Politics Archives

Sunday

19 Jun 2016

A response to David Smith’s economic case for Remain

When it comes to making economics understandable, no one does it better that David Smith of the Sunday Times*. Today, he has written a emphatic endorsement of the case for the UK remaining in the EU. As a longstanding admirer of his work, a few points jumped out at me when reading it. Here they are. Britain’s economy is convalescing from the biggest financial shock in a century. A few years ago we were on the edge of the abyss. We live in the shadow of the crisis. One shock was careless: to impose another, self-inflicted one before we’re over it would be stupid. Yes, you can argue that now

James Forsyth

Corbyn’s immigration honesty creates a problem for Remain

Jeremy Corbyn went on The Marr Show this morning to talk about Jo Cox’s tragic death and the EU referendum. Corbyn talked movingly about Cox and how MPs don’t want to be cut off from the communities that they serve. The conversation then moved on to the EU referendum. Andrew Marr asked Corbyn if he thought there should be an upper limit on immigration. Corbyn replied, rightly, ‘I don’t think you can have one while you have free movement of labour’. Now, this is true. But it very much isn’t the Remain campaign script; David Cameron has even refused to admit that his ambition to reduce immigration to the tens

Anthony Wells

Latest polls show a swing back to Remain

We are now in the final week of the referendum campaign and the swing back towards the status quo appears to be in full force. We at YouGov have published two polls this morning, one conducted for ITV’s Good Morning Britain between Wednesday and Thursday, and one conducted for the Sunday Times on Thursday and Friday. After the clear leads for Leave that polls were showing a week ago, both of our polls published today show the race coming back to neck-and-neck again: a two point Leave lead in the Good Morning Britain poll, a one point Remain lead in the Sunday Times poll. While there will be speculation about

Steerpike

Sam Cam’s sister vows never to vote Tory again if Leave win

There’s a lot at stake for David Cameron when it comes to the EU referendum. As well as having to try to mend party divisions, a vote for Brexit could bring an end to Cameron’s time as Prime Minister. Now he has another problem to deal with should the nation vote to leave — his sister-in-law will never vote for his party again. Although Cameron can at least count on Emily Sheffield’s support in the EU referendum, this will change if Leave win. Samantha Cameron’s sister — who is the deputy editor of Vogue — has been doing her best of late to motivate voters to back Remain. Alas if things don’t go to plan on Thursday, she has vowed

Saturday

18 Jun 2016

Douglas Murray

Can’t we show some decency about Jo Cox’s death?

Despite the ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ campaigns rightly halting as soon as the news of the savage murder of Jo Cox MP came through, some people could not pass up the opportunity to press what they saw as a political advantage. The campaign for Britain to leave the EU may have been silent, but EU officials were not. A day after the murder the German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a call for all sides in the referendum to respect the opinions of others: ‘Otherwise, the radicalisation will become unstoppable. Exaggerations, and radicalisation of part of the language, do not help foster an atmosphere of respect.’ Was she thinking of European Council

James Forsyth

Boris makes it clear he isn’t interested in a coup against David Cameron

The murder of Jo Cox was a moment that leaves you numb; an MP paying the ultimate price for the open society we live in. For the fact that our representatives live and work among us. Despite this tragedy, democracy must go on. By this time next week, the EU referendum will be over. The country will have made up its mind. Whether it is Leave or Remain, the UK will need a period of stability. This means David Cameron staying on as Prime Minister and, as I reveal in The Sun today, plans are already well advanced to ensure that this happens. Boris Johnson has signed a letter saying

Friday

17 Jun 2016

Isabel Hardman

Why MPs will keep holding surgeries, even if they’re in danger

‘If you’ve got water coming in through the roof then they should be doing something about that,’ says Stephen Timms mildly to one of his constituents. The East Ham MP is sitting in the middle of a long row of tables in the Town Hall, flanked by two caseworkers, each seeing a member of the public who has a problem they hope their MP can solve. Timms had kindly invited me to sit in on one of his surgeries months ago. I’m currently criss-crossing the country watching politicians of all political persuasions carry out their regular constituency work for a book that I’m writing on what MPs really do –

