Politics Archives

Thursday

19 Nov 2015

Why David Cameron is paying special attention to new Tory MPs

David Cameron has had another one of his friendly meetings with new Tory MPs today. These are regular slots where new backbenchers get the chance to raise matters that they’re interested in and the Prime Minister tells them how well they are doing. Unsurprisingly, Syria came up today. It’s interesting that Cameron is being quite as active as he is with new MPs. It’s not just meetings in Number 10: it’s also letters to each new MP after their maiden speech, each with a little detail about what he particularly liked about what they said. This sort of behaviour from the Prime Minister is striking because he was so poor

The Spectator

Listen: Is the BBC a national treasure? With Melvyn Bragg, James Purnell and Rachel Johnson

Last night Spectator Events hosted a discussion at Church House, Westminster about whether the BBC really is a national treasure. Speakers included Melvyn Bragg, author and broadcaster, James Purnell, director of strategy and digital at the BBC, Andrew Bridgen MP, Meirion Jones, investigative journalist, Robin Aitken, author of Can we trust the BBC? and Rachel Johnson, author and broadcaster. The discussion was hosted by Andrew Neil. Both entertaining and informative, the discussion touched upon a number of different areas, including whether the BBC should reduce its print content, whether a ‘liberal’ bias exists and whether the BBC can actually be reformed. At the end of the discussion, the audience was asked whether people wanted

James Morris

Exclusive poll: Jeremy Corbyn’s message is seen as unclear and incoherent

Jeremy Corbyn has a problem: two thirds of voters have no idea what he is saying. In a new poll of 2,372 people, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and prior to Corbyn’s remarks on the Paris terrorist attacks, 67 per cent say they don’t know or cannot recall what the Labour leader is saying — or that his message is rubbish, incoherent or just the opposite of whatever the Tories say (click to enlarge). Corbyn’s position is even worse for his core audience: the non-voters. Four out of five in this group have no idea what he is talking about. More than half of those who self-identify as left-wing but didn’t vote Labour at the last general

Isabel Hardman

Could Michael Gove help Jeremy Hunt solve the junior doctor row?

That 98 per cent of junior doctors have voted in favour of strike action over their new contract shows the extent of the stand-off between the medical profession and Jeremy Hunt. It is not possible that all the members of the BMA who turned out to vote (76 per cent) are raving left-wingers. Most of them weren’t particularly politicised before this dispute. The question that a number of Tory MPs and ministers are asking is whether a generation of people who, given their education and income bracket, fall quite naturally into the group normally pretty likely to vote Tory are now never going to do so because of the bad blood

Steerpike

News from Labour: Jeremy Corbyn’s email policy to tackle Euro-centric media bias

After the media reported in detail about both the Paris terrorist attacks and the aftermath over the weekend, several online users began to take to social media to complain that the same treatment hadn’t been given to the terrorist attacks that recently occurred in Beirut and Ankara. Jeremy Corbyn was quick to join the cause, hitting out at the mainstream media in a television interview by accusing them of showing Euro-centric bias: ‘Likewise, which didn’t unfortunately get hardly any publicity, was the bombing in Beirut last week or the killing in Turkey. I think our media needs be able to report things that happen outside of Europe as well as inside. A life is

Charles Moore

Jeremy Corbyn is the political version of a creationist

When Jeremy Corbyn says it is better to bring people to trial than to shoot them, he is right. So one might feel a little sorry for him as the critics attack his reaction to the Paris events. But in fact the critics are correct, for the wrong reason. It is not Mr Corbyn’s concern for restraint and due process which are the problem. It is the question of where his sympathies really lie, of what story he thinks all these things tell. Every single time that a terrorist act is committed (unless, of course, it be a right-wing one, like that of Anders Breivik), Mr Corbyn locates the ill

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks

Is Jeremy Corbyn a peacenik or is he only interested in badmouthing the West? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Nick Cohen and Freddy Gray discuss the Paris terrorist attacks and the response from British politicians. Was the Labour leader right to shift his position on shoot to kill? What does his association with Stop The War mean for the party? And has Corbyn’s response to the events in Paris weakened his leadership? Toby Young and Kemi Badenoch also discuss integration, multiculturalism and whether failures in these areas have played a role in the growth of Isis. How can the West counter the arguments made by Islamists? And to what extent is Isis Islamic? James Forsyth and Ben Judah also discuss Barack Obama’s failure

