Politics Archives

Saturday

20 Sep 2025

Lib Dems have an answer for why their party isn’t doing better

Whatever the weather, there will be sandals and socks aplenty in Bournemouth this weekend, as the Lib Dems descend on the coastal town for their party conference. It’s a chance for them to get their voice heard and make an impact, something that has not happened much in the 14 months since a hugely successful General Election that resulted in a record 72 MPs heading to the House of Commons. A Lib Dem Peer feels that because the party is “reasonable,” they are simply not getting coverage The Lib Dems are polling at 15 per cent, according to the latest YouGov data, just above half of what Reform are on

Piotr Wilczek

Lazy Polish stereotypes are spoiling British films

Netflix’s film of The Thursday Murder Club has all the makings of a British export hit: a cosy crime plot, a cast of national treasures, a backdrop steeped in English eccentricity. And then comes Bogdan Jankowski, a Polish labourer with a confiscated passport – a character who could have been lifted straight from a tabloid cartoon. The Pole has too often been cast as brute, victim or buffoon It is hardly a new trope. Since the post-war years, the Pole has too often been cast as brute, victim or buffoon. Tennessee Williams’s Stanley Kowalski set the mould in A Streetcar Named Desire: sweaty, violent, his foreignness exaggerated for the audience’s unease. British culture

Friday

19 Sep 2025

Tim Shipman

What the Tories should learn from Trump

Robert Jenrick has warned that he is ‘absolutely terrified’ Britain is heading for a debt crisis ‘unless Rachel Reeves changes course very quickly’. ‘That will be a financial crisis of a scale akin to what we experienced in 2008,’ he warned. ‘That will mean tens of thousands of homeowners potentially facing the repossession of their homes, thousands of people being made homeless, thousands of small businesses facing debt repayments they just cannot handle.’ This crisis, he predicted, is ‘coming in the next 12 months’, and the Conservative response to it must be that ‘the state is too large and we have to cut it… above all else in welfare.’ Labour,

Madeline Grant

This peer’s Assisted Suicide speech was truly bonkers

We’re back again in the House of Peers this week as they once again give a leaden beating to Leadbeater’s suicide bill. Even when discussing matters of life and death, there is something very reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan about the place. The most famous G&S operetta set in the House of Lords is, of course, Iolanthe – when Parliament is taken over by a group of incompetent fairies. I’m saying nothing. Falconer slumped there, a face like a constipated toad throughout Again, the House was full. Perhaps aware that some of the most convincing criticism of the bill both in the Commons and Lords had come from women, today

Harry Mount

Oxford’s decline and fall is no surprise

What’s the quickest way to make the two most famous universities in the world go wrong? Make it easier to get in. That’s exactly what Oxford and Cambridge appear to have done in recent years. And so – no surprise – it’s just been announced that neither university was in the top three British universities for the first time since the records, produced by the Times, began 32 years ago. Oxford’s slipping standards don’t just apply to those trying to win a place This decline must at least partly be blamed on the universities offering ‘contextual offers’ or using ‘contextual data’ in assessing applicants who may have lower grades. It appears to be

Svitlana Morenets

Kyiv is running out of money

In all the speculation about when Russia might run out of money to fund its war in Ukraine, one fact has gone largely unnoticed: Ukraine’s pockets are emptying first. Kyiv has approved a draft State Budget for next year that devotes record sums for defence with a projected deficit of 18.4 per cent of GDP – some 2.4 trillion hryvnias (£46 billion). The IMF estimates the realistic deficit could be some £20 billion higher. In addition, the government still needs to plug a hole of nearly £6 billion in the current budget. As in previous years, the plan is to turn to allies, cap in hand, hoping that their generosity

John Power

John Power, Nick Carter, Elisabeth Dampier, Maggie Fergusson & Mark Mason

26 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: John Power argues the Oxford Union has a ‘lynch-mob mindset’; Elisabeth Dampier explains why she would never date a German; Nick Carter makes the case for licensing MDMA to treat veterans with PTSD; Maggie Fergusson reviews Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island by Mike Pitts; and, Mark Mason provides his notes on guided walks. Mark will also be hosting a guided walk for the Spectator, for tickets go to www.spectator.co.uk/events Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Freddy Gray

Has Trump been taken over by Big Tech?

