Politics Archives

Sunday

27 Oct 2024

Steerpike

Women’s Equality party to abolish itself

So. Farewell then the Women’s Equality party. Founded to much fanfare by Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer in 2015, the self-proclaimed ‘intersectional feminist organisation’ has decided to push for its own abolition at a special conference next month. It comes after a decade of stunning electoral success that saw them win a single seat in Hampshire in this year’s local elections. At this general, they then fielded four candidates across the country who won a combined total of 1,275 votes. How will Westminster cope with their absence? In a lengthy self-justificatory piece for the Observer today, the co-founders cite financial challenges and a changed political and media context as reasons for why

Jason M. Brodsky

Israel has exposed America’s cowardice towards Iran

On Saturday, Israel launched a retaliatory strike against Iran which targeted around 20 military sites across the country, using over 100 combat aircraft. This was an unprecedented operation by Israel against Tehran – in both its breadth and depth. Israel’s aim was to degrade and deter. And in the process, it has reminded the world of the weaknesses of America’s current policy towards Iran. So far, Iranian media has been downplaying the Israeli strikes. Even as the bombing campaign was underway, pro-regime Telegram channels were posting videos showing placid scenes of Iranian cityscapes. In April, when Israel launched an attack on Esfahan, Iranian state television broadcast the morning traffic with

Mark Galeotti

Can Russia really ban smoking?

The UK isn’t the only place which has been toying with the idea of introducing a ‘generational’ tobacco ban. Rishi Sunak’s bill that would ban sales to anyone born after 1 January 2009 was taken over by Labour following the election, but now it is Russia that is debating a similar measure. The Ministry of Health is reportedly close to proposing a ban on the sale of tobacco and other nicotine-containing products to everyone born after 31 December 2009. A draft bill has already been circulated and has been adopted by the New People party, one of the government’s tame pseudo-opposition factions, although it has not yet been reviewed by

Caleb Quinley

Is this the end for the Philippines’ Duterte family?

For the last decade, the Duterte family has been known throughout the Philippines as almost untouchable – respected, feared, and seen by many as above the law. Take Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs when he was president of the Philippines. Despite a bloody crackdown, Duterte remained largely unchallenged both domestically and internationally during his presidency. His son, Paolo, has enjoyed similar immunity: several years ago, he was implicated in a multi-billion peso drug-smuggling operation, but got off easy – with rumours that the judicial system was rigged to protect the family. The Duterte family has remained a powerful political dynasty in the Philippines, even after President Rodrigo Duterte left

Sam Meadows

Uruguay’s elections have become overshadowed by a referendum

Uruguayans have long been able to look across the Rio Plata to their larger and louder neighbours in Argentina and roll their eyes at the endless economic crises and political chaos. Not for much longer, perhaps. Uruguay heads to the polls today to elect its next president, but election fever has been roundly overshadowed by (if economists are to be believed) referendum also taking place today. Analysts have described it as a possible ‘Brexit moment’ The national plebiscite has been proposed by trade unions and would radically overhaul the country’s entire pension system. The retirement age would fall by five years to 60, pension payouts would be pegged to the minimum wage,

Saturday

26 Oct 2024

Fabian Hoffmann

The strike on Iran marks a dramatic change in Israel’s tactics

On the night of 26 October, Israel conducted an aerial strike on Iran, marking the latest move in the ongoing tit-for-tat conflict between the two countries. The attack, which had been anticipated and was announced by the Israeli government, was in response to an earlier Iranian missile strike on Israel at the beginning of October, named Operation True Promise 2. The Iranian attack was itself a retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior leaders within Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard over the preceding months. Details of last night’s airstrike remain unclear, but reports suggest that Israel targeted approximately 20 Iranian military sites. Prior to it, there was speculation that Israel might

