Politics

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

Friday

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Migration figures are falling – but the crisis is far from over

Ok folks, the show is over and there’s nothing left to see: that traditional refrain of an American police officer at the scene of an on-street drama is being repurposed for Britain’s immigration debate. Official figures out today show a significant downward trend in visa applications for work and study – and especially for bringing in dependants after a tightening of the rules at the fag end of the last Conservative administration.  Sponsored study visa applications fell by 16 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, while applications to bring in dependants plunged by a massive 81 per cent. Applications for

Steerpike Steerpike

Beeb asks Huw Edwards to pay back £200,000 from salary

Back to the Huw Edwards scandal, where the disgraced ex-BBC presenter is facing more trouble. Last week, the former TV star pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children at Westminster magistrates’ court. Edwards had 41 indecent images of children, which had been sent to him by another man on WhatsApp. At the same time, it emerged that the presenter last year received a £40,000 pay rise despite not working for most of those 12 months. Now it transpires that the Beeb wants its money back. The public service broadcaster has asked Edwards to return the six-figure salary he was paid after being arrested last November for

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Why is the pound falling?

Is America about to enter a recession and take the world with it? Yesterday the pound was on track for its longest losing streak in a year as markets once again began to fear a US recession. The week started with what looked like the bursting of a tech bubble. Japan’s Nikkei dropped by 12 per cent in a day – its largest fall since Black Monday nearly four decades ago. But by Tuesday morning, stocks had recovered 10 per cent and markets looked to be steadying while the jittery hands of investors began to hold firm. Are we out of the woods? Not quite. A leading Wall Street Bank

Steerpike Steerpike

Elon Musk’s battle with Labour continues

As if the new Labour government doesn’t already have its work cut out trying to get a handle on riots breaking out across the UK, it is also engaged in an ongoing fight with Elon Musk. The US entrepreneur appears to have taken a rather lot of interest in Britain this week – and he’s not pulling any punches when it comes to Starmer’s army. Wading into the ‘two tier policing’ argument, Musk started tagging Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Twitter, blasting him as ‘#TwoTierKeir’ and suggesting that the UK government is overstepping in its criticism of those who incite violence online. ‘Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?’ he

Andrew Liddle

The SNP still has no ‘plan B’ for Scotland’s economy

Scottish independence has always been economic lunacy, but rarely has that reality been exposed as well as by Alistair Darling. Ten years ago this week, the Better Together chief faced off against the then SNP leader Alex Salmond, quizzing the former first minister about what he would do if the UK government refused to let Scotland use the pound post-secession. A decade on, it is striking how the SNP has failed to learn from that ruthless exchange – and still has no ‘Plan B’ for Scotland’s economy. Extraordinarily, the SNP’s position on currency has not evolved in any meaningful way since Darling challenged Salmond over it ten years prior. Taking

Terry Barnes

The everyman immortality of Jack Karlson

Jack Karlson, whose death this week aged 82 has been reported in Britain and around the world, was an Australian small-time crook, prison escaper and colourful character who had a tough and difficult life. He was also, however, the reluctant star of a 1991 TV news report that later became an internet sensation. Back then, Karlson was having a bite to eat in a local Chinese café in suburban Brisbane, when, like Monty Python’s Spanish inquisition, a posse of Queensland police suddenly and unexpectedly swooped to arrest him. Thanks to a tip-off to a journalist, it was all captured on camera. Imagine a stubbled Brian Blessed in a half-buttoned polyester

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

What Liz Truss must learn from Humza Yousaf

Hats off to Humza Yousaf. He knows how give a straight answer. At the Edinburgh fringe, he was quizzed by Matthew Stadlen who asked if he took responsibility for the chaos that led to his resignation as Scotland’s first minister.  ‘I frankly f***ed up,’ admits Yousaf. Warm applause greeted this confession, and Stadlen compared his honesty with the more equivocal approach of Liz Truss. ‘It upsets a lot of people,’ said Yousaf, ‘that she’s unable to utter a syllable of contrition. She blames the markets, the Bank of England, and the deep state. We need fewer Liz Truss’s.’ Yousaf argued that the far right are complaining about a migrant crisis

