Politics

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

Thursday

8 Dec 2016

Unforgiven

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

Andrew Marr

Notebook – 8 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

Douglas Murray

Tony Blair’s IRA amnesty should also apply to British soldiers

This morning’s Sun carries the story that all British soldiers involved in killings in Northern Ireland during the three decades of the Troubles now face investigation. More than 1,000 ex-service personnel ‘will be viewed as manslaughter or murder suspects in legal inquiry.’ According to information received by the paper, 238 ‘fatal incidents’ involving British forces are being re-investigated by the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Legacy Investigations Branch. This is especially timely. In recent days I have been reading Austen Morgan’s new and so-far under-noticed book Tony Blair and the IRA. To my knowledge it is the first full account to date of the ‘on the runs’ scandal. This is

Melanie McDonagh

Boris Johnson is right about Saudi Arabia

In what sense does anyone actually disagree with what Boris Johnson said about Saudi Arabia and Iran? Does anyone actually think that his observation that they are both engaged in ‘puppeteering’ in Syria and Yemen is not only true, but understates the seriousness of the problem? Does anyone believe the Foreign Office when it says that Mr Johnson’s remarks do not reflect the position of the Government? Now I know the argument, viz, that Saudi Arabia is an important and very sensitive ally and the way to deal with its sensitivities is to make criticism in private, which is what, we are invited to believe, Theresa May did when she

Steerpike

Theresa May makes Christmas look like child’s play

Although David Cameron tended to put a photo of himself and his wife Samantha on the front of his Christmas cards during his tenure as prime minister, Theresa May takes a different approach. Today the Prime Minister has released her official Christmas cards for 2016. Following her annual tradition as Maidenhead MP, May has chosen cards designed by children in her constituency: However, Mr S is concerned that one of the cards could only add fuel to the fire in the ongoing turf war between Larry the No. 10 cat and Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat. Given that Larry is a tabby cat, it looks as though Palmerston is the feline to make

Steerpike

Theresa May vs Whitehall – round II

Theresa May, you may have read, is fed up with obsequious civil-servants and their ticky-box ways. ‘From the officials’ point of view, what they owe to the minister, and what the minister expects, is the best possible advice,’ she tells Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth in The Spectator Christmas issue. ‘Don’t try to tell me what you think I want to hear,’ she added. ‘I want your advice, I want the options. Then politicians make the decisions.’ Sound stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. The trouble is, civil servants who’ve dealt with May suggest the Prime Minister doesn’t practise what she’s preaching. ‘Theresa May is more the type who says “Who was that

Ross Clark

George Osborne’s stamp duty hike is starting to bite the Treasury

The existence of the Laffer Curve can be proved by thought-experiment alone. If a government levies an income tax rate of 0 per cent it will raise zero revenue. If it levies a rate of 100 per cent it will also raise zero revenue, as no-one will bother to earn any money – or at least declare any earnings. Somewhere between those extremes lies an optimum point at which the tax-take reaches a maximum value. Trouble is, no-one really knows where the peak of the Laffer Curve lies for income tax, or for any other tax for that matter. George Osborne asserted that – at least for income tax in

Tom Goodenough

Spectator live blog: The Supreme Court’s Brexit hearing, day four

The Supreme Court’s landmark case on triggering Article 50 has now finished. We’ll have to wait until January to hear the verdict of the 11 judges involved. But for now you can follow all the main events as they unfolded on our Spectator live blog: 4.20pm: It’s all over at the Supreme Court. Lord Neuberger rounds off proceedings by making it clear that the judges are ‘not being asked to overturn the referendum’. Before his comments, Eadie attempted to knock down Pannick’s view that the 2015 referendum act had political, rather than legal, significance. Not so, said Eadie, who insisted that the Government thought the act ‘speaks volumes about the

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Article 50 debate, Brexit ‘fog’ and ‘looney Labourites’

After MPs voted last night to back the Government’s plan to invoke Article 50 by the end of March, the Guardian says it’s good news that Parliament is now finally using its powers to shape the Brexit process. The paper says it’s ‘extraordinary’ that so much time has passed since the referendum, given how there is still no ‘real clarity about the government’s general aims’ in upcoming negotiations. It says yesterday, however, ‘some fog began to lift’: ‘At last, the great issue of the UK’s future relations with Europe was finally being discussed where it matters most of all, in our elected parliament,’ the paper says. But despite the merits

Fraser Nelson

‘I get so frustrated with Whitehall’

The Prime Minister’s office is a small, unimpressive room in 10 Downing Street with miserable views and unexceptional furniture. Since moving in, Theresa May has spruced it up — but only a little. There is now a large glass meeting table; her predecessor preferred to chat on the sofas. She has also delved into the government art collection to retrieve two pictures of Oxford, where she honed her interest in politics and met Philip, her husband. She has also picked a painting of an English country church (she is of course a vicar’s daughter), and that’s about it. It’s a place for work and — very occasionally — interviews. We

James Forsyth

A year of revolution

Few years will live as long in the memory as 2016. Historians will ponder the meaning and consequences of the past 12 months for decades to come. In the future, 180-odd years from now, some Zhou Enlai will remark that ‘it is too soon to say’ when asked about the significance of Brexit. The referendum result shocked Westminster. Michael Gove was so sure it would be Remain that he had retreated to bed on the evening of 23 June and only found out Leave had won when one of his aides telephoned in the early hours of the morning. Theresa May admits in her interview with us on p. 26 that