Steerpike

Police probe alleged Labour MP assault

It’s a big week for Labour ahead of the Budget on Wednesday. So it is somewhat sub-optimal then that a viral video threatens to derail their carefully calculated media grid. In footage shot by a member of the public early this morning, Labour MP for Runcorn and Helsby Mike Amesbury appeared to threaten a man who has been knocked onto the road in Frodsham, Cheshire. Amesbury shouted at the floored man: ‘You won’t ever threaten me again, will you? You won’t ever threaten me again.’ After others pointed out that he’s the local MP, he responded: ‘Yes I am, and you won’t threaten the MP ever again, will you?’ One onlooker quipped

Vazha Tavberidze

The man behind Georgia’s pro-Putin turn

‘He wasn’t my first billionaire, so I kind of knew my way around him’, a senior US diplomat who plied his trade in Georgia told me at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. ‘And the weirdest thing? He was starry-eyed about Nato and the West in the beginning. I remember at one meeting with a US delegation, he outright asked, “So what I” – notice the I, not we – “what I gotta do to get into Nato by 2016?” We all looked at each other, then gave him the usual line about democratic reforms and so on. He listened for a while, then interrupted, “But what do I really

Stephen Daisley

What Fight Club got right

There are three great makers of popular man-art working in Hollywood today – Michael Mann, Christopher Nolan and David Fincher – and all three work with broadly the same materials: male identity, its associated violence, and post-industrial societies with no place for either. Mann’s neon-noir aesthetic focuses on status, whether James Caan’s safecracker in Thief, with his $150 slacks, silk shirts, and $800 suits, or Jamie Foxx in Collateral, who dreams of running his own limo firm, but only idly, having long since sunk into his reassuring routine as night-time cab driver. Nolan’s theme is personal darkness, whether Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne in the Dark Knight trilogy, or Al Pacino’s

Kate Andrews

Not even ‘working people’ will be protected from tax hikes

Does Labour regret its decision to redefine the meaning of a ‘working person’? The original understanding of the term seemed to be working just fine, until ministers decided to make it the metric for who would and would not be subject to tax rises. Now the party finds itself in the strangest of situations: having to talk down British entrepreneurs and employers, all for the sake of muddling through a painful Budget next week. It was just a few weeks ago that Labour was hosting its highly anticipated investment summit, trying to attract new business, and funding, to the UK. When former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told the Prime Minister

Limor Simhony Philpott

Israel does not want full-scale war with Iran

Just over three weeks after Iran attacked Israel with 200 ballistic missiles, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) finally launched a retaliatory airstrike on Iranian military facilities last night. The IAF strike reportedly lasted three hours, and was carried out in three waves. It was based on impressively precise intelligence and targeted the missile manufacturing facilities where the ballistic missiles used in Iran’s attack earlier this month were made. The IAF also struck surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missile arrays. As soon as reports of the attack emerged, the Iranian disinformation machine whirred into action. Through official channels as well as online influencers and bots, Iran denied that its facilities were successfully bombed

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Will Israel strike Iran again?

Israel’s major airstrike operation deep within Iranian territory last night was unprecedented, reportedly targeting over 20 military sites in a coordinated, multi-wave attack. For the first time, Israel not only conducted such a large-scale operation but also openly acknowledged it as it unfolded. According to Israeli sources, the operation achieved its objectives, dealing a decisive blow to the Iranian regime’s military infrastructure. The entire mission returned safely to Israel, sending a clear message of the Jewish state’s total aerial superiority over Iranian defences, all while presumably avoiding or minimising civilian casualties. Yet despite these early indications of success, the full scale of the damage remains unconfirmed, and Iran’s attempts to

James Heale

Should Britain pay reparations to Commonwealth countries?

16 min listen

This week, Keir Starmer has been in Samoa for a summit with delegations of the 56 nations which make up the Commonwealth. Between having to answer questions on Donald Trump and the budget, he has also been pressed on the issue of slavery reparations, with the leaders of some Caribbean countries insisting it is ‘only a matter of time’ until Britain bows to demands of handing over billions of pounds in compensation. Speaking today, Starmer addressed the issue. He said, ‘I understand the strength of feeling’ but insisted that he would be ‘looking forward, not back’. So what are the arguments for and against reparations? And why is this debate