54 min listen

Donald Trump has arrived in Britain with promises of billions in tech investment. But is this AI boom real growth — or just another bubble? Oren Cass, chief economist at American Compass and editor of The New Conservatives, joins Freddy Gray to discuss whether the Trump administration has been taken over by big tech. Click here to get your tickets for Americano Live.

Alexander Larman

How the Princess of Wales bonded with Melania Trump

President Trump arrives back in the United States today, and Keir Starmer will have returned to 10 Downing Street breathing a sigh of relief that this unprecedented second state visit went about as well as it could have done. However, there may be different feelings in Buckingham Palace and the other royal residences. Certainly, Trump’s open admiration – even obsequiousness – for King Charles, who he described as ‘a great gentleman [and] a great king’ – would have been received well. But the King himself maintained a poker face throughout the visit, with his only pointed remarks at the state banquet about the need for a lasting peace in Ukraine

Patrick West

Nish Kumar has been cancelled – but not for the reason he thinks

Nish Kumar isn’t the first television comedian to throw himself into activist politics in recent times. Another former panellist on the now defunct BBC comedy show Mock the Week, Frankie Boyle, did likewise a decade ago, and with little success. So far, Kumar’s decision to do similarly seems to have proved even less popular. Having appeared alongside Zarah Sultana early this month live at the London Podcast Festival, Kumar was at the forefront of the anti-Trump protests orchestrated by the fringe left this week, appearing as host at the Stop Trump protest in Parliament Square in London, where he tossed from the stage a large balloon with a picture of

Oscar Edmondson

Inside the ‘Your Party’ meltdown

13 min listen

Who would have thought it? Jeremy Corbyn’s insurgent party co-venture with Zarah Sultana seems to have imploded before it even got going. On Thursday, ‘Your Party’ supporters received an email from Zarah Sultana detailing how they could sign up for a £55 membership. Soon after, Jeremy Corbyn released a statement – co-signed by the so-called Gaza independent MPs that make up the as-yet-untitled party – which dismissed Sultana’s email as ‘unauthorised’, and that they were seeking legal advice. James Heale describes how it has the air of a ‘South American coup’, with both sides briefing against each other, including Zarah Sultana’s camp accusing Jeremy Corbyn of overseeing a ‘sexist boys’

The Spectator

Julie Burchill, Gareth Roberts and Madeline Grant on what makes Britain great

This month, GQ Magazine asked some celebs what they love about Britain. Names such as Emma Thompson, Anthony Joshua and Brian Cox replied with the predictable: the Lionesses, Adolescence and Paddington Bear. This horror show prompted us to ask our writers: what’s actually great about Britain? Madeline Grant Those two brave boys who ripped the face off that statue of Paddington. Of course I don’t condone vandalism, but I view it as the equivalent of when Iraqis tore down that statue of Saddam with such joy in 2003. Paddington has become a symbol – unintended by his author – of the twee, hectoring, brain sapping monoculture which has come to

Ross Clark

Borrowing is spiralling out of control

There really is no good news for Rachel Reeves as she prepares her second Budget. This morning’s borrowing figures are not just bad; they hint at a sense of hopelessness, that Britain is sliding inexorably towards a very deep fiscal crisis. This is yet another fiscal black hole for Reeves to fill, along with another about to be created by the OBR In August, the government had to borrow £18 billion, £3.5 billion more than in August 2024. This is in spite of £40 billion worth of tax rises (or rather tax rises which were hoped to raise an extra £40 billion) in last year’s Budget. Government receipts are indeed up

Gavin Mortimer

Is France ungovernable?

