in the Scottish government building which overlooks Holyrood – but it has been all but abandoned since Nicola Sturgeon took over. That’s because Scotland’s First Minister prefers Bute House, her official residence in Charlotte Square, for announcements that have a chance of attracting a decent TV audience. She knows the Georgian grandeur makes her look authoritative – even presidential – and there she was again this morning when she unveiled her plans for a separate Scottish Brexit deal. It was no surprise that she was flanked – yet again – by just the Scottish saltire and the European flag. The Union flag was nowhere to be

Steerpike

Philip Hammond’s £800 dinner

Ahead of the Autumn Statement, there were reports that Theresa May was concerned that Philip Hammond was not doing enough to help the ‘just about managing’ families — aka JAMs. While he did oblige with a fuel duty freeze, May’s government has since faced questions over its commitment to the JAMs — with matters not helped by the Prime Minister’s decision to don £1,000 leather trousers for a photoshoot. So, Mr S was intrigued to see that Hammond, too, isn’t afraid to indulge in a taste of the high life. The latest register of interests shows that Hammond and his wife enjoyed a dinner — courtesy of Andrew Taee, the founder of Dial

William Cook

Could the German left join forces to oust Angela Merkel?

German party politics has been overshadowed by yesterday’s atrocity in Berlin. But in light of this tragic event, which Angela Merkel has said was probably a terrorist attack, party politics actually matters more than ever. Increasingly, it seems next year’s Bundestag elections will be the defining event of 2017, not just for Germany but for Europe – and last week’s change of government in Berlin was a sign of things to come. On the face of it, ‘Social Democrats take control of Berlin’s city council’ looks like an inconsequential story. Berlin has always been an SPD stronghold after all. However, there’s more to this story than meets the eye. Before September’s

Ross Clark

It’s nonsense to claim that Isis benefits from Brexit. But that won’t stop some people trying

While a storm has blown up between Nigel Farage and Brendan Cox this morning over the role played by Angela Merkel’s migrant policy in the Berlin Christmas market attack, the Today programme managed to find a man with a possible alternative explanation for the carnage: Brexit. Yes, really. This morning’s show ended with a man, introduced as a political scientist who has advised the French and German governments on counter-terrorism, offering the wisdom: ‘Brexit isn’t helpful…I mean so-called Islamic State were celebrating Brexit…we need to grow stronger, we need to find responses which are not only security-based , we need a common foreign policy.’ The idea that Islamic State ‘celebrated’

Katy Balls

Nigel Farage says events like Berlin attack will be the ‘Merkel legacy’

As details begin to emerge regarding the identities of those involved in the Berlin Christmas market attack which left at least 12 people dead, Nigel Farage has been quick off the mark to level the blame at Angela Merkel for her immigration policy. The former Ukip leader announced on Twitter that the ‘terrible news’ had come as ‘no surprise’ because ‘events like these will be the Merkel legacy’. This has led to much outrage with Brendan Cox, the husband of the late Jo Cox, warning him against blaming politicians for the acts of extremists — describing it as ‘a slippery slope’. However, with a migrant — who denies carrying out

Mark Nayler

After a tumultuous year, Spanish politics returns to an uneasy status quo

It’s been exactly a year ago since Spain held what would turn out to be the first of two general elections in ten months. The first vote unleashed chaos: new parties Podemos (‘We Can’, on the radical left) and Ciudadanos (‘Citizens’, on the centre-right) split 35 per cent of the vote between them. This ended the joint hegemony of Spain’s two oldest parties, meaning it was time to say goodbye to a status quo established when Franco’s death inaugurated democracy in 1975 – a world in which the Conservatives and the Socialists simply swapped power back and forth. Everything had changed. Or had it? After almost a year of antagonistic negotiations, the country’s new

Matthew Lynn

Scotland has nothing to gain from staying in the single market

The Scottish economy will be left in ruins. Tens of thousands of people will be thrown out of their jobs. The tax base will shrivel. To listen to the latest round of complaints from the Scottish National Party, membership of the single market is absolutely vital to the country’s economy. Indeed, it is so important that it now wants to maintain it, even if England and the rest of the UK leaves. That might be clever politics, if it can be turned into a platform for a second referendum and if you choose to believe that the constitutional lawyers in Brussels can come up with a way of keeping one

Steerpike

London not open for Larry, the Downing Street cat

As part of Sadiq Khan’s ongoing efforts to prove London is ‘united and open for business, and to the world’ in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, the Mayor of London has released a series of videos of late to try to get the message across. In one such film, David Walliams narrates as a host of animals — from penguins at London Zoo to Horse Guards Parade horses — appear on screen, with the simple message: ‘London is open a home for all creatures great and small’. However, Mr S understands that not every London animal resident is on board. Word reaches Steerpike that behind the scenes a tug of

Monday

19 Dec 2016

Richard Madeley

Philip Hammond’s transformation from goth to Chancellor

If only I’d known. If only I’d foreseen that the teenage classmate who strode through our school gates every morning, rolled-up Daily Telegraph tucked incongruously (and insouciantly) under one arm, dark leather trench-coat flapping rhythmically in sympathy with the long, swaying black crows-wings of shoulder-length hair, square-heeled boots clicking and clacking their way into morning assembly… if I’d somehow intuited, as I say, that this lanky 15-year-old with the questing, beaky nose and rimless glasses, this proto-goth, would one day be Chancellor of the Exchequer… Well, actually, I wouldn’t have been remotely surprised. I don’t think any of us who knew Philip Hammond back in 1971 at Shenfield School in