Francis Vorhies

Labour’s trophy hunting ban is confused

Labour’s election manifesto promised to ban the importation of hunting trophies. This is part of a campaign spearheaded by animal rights activists in Britain. It is well-intentioned, and driven by a wish to protect endangered species. But it just happens to be entirely counterproductive. Trophy hunting, when properly managed, supports wildlife conservation. It generates revenue for habitat protection and anti-poaching efforts, makes people want to protect wildlife and supports local communities. In fact, most trophies are imported from countries with stable populations of hunted species, including South Africa, Namibia, and Zambia. It is condescending for rich British activists to tell African countries how they are meant to manage conservation and

Jim Lawley

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont escapes arrest – again

There was something fitting about the name of the thoroughfare in which Carles Puigdemont was welcomed back to Barcelona on Thursday. Cheering supporters lined el Passeig de Lluis Companys as the former president of Catalonia arrived back in the city after almost seven years of self-imposed exile. In 1939, seeing that General Franco’s troops were about to enter Barcelona, Companys, another former president of Catalonia, fled to France. Captured near Nantes by the Gestapo, he was returned to Spain where he endured five weeks of torture. A court martial lasting less than an hour then sentenced him to death. Refusing to wear a blindfold, Companys stood barefoot before the firing

Alex Klaushofer

The truth about two-tier policing in Britain

Does Britain have a two-tier policing system? Accusations that some protesters are treated differently to others have emerged in the wake of this week’s riots and the various counter-protests that have taken place. But while the blame is being directed at Sir Keir Starmer – with Elon Musk tweeting about ‘two-tier Keir’ – questions over the police’s handling of protests must not solely be directed at Britain’s current Prime Minister. Since 2020, I’ve harboured an uncomfortable feeling about the way protests are dealt with – and a sense that something is wrong. The policing of protests holds up a mirror to society That year, as lockdown elided into rafts of

Thursday

Lucy Dunn

How the Tory candidates have responded to the riots

12 min listen

The last week has been dominated by rioting, and last night was expected to be a particularly explosive night. How did it measure up against expectations?  Meanwhile, the Tory leadership race continues to chug along, with each of the six candidates providing their own take on Keir Starmer’s response to the violent disorder. Rishi Sunak has been surprisingly absent. How do you provide effective opposition during a time of civil disobedience? Lucy Dunn speaks to Katy Balls and Paul Goodman, former editor of Conservative Home.  Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson. 

Annabel Denham

Is the ‘motherhood penalty’ really behind the UK’s falling birth rate?

Britain is so beset with immediate problems that major issues, ones which could drastically alter our society and the way we live, are being sidelined. One of these is our plummeting birth rate. The number of deaths in England and Wales could this year exceed the number of births. Our total fertility rate, at 1.49 children per woman and falling, is far below the 2.1 required to sustain population growth. Ultimately, we don’t know how to get people to have more children The economic implications are obvious: in the late 1970s, there were four workers for every dependent person. There are now only three and, all other things being equal,

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Will Ukraine’s Kursk offensive pay off?

For the first time since the Second World War, foreign forces have invaded Russia. As Ukrainian troops push over the border into the Kursk region, Vladimir Putin, with breathtaking lack of irony, denounces this as ‘terrorism’ and a ‘provocation’. But what is Kyiv’s goal? Previous incursions, largely into the Belgorod region, have been carried out by small units of pro-Kyiv Russia troops, so although they are in practice controlled by HUR, Ukrainian military intelligence, this could be spun as ‘liberation’ by anti-Putin forces. However, these have also been little more than PR exercises: a dash across the border to take some half-defended villages, some selfies, and a hurried withdrawal. The

