Politics

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

Thursday

15 Feb 2024

Things are looking up for Scottish Labour

Scottish Labour gathers in Glasgow this weekend in both a mental and electoral state few thought achievable just a short few years ago. Having polled less than 10 per cent in the (albeit meaningless) European Parliament elections of 2019, followed by another humiliating third placed finish at the Holyrood elections of 2021 with less than 18 per cent of the regional vote, Labour looked helpless and hopeless. But things change. Quickly. Lenin said that there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. Scottish Labour’s ascent is not quite in that category, but nevertheless Anas Sarwar’s outfit has rapidly morphed from the irrelevant cousin-at-the-wedding to the

Debbie Hayton

It’s not ‘right wingers’ who turned Parkrun into a trans battleground

The Parkrun saga over times for transgender runners staggers on, but the organisation has only itself to blame. For want of a clear policy on sex and gender, Parkrun seems to have upset everyone. Last week, at least one event director quit as the company erased its run records wholesale in what looked like a knee-jerk reaction to a campaign against Parkrun’s view that competitors could self-declare their gender. It’s not ‘right wing’ to understand the material reality of biological sex This is a fuss that never needed to happen but – like too many other organisations – Parkrun abandoned biological reality when it allowed everyone to choose their sex when

Euan McColm

Nicola Sturgeon is the SNP’s biggest liability

A year ago today, Nicola Sturgeon announced her resignation as SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland. The consensus was that her departure from the political frontline would be a blow to both her party and the wider Scottish independence movement. After almost nine years as First Minister, Sturgeon left office as a dominant figure in Scottish politics, with positive approval ratings and revered by her followers and respected by opponents as a significant talent. Of course her sudden resignation was going to have repercussions. But nobody could have predicted just how chaotic things would become. Twelve months after Sturgeon’s announcement sent shockwaves through the British political establishment, support for

Alexander Horne

Protests targeting MPs’ homes must not become the norm

On Monday evening, more than 60 activists gathered outside the home of Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative backbencher and former junior defence minister and chair of the Defence Select Committee. The protestors had assembled to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, although several were also heard supporting the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have recently been attacking shipping in the Red Sea. They mustered with placards and a megaphone. One of the signs accused Ellwood of being ‘complicit in genocide’. Ellwood and his family said that they had been advised by police to ‘stay away’ from their home on the basis that ‘arriving through that crowd would’ve antagonised the situation’. Subsequently,

Steerpike

Sadiq Khan unveils the Windrush line

Crime is up, half the Tube network is delayed or suspended, but never fear, Sadiq Khan is here. The Mayor of London has today unveiled his latest wheeze to show he’s not all inaction man: bestowing six different parts of the Overground with new, right-on names and distinct colours. After all, who needs a statues commission when you can just rebrand every transport map? His apparatchiks in Transport for London (TfL) have today declared that these services will become known as the Lioness line; the Mildmay line; the Windrush line; the Weaver line; the Suffragette line; and the Liberty line. Presumably the Amy Lamé line was a stretch too far…

Kate Andrews

The UK is in recession – but for how long?

At the start of last year Rishi Sunak made the promise to ‘get the economy growing’ one of his five major pledges. Today he is confronted with headlines that the UK fell into recession at the end of last year, as the Office for National Statistics reported this morning that the economy contracted by 0.3 per cent between October and December 2023. This fall in the fourth quarter followed a fall of (an unrevised) 0.1 per cent in the third quarter. That’s two consecutive quarters of negative growth – the technical definition of recession. Today’s revelation is going to spark debate about what constitutes a recession. The technical definition has been met, but

