Politics Archives

Monday

18 Nov 2024

Ukraine will make the most of its new firepower

Overnight, the news of Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles on Russian soil has been sinking in. Reports suggest that Kyiv is planning to use US-made ATACMS missiles for the first time in the coming days. We won’t know for sure until after the attack has taken place though – speaking at a press conference last night, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the news but said ‘strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.’ The White House was reportedly persuaded to grant Ukraine permission to use the missiles following the news that approximately 10,000 North Korean troops

Katy Balls

Is it wise for Starmer to meet Xi?

Keir Starmer will today become the first prime minister in six years to meet with Xi Jinping. The Labour leader is due to meet with the Chinese president at the G20 summit in Brazil as Starmer’s government attempts a wider reset of UK/China relations. This is being pitched by Downing Street as a move to ‘stable and pragmatic engagement’ with Beijing following a cooling of relations in recent years. The last prime minister to meet with Xi was Theresa May in 2018 who hailed a ‘golden era of UK-China relations’. Since then, however, allegations of espionage, human rights abuses, the national security law in Hong Kong and the pandemic have

Sergey Radchenko

What will Putin do about Biden’s parting gift to Ukraine?

At the very moment most people seem to have forgotten of his existence, President Biden has slowly but purposefully shuffled across Vladimir Putin’s latest red line in Ukraine. After months of President Zelensky’s tireless pleas, the United States has finally given Kyiv a green light to use American missiles (ATACMS) for strikes deep inside Russia. Putin may well decide that it is safer to swallow his pride and pretend nothing has happened Reports indicate that Biden’s permission applies in the first instance only to the Russian and North Korean troops deployed in the Kursk region. It aims at helping Kyiv to hold on to the piece of the Russian territory that

James Heale

Get ready for farmageddon

Is Westminster ready for farmageddon? Tomorrow will see the greatest political demonstration for a rural cause since the passage of the Hunting Act in 2004. Thousands are expected to descend on Whitehall to protest Rachel Reeves’ changes to inheritance tax for farms. Those worth more than £1 million will face an effective inheritance tax (IHT) rate of 20 per cent from April 2026 – which rural groups fear will ‘kill’ the family farm. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is hosting a conference event at Church House in Parliament Square from 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. Up to 1,800 members – divided into three groups of 600 – will be able to

Sunday

17 Nov 2024

James Heale

Biden allows Kyiv to strike inside Russia with US missiles

Joe Biden has 64 days left in the White House – and clearly he intends to make the most of them. The President last night allowed Ukraine to use American missiles to strike deep inside of Russia. For months, Kyiv has been asking for permission to use ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) – capable of firing long range missiles up to 186 miles. The weapons – which have already been used at least once to hit targets in occupied Crimea – will enable Ukraine to target a wider range of bases, storage facilities, and logistics hubs. It comes seven months after the Pentagon confirmed the missiles’ arrival in Ukraine on

Joe Bedell-Brill

There is a culture of ‘fear’ in the Church of England, says Bishop of Newcastle

Louise Haigh: ‘If we hadn’t taken the action, the fare cap would have been lifted entirely’ With the current £2 bus fare cap due to expire at the end of this year, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh defended Labour’s decision to guarantee an increased £3 cap until December next year. Haigh said the government’s new £1 billion subsidy would improve the frequency and reliability of buses, particularly in rural areas. Kuenssberg pointed out that bus fares would be going up for lots of people who would struggle to afford the change. Haigh said £3 would be the maximum, and in urban areas bus fares would only increase in line with inflation.

Michael Evans

The sad death of the Eurofighter Typhoon

Britain’s fighter jets are running missions into Syria, dropping bombs on the Houthis in Yemen, patrolling over Estonia, Lithuania and Romania, close to Ukraine, and guarding our shores from interloping Russian bombers. And yet, the Typhoon final-assembly production line at Warton in Preston has effectively come to a halt. There are no new orders from the Ministry of Defence, and there is a battle going on between Typhoon supporters and those who want Britain’s military to have more American Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft instead. The government is saying nothing because there is a strategic defence review underway. It’s an old, old story, rehearsed so many times in the past. Do

Paddy Stephens

Can Kent’s hop industry survive?

