Politics Archives

Saturday

17 Dec 2016

Italy’s own banking crisis may be about to begin

Theresa May was not the only elephant in the room at Thursday’s European Union summit in Brussels, and EU leaders studiously ignored the other one as well. Paolo Gentiloni, Italy’s new Prime Minister – its fourth unelected one in a row since 2011 – must somehow save Monte Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest bank, from collapse. If he fails to do so – and much will depend on EU help – then it will set off a chain reaction that could easily engulf the Eurozone. You might have thought, then, that EU leaders would have had something to say about the matter. But no. Italy’s third largest bank, founded

Andrew Marr

What can Nigel Farage be planning to wreck in 2017? | 17 December 2016

One remark from the Christmas party season knocks insistently around my head. It came from Nigel Farage on a staircase in the Ritz. For those who didn’t enjoy 2016, a year of political revolution, he gleefully promised: ‘2017 will be a hell of a sight worse.’ My, my. What did he mean? Had he taken one Ferrero Rocher too many? Or does Farage, like an increasing number of MPs, expect a general election next year, including further dramatic upsets? The biggest reason for pooh-poohing a 2017 election isn’t the Fixed-term Parliaments Act but Prime Minister’s character. Theresa May is extremely cautious and she doesn’t want to test the electorate just

Friday

16 Dec 2016

Steerpike

BBC replace Nicky Morgan with £1,000 handbag

Although the trouser-gate row between Theresa May and Nicky Morgan looked as though it was beginning to die down, the feud has been given fresh life thanks to brains at the BBC. After the Prime Minister banned Morgan from Downing Streeet for criticising her £1,000 trousers, the former education secretary dropped out of a planned appearance on Have I Got News For You. Explaining Morgan’s absence, Gary Lineker said producers had been left with no choice but to place a £1,000 Mulberry handbag — that Morgan owns a version of — in her vacant chair: ‘We were due to have the former education secretary Nicky Morgan, but because of a falling out

Isabel Hardman

Number 10 shows an odd lack of control at EU summit

Theresa May looking embarrassed and awkward as European leaders appear to make a point of ignoring her at last night’s EU summit is such a good symbol of Britain’s place in the world that Number 10 is going to struggle to shake it. The footage, of course, was rather selective, with other clips showing the Prime Minister deep in conversation with European colleagues. But the picture plays in to anxieties about Britain’s standing after Brexit, and also anxieties about whether May will really be able to sweet talk EU leaders into giving her the deal that she wants. The Prime Minister told leaders that she wanted an early deal on

Damian Thompson

Murdered Christians are 2016’s least fashionable minority

The murderers and persecutors of Christians have had a good year. With one exception – the killing of Fr Jacques Hamel in July as he celebrated Mass in a church in Normandy – the world has continued to look away as Islamists and other fanatics have slaughtered followers of Jesus Christ. I don’t mean that we consciously look away – we simply don’t know about most of these atrocities. There are no celebs out there ‘raising awareness’; they’re too busy weeping over Brexit and Trump. In one attack last June, 460 Christians died. Can you tell me where it happened? I couldn’t have, until yesterday, when I did a Google search in preparation for today’s Holy

Steerpike

Is Labour to blame for Chris Grayling’s cyclist clash?

As commuters turn on Chris Grayling over the ongoing Southern rail chaos, the Transport Secretary has now managed to clash with cyclists too. The Guardian has published video footage that appears to show Grayling knocking over a cyclist — as they approached a cycling lane — by opening the door of the car he is in. While Grayling immediately went to check the cyclist was okay, Mr S couldn’t help but recall that earlier this month he launched a verbal attack on cyclists. He told the Evening Standard that cycle lanes were designed in a manner in which they cause problems for road users: ‘I don’t think all the cycle lanes in

Thursday

15 Dec 2016

Steerpike

Theresa May left in the cold at EU summit

Theresa May is already not invited to the European Council summit dinner, and now it seems she’s not that welcome at the day activities either. Yes, the Prime Minister appears to have been given the cold shoulder this morning at the event — which sees the 28 leaders gather in Brussels to talk migrants, Turkey, Russia and Donald Trump. May was left looking as if she had no mates as she was blanked on the floor: https://twitter.com/EmilyPurser/status/809369281142157313 Let’s hope tonight’s solo dinner — when the 27 remaining leaders depart to talk Brexit without May — is more cheering than a ready meal for one.

