Politics

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

Friday

23 Feb 2024

Why Prevent is still failing to tackle Islamist extremism

What is the core mission of the Government’s ‘Prevent’ strategy? When William Shawcross presented his review of our flagship counter extremism programme last year, he was clear: it was to stop people turning into tomorrow’s terrorists. The Home Office agreed, at least politically. How’s that going? A year after Shawcross reported on Prevent’s departure from counter terror watchdog into a lop sided safeguarding creche for every sort of ‘vulnerability’ under the sun, the Government has reported mission accomplished. Shawcross has now disagreed publicly. The Home Office had, he said, ‘ignored’ key recommendations to beef up Prevent’s performance and the glass remained only ‘half full.’ I have some experience of bureaucratic sleight of hand at

Ross Clark

Unreliable renewables will make energy more costly

It is of course good news that the Ofgem price cap for a dual fuel household bill will fall from £1,928 to £1,690 from April (that is the bill paid by the average householder). It means that there should be strong downwards pressure on inflation (the Consumer Prices Index) in April. Barring a jolt in inflation in other goods and services or an acceleration in earnings it ought to mean the Bank of England finally has the courage to cut its base rate, probably in May. None of that, though, should distract from the fact that energy prices in Britain remain far too high. For one thing, the huge fall

Rupert Darwall

Net Zero’s days are numbered

If a week is a long time in politics, then 2023 belongs to a different age in the politics of Net Zero. Less than eleven months ago, the government was saying that ‘Net Zero is the growth opportunity of the 21st century. Earlier this week, former IMF chief economist Oliver Blanchard effectively poured water on that claim when he told the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee that there would be a ‘substantial fiscal cost to achieve anything close to Net Zero’. ‘The public does not believe, or has not been made to understand, that [it] is going to be costly for them,’ Blanchard cautioned. He then went on to

Kate Andrews

Falling energy prices raise hopes of a Spring rate cut

The good news started with the revelation that last month had produced a surplus of £16.7 billion for the Treasury – double the surplus of the same month last year and a record-breaking amount (in nominal terms) since records began. This has boosted hopes that the Chancellor will be able to offer up more tax cuts in his Spring Budget (though admittedly his headroom to do so still seems to be notably less than the amount he had to play with last autumn to deliver the business tax cuts). Now, as money comes off workers’ tax bills, their energy bills will fall too. This morning Ofgem announced changes to the

Steerpike

Was Cameron behind Prince William’s Gaza intervention?

Eyebrows in Westminster this week after Prince William opted to wade into the Gaza conflict. On Tuesday, the Prince of Wales declared that ‘Too many have been killed’, adding ‘I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible’. Royals typically remain neutral on geopolitical matters so why William’s willingness to intervene? Tory peer Stewart Jackson said the intervention was ‘ill-timed and ill-judged’ while Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, called it a ‘step too far’ for the future King. One theory now being put forward is by the former Labour Chancellor Ed Balls, who suggested that William could be acting on the

Gavin Mortimer

Europe’s elitist politicians have lost touch with the working classes

What links Rishi Sunak to Elly Schlein, the leader of the Italian left, and Raphaël Glucksmann, the great hope of the French Socialist party? America. The British Prime Minister lived in the US for a number of years, first as a student at Stanford University before working for a hedge fund in California. Schlein, born and educated in Switzerland, is the daughter of an American academic who cut her political teeth as a staffer on both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. The 44-year-old Glucksmann, born in the posh part of Paris to a prominent philosopher, has never lived in the States but he’s been a frequent visitor over the years.