One million people protested in France yesterday. That was according to the trade unions, who organised the day of industrial action. The police estimated the number of demonstrators at half a million, 309 of whom were arrested for various misdemeanours. There were skirmishes between police and protestors in numerous cities across France, but the most significant incident was in Paris when a group of demonstrators gained entry into the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Among those protesting were nurses, pharmacists, air traffic controllers, transport workers and teachers. Next Friday it is the turn of farmers to take to the streets. The upshot of Macron’s massive miscalculation is a very angry

Eliot Wilson

Will Britain ever join the EU’s defence loan scheme?

Nick Thomas-Symonds holds the venerable position of His Majesty’s Paymaster General, which, ironically as we shall see, was once in charge of the finances of the armed forces. His main responsibility in government, however, is as minister for the constitution and European Union relations, and it was that hat he wore this week to visit the European Commission in Brussels. Thomas-Symonds is the man doing the hard yards to advance the government’s ‘reset’ of UK-EU relations and turn the warm rhetoric of the ‘Common Understanding’ agreed in May into tangible results. The parties have already concluded a Security and Defence Partnership, but the Common Understanding had an important proviso: The

Miriam Cates

Why is the Assisted Dying Bill being rushed through the Lords?

One may hardly be surprised that the battle over life and death in Parliament, focused on Kim Leadbeater’s controversial assisted suicide Bill, has featured Machiavellian manoeuvres inside Westminster’s halls. As the resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister dominated the headlines, a significant announcement was slipped out As the resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister, the cabinet reshuffle, and Nigel Farage’s conference speech dominated the headlines earlier this month, a quiet but significant announcement was slipped out by the government. At 2 pm on 5 September, peers were informed by email that extra time would be given for the assisted suicide Bill’s Second Reading debate in the House of Lords. On

Thursday

18 Sep 2025

Oscar Edmondson

Trump and Starmer dance around their differences

14 min listen

Donald Trump has been in the UK this week on an unprecedented second state visit – an honour that he said last night at a state dinner he ‘hopes’ is reserved only for him, to much amusement in the room. Humility doesn’t come naturally to the President, but he does seem genuinely humbled by the pomp and pageantry that comes with a state visit. Meanwhile, Trump-management and grandstanding on the world stage seem (bizarrely) to come naturally to the Prime Minister. Trump’s visit – which threatened to be derailed by the sacking of the US ambassador Peter Mandelson over his association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein – has been a

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Did Trump convince Starmer to see sense on Palestine?

As Donald Trump visited the United Kingdom this week, the press seized the opportunity to confront both him and Keir Starmer about the issue of Hamas and Britain’s posture towards Palestinian statehood. In a rare moment of lucidity, and perhaps influenced by the firm presence of the current US president, Starmer appeared, briefly, to align his moral compass. Faced with questions over why his government was proceeding with the recognition of a Palestinian state in the wake of the October 7th atrocities, Starmer delivered what may be his most unequivocal statement to date: “Let me be really clear about Hamas: They’re a terrorist organisation who can have no part in

Madeline Grant

Donald Trump and Keir Starmer make a very strange pair

There is just something innately funny about seeing Keir Starmer and Donald Trump together. Two men so obviously different; in character, interests, ability and shape, forced together by circumstance. Watching them at the press conference today was no exception. They put me in mind of Bialystock and Bloom from The Producers: the bombastic Broadway shyster and his hapless sinusitis-suffering goon. First, for their ‘business roundtable’, they sat together behind a comically small table inside a marquee, which made them look like an unlikely scoring partnership at a village cricket match or as if they were signing the registers at a low-budget gay wedding. Alternatively, they looked a bit like they

James Heale

Starmer survives another Trump encounter

Every time Keir Starmer meets with Donald Trump, journalists ask each other the same question. ‘Will today be the day it all blows up?’ Ahead of this week’s state visit, the odds were not in Starmer’s favour. Whether it was Peter Mandelson’s departure, Britain’s looming recognition of Palestine or even Starmer’s plummeting poll ratings, today’s press conference was fraught with potential difficulties. But, once again, the Prime Minister survived the encounter relatively unscathed, with the President declining multiple chances to take a swing at his beleaguered counterpart. In the splendour of the Great Hall at Chequers, the two men began the encounter by hailing the military and scientific bonds between