Politics

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

Saturday

14 Sep 2024

Are Hong Kong trade offices just Chinese propaganda machines?

China has reacted with anger at American threats to close Hong Kong’s trade offices in the United States, pledging to ‘take practical and effective measures to resolutely counteract it’, while the territory’s Commerce Secretary accused Washington of ‘slander’. In reality, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs), which were set up to oversee the territory’s external commercial relations and have some diplomatic privileges, are an anachronism. Now that Hong Kong has been stripped of its autonomy, they appear to have little purpose other than to parrot Beijing. There are three such offices in the US – in Washington DC, New York and San Francisco – and on Tuesday the US

Michael Evans

Biden inches towards authorising Storm Shadows in Russia

Storm Shadow, Britain’s highly-prized, air-launched cruise missile, is not going to win the war for Kyiv against the Russian invaders. However, this particular weapon, along with the American ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) are literally waiting in the wings for Kyiv to launch a new-style, more deadly and more provocative strike on air bases and missile sites deep inside Russia. They could transform the near-31-month war into the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. President Putin has warned that if authority is given for these weapons to be used against targets inside Russia, it would mean war between Russia and Nato. Storm

Casey Michel

Tony Blair wants to launder his past

America is known for its lobbying industry, from PR shops and law firms to former federal officials acting as agents for tyrants. K Street is not just a Washington DC address, it is a metonym for the business of influence. London too has plenty of consultancies and PR agencies gleefully signing up autocratic clients. There is, however, one key difference. While the US industry has many fathers, in the UK there is one man who single-handedly launched the modern lobbying industry, laundering the reputation of tyrants, and showing others how much money can be made in the process: Tony Blair. Blair is also influential in Keir Starmer’s Labour party, with multiple former Blairites

Julie Bindel

How gender ideology corrupts rape crisis centres

Yesterday, Mridul Wadhwa – a trans-identified male and the head of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) – resigned, after a scathing report on the centre revealed how it had been corrupted by gender ideology. The report was commissioned by Rape Crisis Scotland, which was forced to act after the ‘serious failings’ of the ERCC were exposed in an employment tribunal judgment in July this year. The case had been brought by a former ERCC employee, Roz Adams, who had been victimised by the centre because she held gender-critical beliefs. A judge found that she had been unlawfully discriminated against and unfairly dismissed, simply because she asked whether rape victims could be

James Heale

Is Gordon Brown back?

14 min listen

Last week, there was a surprise visitor to the Treasury: Gordon Brown. The former prime minister and chancellor secretly returned to his old digs for the first time since he left office 14 years ago. According to onlookers, Brown visited his old office as he caught up with the new chancellor – and his friend – Rachel Reeves. What was discussed? Many have speculated that among the topics on the agenda was the winter fuel allowance, a policy ushered in by Brown and now amended by Reeves. Elsewhere, Tony Blair has been doing the media rounds promoting his new book and giving his thoughts on leadership. Should Keir be listening?

Imogen Yates

Fraser Nelson, David Whitehouse, Imogen Yates, Sean McGlynn and Ruari Clark

31 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Fraser Nelson reflects on a historic week for The Spectator (1:15); David Whitehouse examines the toughest problem in mathematics (6:33); Imogen Yates reports on the booming health tech industry (13:54); Sean McGlynn reviews Dan Jones’s book Henry V: the astonishing rise of England’s greatest warrior king (20:24); and Ruari Clark provides his notes on rollies (26:18). Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Mark Galeotti

Moscow wants to ruin your weekend

When is slower internet better than none at all? When are travel delays more serious a political challenge than threats of nuclear war? These questions acquired particular significance with the news that Stockholm’s Arlanda airport was temporarily closed this week when several drones intruded into its airspace. Investigations are still in progress, but the police are suggesting this was deliberate sabotage and suspicion is already falling on Moscow. It has highlighted what is likely to be a central element of Russia’s emerging political warfare against the West: a strategy of inconveniences. What is the strategic value in such seemingly petty and spiteful acts? The FBI has been accusing Moscow of

Owen Polley

Republicans are trying to twist the truth about the Troubles

For many years, republicans have clamoured for a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, who was gunned down in front of his wife and children by the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA). This week, they finally got their way: in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Northern Ireland Secretary, Hilary Benn, announced an independent probe into the 1989 killing of the Belfast solicitor who frequently represented IRA men. While his loved ones are no doubt delighted, the relatives of other Troubles’ victims are unhappy that this level of scrutiny will not be applied to the deaths of their family members. During the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, at least 3,500 murders were

Friday

13 Sep 2024

Steerpike

Women’s committee chair struggles to define a woman

To the Women and Equalities Committee, to which Labour’s Sarah Owen has been elected chair. The Labour MP for Luton North achieved a majority of 7,500 in the July election and now has a select committee chairmanship under her belt too. But not everyone is especially thrilled by the announcement – not least because Owen seems to have more than a little difficulty defining, er, a woman… The day after Owen was elected committee chair, the Luton North MP appeared on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour with Anita Rani. But when Rani got to the all-important question of what a women is, the chair of the Women and Equalities Committee struggled

Steerpike

Watch: Andy Haldane attacks Labour’s blackhole narrative

Sir Keir’s Labour government hasn’t been in power for long but already his administration is causing quite the stir. Pub owners have fears about Starmer’s outdoor smoking ban, food companies are concerned about the junk food ad crackdown and, it turns out, everyone is rather down about Labour’s ‘£22 billion blackhole’ narrative. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has insisted since her party got into power that the conniving Conservative government hid the true scale of Britain’s financial woes, and has used almost every opportunity available to her to harp on about it. But it seems as though the tactic has only weakened the public’s trust in Sir Keir’s lefty Labour lot… Andy

Steerpike

Will the SNP ban Guinness glasses?

