Politics

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

Thursday

Jenny McCartney Jenny McCartney

The ‘Stakeknife’ investigation and the dark reality of double agents

The decision by Barra McGrory, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland, to recommend an official investigation into the activities of Freddie Scappaticci – the alleged IRA enforcer and British agent known as ‘Stakeknife’ – seems likely to unearth some of the most painful, long-buried secrets of the ‘dirty war’ in Northern Ireland. In so doing it will raise difficult questions about the permissible limits of state intelligence-gathering which remain highly relevant today. Scappaticci, who denied being a British agent before departing Northern Ireland in 2003, is nonetheless widely reported to have been a longstanding head of the IRA’s ‘nutting squad’, or internal security unit, which was responsible for

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: Zac Goldsmith’s new campaign genius

Given that Ivan Massow failed to be picked as one of the four final candidates in the race to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor despite a flashy campaign, it’s safe to say that Massow still has some work to do when it comes to mastering how to succeed in politics. So Mr S was surprised to hear that the business mogul is now assisting Zac Goldsmith with his campaign. Speaking at Josh Spero’s Second Hand Stories book launch party at Bonhams, Massow said he was working with the Conservative mayoral candidate when it came to the policy side of things: ‘I’m working with Zac. I speak to him a lot but

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Mark Carney should avoid the EU referendum and stick to plain monetary economics

Governor Mark Carney is no orator, and whoever puts the fancy metaphors into his speech drafts really ought to desist. In his Mansion House address in June, it was about the legacy of the Great Fire and subsequent rebuilding — just like the great financial crisis, obviously. In last night¹s Cairncross Lecture at Oxford, it was the construction of the Sheldonian Theatre and the strengths of Wren’s design supporting the art on the ceiling — just like the architecture of the European single market, except that ‘they may in time need to be buttressed to realise the full creative potential of the peoples of the UK and Europe’. On both occasions, Carney looked briefly

Cosmo Landesman

Women’s issues are for everyone now, not just feminists

Like all right-thinking lefty men who came of age in the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s, I always thought of myself as a feminist. But now, thanks to Meryl Streep, I’ve been liberated from the label. Last week I heard her on the radio promoting her new film Suffragette. Asked why the story of the suffragettes hadn’t been made into a film before now, she said that in Hollywood the men with the power to get films made didn’t see this subject as anything to do with them. ‘It wasn’t their fight,’ said Streep. But now things were changing. ‘Increasingly we think that women’s issues and women rights are

Harry Mount

Red-brick revolutionaries

‘I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University,’ said William F. Buckley Jr, the American conservative writer. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party must be hoping British voters agree. Under Corbyn, the Labour party — once the clever party — has had a brain transplant. It’s out with the Oxbridge and Harvard graduates with first-class degrees; in with the red-brick university graduates. Or, in Corbyn’s case, a non-graduate. Corbyn got two Es at A-level at Adams’ Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire. He did a year of trade union studies at the North London Polytechnic

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The Hinkley Point disaster

How easy it would be to scorn the environmentalists who are up in arms about George Osborne’s new pet project, the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. You can understand their anxiety: subsidies for green energy are being slashed, yet the Chancellor will do anything — and pay anything — to get this project up and running. He is happy to force households to pay artificially high prices for a form of energy which brings all kinds of risks — of which the world was reminded this week when Japan found the first cancer case liked to the Fukushima disaster of 2011. ‘Has the Chancellor lost his mind?’ they ask.

Paul Wood

How far can Bernie Sanders go?

