Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
26 min listen
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Mark Mason reminisces about old English bank notes (00:33), Philip Patrick wonders whether AI will replace politicians in Japan (04:04), Matthew Parris wonders why you would ever trust a travel writer (10:34) and Mary Wakefield looks at the weird world of cults (17:42).
Over 500 people are estimated to have been killed in the ongoing sectarian clashes between the Druze and Bedouin populations in Syria’s southern Suweida province this week. Vowing to protect the local Druze, and backing the community’s militia, Israel has bombed Syrian government forces around Suweida and launched missiles on Damascus. While Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has promised to safeguard the minority community, and has announced the withdrawal of troops from the area, his government forces have been directly involved in attacks against the Druze. Druze civilians have been indiscriminately killed in ‘field executions’ by Syrian government forces and their allies. A militia affiliated with the government have also
The big guns of parliament were out in force this morning. The annual cross-party Commons v Lords shooting match has long been a fixture in the annual political calendar. After last year’s contest was dominated by the shadow of the general election, this year was a much more relaxed affair. Peers and MPs descended on Ruislip to see which of the two Houses came out on top. And in the true spirit of the Parliament Act, it was the elected Commons who (narrowly) triumphed today… The final scores from an enjoyable morning of shooting proved to be 245 for the Commons versus 212 for the Lords. Captain Greg Smith, who
This week the British government introduced subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs). But as they have failed to first adopt sensible trade defence measures, this risks Chinese EVs flooding the UK, bringing job losses and data security risks in their wake. Rather than following the example of the US and the European Union, which have adopted tariffs against Chinese EVs to protect automotive jobs, the UK will roll out subsidies for EVs. Each vehicle that qualifies as having a low enough level of carbon emissions in its production will be granted a subsidy of either £1,500 or £3,750. Ministers have so far refused to publish a list of manufacturers who will be eligible,
Never mind uniting the right, there’s more talk of fighting the right today as the feud between Tory MP Robert Jenrick and Reform’s Zia Yusuf ramps up. Yusuf has spent this week pointing blame at Jenrick over the Ministry of Defence leak – but now Reform’s head of DOGE is under fire after being caught liking a post that attacked Jenrick for having a Jewish wife. Dear oh dear… Yusuf was caught having liked a controversial post on Twitter after the account ‘Enoch_Is_Right’ shared a screen recording of the Reform man’s interaction with the post. The tweet read: Reminder that Jenrick is a traitorous Zogbot with a Jewish wife and
To the Ministry of Defence leak, which has created a flurry of news this week after journalists were eventually allowed to report on the scandal following the lifting of a super-injunction on Tuesday. A number of politicians have found themselves in the firing line over the issue, with former defence secretary Grant Shapps the latest to be criticised. After the ex-Tory MP told the BBC’s Today programme that he was ‘surprised [the super-injunction] lasted quite so long’, a Whitehall source remarked to the Times that the politician was ‘trying to rewrite history’, adding: ‘Everyone knows he was the one personally demanding to keep the super-injunction in place after the election
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Lots to discuss today, between Diane Abbott being suspended (again) and Labour handing the vote to 16-year-olds just before we head into recess. Abbott’s suspension comes after she was accused of ‘doubling down’ on previous claims that Jewish people experience racism differently from black people. She is the latest Labour troublemaker to be left out in the cold, with seven MPs punished this week for voting against the government – four of them suspended from the party. Is Starmer confusing toughness with strength? And will Abbott’s suspension stick this time? Elsewhere, 16-year-olds have been given the vote. Those in favour point to the political maturity of young people in the
Labour was dead right to suspend Diane Abbott. Britain is experiencing one of the worst eruptions of anti-Jewish hatred in decades. Jewish schoolkids are being roughed up. Synagogues have been desecrated. Plots to murder Jews have been uncovered. The internet overflows with the effluent of Jew-hating invective. Any MP who minimises anti-Semitism in such febrile times deserves the shortest of shrift. It is a staggeringly naive thing for Abbott to say Abbott will say she was not minimising anti-Semitism, she was just saying it is different to the racism experienced by black people. Okay, let’s look at what she said. It was in an interview with the BBC’s James Naughtie.