Steerpike

Watch: Labour MPs release their ‘National Living Rage’

Oh dear. Just in case there weren’t enough novelty Christmas songs out there, brains at Labour have decided it is time to offer up one of their own. Siobhain McDonagh, the MP for Mitcham and Morden, has rallied the troops to record ‘National Living Rage’. The track — which takes inspiration from Band Aid 20’s ‘do they know it’s Christmas?’ — attempts to raise the plight of ‘hard working people’ who are being ripped off by some of the UK’s leading companies: ‘Christmas is hard on the national minimum wage At Christmas time, we give but some employer’s take And we know that they have plenty but they give out less

Katy Balls

Jeremy Corbyn’s Sinn Féin hire shows he is not willing to compromise

As MPs begin to wind down for the holidays, Jeremy Corbyn appears to have other ideas when it comes to a quiet Christmas. The Labour leader has plunged himself into a fresh row with his party over his links to Sinn Féin. Corbyn has hired a former Sinn Féin member of staff to join his office in the new year. Jayne Fisher, previously head of Sinn Féin’s London office, has been appointed head of ‘stakeholder engagement’. Announcing the news to MPs, Corbyn is said to have described her as ‘very lovely’. Yet as ‘lovely’ as Fisher may be, this doesn’t quite cut it as far as MPs are concerned. Many are worried that the move

Brendan O’Neill

‘Putinites on the web’ are the new ‘Reds under the bed’

Wounded Remainers in Britain and the Hillary set in the US love banging on about ‘post-truth politics’. Lies are everywhere, they say, falling from Trump’s weird mouth, plastered on the side of Brexit buses. And apparently these lies invaded voters’ minds and made us do the unimaginable thing of voting against the EU and failing to vote for Hillary. We was hoodwinked by falsehoods! All of which would be a tad more convincing if it wasn’t for one thing: it’s actually the Remainer and Hillary cliques that have gone full post-truth, even descending into the cesspit of conspiracy theory. Yesterday in the House of Commons, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw did

Wednesday

14 Dec 2016

Katy Balls

David Davis keeps his options open over Brexit

While Theresa May is adamant that her government will not give a running commentary on Brexit, David Davis talked relatively freely on the topic at the Exiting the European Union Committee. He said he would not negotiate control of immigration in Article 50 talks, and that the aim is to have access to the single market that’s as close as possible to the UK’s current position. However, MPs hoping to see May’s much-anticipated Brexit plan will have to wait. Davis said this will not be published until February at the earliest, as a lot of research and policy work still needs to be done. He did, however, pave the way for

James Forsyth

PMQs: Festive silliness before Corbyn gives his best performance yet

PMQs began with the Labour MP Peter Dowd asking Theresa May if she didn’t wish that she had told Boris Johnson to FO rather than sending him to the FO. To which, May replied that he was a fine Foreign Secretary — an FFS. At this point, it seemed that the session, the last PMQs before Christmas, might descend into festive silliness. But that didn’t happen. Jeremy Corbyn urged people to buy the Jo Cox charity single, a call May echoed, before moving onto social care. Over the next five questions, Corbyn turned in his best PMQs performance — admittedly not a particularly high a bar to clear. Corbyn kept

Melanie McDonagh

By focusing on Assad’s grim regime, MPs are ignoring a greater evil

Well, is it our fault? George Osborne has repeated his claim, which he has made already, that the situation in Aleppo did not ‘come out of a vacuum’ but was due to a ‘vacuum of Western and British leadership’. Specifically he was taking issue with the Commons’ vote three years ago not to back airstrikes on the Assad regime on account of its use of chemical weapons – you know, Barack Obama’s red line issue. There’s a lot of this kind of thing around. The Commons yesterday was in full blown tearful mode yesterday in the debate on Aleppo called by Andrew Mitchell in the course of which George emerged