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thedeathoffeminism/media.mp3″ title=”John R. Macarthur and Freddy Gray discuss how far Bernie Sanders can go ” startat=1764] Listen [/audioplayer]Boston A woman’s voice carried through a lull in several conversations around the table at a smart East Coast dinner. ‘But he’s not even a fucking Democrat…’ She was one of the party’s stars and was talking about Senator Bernie Sanders. He is inducing as much red-faced apoplexy in the Democratic party’s great and good as Donald Trump is causing among the Republican establishment: outsiders both, each upsetting the smooth coronation of the party leadership’s candidate for president. ‘Bernie’ — as he’s often called — shared a stage with Hillary Clinton last

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Heathrow’s third runway could still be halted – here’s how

The Great British Runway final between Heathrow and Gatwick is beginning to look like a game of two halves. The visit of China’s President Xi Jinping is a bonus for the west London team, who can claim that Chinese investors with bulging wallets are more likely to be impressed by landing at an urban mega-airport than an expanded flying club in Sussex. But the Volkswagen emissions scandal has been a gift for Gatwick, because as chief executive Stewart Wingate said: ‘Heathrow’s poor air quality already breaches legal limits and it’s difficult to see how expansion could legally go ahead with the millions of extra car journeys an expanded Heathrow would

Tom Tugendhat

Iran’s hidden war with the West – and what we can do to fight back

When British troops were on patrol in Iraq and Afghanistan, we faced many enemies, from jihadis to press-ganged civilians. But for me, the most terrifying ones lay buried. Bullets usually miss. Improvised explosive devices – IEDs — don’t. They are frighteningly simple. Old munitions wired together or plastic bottles packed with fertiliser and ball-bearings could destroy a vehicle and kill its passengers. During my four years in Afghanistan I saw IEDs evolve: first came remote triggers, then pressure plates and then low-metal-content devices. Curiously, IEDs evolved in a similar way in Iraq. This should be no surprise, since the groups trying to kill British troops shared one common resource: Iranian

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Mark Carney may have unwittingly strengthened the case for leaving the EU

I suspect that Mark Carney set out to strengthen the case for Britain staying in the European Union with his remarks in Oxford tonight, but his intervention may end up having the reverse effect. First, the Bank of England governor did not talk about the advantages of staying inside the EU. He spoke about the advantages of Britain being part of a free trade block; as Boris Johnson argues in the new Spectator this is still likely even if we vote to leave. Here’s what he said:- ‘Broadly speaking, the evidence suggests that the UK has successfully harnessed the benefits of openness afforded by its EU membership while avoiding some of

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Tom Watson gets a tickling from the Home Affairs Committee

Tom Watson, the man who hated Brittan, appeared before the Home Affairs committee this afternoon. In earlier evidence it became clear that the Met was divided on the rape allegations against the late Lord Brittan. Detective Chief Inspector Settle said that to subject him to an interview under caution would have constituted ‘a baseless witch-hunt’. Dep Assist Commissioner Steve Rodhouse disagreed and said it was unusual not to question a rape suspect. Tom Watson played a role as the victim’s cheerleader. He wrote a letter urging the DPP to ensure that Brittain was quizzed. DCI Settle called Watson’s actions ‘undermining’ and ‘a low blow.’ He said Watson had caused panic

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Cameron tells Tories they no longer have to follow international law

People go on about the awful pressure of 24/7 media on our leaders, and how hard the constant scrutiny must be to bear. But politicians and civil servants know that more means less. As more news sites and tweeters repeat the same stories, and millions of ‘diverse’ voices say the same thing, the basics of power go unexamined. Take the ministerial code, which guides the conduct of politicians in office. It is one of the fundamentals of public life. The opposition (such as it is) and the media can use it as a stick to beat the government. The prime minister can fire ministers who break it. ‘Ministers of the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Heidi Allen’s criticism of the Commons upsets fellow MPs

There has been an interesting response in the Tory party to Heidi Allen’s speech in which she criticised the tax credit changes. Many MPs are themselves worried about the changes, and didn’t disagree with what she had to say. But what has really riled them is the way in which she appeared to dismiss the Chamber as largely pointless – and that she spoke against the cuts having supported them once and then went onto vote with the government again on the motion before the House last night (though to be fair, she explained that she wouldn’t vote for the Opposition Day motion because she disagreed with its wording). One

Sebastian Payne

Veteran Labour MP Michael Meacher has died aged 75

The Labour MP for Oldham West & Royston Michael Meacher has died, aged 75. According to the Oldham Chronicle, he passed away after suffering from a short illness. A committed environmentalist, he had leadership ambitions and made them to Spectator readers seven years ago. He was one of the 36 MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader this year — there was some surprise as to why Meacher wasn’t given a position in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet but his recent illness may explain why. His passing means the first by-election of this Parliament is upon us and the first electoral test of Corbyn’s Labour. Although Meacher returned the seat at May’s general election with a huge