Tom Goodenough

Tories pledge not to contest by-election after Jo Cox killing

There are few moments in politics when parties put aside their differences to come together. Yesterday’s tragic events in Birstall has brought about one such occasion. After the terrible killing of Labour MP Jo Cox, the Conservatives have said they will not be contesting the by-election held in Batley and Spen. In a statement, the Conservative party said: ‘Following the tragic killing of Labour MP Jo Cox, the Conservative Party has decided not to contest the forthcoming by-election as a mark of respect to a much-loved and respected politician’ The Prime Minister, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow have also appear

Tom Goodenough

‘Our Jo’: Newspaper front pages pay tribute to tragic Labour MP Jo Cox

Unsurprisingly, the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox dominates the front pages this morning. The 41-year-old MP for Birstall died yesterday after being shot and stabbed in the street whilst out serving her constituents. Politicians from all parties have paid tribute to the mum-of-two since the dreadful attack. And today’s newspapers are also united in expressing the widespread shock and horror felt at the killing. The Yorkshire Evening Post led with Jo Cox’s husband Brendan’s emotional tribute to his wife. In his statement, issued shortly after the tragic death was confirmed yesterday, Mr Cox pays tribute to his wife and says she would want only that her ‘precious children are

Thursday

16 Jun 2016

Peter Jones

Plato on the EU referendum

Our politicians, realising that the referendum campaign will be settled not by themselves under the usual parliamentary constraints but by the Twitter-maddened populace under no constraints at all, have decided to abandon any principles they may have and play the straight populist game. Plato well understood the behaviour and its consequences. In his Republic, he envisages a man in charge of a large and powerful animal who studies its moods and needs. He learns when to approach and handle it, when and why it is savage and gentle, the meaning of the various noises it makes and how to speak to it to annoy or calm it. He might then

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 16 June 2016

The Remain campaign takes as its model the ‘No’ one in the 2014 Scottish referendum. First and last — hence the Osborne/Darling fantasy horror Budget on Wednesday — inspire fear. Second, late in the day, leave it all to Labour and get Gordon Brown to make a passionate speech (Mr Brown took this too literally and made almost exactly the same passionate speech). Finally, shortly before polling, get leaders of all stripes to make a solemn ‘vow’ to win over the doubters. I am trying to work out what that vow could be. All 27 other member states promising some guarantee of Britain’s independence within the EU? This device has

Andrew Marr

Diary – 16 June 2016

Flabby, vaguely disorientated and, more than three years on, still struggling with stroke recovery, I am on a radical diet. No booze, no caffeine of any kind, no lots of other things — sausages, bacon, roast meat, you name it. Not a lot of fun, but the revelation has been coffee: for well over 40 years I have believed that I can only function in the morning after pints of coal-black, extremely strong caffeine. And now, aged 57, I find that it was total horlicks all along — I feel perkier, less tired and less stressed (after a hard few days) without the stuff. This makes me a real oddity

Rod Liddle

RIP Jo Cox. Let’s call the referendum off as a mark of respect

RIP Jo Cox MP. A hugely talented young politician possessed of great clarity of thought and principle. Shot and stabbed by a piece of human filth, a piece of white human filth, while attending her surgery in West Yorkshire. God bless the woman and look after her family, please. This sort of savagery and vileness has been on the cards now for quite a while. We are drifting towards the febrile territory of a banana republic, or at best the USA. The claims on either side of the Brexit debate are hyperbolic, exaggerated, idiotic. And the mutual loathing spreads daily across social media, a shrieking absolutism divorced from reality on

Katy Balls

Politicians pay tribute to Labour MP Jo Cox – ‘a devastating blow to our democracy’

