Politics Archives

Thursday

18 Aug 2016

What performing stand-up in Ukip country taught me about racism

Most people would say UKIP lends itself to comedy better than Denis Healey’s eyebrows lent themselves to tweezers – but not the people of Walton-on-the-Naze, as they live in the party’s only constituency. I’m a stand-up comic, and I was booked to play the town’s first comedy night this month. I don’t know if the lovely promoter realised I was Asian when he booked me; for my part, I didn’t realise Douglas Carswell was Walton’s MP, and only discovered while Googling the town on the way to the gig, when it was too late to turn back. When I arrived in Walton-on-the-Naze’s large ballroom with its cornicing and chandeliers (‘It

Matthew Lynn

Economists, not the economy, are the only ones taking a battering from Brexit

There are queues outside the money exchanges as we desperately try and swap our worthless pounds for euros. The Red Cross are flying in food parcels. The IMF is arranging an emergency aid package, whilst house prices are in freefall and interest rates are soaring. If you cast your mind back only a few weeks, that was meant to be an accurate description of the British economy by now if we were crazy enough to vote to leave the European Union. That, however, is not how it has worked out. In fact, the economy is fine. It is the economists who are taking a beating. This week, we have had the

Alex Massie

Highland sting

There is no party in Britain quite as fake as the Scottish National Party. The SNP, now entrenched in its dominance of Scottish politics, imagines itself a revolutionary force for change. Its mission to break up Britain bolsters that impression. But if the SNP campaigns with zeal, it governs with caution. These are the most conservative revolutionaries on the planet. On health, education and taxes, the SNP stresses continuity. The party saves its radicalism for issues the public considers trivial. One is Trident. Another is land reform. According to an opinion poll earlier this year, just 3 per cent of voters consider nuclear weapons one of the three most important

Simon Barnes

The medal machine

Never forget Atlanta. Every time a British athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, remember the Atlanta Games of 1996. I was there, and I saw some great sport — and absolutely none of it was British. Great Britain finished 36th in the medal table, behind Kazakhstan, Algeria, Belgium and Ireland. There was a single British gold medal, and I missed it. It was won by Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, now both sirs: two enormous boys on the burning deck. For the rest, eight silvers and six bronzes seemed to confirm the nature of our sporting culture: the nation that aimed low and missed. Simon

Nicholas Farrell

Italy’s migrant purgatory

Ravenna At a car park a short walk from Dante’s tomb, one of the gang of illegal immigrants who tell motorists where to park and hound them for cash agreed to talk to me for €20. His name was Billy, he said, and he was 22. He was from Senegal and a Muslim. He had come to Italy by fishing boat 14 months ago from Libya, where he had arrived via Mali and Algeria. He paid €200 for the trip (the going rate is said to be at least €1,000) and his boat landed at Lampedusa, 160 nautical miles from Tripoli. ‘Why did you come?’ I asked. ‘In Senegal, no

Martin Vander Weyer

Why lining shareholders’ pockets is more productive than plugging black holes

The revelation by actuarial consultants Lane Clark & Peacock that 56 of the supposedly blue chip companies in the FTSE 100 index are running deficits totalling £46 billion in their defined benefit pension schemes puts the BHS story into a new perspective. It tells us that the £571 million ‘black hole’ in the chain’s pension fund was by no means out of the ordinary — it is a small fraction of the deficits declared by the likes of BT, Tesco, BAE Systems and BP, even if it might have been mitigated by wiser decisions on the part of the scheme’s trustees and greater generosity on the part of former BHS owner

Hugo Rifkind

The best thing about Brexit? It’s not my fault

Brexit Britain fills me with calm. Six weeks on, there’s no point pretending otherwise. Losing is far better than winning. I am filled with enormous serenity at the thought of this terrible, terrible idea being not my fault at all. I didn’t expect to feel this way. Although there were signs, now I think back, on the night of the vote. I was at Glastonbury, obviously. (‘Of course you were!’ cried Rod Liddle, when I saw him a few weeks later.) Of course I was. There, with the rest of the metropolitan, liberal, bien-pensant yadda yadda. I found out at about 2 a.m., after a pleasant evening doing pleasant Glastonbury things.