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Top Theresa May aide going to work for the Out campaign

Theresa May’s senior special adviser Stephen Parkinson is leaving government to go and work for Vote Leave, the EU referendum Out campaign. Parkinson, who previously worked on the No to AV campaign, will start next month. The fact that someone who has worked so closely with the Home Secretary is joining the Out campaign will intensify speculation that May herself will soon come out for leaving the EU. But those close to her emphasise that she is waiting to see the result of the renegotiation before making up her mind. However, as I report in the forthcoming issue of the magazine, she still strongly believes that freedom of movement should

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: Corbyn fails to sustain the pressure on Cameron

PMQs was a rather ill-tempered affair today. With tax credits and steel closures dominating proceedings, the two sets of benches went at each other with vigour. This was much more like an old-style PMQs than the other Corbyn sessions. The Labour leader began on the tax credits issue. His questions were beginning to rile Cameron, who — in a poor choice of words — said that he was ‘delighted’ that tax credit cuts had passed the Commons. But Corbyn then changed tack to ask about the steel industry. This eased the pressure on the Prime Minister and allowed him to regain the initiative. Corbyn finished his set of questions by

The Spectator

Exclusive: Boris declares that Japan is relaxed about Britain leaving the EU

Boris Johnson has recently returned from a tour of Japan. His diary of the trip appears in this week’s issue of The Spectator: Frankly I don’t know why the British media made such a big fat fuss last week when I accidentally flattened a ten-year-old Japanese rugby player called Toki. He got to his feet. He smiled. Everyone applauded. That’s rugby, isn’t it? You get knocked down, you get up again. And yet I have to admit that I offered a silent prayer of thanks that I didn’t actually hurt the little guy. They aren’t making many kids like Toki these days; in fact they aren’t making enough kids at

Guglielmo Verdirame

A British Bill of Rights would protect our liberty

David Cameron struggles to repatriate powers from Brussels. Yet Britain can reclaim one sovereign power without negotiation. Other EU members never relinquished the right to say ‘non’, ‘nein’, ‘oxi’ to European law that violates the constitution. Should Britain do the same? Italy and Germany’s Constitutional Courts first set constitutional limits to EU law in the 1970s. The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice was not amused. It recently raged against the Spanish Constitutional Court which had the chutzpah to say the European Arrest Warrant might violate due process. ‘Rules of national law, even of a constitutional order cannot … undermine the effectiveness of EU law,’ thundered the Luxembourg judges. European judges putting

Sebastian Payne

Why Seumas Milne’s appointment could be a good thing for Labour

Seumas Milne’s appointment as Labour’s new head of communications and director of strategy has generally been met with his dismay in the party — but it does tell us something about Jeremy Corbyn: compromise is not a phrase in the Corbynite dictionary. John McDonnell’s appointment as shadow chancellor was the first hint that beneath Corbyn’s cuddly beard lies a tough ideologue. Milne’s appointment adds credence to that notion. One former Labour staffer describes Milne’s appointment as the ‘icing on the cake’: ‘This is who Jeremy and John wanted from the start. This is who they really are. This is what their politics is about.’ John McTernan, Tony Blair’s political secretary and a former adviser to Jim Murphy takes a slightly

Mathieu Vaillancourt

Could Jeremy Corbyn do a Justin Trudeau?

A few months back, Justin Trudeau looked like an unlikely candidate to be Canada’s next prime minister. But Canada’s Liberal Party has now won a majority at the general election, ending nearly a decade of Conservative rule. Back in August when the Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an election for 19 October, the social-democratic NDP was first in the polls, the Conservatives good second and the Liberals third. Justin Trudeau’s majority win is a historic feat in Canadian politics, because a third-running party has never before won a majority. So what were the key issues in this election? Not much. The choice seemed to be between wanting ‘more of the same’ or wanting ‘change’,