While Sir Keir Starmer is trying hard to ban fun, the Scottish National party is hot on his heels. Now it transpires that, er, pint glasses with logos are proving too offensive for the Nats – with a possible crackdown on the horizon. Priorities, priorities… The SNP government has, it emerged, ordered experts to investigate the impact of a ban on branded pint glasses, t-shirts and umbrellas in an attempt to get a handle on alcohol-related deaths – which in Scotland rose to a 15-year high of 1,277 mortalities in 2023. In a bid to cut the figures, SNP Health Secretary Neil Gray informed parliamentarians that Public Health Scotland will

James Heale

Will Starmer call Putin’s bluff?

10 min listen

Keir Starmer and David Lammy are in the Washington for a planned foreign policy summit with Joe Biden. They will principally be talking about a new deal regarding the use of UK long range missiles in Russia, a move which Putin has warned would constitute an escalation of the war and the formalisation of NATO’s involvement. Also up for discussion is support for Israel after the foreign secretary announced a partial embargo on arms. Is the UK diverging from the US on foreign policy? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Keir Giles, fellow at Chatham House and author of Who Will Defend Europe? Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Melanie McDonagh

The sham of an assisted dying ‘citizen’s jury’

It is remarkable that the BBC decided to give the latest PR exercise in favour of assisted suicide a big push by running it as news today that the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ citizen’s jury of 28 people has decided that euthanasia should be legalised. In a kind of broadcasting imprimatur it declared that the jury was ‘representative’ of the population as a whole and should therefore be regarded as indicative of the way sentiment is going. Now that’s power: to frame dubious propaganda exercises organised by people already committed to change as the state of the nation. What wouldn’t I give to have the job of writing headlines for

Steerpike

Could Starmer face a smoking ban rebellion?

Oh dear. It appears that Sir Keir Starmer’s own MPs are rather unhappy about the Prime Minister’s proposed smoking ban that would see a crackdown in beer gardens and shisha bars – so much so that one has even tabled a motion to oppose it. Talk about trouble in paradise… It transpires that Mary Glindon, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, has launched a bid to fight back against Starmer’s ban – warning that the move would be rather detrimental to the nighttime economy. Not that Labour’s night czar hasn’t done enough on that front already… The Newcastle politician insists the ban will: Unduly restrict individual liberty where

Eliot Wilson

Russia started the war. Don’t forget that

It is easy to become frustrated when politicians make statements that are blindingly obvious. Sometimes, however, it can be a useful corrective, a reminder of fundamental truths that commentary can obscure. Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away. To reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully. These remarks to the media by Keir Starmer yesterday were prompted by Vladimir Putin. The Russian president, eternally the injured party in international relations, had warned that if Britain and America lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western-supplied munitions, it would

Ross Clark

Cheap electric cars could be the latest Brexit benefit

If Starmer were to rejoin the EU tomorrow, arch-Remainer Gavin Esler tweeted the other day, what benefits of Brexit would you miss most? I’ve got one for him: affordable cars. Britain, even under a more EU-friendly Labour government, has declined to copy the EU – as well as the US – in imposing punitive tariffs on imports of Chinese-made electric cars. For some manufacturers the new EU tariffs will reach 37.6 per cent, which together with the existing 10 per cent tariff will bring it close to 50 per cent. Britain, critics will say, will now become a target for ‘dumping’. That is another way of saying that UK motorists

Mark Galeotti

Why is Putin expelling more British diplomats?

Another six bite the dust. The British Embassy in Moscow, already pared to the bone, is being reduced by another six diplomats. Their accreditation has been withdrawn because they were ‘threatening the security of the Russian Federation’ by ‘conducting intelligence and subversive work.’ It is bad news for international stability as diplomatic links become more and more attenuated, but perhaps something of a tribute to Britain. The expulsions reflect a sense that Britain is both a tempting and a legitimate target The Russian media today has been running two strikingly similar stories, one built around a statement from the Public Relations Centre of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the other

Gavin Mortimer

How Grenoble became one of the most dangerous places in France

At the start of this year Grenoble was described as ‘France’s Silicon Valley’ and listed as one of the most desirable cities to live in the country. It embodied Emmanuel Macron’s ‘start-up nation’, the dynamic vision he sold to the French when he was elected president in 2017. Millennial techies and green engineers flocked to the city nestled in the French Alps. As one energy boss boasted: ‘It’s true that being close to the mountains and nature can be an asset when recruiting.’ There have been 19 shootings in Grenoble as rival cartels battle it out for control of the lucrative drugs market Grenoble recently featured in another list: the ten most

Katy Balls

The Lucy Powell Edition

27 min listen

From working on the 1997 general election campaign, to serving in the shadow cabinets of three leaders, politician Lucy Powell has been a prominent figure in the Labour Party for many years. First elected to parliament in 2012, she was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council following Labour’s general election win in July. As Women With Balls returns from a summer break, Katy Balls talks to Lucy about why she transferred out of Oxford University, what her motivations were for serving under Jeremy Corbyn, and why the 2024 general election felt like Glastonbury festival. Lucy also talks about her focus for the newly formed Modernisation

David Shipley

Should prisoners jump the queue for housing?

With the mass releases from prison underway, politicians have turned their attention to what happens after inmates leave jail. On Tuesday, Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary announced that when necessary budget hotels will be used to ensure that people released early have a roof over their heads. On Wednesday, the Times reported that Sadiq Khan has called for an ‘honest conversation’ about allowing some prisoners to ‘jump in the queue to get housing to avoid them reoffending again’. If we are ever to fix our broken justice system then we must bring reoffending down To many people this will feel outrageous. There is something utterly unjust in the idea that those who have