Matthew Parris

Something must be done for Wales

On Monday 25 July we climbed Cader Idris. No particular reason except a free Monday and a memory of what a fine mountain it looked when, many years ago and heading for the north Wales coast, I skirted this massive ridged hunk of green and black rising from oak forests. Some hills have a strong sense of their own identity and Cader Idris impresses itself on all who see it. It’s a walk, really, not a climb, but at just under 3,000 feet a big, steep walk, taking four or five hours up and down. So we set out from Derbyshire at seven and were there in three-and-a-half hours. In

Wednesday

17 Aug 2016

Steerpike

Wanted: a British bulldog for the Brexit department

In recent months, Downing St has played court to a turf war between No.10’s chief mouser Larry and Palmerston, the Foreign Office’s top cat. Things are only set to get more complicated now that the Treasury has also welcomed a feline — by the name of Gladstone — and the Cabinet Office are in talks to do the same. Unsurprisingly this new wave of pets has left some departments feeling rather left out. In fact, those in the newly formed Department for Brexit are now keen for their own pet. However, rather than a mere cat they are after a… British bulldog. The thinking is that the pooch — widely seen as a symbol for plucky Brits

Charles Moore

Why was I able to ‘vote’ twice in the EU referendum?

When you vote in Britain, there is a relaxed feeling in the polling stations. This is a long-established part of our culture, the atmosphere seems to say, and you are trusted to follow its rules. But, as Sir Eric Pickles’s review of electoral fraud suggests, the ballot is not nearly as secure as it should be. If that trend continues, the results will be called in doubt, and then democracy really is in trouble. For a long time, I have suspected the process and so, in the recent EU referendum, I tried a couple of experiments, helped by the fact that I am legally registered to vote in London as

Isabel Hardman

Owen Smith: We should get Isis round the table for peace talks

Victoria Derbyshire seemed very anxious as Labour’s two-hour-long hustings between Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn wore on this morning to move the debate away from the many internal messes that the party is in (Jewish members not feeling safe any more, online abuse, the chasm between the PLP and the membership: you name it, they covered it) and onto policy. At first, it wasn’t entirely clear why the programme’s producers had been so worried about covering policy: there is barely a cigarette paper between Corbyn and Smith, and that’s exactly how the challenging candidate wants it. The only big points of disagreement are on Trident renewal and the odd £0.5bn

Philip Sime

Forget the ‘Norway model’. Germany suggests UK could get ‘special’ EU status

Britain’s decision to leave the EU sent shockwaves crashing throughout the continent. As Europe struggled to interpret the outcome of the referendum, we heard calls for Brussels to drive a hard bargain with the UK in order to contain the ‘Brexit contagion’. The European Council President Donald Tusk’s warning that the UK must not be allowed to ‘profit’ from leaving the bloc summed up this mood. But now, it seems, our neighbours in Europe are coming to terms with Brexit. And with it, the desire to punish the UK appears to be dampening. Michael Roth, Germany’s European Affairs minister, has this week suggested that a ‘special status’ could be achieved

Steerpike

Sarah Vine lifts the lid on Michael Gove’s beard

There has been much speculation this week regarding rumours that Michael Gove has a beard. The former Justice Secretary was spotted on Tuesday in the Palace of Westminster with what appeared to be a new bout of facial hair. Today photos have emerged of Gove’s whiskers, as his wife Sarah Vine confirmed the news in Wednesday’s Daily Mail. Alas, she has given the beard a lukewarm verdict. Vine says that although Gove is ‘enjoying his new hipster look’, she’s growing tired of men getting to let their ‘facial hair grow wild and free as they relax their regimes’ in summer. Instead she would like to turn the tables so that the woman don’t need

Tuesday

16 Aug 2016

Steerpike

What was Nigel Farage doing at the German embassy?