There is something quintessentially English about hop fields. Rows of ten foot wooden stakes rise from the grass, perhaps three feet apart, holding up a network of wires. In the summer, hops grow up these wires like vines, forming a fragrant, uneven wall of green shades: darker leaves with soft lime-green cones. The industry has shaped Kent for centuries with terraces of former pickers’ cottages lining the lanes, and dark clay cone-shaped oast houses – remnants of a time before hops were dried industrially – dotting the landscape. Local museums preserve the testimonies of poor Londoners who escaped here from the East End in the early 20th century to spend

Mark Taubert

The uncomfortable truth about assisted dying

This week, the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater finally put forward the much-awaited bill on assisted dying, which will likely be discussed in the coming weeks. Supporters of the bill have been campaigning on the issue for years, with legislation on the topic most recently rejected by the House of Commons in 2015. This bill, however, is little better. Above all, in its vagueness it fails to outline what drugs can legally be administered to help someone end their life. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, as it is officially known, simply states that ‘the Secretary of State must, by regulations, specify one or more drugs or other substances

Gavin Mortimer

Donald Trump’s style of politics originated in Europe

A headline in a recent Washington Post op-ed declared that: ‘The Trump contagion is already in Europe – and it’s spreading’. The Post‘s European Affairs columnist, Lee Hockstader, who wrote the article, described the president-elect as ‘a dangerous role model to a rising cadre of European wannabes’. Sorry, Post. Europe may have given the USA blue jeans, burgers, and bubble wrap, but Trump’s form of political leadership originated in Europe at the turn of this century. Its initial purveyors were Pim Fortuyn of Holland, France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Jörg Haider of Austria. They also knew, like Trump, how to engage with the masses, tapping into anger at the liberal

Rebecca Chapman

The parable of Justin Welby

When Channel 4’s Cathy Newman summed up the Church of England’s John Smyth scandal as showing that ‘the church had neither process nor kindness’, Justin Welby agreed. It was hard for the Archbishop of Canterbury not to. Welby’s downfall was in no small part due to his neglect of the right process, one which puts victims and survivors first. As Welby – who resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury this week – said: ‘You can have kindness without process and nothing happens’. Welby’s relaxed approach, but iron will, elevated him to the position of Archbishop The Makin review into the church’s handling of the abuse allegations against Smyth shows what happens

Saturday

16 Nov 2024

Ross Clark

Without America, Britain’s economy will stall

The comments by Stephen Moore, Donald Trump’s economic adviser, should not really be controversial. ‘I’ve always said that Britain has to decide,’ he said from Florida, where he is preparing the new administration’s economic policy. ‘Do you want to go towards the European socialist model or do you want to go towards the US free market? Lately it seems like they [Britain] are shifting more in a European model and so if that’s the case I think we’d be less interested in a free trade deal.’ He is right. Britain absolutely does have to decide whether it wants to be closer to the US economic model or to carry on

Michael Gove

Taxes, tariffs and Trump: What lies ahead for Labour?

63 min listen

The Spectator’s Michael Gove, Katy Balls, and Kate Andrews are joined by Paul Abberley, Chief Executive of Charles Stanley, to discuss and unpack Labour’s first budget in 14 years. Now the dust has settled from the policies, key questions continue to arise. Can Labour create the growth it desperately needs? Why are farmers so upset with the budget? And can they define a working person yet?