Keir Starmer’s decision to lower the voting age to 16 is widely seen as a cynical attempt to secure votes, but the truth is more frightening. Politicians pursuing self-interest are merely cynical; the real menace comes from those committed to utopia, as some Labour types appear to be in their drive to make democracy ‘better’ by expanding the franchise. Personally, I think the voting age should rise, significantly, and we should consider – at no extra cost – removing it from those in decline. Labour say the issue is one of fairness. I believe they’re sincere, but wrong My daughter is 14. She has the makings of an unusually sensible
History doesn’t repeat itself. But it does echo. The United States of the 1970s and Britain of the mid-2020s share more in common than we might first admit: economic drift, institutional distrust, foreign policy muddles, and a political class that’s treading water. The question now is whether the UK, like America in 1980, is approaching a political inflexion point, one that could shape the next decade. In 1968, Richard Nixon won the presidency by forging a coalition of traditional Republicans and culturally conservative working-class voters, the so-called ‘silent majority’. He spoke to those unsettled by the cultural turbulence of the 1960s, offering a firm alternative. His presidency ended in scandal,
This week, we learned that three years ago a Ministry of Defence official accidentally released details of 18,714 Afghans who had applied for relocation to the UK. The Afghans, who had worked with British armed forces, feared retribution from the Taliban, so the Conservative government introduced a new scheme, alongside existing programmes, to resettle some of these people. The Spectator’s leading article this week argues that Britain had a moral responsibility to help them. But how many have arrived so far? And where are they living in Britain? As of May, 35,245 people had been relocated to the UK through the Afghan resettlement programme made up of several schemes such as the Afghan Relocations and
The trials of Sandie Peggie are a parable of where power lies in a country when lies are power. Peggie is a nurse from Fife, by all accounts a hard-working professional dedicated to her vocation and her patients. Things went awry, however, when she objected to undressing in a changing room in front of Dr Beth Upton, a male medic who identifies as a woman. If that sentence sounds absurd, that’s because it is, but we are supposed to pretend otherwise – especially if we want to be considered good people. Dishonesty is the best policy. Following a complaint from Dr Upton, Peggie was suspended by NHS Fife in January 2024, and she took the health
I’ve been musing recently how people in the public eye can go ‘downhill’ in two main ways. One can make big, brash, ‘bad’ decisions, ignore well-meaning advice and render oneself an outlaw well into old age, unacceptable in polite company and rejected by one’s more pusillanimous peers. I’ve seen totem poles less wooden than Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe There’s a kind of tattered glory in this, knowing that you didn’t toe the line (you were too busy snorting them) because you had talent to burn. Even if you do eventually find yourself on the ropes, you’ll always have the satisfaction of knowing that you inspired a whole bunch of
If there is one wholesale conclusion to be drawn from the Afghan resettlement scheme scandal, it’s that a problem we have today is not so much a profusion of ‘misinformation’ but rather the suppression of genuine information. In Britain now, it’s not ‘fake news’ that causes widespread resentment and anger, but moves made by successive British governments to silence real news. The authorities continue to make matters worse out of fear that the truth must not out Ever since the masses decided to vote against their overlords in Britain and America in 2016 in the EU referendum and US presidential election of that year, the elites have propagated the belief
The 2024 election was something of a disaster for the Tories. Two in every three MPs departed the Commons last July, with many cut down while only in their thirties and forties. Consequently, a disproportionate number are keen to return to parliament next time. But, it seems that their hopes have been dashed, according to an email which has gone out this evening from the CCHQ candidates’ team to those who are on the list… It begins thus: ‘As a former Member of Parliament, the Party thanks you for all your hard work and public service during your time in Parliament.’ It goes on to detail the hoops necessary to
All is not well in Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party. Last night, seven MPs were punished for voting against the government – with four suspended from the party. Today, Diane Abbott is in the firing line after the left-winger was accused of ‘doubling down’ on previous claims that Jewish people experience racism differently from black people. Dear oh dear… In 2023, Abbott was suspended from Labour after she wrote a letter to the Observer which insisted that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people ‘undoubtedly experience prejudice’ that is ‘similar to racism’ – before adding: ‘It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can
Oh dear. After the government announced that 16- and 17-year-olds will be allowed to vote in time for the next general election – in a move Reform’s Nigel Farage has slammed as ‘an attempt to rig the political system’ – the Deputy Prime Minister penned an op-ed for the Times to praise the policy. But eagle-eyed observers were quick to spot a rather glaring error. The Ashton-under-Lyne MP reflected on the expectations placed on her shoulders when she was just a teen, writing: Nobody expected much of me when I become a young mum at 16. I was suddenly faced with serious responsibilities for putting food on the table, paying
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Freddy Gray speaks to Spectator writer Paul Wood about his piece this the latest edition of Spectator World on AI and whether it will soon have rights. This first came about when Paul went to live in Rome and discovered some of the work the Vatican has been doing in AI.
49 min listen
First up: how the Bank of England wrecked the economy Britain’s economy is teetering on the brink of a deep fiscal hole, created by billions of pounds of unfunded spending – never-ending health promises, a spiralling welfare bill and a triple lock on the state pension, which will cost three times as much as originally estimated. Although politicians ‘deserve much of the blame for the economic state we’re in’, it’s Andrew Bailey – Michael Simmons argues in the magazine this week – who ‘has enabled their recklessness’. He joined the podcast to discuss who really broke Britain with Kate Andrews, Deputy Editor of The Spectator’s world edition and former Economics
Our economy is on the rocks, legal and illegal immigration remains out of control, public services are creaking, and a looming debt crisis is on the horizon. But fear not. Labour has announced its big idea for turning around Britain’s fortunes: votes for children. It is naive to assume that 16-year-olds will be more attracted to Starmer’s technocratic government than Reform’s radicalism Around 1.5 million 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote at the next general election, under government plans to lower the voting age. Keir Starmer says older teenagers are ‘old enough to go out to work, they are old enough to pay taxes’ and, so, they are old