Steerpike

Watch: Ken Livingstone calls Maria Eagle ‘silly’ in disastrous Newsnight interview

Yesterday Ken Livingstone found himself at the centre of a media storm after he suggested that Kevan Jones — a Labour MP with a history of depression — required psychiatric help, after he dared to question Livingstone’s appointment as co-chair on Labour’s defence policy review. As Jones — along with Jeremy Corbyn — called on Livingstone to apologise, a series of media appearances followed where he did no such thing. At first he said Jones should ‘get over it’, later explaining he was just standing up for himself as any self-respecting south London lad would. Eventually a grovelling statement appeared on Livingstone’s Twitter account where he apologised ‘unreservedly’. So whichever brain at Labour HQ decided it

Nick Cohen

Jeremy Corbyn isn’t anti-war. He’s just anti-West

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/parisattacksaftermath/media.mp3″ title=”Nick Cohen and Freddy Gray discuss whether Jeremy Corbyn dislikes the West” startat=42] Listen [/audioplayer]Before the bodies in Paris’s restaurants were cold, Jeremy Corbyn’s Stop the War Coalition knew who the real villains were — and they were not the Islamists who massacred civilians. ‘Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East’ ran a headline on its site. The article went on to say that the consequence of the West’s ‘decades-long, bipartisan cultivation of religious extremism will certainly be more bloodshed, more repression and more violent intervention’. This flawless example of what I once called the ‘kill us, we deserve it’ school of political

James Delingpole

There’s a right way to lose at the Oxford Union. I did the wrong way

The way not to win a debate at the Oxford Union, I’ve just discovered, is to start your speech with a casual quip about Aids. It wasn’t a scripted joke. Just one of those things you blurt out in those terrifying initial moments when you’re trying to win the audience over with your japeish, irreverent, mildly self-parodying human side before launching into your argument proper. It only happened because when my turn came to speak there wasn’t any still water for me to drink and I was parched. So various Union officers proffered me the dregs of the other speakers’ half-drunk bottles. ‘Oh my God, I might get Aids,’ I

Wednesday

18 Nov 2015

James Forsyth

Lords votes to give 16 and 17 year-olds the vote in the EU referendum

The House of Lords has tonight voted to give 16 and 17 year olds the vote in the EU referendum. This question will now go to the Commons, which can try and overturn it and send the bill back to the Lords—so-called ‘ping pong’. The government has already made clear tonight that it will try and overturn this amendment. But, intriguingly, some Tory MPs have told me that they think the Commons will actually back votes at 16 for the referendum when this comes back down to the Commons. If this does happen, this could delay the referendum as the Electoral Commission argue that extra time will be needed to

Sebastian Payne

RoadTrip’s Mark Clarke kicked out of Conservative Party

The Tories have announced that Mark Clarke, an activist who founded the RoadTrip campaigning organisation, has been booted out of the party for life. Clarke has found himself at the centre of bullying and intimidation allegations following the death of Elliott Johnson, a 21-year-old activist who is thought to have killed himself. Clarke, along with two other activists, was barred from this year’s party conference. Conservative HQ has put out the following statement, referencing new information that has ‘come to our knowledge this week’: ‘In the light of information that has come to our knowledge this week, Mark Clarke’s membership of the Conservative Party has been cancelled for life. This

Lloyd Evans

David Cameron is starting to look like Jeremy Corbyn’s best friend at PMQs

Jezza started PMQs with a bit of a wobble. As he got to his feet the applause from his Labour ‘friends’ sounded like the hoarse whooshings of a punctured beach ball. Corbyn nervously offered his sympathy to the Paris terror victims and expressed concern that the slaughter of 129 innocents might increase Islamophobia in Britain. The attacks, he said, ‘have nothing in common with the 2 million Muslims who live here.’ David Cameron agreed, partially. He drew a distinction between ‘the religion of peace’ (which is Islam, in case you were getting confused) and the ‘bile spouted’ by terrorist killers. But, he said, ‘it’s not good enough to say there’s no

