Politics Archives

Tuesday

1 Oct 2024

Has the UK Supreme Court been a success?

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the UK Supreme Court. When it opened its doors in 2009, it was argued that separating the country’s top judges from their historical home in parliament was a defining moment in the constitutional history of the UK. Fifteen years later, it’s hard to see whether anything significant has really changed. The Supreme Court was proposed by the Blair Government in 2003, as part of a botched set of reforms to abolish the role of Lord Chancellor and reform judicial appointments. It came as a surprise, not only to the then-Lord Chancellor, Derry Irvine (who was replaced by Blair’s former flatmate, Charlie Falconer), but also to

Gareth Roberts

How doom scrolling changed TV for ever

Are you one of the growing number of ‘second screen’ television viewers? For all too many of us, it seems that watching one screen just isn’t enough; modern technology and, in particular, our obsession with looking at our phones has so addled our brains that plenty of us fiddle with our mobiles while ostensibly ‘watching’ TV. Two thirds of people watching TV now do so while browsing their mobile phones, according to a study in the United States. Being glued to our phones certainly ruins the magic of television It’s tempting to react to this news with Olympian disdain; what has happened to people that they need two screens to

Monday

30 Sep 2024

Isabel Hardman

Does Kemi cause problems for Kemi?

Kemi Badenoch is being followed around the Tory party conference by her own comments about maternity pay. She had to explain what she was on about again when she had her main stage interview in the Birmingham hall this afternoon, telling Chris Hope that ‘I think maternity pay is quite important’, and that she was ‘answering a different question’ about business regulation. She then compared the row to the way Margaret Thatcher’s Women’s Own magazine comments about ‘there is no such thing as society’ were ‘cut down into a soundbite that was used to attack her’. She added: When you are a leader, when you are a conservative, when you

Natasha Feroze

Have the Tory leadership candidates got a Truss problem?

Jeremy Hunt is one of the few Tories at Conservative Party Conference willing to take the fight to Labour. In the second day, he sat down for an on-stage interview where the former Chancellor spoke about the winter fuel allowance, freebies, but also made some polite suggestions about where the Conservative party shouldn’t go, and dropped a few hints about the former Prime Minister, Liz Truss. Natasha Feroze speaks to Kate Andrews and Isabel Hardman about Hunt’s speech and some of the best bits from Liz Truss’s own interview at conference.

Jawad Iqbal

Simon Case’s departure is an opportunity for Starmer

Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, has finally put an end to Whitehall’s worst-kept secret by formally announcing that he will quit at the end of the year. It means the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer can finally appoint his own man or woman in the role of the country’s most senior civil servant. Case is leaving his £200,000-a-year job on health grounds, telling colleagues: ‘Whilst the spirit remains willing, the body is not’. He added: ‘It’s been an honour to serve two sovereigns, four prime ministers and over 120 cabinet ministers in this role.’ Case has been in the job since September 2020, when he replaced Sir Mark Sedwill. His

Isabel Hardman

Did you know Tom Tugendhat was in the military?

Tom Tugendhat may have the most interesting merchandise in this Tory leadership contest (including fake tan, for reasons no-one has yet explained), but he is not, as things stand, the frontrunner. He is also the least experienced of the contenders in government terms, though he decided today to compensate for that in his on-stage interview in the conference hall by talking about being a soldier. Just in case anyone there hadn’t picked up that Tugendhat has served his country, he made sure he slipped it into to any answer that was vaguely relevant, including that ‘I’m not going to hold against anybody their inexperience in combat or their inexperience in

Steerpike

Simon Case hands in resignation letter

While the Conservative party conference is in full swing in Birmingham, back in Whitehall there have been some major developments. Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has now formally handed in his resignation letter, with the senior civil servant circulating his departure letter to his underlings today. His announcement that he will stand down at the end of the year follows weeks of whisperings that Case didn’t quite see eye to eye with Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray – with reports that, after the recent host of bad briefings against the PM’s staffer, efforts to speed up Case’s resignation date were deployed. How very curious… The top mandarin has