Matt McDonald

Liz Truss’s Republican love-in at CPAC

‘Oh, that’s Liz Truss,’ a conservative reporter says as the former British prime minister passes us in the corridor at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). ‘She sucks. What’s she doing here?’ Trying to sell books, apparently. Truss is one of two Brits – alongside mainstay Nigel Farage – addressing CPAC. Her visit forms part of the promotional tour for the US release of her book Ten Years to Save the West: Lessons From The Only Conservative in the Room, which has been handily retitled for US audiences: ‘Leading the Revolution Against Globalism, Socialism and the Liberal Establishment.’ Truss’s remarks were full of buzzwords: ‘woke-onomics’, ‘DEI, ESG’, broadsides aimed at the

Mark Galeotti

Expelling the Russian ambassador would be a mistake

Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke for many people horrified by Alexei Navalny’s death in a Russian prison last week when he suggested that the Russian ambassador to the UK ought to be expelled in response. Labour’s David Lammy and the SNP’s Ian Blackford also advocated this back in 2022. This, however, would be a mistake. It’s a wholly understandable emotional response. At worst Navalny’s was a direct killing, or else slow-motion murder by putting a man whose system is already compromised by near-death thanks to Novichok in an Arctic prison camp and subjecting him to treatment verging on torture. While we may not have much to say to the Russians today, tomorrow

Thursday

22 Feb 2024

Lara Prendergast

Why Britain stopped working

50 min listen

Welcome to a slightly new format for the Edition podcast! Each week we will be talking about the magazine – as per usual – but trying to give a little more insight into the process behind putting The Spectator bed each week. On the podcast this week: the cost of Britain’s mass worklessness. According to The Spectator’s calculations, had workforce participation stayed at the same rate as in 2019, the economy would be 1.7 per cent larger now and an end-of-year recession could have been avoided. As things stand, joblessness is coexisting with job vacancies in a way that should be economically impossible, writes Kate Andrews in the cover story. She joins the

Lisa Haseldine

Germany’s new anti-Ukraine party is unnerving the establishment

Her party may be less than two months old, but already Sahra Wagenknecht has put a cat amongst the pigeons in Germany. She launched her eponymous party, the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) on 8 January this year, a few months after sensationally quitting the left-wing Die Linke party in October over disagreements on the party’s Ukraine and refugee policies, among others. Now, nearly a quarter of Germans now say they could imagine voting for her party at the next general election. According to a survey conducted by the pollsters Allensbach, 24 per cent of Germans say they could vote for the BSW next year. In the former east Germany, Wagenknecht’s popularity is

Matthew Lesh

Did red tape worsen Britain’s inflation problem?

It has been a miserable few years for our quality of life. People have gotten used to that sinking feeling every time you read a price tag at the supermarket, receive an electricity bill or – particularly for younger generations – think about someday buying a house.This squeeze comes from prices rising faster than wages, and has resulted in the biggest slump in living standards since records began. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecasts, household incomes will still be 3.5 per cent below pre-pandemic levels over the coming year. The immediate causes of this crisis are well-known. The Bank of England printed too much money during Covid,

Eliot Wilson

Chaos in the Commons benefits the SNP

Wednesday’s chaotic procedures in the House of Commons have handed an enormous soapbox to the SNP’s Stephen Flynn. The MP for Aberdeen South, who has led the Scottish National Party’s Westminster group since December 2022, has been intoning gravely that the debate ‘descended into farce’ and, with suppressed fury, told the speaker that he no longer trusted him to preside impartially over the House. Flynn has tabled an early-day motion which, at time of writing, had 66 signatories, and expresses ‘no confidence in Mr Speaker’. Flynn has cause to be upset. His is the third-largest party in the House, with 43 MPs. Moreover, the debate on Gaza was a day on

Nick Cohen

Violence is corrupting our democracy

Fascism begins with political violence on the streets. In 1922, Benito Mussolini ordered his supporters to march on Rome and threaten to overthrow the democratic government. In the early 1930s gangs of Nazis and communists fought for control of Berlin’s streets. In 1999, a mysterious bombing campaign, that killed dozens of people and destroyed apartment blocks in Moscow and Volgodonsk, allowed Vladimir Putin to take power by posing as a strongman who could keep Russians safe. The UK is experiencing its own version of fascistic violence. As befits the modesty of this country we have a quintessentially British version of it. Nothing too grand or showy is on display. Nevertheless,

David Loyn

The SAS fought a dirty war in Afghanistan

The SAS blocked UK visas for Afghan special forces soldiers, perhaps fearing that they would be able to produce evidence incriminating the SAS in the shooting of unarmed civilians. That was the striking implication of a BBC Panorama investigation this week – with the Ministry of Defence confirming that it is undertaking a review of 2,000 cases where Afghan applications were blocked by the SAS. Under the ‘ARAP’ scheme, introduced after the fall of Afghanistan in August 2021, Afghans employed by the British government had a near-automatic right to resettle in the UK. This was because they were among the people most likely to face retribution from the Taliban after the fall of Kabul.

