Politics Archives

Thursday

8 Sep 2016

Steerpike

Ken Livingstone reneges on his pledge to flee Brexit Britain

This week Ken Livingstone has managed to cause a stir after he appeared on the BBC to defend Keith Vaz — but ended up talking about Hitler. However, there was another reason Livingstone’s appearance on television piqued Mr S’s interest: why is he still in Britain? During the EU referendum campaign, Livingstone threatened to emigrate if Brexit triumphed: ‘I would personally start thinking about emigrating to somewhere the economy is not going to collapse.’ Yet three months on and Livingstone remains in Brexit Britain, showing no signs of making a quick getaway. While it’s certainly true — as this week’s Spectator cover story details — that the economy is confounding Remain doom-mongers such as

Steerpike

Evening Standard’s change of heart about Sadiq Khan

During the London mayoral campaign, the Evening Standard was accused of showing ‘overwhelming bias’ towards the Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith. The Media Reform Coalition claimed the paper had become the ‘mouthpiece of the Conservative party’ after it ran twice as many positive headlines about Goldsmith than his Labour rival Sadiq Khan. Khan was also the subject of twice as many negative headlines — which included: ‘Exposed: Sadiq Khan’s family links to extremist organisation’ and ‘Minister: Khan is unfit to be mayor’. However, despite the paper’s best efforts — and eventual endorsement of Goldsmith — it wasn’t enough to sway voters, and Khan was elected mayor with 57 per cent of the vote. So,

Mark Nayler

Spain’s political freeze starts to bite

The circus of Spanish politics shows no signs of stopping. For now, the country is managing to weather this eight month-long deadlock surprisingly well: Spain’s GDP growth has continued at one of the fastest rates in the eurozone. But this is in spite, rather than because, of Spain’s zombie government. A record-breaking tourist season has helped, as has a jump in consumer spending. Yet finally, the cracks are beginning to show; and the impasse crippling Spanish politics – which now looks set to lead to the increasingly-likely prospect of a third election on Christmas Day this year – is starting to take its toll. So what’s the hold up? If you’re looking for who to blame, you needn’t

Susan Emmett

House sellers must be realistic if they want to do a deal

After a long summer of uncertainty following the Brexit vote, data is finally dribbling in. While some of it strikes a brighter note, messages emerging from the stats are mixed. Serious sellers, especially in the prime markets, must remain realistic and flexible with pricing if they want to do a deal. Latest numbers from the Halifax showed that annual house price growth has eased to 6.9 per cent following a very slight drop of 0.2 per cent in August. This contrasts with last week’s more upbeat numbers from the Nationwide building society which revealed a pick-up in house prices in August, suggesting some resilience in the market. Neither paint the

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May’s grammar school plans provoke a mixed reaction

Theresa May has told Tory MPs she won’t ‘turn back the clock’ on grammar schools. But she also didn’t rule out some expansion in the system of selective schools. How those two thoughts reconcile with each together will become clearer when the Government reveals its plans for school reform soon (this being Theresa May, we won’t be expecting a running commentary). Yet even the scant details which have emerged so far have provoked a predictably mixed reaction. Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner said the plans were ‘shambolic’. You can listen to her criticism here: And Alan Milburn, who chairs the government’s social mobility commission, is perhaps the most outspoken voice this

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: The Brexit bounce

On the morning of the 24th June, Britain woke to find its stock market shattered and its pound pummelled. It appeared – for a brief moment – like all the prophecies of the Brexit doomsayers, not least the Great Seer Osborne, had come true. But then, from the wreckage of that mid-summer morning, green shoots began to appear, and now, more than two months down the line, it seems that Britain has bounced back. In his cover piece this week, Ross Clark argues that the Remain campaign fell victim to the perils of believing their opinion to be ‘objective fact’, and that economic recovery has humiliated the Treasury, Bank of