Steerpike

Tugendhat’s ‘disgusting and yellow’ Lib Dem jibe

The first of the big Tory leadership interviews kicked off today with Tom Tugendhat in the hotseat. The former security minister put forward his case to a packed out arena in Birmingham — calling for CCHQ reform, apologising for recent years of Tory ‘infighting and chaos’ and insisting he has what it takes to rebuild the ‘Conservative family’. Receiving a warm welcome from the crowd, Tugendhat was quick to crack the jokes too. On just how many countries had sanctioned him, he quipped: ‘I’m still working on North Korea…’. He blasted Nigel Farage for saying he wants to ‘destroy’ the Conservatives, reiterating he would not entertain the idea of a merger

James Heale

Liz Truss: I would have won more seats than Rishi

There are noticeably fewer people here at Tory conference in Birmingham this week. But one former MP can still reliably pack in the punters. Despite losing her seat in July, the ‘Liz Truss show’ shows no sign of any drop in enthusiasm, with some 300 conference attendees packing out a lecture theatre for a blast of sound thinking. A further hundred Tories were turned away at the door: proof, some say, that two years after her defenestration, Liz Truss is still yet to lose her appeal. The former Tory premier was here this afternoon to do her sole event of the conference: a Daily Telegraph in-conversation with columnist Tim Stanley.

Limor Simhony Philpott

Israel must press home its advantage against Hezbollah and invade Lebanon

Israel has started to prepare for a ground invasion of Lebanon amid international calls for ceasefire. This is the next stage of Israel’s operation against Hezbollah – which began with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, and continued with the killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as nearly all of the terror organisation’s top commanders. The Israeli air force continues to bomb Hezbollah’s infrastructure and is preparing the ground for troops to enter southern Lebanon, which might happen later this week. Special units from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have already carried out limited operations across the border, in order to gather vital information that will aid forces during a ground

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Hunt tells the Tory party some uncomfortable truths

Jeremy Hunt is one of the few Tories willing to take the fight to Labour while the Conservative leadership contest drones on. The shadow chancellor gave an on-stage interview at party conference in Birmingham this morning where he continued to attack Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ ‘£22 billion black hole’ narrative. Hunt suggested that not even Labour MPs and members believed that claim, which was why they were having such a big row over the winter fuel payment. ‘We were trounced at the election,’ Hunt said Hunt also warned that Labour was in danger of making decisions based on its own ‘propaganda’, telling Daniel Finkelstein: ‘My worry is that Labour believes its

Ross Clark

Can anything stop Germany’s decline?

Brexit is, we’re told, a disaster that shaved a hefty slice off UK economic growth. But there does seem to be a very large proverbial elephant standing in the way of this thesis. Our EU neighbours don’t seem to have been doing any better than an admittedly sluggish – if now recovering – Britain. While the UK economy grew by 0.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year followed by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter, the French economy managed only 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent. It is Germany that continues to surprise most on the downside. The economy shrank again in the second quarter,

Patrick O’Flynn

Could Badenoch blow it?

Fans of Frank Sinatra used to have a favourite saying when their hero was in his pomp: ‘It’s Frank’s world. We just live in it.’ After a day and a half of the Tory conference in Birmingham, there is a temptation to refashion the observation around Kemi Badenoch, so completely has she dominated proceedings. And not, it must immediately be said, always in an obviously advantageous way for her leadership campaign. Supporters of Badenoch were left deeply irritated Badenoch seemed unabashed at the welter of stories surrounding her when she told an event for leadership candidates held by the influential ConservativeHome website at which she spoke last: ‘I think we