Philip Womack

Philip Womack, Ian Thomson, Silkie Carlo, Francis Young and Rory Sutherland

28 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Philip Womack wonders why students can’t tackle university reading lists (1:12); Ian Thomson contemplates how much Albania has changed since Enver Hoxta’s dictatorship (6:12); Silkie Carlo reveals the worrying rise of supermarket surveillance (13:33); Francis Young provides his notes on Hallowe’en fairies (20:21); and Rory Sutherland worries that Britain may soon face a different type of migrant crisis (24:08). Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Gavin Mortimer

How the French left is fuelling the small boats crisis

Three more migrants drowned off the French coast this week when their overcrowded and flimsy boat sank. In response to this latest tragedy, a French refugee organisation Utopia 56 posted a message on social media stating that ‘since July, there have been fatal incidents almost every week, causing at least 39 victims. It’s the result of the repressive policies chosen by our governments’. Utopia 56 is one of France’s best known humanitarian organisations. My local newspaper in Burgundy recently worked with them in producing a report headlined ‘The migrants ready to die to reach England’. The introductory sentence described desperate migrants ‘fleeing bombs, repression and famine’. They came from Afghanistan, Libya,

Katja Hoyer

Why are Germans happy to continue paying a dog tax?

Local authorities in Germany are making more money than ever from dogs – or their owners to be precise. The very idea of charging dog owners an annual tax for keeping their pets may sound archaic to British ears but it carries on fairly unchallenged in Germany. In 2023, Germany’s municipal authorities received a total of €421 million (£351 million) in tax from the country’s dog owners. The figure has risen by 41 per cent over the last decade. Each municipal authority sets its own fees. Having a dog in Berlin will set you back €120 (£100) a year with every additional dog costing €180 (£150). Stuttgart charges extra for

Ian Williams

How cozy is Tim Walz with China?

The term ‘old friend of the Chinese people’ has a sentimental, almost innocent ring, but the Chinese Communist party (CCP) regards it as a job description. It is a label used to describe foreigners looked on favourably by the CCP, but it also carries obligations. ‘Old friends’ are expected to be sympathetic and further the interests of the party. ‘China will never forget their old friends,’ said President Xi Jinping when he met Henry Kissinger, the most famous holder of that title for his supposed pragmatism toward Beijing, last year. Perhaps the most notorious ‘old friend’ was Edgar Snow, the American journalist, who was given privileged access to Mao Zedong

Katy Balls

Does Keir Starmer know what a working person is?

First, Keir Starmer struggled to define what a woman is. Now, he’s having difficulty explaining what counts as a working person. Ahead of next week’s Budget, the Prime Minister has been accused of tying himself in knots over who will be expected to carry the burden in the Budget. During the general election campaign, both Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves regularly said the tax burden on ‘working people’ was too high. In the manifesto, the party pledged to protect ‘working people’ from paying more. Now ahead of a tax-raising Budget (Reeves is expected to try to raise £35 billion through tax), Starmer is under pressure to explain who exactly

Friday

25 Oct 2024

Damian Reilly

Will this end the ridiculous charade of males in women’s sports?

I’ve long liked to think that if I was a really big girl I would transition to compete in the men’s boxing heavyweight championship. Why not, ladies? Tyson Fury earns about £100 million every time he laces up his gloves. Why not get a slice of that pie? After all, for an extremely weird decade or so we’ve been enjoined to believe there are no physical advantages, at least not in terms of strength, speed or stamina, to being born male over female. It’s the foundational myth upon which all sorts of madness – hulking great former blokes taking on women at sports including rugby, swimming, cycling and football –

Freddy Gray

I can handle Trump, Farage tells Labour

Nigel Farage was on gregarious and ebullient form at our Americano US election event in Westminster last night. He confidently assured the audience that Donald Trump is going to win. He repeatedly mocked the British Conservative and Labour parties. And he offered his services as a sort of unofficial transatlantic point man for the ‘special relationship’. Having claimed in Politico yesterday that he was 90 per cent sure that Trump would take back the White House, Farage upped the ante for The Spectator audience. ‘I tell you what, folks,’ he said, ‘be in no doubt on 5 November, Donald Trump is going to win. And thank God for that.’ Farage called