After Nigel Farage achieved his aim of taking Britain out of the EU, he announced that he would be stepping down as leader of Ukip. However, with the subsequent leadership race since facing several setbacks — with Steven Woolfe ruled ineligible and Bill Etheridge now caught up in a viagra row — many kippers are already missing the days of Farage. While Farage has promised to stay closely involved with his party, could he be planning a German getaway? Mr S only asks after Farage — whose wife Kirsten Mehr is German — was apparently spotted in the queue at the German embassy yesterday: Given that Farage is a man known for his dislike of the EU, his

Tom Goodenough

Will Theresa May finally stick up for EU workers’ rights?

Theresa May has somewhat shamefully maintained her reticence over the rights of EU workers to stay in Britain after Brexit. But some in the ‘Leave’ campaign are continuing to pile pressure on the PM to do the right thing and give assurance to the 3.5million Europeans living and working in Britain. Gisela Stuart was clear throughout the referendum that these workers should not be booted out of Britain in the event of a ‘Leave’ vote. And in a campaign which painted few in glory, Stuart is an exception for actually sticking by what she said. Here’s what she had to say this morning: ‘I think there is no debate about

Monday

15 Aug 2016

Fraser Nelson

What more does Boris Johnson need to do to be taken seriously?

Boris Johnson has spent his adult life being underestimated and sneered at. But today’s attack by Tim Farron, the leader of what remains of the Liberal Democrats, rather takes the biscuit. Today it emerged that, with Theresa May in Switzerland and Philip Hammond out of the country, Boris is running the British government. So Farron pipes up to say: Putting Boris Johnson in charge of the country is like putting the Chuckle Brothers in charge of Newsnight. Still, at least if he’s here, he’s not in Rio offending everyone he meets – and there’s always Larry the cat to stop him doing anything silly. But Boris Johnson is arguably more qualified than anyone in any

Brendan O’Neill

Betraying Brexit: the revolt of the elites against the people

Why is everyone so chilled out about the threats to Brexit? Why isn’t there more public fury over the plotting of lords and academics and experts to stymie Brexit and thwart the will of 17.4m people? In all the years I’ve been writing about politics, I cannot remember a time when democracy has been treated with as much disgust, with as much naked, Victorian-era elitism, as it is being today. And yet we’re all bizarrely mellow. We’re going about our business as if everything is normal, as if the elites aren’t right now, this very minute, in revolt against the people. We need to wake up. Every day brings fresh

Steerpike

Ed Vaizey is left out in the cold

As Theresa May’s recently re-shuffled Cabinet get underway with the big task at hand, spare a thought for those who are having to get used to being on the sidelines. There was a cross-party outcry when Ed Vaizey was axed as culture minister with MPs from both Labour and the SNP praising his work in the role. Alas it seems that Vaizey is finding it difficult to adjust to a return to the backbench. The MP for Wantage — who is a close friend of David Cameron dating back to their Oxford university days — has been lamenting how lucky he was to once have a direct line to the PM: ‘You don’t

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May won’t be surprised Liam Fox and Boris are already battling it out

The dawn of a new government sparks a search amongst journalists for the flashpoints and tensions within it which are likely to bubble over. Just weeks after Theresa May walked into Downing Street, the source of that potential turmoil in her Government already seems clear. And if the revelation of the Prime Minister’s intervention between Liam Fox and Boris Johnson is anything to go on, it looks like tension between the two may cause some trouble for the Prime Minister over the months and years ahead. Liam Fox sent a letter to Boris (copying in the PM) in which he made a power grab for some of the Foreign Office’s remit to

Friday

12 Aug 2016

Isabel Hardman

Court of Appeal rules in favour of Labour party in latest leadership contest twist

In the past few minutes, the Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of the Labour Party’s block on anyone who joined after 12 January 2016 from voting in the party’s leadership election. This means – until there is an appeal to the Supreme Court – that around 130,000 members, most of whom are believed to be sympathetic to Jeremy Corbyn, will not be able to vote. As I explained earlier this week when the High Court ruled in this matter, the impact of this may merely be the size of the victory that Jeremy Corbyn wins against Owen Smith. But it does also make the Labour party more divided and