Samuel Ramani

Spare a thought for Russia’s forgotten political prisoners

Last Thursday’s prisoner exchange with the US was a rare victory for human rights in Russia. Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Vice Chairman of Open Russia and protégé of slain opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, was freed from his 25-year sentence for treason. Ilya Yashin, a liberal politician who called Vladimir Putin a ‘war criminal’ and said Russia’s wartime censorship laws were unconstitutional, saw his eight-and-a-half-year sentence terminated. The chairs of the shuttered human rights organisation Memorial Oleg Orlov and Sasha Skochilenko are also embracing their newfound freedom.  Despite only just escaping Putin’s draconian prisons, the eyes of these human rights crusaders are firmly on Russia’s future. Orlov has expressed cautious optimism that other prisoner

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

‘Anti-fascist’ demonstrators have a troubling blind spot

A flyer calling for the expulsion of an ethnic group from parts of London was widely shared online yesterday. There were also reports of menacing chants being made outside a place of worship. Were the far-right thugs of riotous Britain up to no good again? Actually, this time the bigotry was coming from the other side, from the self-styled anti-fascists of the radical left. I thought these protests were about riotous bigotry here at home, not conflicts in the Middle East? Yes, it seems yesterday’s anti-racist gatherings may not have been entirely anti-racist. A group called Finchley Against Fascism shared a virtual leaflet inviting people to gather in Finchley in

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Why Britain riots

33 min listen

This week: The Spectator’s Gus Carter was in Rotherham and Birmingham in the days after the riots. Locals tell Gus that ‘violent disorder isn’t acceptable but people from down south don’t know what it’s like up here’. A retired policeman in Birmingham adds that ‘it’s just yobs looking for an excuse – and yobbos come in all sorts of colours’. You can hear Gus’ report on the podcast. (02:25)  Next: Gus and Lara take us through some of their favourite pieces in the magazine, including Flora Watkins’ notes on ragwort and Isabel Hardman’s review of Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in Water. Then: In the magazine this week Edmund

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour councillor arrested over ‘cut their throats!’ comment

These days, when it rains for Labour, it pours. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has had a rocky week trying to get a handle on violent riots that spread across the country – and now one of his own councillors has been arrested on suspicion of ‘encouraging murder’ over incendiary comments. Dartford politician Ricky Jones has come under fire after it emerged that, at a mass gathering in East London last night, he called for far-right rioters to have their throats cut. Charming… In a clip from a counter-protest in Walthamstow – which the Beeb insisted ‘preached a message of peace’ – the Labour lefty raged to a cheering crowd: ‘They

Matthew Lynn

The stock market tumble is no reason to panic

The markets are tumbling. Investors are bailing out. And there are already fears that the plunge in equities is a sign that a recession is just around the corner in America. With a presidential election only a few months away, the Federal Reserve will come under intense pressure to bail out the market with a cut in interest rates as it has done so often over the last quarter of a century. So will central banks in the UK and the Euro-zone. This time around, though, it would be madness to cut rates: it will just make the asset bubble much worse.  The FTSE-100 has fallen sharply again this morning,

Lukas Degutis

Hungary is stretching the EU’s patience to its limit

Hungary is no stranger to spats with its European neighbours. Under prime minister Viktor Orbán’s leadership, it has exercised veto rights to block Ukrainian military aid and Russian sanctions, delayed the Nato accessions of Sweden and Finland and shrugged off EU asylum regulations. For Budapest, the disputes have proven to be effective leverage in unfreezing funds — once €30million (£25 million), now some €22million (£19 million) — held by the Commission over rule of law violations and corruption concerns. For the EU, Hungary is a diplomatic headache – and one that may be about to get worse. When Hungary assumed the bloc’s rotating presidency last month, Orbán flew to Moscow

Steerpike Steerpike

Southport hero calls on Starmer to address immigration fears

Following the tragic Southport stabbings last Monday, the BBC Today programme has interviewed the man who attempted to stop the attacker in his tracks – and was knifed in the leg as a result. Jonathan Hayes spoke about his harrowing experience of coming across the knifeman and then trying to disarm him. ‘When I opened the door, he stood there. He had the hoodie on. Most of his face was concealed,’ he told the Beeb. ‘We locked eyes on each other, and he looked pretty menacing.’ Hayes said he was ‘grateful’ to be alive after the incident, before offering up some advice on the riots to the Prime Minister. The