Sean Thomas

Corbyn the parasite

It’s a long way from Westminster to the banks of the Zambesi. But last week, for me, they linked up. I was lolling on my bed in the Sausage Tree Safari Camp, writing up notes for a travel article. Then a single, iridescent, rather delicate green wasp buzzed into my room and settled on my mosquito net. I folded my laptop. Looked at the wasp. And I got a sudden vision of Jeremy Corbyn and the fate of the Labour party. To explain. The reason I was able to identify the wasp so quickly — and assure myself that it was no threat — is because this wasp is one

Ross Clark

The Brexit bounce

Next time it comes to redesigning the PPE course at Oxford, I suggest a module beginning with a quotation from George Osborne. It’s something he said to the Treasury Select Committee in May, back when he was still Chancellor: ‘If you look at the sheer weight of opinion, it is overwhelmingly the case that people who look at the case for leaving the EU come to the conclusion it would make the country poorer, and it would make the individuals in the country poorer, too.’ There might be advantages to Brexit, he said, ‘but let’s not pretend we’d be economically better off’. In other words: it wasn’t just George Osborne’s

James Forsyth

After Brexit, who should Britain let in?

Why has ‘trust’ became such a dominant issue in British politics in the early 21st century? Is it the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Or the arrogant ineptitude that led to the financial crisis and the bank bailouts? Or the parliamentary expenses scandal? Or is it, more than the above, the failure of successive governments to meet their immigration targets? Trust in politics will fall to dangerously low levels if-immigration continues as is following this year’s referendum. This is why the government has acknowledged that some control over EU immigration must be part of the Brexit deal. The extent of these restrictions will be key to

Martin Vander Weyer

Mrs May the ‘Student Killer’ should count the cost of her visa crackdown

In the post-Brexit landscape whose shape was barely glimpsed in G20 discussions at Hangzhou, one thing is clear: soon we’ll have to stop waffling about trade deals and start pushing British products the world wants to buy. One such is education, at our universities, independent schools and English-language colleges — an export sector calculated in 2011 by the now defunct Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to be worth £17.5 billion. Not only does this sector attract foreign exchange, plug funding gaps for cash-strapped universities and support thousands of jobs, it also lays the ground for future relationships with students who return home to embark on business careers. And as

Wednesday

7 Sep 2016

James Forsyth

Theresa May: We have selection in state schools already, selection by house price

Theresa May received the traditional desk banging reception when she addressed the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers. May pleased Tory MPs by emphasising that they would have more opportunity to feed into policy making process now through George Freeman and the policy board and the green papers that will—once again—precede white papers. But what most excited Tory MPs was what May said about opportunity and grammar schools. May said that she would give a speech on a 21st century education system soon, explaining how selective schools–in other words, grammars–fit into the mix. Strikingly, she defended an ‘element of selection’ arguing that there is selection already in the system, and it

Isabel Hardman

Are the boundary reforms really good for democracy?

One of the big political rows of the autumn will be over the proposed changes to constituency boundaries. Labour is unhappy about this (and everything else) because the proposed changes could lose the party around 30 seats which it could ill afford at the best of times. And this is the worst of times. But though the recalculation will help the Tories, there are nerves about whether every Conservative MP who wants to stay in Parliament will be guaranteed a seat. There are also grumblings that this change is not being proposed alongside a reduction in the number of ministers, which will make the executive loom even more powerful in

James Forsyth

What we learnt about Brexit from Theresa May today

Theresa May began her statement on the G20 by talking about Brexit. She insisted that she wasn’t going to give a ‘running commentary’ or reveal the government’s negotiating hand as, she said, that would not deliver the best deal for Britain. In other words, we’ll all just have to wait and see what she negotiates. May’s insistence that she won’t rule anything in or out does lead to some rather bizarre moments. May repeatedly, and rightly, stressed the trade deals that the UK would seek to do outside the EU. But when Labour’s Emma Reynolds asked her to confirm that these deals would require leaving the customs union, May ducked