Steerpike

Philip Davies trolls the women and equalities committee

On Tuesday, there was surprising news in Parliament as it emerged that Philip Davies had been elected onto the women and equalities committee. Given that Davies has vigorously campaigned for men’s rights to be given a better hearing and raised doubts about the intentions of some feminists, even an outsider could hazard a guess that it might not be a match made in heaven. So, Davies appearance today on the Daily Politics will most likely only add fuel to the fire. Davies, appearing alongside Caroline Lucas, compared himself to Ukip MEPs in Brussels as he tried to explain why he had joined: ‘If I can bring some common sense to

Freddy Gray

Britain’s foreign policy is now dictated by our politicians’ feelings

The ‘price of non-intervention’ is becoming one of those awful Westminster clichés. It is a phrase which, we can be sure, will be used to justify another half-cocked and disastrous military intervention in the not-too-distant future. There is growing consensus among the political class that, had wicked Ed Miliband not scuppered brave David Cameron and George Osborne’s plans to throw some bombs at the Syrian problem in 2013, the horrors of Aleppo would have been averted. Some nice, clean surgical air strikes would have sorted out that whole President Assad problem. But Parliament got cold feet, and as a result the people of Aleppo are dying, horribly. So, shame on you non-interventionists — you have

Isabel Hardman

Could Labour give the Boris Johnson row the attention it deserves?

What could Jeremy Corbyn attack Theresa May with this week at Prime Minister’s Questions? The Labour leader has already had a go at the crisis in social care funding, which the government is trying to patch up this week by raising the council tax precept from 2 per cent to 4 per cent. He could have another go, given what has long been a serious issue is starting to become a political row too. The problem is that the Labour leader so often retreats to social care and the NHS as a comfort blanket that his attacks are a little blunter than they could be. One row that really hasn’t

Isabel Hardman

On Syria, it is easier for MPs to reflect on their past mistakes than confront the present

Whose fault is the bloodshed in Aleppo? Yesterday the House of Commons discussed this at some length in an emergency debate on the onslaught by Syrian and Russian planes on the city. One of the most powerful speeches came from George Osborne who spoke about the impact that the 2013 Commons vote had on Syria and on American politics. It is worth reading in full. ‘Of course, once this House of Commons took its decision, I believe it did have an impact on American politics,’ he told MPs. ‘We cannot have it both ways – we cannot debate issues such as Syria and then think that our decisions have no

Steerpike

Tom Watson makes a play for the JAMs at Christmas drinks

In the old days, Tom Watson used to attend Jeremy Corbyn’s Christmas drinks for hacks — and even offer a speech of his own. However, in a sign that relations between the Labour leader and his deputy may not be so tickety-boo, the pair held separate bashes this year. As Watson thanked hacks for their work this year — praising the Times‘s trouser-gate headlines and heralding ever closer relations with the Mail on Sunday — he couldn’t resist taking a few swipes at his boss in the speech: ‘I do know that many of you were at Jeremy’s event last night and I hear that it was genuinely a sumptuous

George Osborne

Marmite, Toblerone and the other hidden costs of Brexit

One thing I won’t miss about No. 11 Downing Street are the Christmas cards: 2,056 Christmas cards to be exact. That was the number I had to sign every year. The recipients included 87 FTSE chief executives, 209 foreign dignitaries, six EU commissioners and one shadow chancellor. They all added up, and it involved several days of signing, and sore wrists. Every chancellor, prime minister and opposition leader I’ve known does the same. Judging by the thousands of cards I would receive, many must go unread. So I propose to my successors a Christmas truce. Only send cards to people you actually know. Give the money you save to a good

Tuesday

13 Dec 2016

Ross Clark

Why it’s not true that Brexit is already starting to bite

So, the Remoaners have at last got a piece of economic news they can try to crow about – the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose last month from 0.9 per cent to 1.2 per cent, sparking a round of ‘I told you so’s’ on Twitter – one even describes it as a ‘cost of living crisis’. One suspects he wasn’t around in 1975 – incidentally the year that Britain voted to stay in what was then the Common Market – when inflation topped out 26 per cent. Except the CPI figures don’t really tell you what the Remain lobby wants to tell us at all. Remember how a few weeks