James Kirkup

The pension bomb facing Generation X

Happy birthday to me. Today I turn 48. I’m celebrating in an age-appropriate way: a trip to the physio for a stiff shoulder, then publishing some gloomy words about pensions. Being born in 1976 makes me part of what marketers called Generation X. Arguably though, the 1965 to 1980 cohort should be tagged the ‘Forgotten Generation’. We talk and write a lot about generations and their supposed differences, in terms of attitudes and economic experiences. I’ve done my fair share of generation-journalism, but I’m not blind to its failings. I think a lot of those differences are overstated: culturally we all have more in common than the hot tales suggest. And generational commentary

Iain Macwhirter

How Nicola Sturgeon saved the Union

It may seem perverse to claim that the former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon saved the Union between Scotland and England. She is after all a Scottish nationalist who has dedicated her life to the cause of Scottish independence. But her actions since she resigned exactly one year ago from her post as First Minister have set the independence cause back by at least 20 years, perhaps longer. Labour is back in contention in Scotland; no one is talking about an independence referendum any more; the SNP is now a divided party with a collapsing membership and a weak leader who has presided over a catalogue of policy failures. The

Douglas Murray

I’ll soon be the only commoner I know

It is starting to dawn on me that I will soon be the only commoner I know. I am racking my brains trying to think of anyone I have even met in recent years who has not been ennobled, and at present I am drawing a blank. Each time I am out of the UK I return to find another honours list and another batch of peers. By the time the magazine has gone to press this column’s sub-editor will probably have been called to the Upper House. Should the Upper House really be a chamber filled with failed MPs, council leaders and spads? This is not – I would like

The Spectator

The Tories are too weak to capitalise on Labour’s failings

The polls suggest that Labour is in line for a general election victory later this year which could match or even exceed Tony Blair’s landslide of 1997. Yet the party exudes none of the confidence and maintains none of the self-discipline which it did 27 years ago. On the contrary, were the Conservatives not in an even worse state themselves, Keir Starmer’s party could well be in deep trouble. For Labour to contrive to lose a safe seat in the current circumstances is remarkable. But that is exactly what the party has done with its failure to vet properly Azhar Ali, the candidate chosen to fight the Rochdale by-election following

Rod Liddle

Labour still has an anti-Semitism problem

Then there’s the other candidate, or ex-candidate, for the Rochdale by-election, the one nobody is talking about. The Green party hopeful, Guy Otten, had his party’s support withdrawn last week and he decided to pull out over tweets he had written, some of them up to ten years ago. The one which really narked his Green colleagues, apparently, was this: ‘The Quran is full of war, slaughter, rape and pillage, with genocide and slavery as well. It’s not fit for the 21st century.’ Hmm. How to put this? I have to say, as a description of the gorier bits of the Quran it’s not terribly wide of the mark, is

James Heale

Can Sunak find the common touch?

A former Tory minister likes to tell the tale of a recent charity dinner in his constituency. The organiser began by stressing that the occasion had to remain ‘a strictly non-political event’. The MP rose to reply: ‘Not to worry, ladies and gentlemen – I belong to a strictly non-political party.’ That question of Rishi Sunak’s political instincts – or lack thereof – is preoccupying Tory MPs. Three recent encounters are held up as examples. An ill-judged bet with Piers Morgan was followed by a warm embrace with the Sinn Fein First Minister Michelle O’Neill. Images of this latter encounter went down badly with Tory MPs who served in the

Max Jeffery

Is Nato ready for a Russian invasion?

Tapa, Estonia In a pine forest two hours from Estonia’s border with Russia, preparation for war is under way. British, French, American and Estonian soldiers are rehearsing what Nato would do if Vladimir Putin invaded. They’ve brought Challenger II tanks, an F-16 fighter jet and Himars artillery systems – some of the best equipment the West has – for a fortnight of battle simulations. It means preparing for trench warfare, minefields, ambushes and mortar strikes in -20°C and a foot of snow. Not long ago, the idea of fighting a war against Russia was dismissed as a joke. When Mitt Romney ran for US president he said Moscow was a

Charles Moore

British cheese… or gay dating website?