Following the news that the Labour MP Jo Cox has died after being shot and stabbed in a brutal street attack, her husband Brendan has called on the public to ‘unite to fight against the hatred that killed her’. A number of politicians have paid tribute to the MP for Batley and Spen — who won her seat in the 2015 election — describing her as a woman of ‘remarkable spirit and passion’. Gordon Brown says that both he and his wife Sarah — who worked closely with Cox on humanitarian issues — will be ‘forever scarred by this moment’: ‘Our memories will be for ever scarred by this moment. Our hearts will

Alex Massie

A Day of Infamy

Events have a multiplier effect. And when they come in bunches the effect can be overpowering. This was already a sad and demeaning day, even before we heard the ghastly news a Labour MP, Jo Cox, had been murdered outside her constituency surgery in Yorkshire. Politics is, figuratively speaking, a contact sport. It is a hard business because it is an important business. It matters and it matters even more when the stakes are so very high. But just as class will out at the highest level in sport, when the stakes are the very greatest and everything seems to be on the line, so character reveals itself in politics

Tom Goodenough

Labour MP Jo Cox dies after being attacked in the street

Labour MP Jo Cox has died after being shot and stabbed in a brutal street attack. The MP for Batley and Spen passed away on her way to hospital following the incident earlier today in Birstall, West Yorkshire. Chief Constable Dee Collins said: ‘I am now very sad to have to report that she has died as a result of her injuries.’ Mother-of-two Cox, 41, was attacked close to a library where she had been holding a weekly advice surgery. A 52-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident. Cox was elected as an MP in 2015. According to her website, Jo was co-chair of the Friends of

Brendan O’Neill

The Brexit debate has exposed the Establishment

Yesterday, on the Thames, in a bizarre battle of political flotillas, we got a glimpse of the elite rage that motors much of the Remain camp. On one of the pro-EU boats, Bob Geldof, a knight, superbly well-connected, who has earned millions, made wanker gestures and gave a two-fingered eff-you to the people on the anti-EU boats — who were mainly fishermen whose livelihoods have been wrecked by Brussels. One of these fishermen, his face ashen with desperation, shouted — almost cried, in fact — about earning £50 a week and not knowing where his next mortgage payment is going to come from, largely thanks to EU regulations on the

Tom Goodenough

Labour MP Jo Cox critically injured in shooting

Labour MP Jo Cox is in a critical condition after being injured during a shooting in her constituency. Eyewitnesses said the MP for Batley and Spen was attacked close to a library in Birstall, near Leeds, where she has previously held advice surgeries. A 52-year-old man has been arrested. Reports, that have not been confirmed, suggest the attacker shouted ‘Britain First’ shortly before the incident. West Yorkshire Police said they were aware of an ‘ongoing incident’. A police spokesman said: ‘At 12.53 today, police were called to a report of an incident on Market Street, Birstall, where a woman in her 40s has duffered serious injuries and is in a

Isabel Hardman

Remain is now Project Grouch in the EU referendum

A couple of months ago, the Leave campaign seemed constantly grumpy, complaining about media coverage, colleagues and the use of the government machine in this referendum. But now, with just a week to go until polling day, this seems to have reversed. The Brexiteers’ continuing poll lead has spooked Remain, and Remain really isn’t dealing with it all that well. It wasn’t just the way that the pro-Remain politicians ganged up on Boris Johnson during their TV debate last week. And it isn’t just the way that government ministers including George Osborne seem to be resorting to increasingly desperate interventions such as a scary Brexit Budget that disgusted so many

Tom Goodenough

Mark Carney uses interest rate decision to put the boot in over Brexit again

The Bank of England’s decision to keep interest rates pegged at 0.5 per cent won’t surprise anyone. What is more interesting, after today’s row involving Mark Carney, is how much the Bank had to say about the EU referendum. Brexiteers hoping Mark Carney and the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee would keep quiet about next week’s vote will be disappointed. In its meeting minutes, the MPC gives it both barrels when warning about the dangers of Brexit. The MPC says a vote to leave would send sterling’s exchange rate tumbling. It goes on to add that: ‘As the Committee set out last month, the most significant risks to the MPC’s forecast