Nadine Dorries

Nadine Dorries, Katy Balls, Edmund West, Sam Dalrymple, and Tanjil Rashid

32 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Nadine Dorries reads her diary (1:12); Katy Balls analyses the politics behind the Assisted Dying debate (5:58); Edmund West allows us a glimpse into Whitby Goth Week (11:55); reviewing Avinash Paliwal’s book India’s New East, Sam Dalrymple looks at the birth of Bangladesh (17:39); and Tanjil Rashid reveals William Morris’s debt to Islam (21:23). Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Patrick O’Flynn

If Peter Mandelson can’t handle Trump, no one can

If Peter Mandelson is confirmed as our next ambassador to Washington there will be an outcry among swathes of both the right and the left of British politics. There always is when Mandelson lands a plum position. On the left, the resentment began over his transfer of allegiance from Gordon Brown to Tony Blair more than 30 years ago. But it really gained momentum after Blair parachuted him in to be Northern Ireland secretary in place of Mo Mowlam in the autumn of 1999. Grassroots Labour mythology sprung up around the idea that Mowlam was being punished by Blair for being too popular and that Mandelson had been manoeuvring for

Niko Vorobyov

Russia’s mephedrone problem is spiralling out of control

Russians are, stereotypically, known as heavy vodka drinkers – a fact that is often celebrated, despite all the bodily perils it entails. What’s rather less talked about is that Russia suffers one of the worst HIV epidemics outside Africa. This is thanks, in no small part, to heroin users sharing needles. But the latest challenge to public health, aside from the meatgrinder in Ukraine, is the synthetic stimulants craze behind which lie an underworld of cyber drug cartels. Russia’s drug problem is nothing new The annual death toll from illicit drugs has more than doubled since 2019 to over 10,000 a year, a gruesome trend that’s likely to continue as the stress of the

Rupert Darwall

Cop is dying

In the near three-decade history of the annual round of UN climate conferences, the Baku Cop29 stands out. There have been disastrous Cops before. For those with long memories, there was Cop6 in the Hague after George W. Bush narrowly won the 2000 presidential election, which was disrupted by protestors and the outgoing American climate negotiator had a cake thrown at him. Then there is the Copenhagen Cop15, when the Global South, led by China, India, Brazil and South Africa, sunk a binding climate treaty that would have required them to cap their emissions. But never before has there been the indifference and mass absenteeism that marks the Baku Cop.

Friday

15 Nov 2024

Steerpike

Amy Lamé embarrasses herself – again

After eight years of poorly serving the capital, there was relief from London taxpayers last month when Amy Lamé announced she was standing down as Sadiq Khan’s ‘Night Czar’. On her watch, dozens of clubs, pubs and bars closed down, all the while she continued to enjoy inflation-busting pay rises. It was Mr S who broke the news last year that Khan had handed her a 40 per cent wage increase, with her final salary being eventually more than £132,000 a year. So much for performance relayed pay eh? Lamé is no longer claiming a taxpayer salary – but she still continues to embarrass herself. This afternoon it was announced

Lisa Haseldine

One phone call won’t make Putin listen to Scholz

This afternoon, for the first time in nearly two years, the German chancellor Olaf Scholz picked up the phone to speak with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two leaders reportedly spoke for approximately an hour, with Scholz calling on Putin to end the ‘Russian war of aggression in Ukraine’ and withdraw his troops from the country. Scholz also made another demand of Putin, that ‘Russia must show a willingness to negotiate with Ukraine – with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace’. During the call, Scholz reportedly condemned Russia’s continued striking of civilian targets in Ukraine and raised the subject of the 50,000 or so North Korean soldiers

Steerpike

SNP health secretary embroiled in expenses debacle

To Scotland, where the Nats are once again under scrutiny over expenses claims. It now transpires that not only had SNP health secretary Neil Gray been using ministerial cars to take him to sports matches, he took relatives in the vehicle with him too. The last time Mr S checked, acting ‘in line with government duties’ did not involve bringing family along on the job… Gray came under fire after the Sunday Mail revealed the Aberdeen FC fan had been chauffeured to a number of his team’s games between November 2023 and May 2024. After pressure on Gray ramped up, the cabinet minister opted on Thursday to make a statement