If you can vote in Rochdale, you have a choice of three candidates with Labour backgrounds in the coming by-election. There is George Galloway, the man who famously saluted Saddam Hussein’s ‘courage and indefatigability’. George used to be a Labour MP but is now the candidate of the Workers Party of Britain. Then there is Simon Danczuk. He too was a Labour MP, for Rochdale indeed. He was a scourge of paedophiles, peddling conspiracy theories about Dolphin Square, the innocent Leon Brittan etc, but – as so often with those who love hurling sexual allegations – he got tangled up himself, sending ‘inappropriate’ texts to a 17-year-old girl, and subsequently

Wednesday

14 Feb 2024

Steerpike

Watch: Marjorie Taylor Greene insults Lord Cameron

David Cameron is currently in the States, urging politicians there to back support for Ukraine. Currently Washington DC is ensuring a stalemate over £75 billion of aid for Kyiv’s struggle against their Russian invaders. The Foreign Secretary used an article in the DC website the Hill to urge Congress to support Ukraine with more funding. He wrote: I believe our joint history shows the folly of giving in to tyrants in Europe who believe in redrawing boundaries by force. I do not want us to show the weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s. He came back for more, costing us far more lives to stop his aggression. But his comments

Iain Macwhirter

Edinburgh University’s new rector must save it from gender ideology

Simon Fanshawe has been installed as the rector of Edinburgh University. The arrival of the comedian and Stonewall dissident to the post will hopefully bring to an end a dismal episode in the life of one of Britain’s greatest academic institutions. But don’t bank on it. The campaign by transgender activists and others to uninstall Mr Fanshawe is already underway – and they know what they are doing. For the past decade a collection of campus zealots has been allowed to run rampant in this supposed seat of higher learning. They have threatened the health and livelihoods of lecturers and banned freedom of speech – often with the tacit acquiescence

Jonathan Miller

Journalists are out to censor the French GB News

Left-wing journalists have won a huge battle in France against CNews, the country’s most popular news channel. France’s Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, has given the media regulator Arcom six months to investigate the channel to determine whether or not it is keeping to strict rules on balanced and independent journalism. CNews is one of five French news channels and the only one that defiantly ignores the groupthink of leftist Paris journalists. It’s long been the target of those seeking to silence it in a campaign reminiscent of that waged against GB News by leftist groups in Britain, who both complain to Ofcom and organise advertising boycotts. France is

Ross Clark

Britain’s unemployment figures can’t be trusted

Britain’s unemployment statistics are unreliable, and the Office of National Statistics is experimenting with a new method of counting the number of people out of work. Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, said as much this afternoon while giving evidence to the House of Lords Committee on Economic Affairs. Until the 1990s the unemployment figure was a simple count of the number of people who were claiming unemployment benefit. Since then, however, the figures have been collected via the Labour Force Survey, which is a questionnaire put to a sample of households. As Bailey says, the size of this sample was already shrinking before the pandemic, making the

Melanie McDonagh

How to get through Lent

Well, it’s a pig of a coincidence to have Ash Wednesday coinciding with Valentine’s Day. So, at the start of Lent, on the very day that traditionalists are allowed one light meal and two collations – basically less of everything and no meat – you’re meant to be celebrating the love stuff, always supposing you’re of an age. There are ways round this. First, remember that fish is fine. Oysters, that well known aphrodisiac, are absolutely legitimate; ditto lobster. You can’t really feel that hard done by if you’re putting away Coquilles St Jacques for two. Or else you could always go vegan. It’s not often you want to embrace

James Heale

Have the Tories given up on Wellingborough & Kingswood?

10 min listen

Inflation figures released this morning have remained at 4 per cent – a worry for Rishi Sunak’s five pledges. There are several hurdles are still to come for the Prime Minister this week, including growth figures tomorrow and two by-elections on Friday. Why are the Tories keeping things low-key on the campaign trail? James Heale is joined by Kate Andrews and Lucy Fisher Whitehall editor of the Financial Times.