James Forsyth

PMQs: Jeremy Corbyn’s views on security are only harming Labour

One moment from PMQs today will stick in the mind for a long time. After Corbyn had asked his last question, Cameron declared ‘Hasn’t it come to something when the leader of the opposition thinks that the police, when confronted by a Kalashnikov-waving terrorist isn’t sure what the reaction should be?’ At that point, the Labour front bench just looked utterly dejected and beaten. They will soon have to decide how much longer they can let this farce continue for. If they do not act soon, then the damage done to the Labour party might be irreversible. The essential problem is that Jeremy Corbyn’s views on foreign policy and security

Isabel Hardman

Ken Livingstone’s mental health slur is more of a problem than his views on Trident

Maria Eagle’s aides have denied reports that she is considering quitting her role as Shadow Defence Secretary over the appointment of Ken Livingstone as co-convenor of the Labour party defence policy review. But they are emphasising that she remains the lead on defence policy, and that this review will be feeding in to the party’s National Policy Forum. In a rather optimistic assessment of the rather odd predicament that Eagle, who supports Trident renewal, finds herself in, a source close to the Shadow Defence Secretary explained that having two co-convenors who take different views on the nuclear deterrent may help the policy review process as it will mean everyone with

Nick Cohen

Nobody will ever forgive the right if they destroy the BBC

Nowhere does the right show its isolation from its own country more vividly than when it demands the destruction of the BBC. The corporation is not like the telephone system, which you can pass into private ownership without anyone noticing. It is as integral to Britain as the monarchy and the NHS, which is why Scottish nationalists devote so much energy to denouncing it. We are a small country, which is becoming smaller. In the world that is coming, Asian and African countries will have huge populations beside which Britain’s market of 70 million will seem puny. Hence we subsidise culture that simply would not be produced in the private sector.

Douglas Murray

Politicians are finally starting to admit a link between Islam and the extremists

One step forward, one step back. Theresa May says in Parliament that the Paris attacks have ‘nothing to do with Islam’. And on the same day, later in the evening, her boss quite rightly says: ‘It is not good enough to say simply that Islam is a religion of peace and then to deny any connection between the religion of Islam and the extremists. Why? Because these extremists are self-identifying as Muslims.’ In saying this the Prime Minister was echoing the sensible and intelligent comments of one of his ministers – Sajid Javid – who rightly said in January after the last massacre in Paris: ‘The lazy answer would be to

Sebastian Payne

Public backs David Cameron on Syrian airstrikes, according to new poll

The terrorist attacks in Paris appear to have shifted public attitudes on both refugees and airstrikes. According to a new poll from the Times/YouGov, 20 per cent think we should accept more refugees — down 16 points from September — while almost half said we should accept fewer or none at all, which is a 22 point increase from September. Other factors may have played into this shift in opinion but what has happened in Paris will surely have played a big part in it. The poll also reveals that the public backs the decision to to kill Mohammed Emwazi, aka Jihadi John, via a drone strike. 76 per cent said it was the

Tuesday

17 Nov 2015

Sebastian Payne

Labour MPs attack Stop The War and Corbyn’s views on terrorism

Labour MPs appear to be just as annoyed by Jeremy Corbyn’s links to the Stop The War coalition as they are about his comments on shoot to kill. In the questions following David Cameron’s Commons statement on the Paris attacks, several MPs used the opportunity to make coded attacks on Stop The War for a blog it published, titled ‘Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East’. It has been since been removed (cached version here) and Corbyn said he was glad it was deleted — but he has yet to condemn the fact it was published in the first place. Ian Austin, the MP for

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron: Britain needs to take action against Islamic State in Syria

Senior politicians have so far been rather cautious in their response to the Paris attacks. But today David Cameron gave a much more robust and intentional statement on the British reaction to what happened on Friday night. He used his slot in the Commons to re-state the case for British involvement in military action against Islamic State in Syria, and said that he would be setting out in detail his strategy and reasons for getting involved in the coming days. It is clear that the Prime Minister wants to push for a vote on this soon, and given he will not bring a vote to the Commons unless he believes