Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
32 min listen
Kate Andrews, standing in for Freddy Gray is joined by Nick Gillespie, host of The Reason Interview and Freddy Gray himself. They discuss whether Trump 2.0 could be different in his final time in office. Will he ‘drain the swamp’? And will the Democrats learn the lessons from their election loss?
Donald Trump’s remarkable election victory has been rightly attributed to the long shadow of inflation combined with mass illegal immigration across the southern border. While these factors dominated the national swing, an under-discussed element of the Republican campaign was the relentless targeting of voters in swing states with paid advertising linking Kamala Harris to radical trans ideology. Why was this – and what lessons should be drawn for Labour in the UK? The ads were simple. Their tagline: ‘Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump is for you.’ The ads were simple. Their tagline: ‘Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump is for you.’ They showed clips of her, from
Are independent schools gaming the system to give a disproportionate advantage to their pupils in exams? That’s one possible inference from a new data release from Ofqual (the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) on access arrangements for school exams. The release sheds light on adjustments designed so that students with disabilities aren’t disadvantaged in assessments. This might include, for example, papers in braille for a blind student or allowing a student with dyslexia to use a word processor. Giving a pupil 25 per cent extra time to complete an exam is the most common adjustment schools can provide. The reasons commonly provided for the adjustment included English being a second language, physical disabilities that
And so it seems that Scotland’s most prolific hotelier will return to the White House. Donald Trump has staged a political comeback that has torn up the normal rules of politics and sent shockwaves around the world. There are a great many reasons to be aghast at Trump’s return, but as he prepares to take up the Oval Office in just a few weeks, there is precious little time to get emotional. This is a time for hard-headedness. Understanding the importance of the Scotland-US relationship, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney has written to the president-elect and offered his congratulations. Bristle at this though some might, it was the right thing
One of Kemi Badenoch’s much-touted strengths is that she cares about British culture, society and our country’s values. She is renowned for her war on woke ideology, speaking out against multiculturalist dogma and identity politics. And in her appraisal of community cohesion and society at large, she shares an outlook with a predecessor as Conservative party leader, Iain Duncan Smith. Iain Duncan Smith was on Radio 4 this morning, speaking about the perils of our liberal laws on gambling, and the relationship they have had with the dramatic increase in gambling addiction ever since Labour relaxed laws on gambling advertising in 2005. His radio appearance comes a day after the
‘Susie Wiles is a great choice for President Trump’s chief of staff,’ said Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and the man Donald Trump so humiliated in 2016. Uh oh. Bush’s approval of the second Trump administration’s first major appointment instantly rang alarm bells in some quarters of the new American right. Wiles, who ran Trump’s campaign with Chris LaCivita, is seen by some Trumpist insiders as a suspiciously old-fashioned operative, in hock to the moneyed interests who used to run the Republican party. Over the summer, we heard whispers of clashes between Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s most doggedly loyal aide, and Wiles and LaCivita over funding. Wiles once wrote
16 min listen
Nigel Farage could well be the big winner in the UK from Donald Trump’s victory across the pond, with the MP for Clacton having a direct line to the most powerful office in the West. But, as Katy Balls argues on Coffee House this morning, he poses a greater threat to Labour than simply his proximity to Donald Trump. Reform UK are beginning the process of building power bases across the UK – starting this weekend in Wales – and the party believes it can take voters from Labour. Meanwhile, the US election has proven the salience of the economy and immigration as election-deciding issues: areas where Reform UK cut
It’s hard to know what to say about Donald Trump. Well, maybe it’s easy enough if you’re a fan, or if you are an opponent who’s very sure that the liberal case just needs to be reiterated more forcefully. But for the rest of us it’s difficult. It’s a special sort of difficulty, a difficulty of tone. As a liberal Christian, my main response is to be aghast that most Christians voted for him – the ratio was almost two-to-one. Why don’t these people have more respect for liberal democracy, and common decency, I am tempted to ask. Why don’t they have more fear of crude bullying and authoritarianism? The
Football fans are known to get a little rowdy after a game, but the horror that broke out after the Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax game on Thursday night was an entirely different matter. As Jonathan Sacerdoti wrote for the Spectator today, hundreds of Jews were hunted and beaten by mobs after the game while videos of the violence quickly spread across social media, leaving users horrified at the Amsterdam attacks. Yet for some rather peculiar reason, mainstream broadcasters were not quite as fast to report on the matter as one might have expected – with the Beeb in particular notably slow to the news, with readers taking to Twitter to
In an uncertain age, who do you want keeping the nation safe? How about the guy who just bartered away the Chagos Islands? Yes, that’s right, fresh from his Mauritian shenanigans, Jonathan Powell has today been announced as the new National Security Adviser in No.10. A former career diplomat, he famously served as Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff throughout his ten years in Downing Street. And now, after a stint in banking and endless summitry around the world, he is back to help out a flailing Labour government once more. Powell’s appointment is not without controversy. As well as the Chagos farrago, he was a sometimes divisive figure in the