Steerpike

Jenrick mocks Starmer’s ‘unserious’ government

To Birmingham, where the Conservative party conference is in full swing. As well as the formal leadership hustings taking place this week, the four rivals vying for the top job are busy behind the scenes trying to convince their colleagues – and membership – to back them. Robert Jenrick staged his latest rally bright and early on Monday morning, treating attendees to breakfast, mountains of merchandise (including printed copies of the Jenrick Post) and the dulcet tones of, er, Avicii. But that wasn’t all – the Tory frontrunner couldn’t quite resist taking a pop at Sir Keir Starmer’s crowd either… Launching into his speech, Jenrick blasted the rather gloomy attitude

Steerpike

JK Rowling defends Rosie Duffield against ‘numbskulls’

All is not well in the Labour party. Not only is Sir Keir still dealing with the freebie fiasco, Starmer also lost a longtime MP last week after she quit the party. Rosie Duffield left Labour with a bang, penning a scathing letter that blasted the ‘sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice’ existing among the lefty lot, telling the Prime Minister: ‘I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.’ Shots fired… And now renowned writer JK Rowling has waded into the matter. Duffield’s resignation letter received immense backlash from her former colleagues – many of whom, alongside Starmer,

Steerpike

Poll: young ex-Tories won’t return to party in 2029

There’s an oddly upbeat mood here at Tory party conference in Birmingham. You might have thought that with just 121 MPs left, the Conservatives would be fairly despondent about their future. But it seems that the bromide of the leadership election has helped assuage such feelings. After all, who can be miserable when there are endless invites to rallies and much merchandise to be purloined? Yet Mr S has a big bucket of cold water to douse on Tories rousing from their conference hangovers this morning. Savanta has done some polling for The Spectator and it looks like the future of the party is not looking too peachy. A majority

Gavin Mortimer

What will happen to Europe if it can’t control the migrant crisis?

The victory of the Freedom party in Austria’s general election came as Israel intensified its air strikes across Lebanon. Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, says that more than one million people have been displaced from their homes as a consequence of the military strikes. The ramifications of the turmoil in the Middle East will terrify Europe Included in that figure are a substantial number of the estimated two million Syrian refugees who fled to Lebanon a decade ago to escape the war in their own country. Many have faced discrimination in Lebanon and it has been reported that during the Israeli air strikes Syrians have been refused entry into the country’s air

Nigel Jones

Why the hard-right triumphed in Austria

The general elections in Austria have delivered a sensational result, with the hard right, pro-Putin Freedom party (FPO) coming out on top for the first time in the Alpine republic’s post-second world war history. Projections after Sunday’s poll give the FPO 29 per cent – a three point lead over their nearest rivals, the conservative People’s party (OVP) under Chancellor Karl Nehammer on 26 per cent. The result does not necessarily mean that the FPO will form the new government, as it lacks an absolute majority, and all the other parties have vowed not to form a coalition with the FPO’s victorious controversial leader, Herbert Kickl, a 55-year-old hardline former interior minister

Andrew Tettenborn

Why tuition fees should go up

The fees English universities are allowed to charge home students in England are fixed by government fiat. At £9,250 per year, they are some of the most expensive in Europe. Shortly after the election Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson denied any plans to raise them. She appears to have changed her mind, saying the fee has been ‘eroded’ because it hasn’t gone up in a ‘very long time’. Officials are reportedly drawing up plans to raise the fee to to £10,500 over the next five years, thereby tracking inflation. They are right to do so. In the end, some future Education Secretary will have to swallow an unpalatable pill Put bluntly, the universities

Sunday

29 Sep 2024

Steerpike

Labour points finger at Tories over donations

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party’s conference was mired in his freebie fiasco scandal after revelations about clothing donations and trips abroad surfaced. But while the Labour lot had a tricky time fending the story off at their conference, they appear determined not to let the Tory meet pass without a similar hitch. Now it transpires that the Labour party chair has written to the Electoral Commission to demand an investigation over donations accepted by one Robert Jenrick. How curious… The Chancellor’s sister Ellie Reeves has blasted the Tory leadership frontrunner over a £75,000 sum he accepted from a company called The Spott Fitness. Raising concerns over the ‘legality’ of the monetary