Ian Williams

Hungary has become China’s useful idiot

This week a security deal was announced that could see Chinese police on the streets of Hungary. Despite this, there was remarkably little fanfare about the agreement – just a few vague details in public statements made days after the deal was signed between the interior ministers of the two countries. Yet is represents another troubling challenge by Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orban to both Nato and the EU, of which he remains an increasingly troublesome member. The security pact will involve ‘enhancing cooperation in law enforcement and joint patrols,’ according to the Hungarian statement, while the Chinese version said the two countries would, ‘deepen cooperation in areas including counter-terrorism,

Katy Balls

Lindsay Hoyle looks safe – for now

The dust is settling in the House of Commons after an explosive evening in the Chamber on Wednesday night. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s decision to upend tradition and allow a Labour amendment to an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza saw both Conservative and Scottish National party MPs turn on Hoyle. The Speaker has since been accused of playing favourites by helping his old party out of a jam; had the Labour amendment not been permitted, Keir Starmer would have likely faced a large rebellion and even some front bench resignations. Over 50 MPs have signed a motion of no confidence in the Speaker Hoyle is now facing

Steerpike

Watch: Penny Mordaunt blasts Labour for picking on Speaker

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt has backed Lindsay Hoyle in the row over the Gaza ceasefire vote – and accused Labour of picking on the Speaker. Mordaunt said Hoyle was a ‘decent man’ and blamed Keir Starmer’s party for last night’s debacle in the Commons. The Tory MP hit out at her opposite number, shadow leader of the house, Lucy Powell, saying: ‘I would never have done to him (Hoyle) what the Labour party have done to him’. She added: ‘If she cannot rise above narrow and immediate needs of her weak and fickle leader…perhaps she might like to reflect on the damage her party has done

Ross Clark

There are not enough houses to cope with high migration

Why is housing still so expensive in Britain? Conservative MP and former levelling-up minister Neil O’Brien has produced a set of statistics which draws attention to the role of migration in the high cost of housing. Across England as a whole he says, 7.4 per cent of the population is made up of people who have arrived in the country since 2011. Over the same period, the housing stock has risen by 8.5 per cent. In London, 16.6 per cent of people have arrived since 2011, yet the housing stock has increased by only 10.7 per cent. No wonder, he points out, that 38 per cent of households in Britain are having to shell out

Matthew Lynn

The valuable lesson learnt from Japan’s stock market recovery

A lot has happened over the past 34 years: the Cold War ended, several wars have taken place in the Middle East, a banking collapse occurred, and a global pandemic left millions stuck inside their homes. But one thing remained constant throughout: the bear market – a price drop of 20 per cent or more from the most recent high – in Japanese equities ground on and on relentlessly. After hitting an all time high of 39,915 points on 29 December 1989, the Nikkei 225 which covers the country’s major companies slumped and slumped again. Today, it finally recovered all those losses, setting a fresh all time high. There is

Melanie McDonagh

Menopausal women shouldn’t be treated differently

Granted, I could be a beneficiary of the latest guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) about women going through the menopause. It advises employers to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for women who experience symptoms such as broken sleep, brain fog and hot flushes (viz, most of us). This includes possibly relaxing uniform requirements, lowering the temperature in the office, providing quiet areas and protecting the menopausal from humorous observations about any of the above from their colleagues. It’s preposterous guidance from a body which has little notion of the realities of a workplace that isn’t publicly funded. These suggestions will end up pathologising the human condition – at