It’s the election drama obsessing much of Westminster. No, not Donald v Kamala but rather the race to be Chancellor of the University of Oxford. The ten-month slug-fest began back in February when incumbent Chris Patten announced his intention to retire after 20 years. An early attempt to vet candidates by committee was blocked after claims of a ‘stitch up’, with 38 names eventually going forward to the first ballot. Sadly Imran Khan didn’t make the cut… On Monday, the final five for the second ballot were named: peers William Hague, Peter Mandelson and Jan Royall alongside ex-MP Dominic Grieve and Elish Angiolini, who led the Everard inquiry. Yet four
On the face of it, Donald Trump’s threat to impose general import tariffs of 10 to 20 per cent on all goods – and much higher levies on those from China – is bad news for Britain, the US and the world. That protectionism makes us poorer is a lesson which seems to have to be re-learned every generation. The last time America was forced to learn the hard way was when George W Bush tried to protect the US steel industry with punitive tariffs on imports of steel in 2002. A US government review later concluded that the tariffs had cost 200,000 jobs in US by increasing the prices
Dear oh dear. Donald Trump’s presidential victory has not thrilled everyone – and, Mr S suspects, least of all Prince Harry. The president-elect has suggested the royal could be, er, deported from the States. The suggestion came after the publication of Harry’s book Spare, in which the prince claimed he once dabbled with drugs like cocaine, cannabis and magic mushrooms. Under US law, a visa can be rejected if the person making the application has taken drugs – and Trump has suggested that Harry should not receive ‘special privileges’ if he was found to have lied on his visa form. During a visit to Scotland in August, Trump’s son Eric
Who is the biggest winner in the UK from Donald Trump’s victory across the pond? The answer may be Nigel Farage. While Labour ministers have so far rejected the Reform party leader’s offer to act as an intermediary, the MP for Clacton can boast to have a direct line to the so-called leader of the free world. This means that like it or not, the Prime Minister may end up discovering what Trump thinks about various issues from Farage interviews rather than the diplomatic service. Trump’s victory is adding to Labour’s nerves However, there is another perhaps bigger problem Farage poses to Starmer – and it’s an electoral one. Today,
If British Labour ministers and officials find dealing with President Donald Trump 2.0 a formidable challenge, their Australian Labor cousins may find the task of working with a president with an elephantine memory for slights even more daunting. As ministers – including Foreign Secretary David Lammy – are rediscovering to their chagrin, you can delete embarrassing social media posts, but they never disappear. That’s something that may cost former Australian prime minister, and now Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, his diplomatic career. Rudd has been posted to Washington for the best part of two years as current Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese’s envoy to the Biden administration.
Last night in Amsterdam, a scene unfolded that should send shockwaves across Europe: hundreds of Jews were hunted and beaten by mobs following a football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax. Whether a spontaneous flare-up or organised assault, terrified fans were forced to jump into the city’s canals to escape violence. At least ten were injured, and three remain missing. As Israel dispatched emergency flights to evacuate its citizens, one must ask: how long until this happens in London or elsewhere in the UK? The Netherlands must confront this issue immediately, not only for the safety of its Jewish residents and visitors but for the stability of its own
Israeli football fans were attacked in Amsterdam on Thursday evening and three supporters are listed as missing this morning. It is reported that the assailants yelled ‘Free Palestine’ as they kicked and punched the Jewish supporters. According to the Israeli foreign ministry, a group of masked men, some of whom were draped in Palestine flags, ambushed the Israelis after their Europa League match against Ajax. A dozen supporters were injured and three are still unaccounted for on Friday morning. The fear in France is that next Thursday won’t be so passive when the Israeli team are in town The Times of Israel reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has despatched
31 min listen
Shivani Raja holds two Parliamentary honours: the youngest Tory MP and, in Leicester East, the only Conservative gain at the recent election; she is also the first of the new 2024 intake to appear on Women With Balls. With a background in science and business, not politics, she fought a whirlwind election campaign – not just against the Labour Party, but against her two most recent predecessors. On the podcast, Shivani talks to Katy Balls about how she got into politics, why she is proud of Leicester’s multiculturalism, and about challenging her colleagues’ perceptions of ‘young people’. Shivani introduced James Cleverly at his leadership launch in September – what
‘Everybody’s lost but me,’ mutters a teenage Indiana Jones emerging from a cave in the middle of the desert to find that the boy scouts with whom he arrived have now disappeared without trace. Spain’s left-wing prime minister might be excused for thinking much the same. Relentlessly upbeat about the benefits of immigration, Pedro Sánchez now finds himself more or less alone in the European Union. And just when he was hoping that fellow progressive Kamala Harris would win the US election, he finds instead that he’s going to have to contend with Donald Trump. ‘We will work on our strategic bilateral relations and a strong transatlantic partnership,’ Sánchez said, presumably
Poor old Bruce Springsteen. The legendary rocker bet the farm on an endorsement of Kamala Harris and may well have alienated about half his audience as a result. The ‘Boss’ who had built his career on empathising with the hard-grafting, blue-collar, Bud-swilling ‘deplorables’ with his anthems of white working-class alienation, recorded a folksy recommendation from the counter of a (real or staged – who knows?) diner. ‘Freedom, social justice, equal opportunity, the right to love who you want’ are on the ballot, pleaded Springsteen, adding that Trump’s ‘disdain for the constitution’ should disqualify him from office. Harrison Ford followed suit in two ads run just before polling day. The Star