Tim Shipman

Brexit’s breaking points

Trying to write the first draft of history on the EU referendum and the leader-ship mess that followed had both its dramatic and its comic elements. My phone never stopped ringing with Eurosceptics keen to tell me why their contribution to a meeting that had previously escaped my notice was the decisive factor in securing victory. But when a vote is so close — 52 per cent to 48 per cent — then it would not have taken much to push the result the other way. Donald Trump’s victory adds some credence to the idea that Brexit was pre–ordained, part of a wave of history. But the campaign turned on

Germaine Greer

Wildlife Notebook

The morning is cold and dark but the orchard is thronged with birds. Moorhens dash from one side to the other; woodpeckers drill the damp ground for worms; fieldfares bounce from hawthorn hedge to apple tree and back again; magpies terrorise all of them. They freeze when the buzzard comes over until, crows and blackbirds having risen up to harass it, its great wings float it away. The red kites are a different matter. They slice through the air like thrown knives, before the other birds have had time to look up. One of the 50 doves that were wheeling above my workshop now lies panting feebly as a kite

Quentin Letts

My naughty list

In the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge, here, in no particular order, are my current irritants: • Paddy Ashdown • Lady (Shami) Chakrabarti of Kennington • First Minister Nicola Sturrrgeon • Brussels grands fromages Michel Barnier, Guy Verhofstadt and Monsieur Tipsy Jean-Claude Juncker • Three out of five Newsnight discussions • Dance judge Len Goodman (those teeth are whistling again, Len) • Donald Trump’s hand gestures • Sir Philip Green • Lady Green and that dog of hers • Nicky Morgan • Business Secretary Greg Clark, the cabinet’s fruity-voiced answer to Clifford the Listerine dragon • Benedict Cumberbatch • Caitlin Moran • The National Secular Society • Ukip braggart Raheem Kassam

Piers Morgan

Notebook | 8 December 2016

It’s weird being friends with someone who suddenly becomes President of the United States, not least for the reflected glory that suddenly rains down on one’s own far less powerful cranium. I was roundly ridiculed by numerous high-profile journalists and celebrities for predicting Donald Trump’s victory throughout his 16-month campaign. Now, many of those same egg-faced mockers slither up at festive parties to whisper a variant of: ‘Any chance you could put a good word in for me with Donald?’ To which my preferred response is to place a patronising hand on their shoulder and say: ‘It’s Mr President-elect Trump to you.’ When I spoke to Trump after he won

Emily Hill

Julia’s Baby

Julia should not have come to the wedding. That much was clear as soon as she arrived. Late, she was, and massive in belly. Her hat festooned with tropical fruit; her dress — hideously colourful. She made the hinges shriek on the great church door and winced, as it slammed shut, with a shudder. Puffing out her cheeks, she waddled slowly towards the nearest pew. She had a fist jammed into the small of her back, as if she were expecting to give birth at any moment. Everyone turned round to stare. The vicar got confused, forgot his lines, began to stammer. The bride stood at the altar, in an

Wednesday

7 Dec 2016

James Forsyth

Commons votes in favour of invoking Article 50 by the end of March

461 MPs have just voted for Theresa May to invoke Article 50 by the end of March. The Tory amendment to Labour’s opposition day motion passed comfortably with only 89 MPs opposing it—and Ken Clarke the only Tory amongst them with 20-odd Labour Mps joining the SNP and the Lib Dems in voting against. Now, this vote is not binding and if the government loses its appeal to the Supreme Court will not be sufficient to satisfy the courts. But it does indicate that the government will be able to get an Article 50 bill through the Commons without too much trouble. It does make you wonder why Theresa May

Lloyd Evans

Emily Thornberry’s PMQs performance should worry Jeremy Corbyn

The PM is abroad. Her vacant throne was occupied by David Lidington, the agreeably lightweight Leader of the House. He’s confident, fast-talking, well-briefed but glib and untidy-looking. He doesn’t improvise well. Physically he’s an unrestful presence. He hops and twitches and pecks and dabs like a pigeon attacking a box of Chicken McNuggets. For comic effect he likes to turn sideways with both arms outstretched as if entreating somebody in the wings. A speaking coach would tell him to calm down, put his hands in his pockets and stop head-butting imaginary bees. He made no errors today. He didn’t exactly shine. Bumptious competence was his level. Opposite him was Emily

Steerpike

Bill Cash teaches Ken Clarke a lesson at Brexit debate

In today’s Article 50 debate, MPs from across the House offered their two cents worth on what Brexit means. However, one Remain MP got more than they bargained for when they sparred with Brexiteer Bill Cash in the Chamber. After Cash argued that the vote for Leave was perfectly clear, Ken Clarke intervened with a counter argument. The Tory grandee accused Cash of double standards over referendums. Pointing to the 1975 referendum on Europe, Clarke said that Cash had argued that referendum was ‘purely advisory’: ‘He will recall, he and I took part in a referendum in the 1970s when he was no doubt saddened to find he was on the

Nick Cohen

Marxist-Leninists are now the Labour party’s moderates

There are three misconceptions about the far left. Not one of them is true. And all of them hide the crisis in the opposition, which is giving a dangerously incompetent Government unparalleled and unwarranted freedom of manoeuvre. The first is that its obsession with doctrinal disputes makes far leftists Pythonesque figures of ridicule, rather than a malicious force with malign political consequences. We are then told that the young pass through a ‘left wing phase,’ as if it were a rite of passage like drinking cider or puberty. They believe extreme ideas and shout angry slogans, but when they realise the true nature of the far left they grow up and move on. Finally, moderate commentators always reach