Lloyd Evans

Theresa May reveals her weakness

Bit early for a lap of honour. At PMQs Mrs May congratulated her government (i.e. herself) on fifty marvellous days in government. And she drew comparisons between her polished style and the Corbyn car-wreck. One view is that the chimpanzees’ tea-party currently posing as Her Majesty’s opposition should remain beneath the attention of Number 10. Mrs May disagrees and she used Labour’s woes as the starting point for some carefully scripted comedy. With mixed results. Delivering gags is tough. Delivering someone else’s gags is tougher. Delivering someone else’s out-of-date gags is so tough that it borders on crazy. But the PM is, understandably perhaps, tempted by the illusion of omnipotence

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s stilted second PMQs performance

If the purpose of the first few Prime Minister’s Questions sessions that a new leader faces is to assert their authority, both over the Opposition and their new party, then Theresa May managed that today. She didn’t do it with a great deal of panache, though: the Prime Minister was much less fluent and confident today than she was in her all-conquering first stint at the Dispatch Box before the summer. Her scripted jokes sounded a little less comfortable and natural, too. But she managed to give good responses to Jeremy Corbyn’s rambling questions, particularly this little lecture about the differences between the two of them: ‘I say to the

Steerpike

Chuka can: his next leadership bid starts now

Last summer, Chuka Umunna disappointed his Blairite mentors when he dropped out of the Labour leadership race. Explaining his decision, Umunna said that he was uncomfortable with the level of pressure and scrutiny on both himself and his loved ones. A lot has changed since then. With Jeremy Corbyn leading a fractious party — and Umunna now happily married — could a comeback be on the cards? After Keith Vaz stepped down from his role as chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday, Umunna has today confirmed that he will stand in the election to replace Vaz. Umunna — who is already on the committee — will have

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May clearly wants to pick a fight on grammars

The most interesting thing about the accidentally-revealed grammar schools briefing document is not so much that the government is planning to press ahead with the change to the schools system, but that it is considering passing a new law in order to do it. A brave move for a government with such a small majority. This means Justine Greening and her junior ministers in the Education dept are in for a rocky few months, something the memo itself acknowledged. It said: ‘I simply don’t know what the PM thinks of this, but it sounds reasonable to me, and I simply can’t see any way of persuading the Lords to vote

Tom Goodenough

Let’s not overhype a free trade deal with Australia

The best thing to say about the UK kicking off preliminary trade talks with Australia is that they’re a start. In that they show Britain is looking to do business around the world, they’re a welcome signal in the wake of the vote for Brexit. Given that some have taken the referendum to be a sign of Britain slamming the door shut, any talk which counters this false narrative is refreshing. Yet there’s also a danger of overhyping the significance of such a deal. And it’s worth reminding ourselves that signing such an agreement won’t be the answer for all of Britain’s troubles. The statistics make it clear that a trade deal with Australia would

Steerpike

V&A director throws his toys out of the pram over Brexit

Oh dear. After the nation voted for Britain to leave the EU in the referendum, many Remain-ers were left downhearted and depressed over the result. While some have since managed to put on a brave face, others continue to struggle. Take for example Martin Roth, the director of the V&A. Over the weekend, reports surfaced that the museum’s German director is to step down from his role over… Brexit. The Guardian reports that his ‘disillusionment’ with the Leave vote was the main contributing factor in the decision. On Monday night, Roth appeared to hint at such reasons in a speech to mark the opening of the You Say You Want a Revolution exhibition at the V&A. Speaking about the new exhibition, Roth said

Tuesday

6 Sep 2016

Isabel Hardman

Labour MPs back call for Shadow Cabinet elections

Labour MPs have just voted 168 to 34 in favour of bringing back Shadow Cabinet elections. This doesn’t mean there will be elections for the Labour top team straight away: the measure, proposed by Clive Betts, now goes to the party’s ruling National Executive Committee, which is now dominated by Corbynites. If the NEC so chooses, it can propose the rule change at the party’s conference. This is, however, another example of the PLP, which had been fading as a parliamentary force compared to the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, asserting itself against Jeremy Corbyn. The argument in favour of Betts’ motion, which is supported by Deputy Leader Tom Watson, is that it