Politics

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

Friday

10 Nov 2023

‘Humanitarian pauses’ will help Israel defeat Hamas in Gaza

As the IDF continues to close in on Hamas in the heart of Gaza, the US announced that Israel will implement daily four-hour ‘humanitarian pauses’ in fighting in the north of the strip. Hours after the announcement yesterday, during a press conference, the Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant spoke rather differently about the pauses. He stated that Israel would not stop the fighting against Hamas until all the hostages held by the group had been returned. Only then could proper humanitarian pauses go ahead. The inconsistent messaging from the American and Israeli sides regarding these humanitarian pauses reflects the American administration’s frustration with Israel’s refusal to pause the fighting. The

Alexander Larman

Prince Harry wins his latest legal battle – but at what cost?

Prince Harry has won a small victory in his High Court battle: a judge ruled this morning that his privacy case against Associated Newspapers, the publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, can proceed to trial. Harry is part of a group of seven, including Doreen Lawrence and Sir Elton John, who have accused the newspaper group of all manner of reprehensible behaviour, including listening in on private telephone conversations, accessing confidential records and even planting bugging devices within vehicles. Associated denies the accusations, calling them ‘preposterous smears’. It asked the judge hearing the case, Mr Justice Nicklin, to dismiss the case without trial. But Nicklin refused to

Katy Balls

Where does the Suella Braverman debacle go next?

The debacle concerning Suella Braverman makes the front page of most papers today after No. 10 confirmed that the Home Secretary had failed to get sign off for a Times op-ed on police bias published earlier this week. Despite Downing Street using Thursday’s lobby briefing to say that Braverman and her team had ignored a No. 10 request to tone down the piece, the Prime Minister has said he still has confidence in his Home Secretary. Given several Tory MPs and anonymous government ministers have joined in with calls from opposition parties for Sunak to sack Braverman, the question in Westminster is how long this current position can hold. Jeremy

Joanna Williams

The negative side of being ‘sex positive’

‘Let’s talk about sex, baby,’ sang female rap duo Salt-N-Pepa back in 1990. More than 30-years later, it can seem as if we talk about little else. Today, we are not just expected to talk frankly about all matters carnal but to be ‘sex positive’. Emma Sayle, the founder of ‘Killing Kittens’ – which organises posh orgies for bored bankers – is the latest to urge us to speak up about sex. ‘Being sex positive is just being open about sexuality and being able to talk comfortably about sex without any shame or guilt or judgment,’ she said in an interview with the Times this week. Her words were revealing,

Kate Andrews

The spectre of recession continues to haunt the UK economy

The UK economy grew 0.2 per cent in September. This followed 0.1 per cent growth in August, revised downwards from 0.2 per cent. Monthly figures don’t always tell a story on their own, but these past two months of data reflect the UK economy’s trend for the year – one, unfortunately, of virtually no growth. The provisional Q3 figures are out this morning as well, showing no economic growth between July and September. A tiny 0.1 per cent uptick in the services sector was offset by a small fall in construction output, which has led to a flatlining economy. Compared with the same quarter in 2022, GDP has increased by

Gavin Mortimer

Britain must stand up for its Jews

In his speech to parliament on Tuesday, King Charles declared that Britain was ‘committed’ to tackling anti-Semitism. His remarks were made amid a surge in acts of such bigotry on British streets, the majority occurring in London. On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police announced that they had arrested 98 people on suspicion of anti-Semitic hate crimes since Hamas’s slaughter of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians on 7 October. The Met recorded 408 alleged anti-Semitic offences in October, an increase of 380 on the same period in 2022. It will take courage and determination to dispel this darkness – from politicians, the police and the general public Marie van der Zyl,

Katy Balls

The Arlene Phillips Edition

34 min listen

Arlene Phillips was born in Lancashire, but moved to London to pursue her love for dance. She started age 3 and by the age of 20 she became a dance teacher. From here she formed the dance troupe Hot Gossip and made regular appearances on the Kenny Everett show, catapulting her into the public eye. She went on to be involved with some of the biggest productions on West End – including Grease, Guys and Dolls and the Sound of Music. She’s also choreographed films such as 1982’s Annie and has worked with some of the stars like Freddie Mercury and Tina Turner. In 2004 Arlene was on the original

Katja Hoyer

Can Germany’s ‘Rwanda-style’ migrant plan keep the AfD at bay?

Germany is facing one of the greatest political upheavals in its modern history. Polls indicate that the ruling coalition would gain only a third of the vote between its three parties if an election were to be held now. Meanwhile the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has emerged as the second most popular party. With concerns about immigration one of the hot topic issues, Scholz’s government is now considering a Rwanda-style plan to process asylum claims in partner states outside of the EU. Much is at stake. If it works, it will be a sea change on immigration policy that will affect the entire EU bloc. If it fails or

Jawad Iqbal

The pointless spectacle of the pro-Palestine march

Now that Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has defied calls to ban a pro-Palestinian march through London on Armistice Day, attention inevitably turns to what might happen on the day itself. Will there be violence? Could groups intent on causing mayhem splinter from the main protest? Will counter-protesters clash with pro-Palestinian demonstrators? How will the police maintain control of events on the ground and ensure the protest passes off peacefully? Well down the list of questions and issues is Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, ostensibly the reason for this weekend’s public protests. That is revealing in itself: the actual conflict is almost a side show in the

Thursday

9 Nov 2023

William Moore

Keeping the peace: the politics of policing protest

41 min listen

On the podcast: In his cover piece for The Spectator Ian Acheson discusses the potential disruption to Armistice Day proceedings in London this weekend. He says that Metropolitan Police Chief Mark Rowley is right to let the pro-Palestine protests go ahead, if his officers can assertively enforce the law. He joins the podcast alongside Baroness Claire Fox to discuss the problems of policing protest. Next: are smartphones making us care less about humanity? This is the question that Mary Wakefield grapples with in her column in The Spectator. She says it’s no wonder that Gen Z lack empathy when they spend most of their lives on social media. She is joined by Gaia Bernstein,

Isabel Hardman

Sunak has no easy options in the Suella Braverman row

Tory whips are doing a ring around of their MPs to find out what they think of the row over Suella Braverman’s Times piece. The Home Secretary accused police of ‘playing favourites’ when it comes to dealing with protests. As I blogged earlier, several have made their views on Braverman’s intervention very well known to the party hierarchy already. One senior MP says to me: ‘I think she will be gone by the end of the week. And they should take the whip off her too. I am leaving this place at the next election and I will be happier knowing that she is not still in the party to

Steerpike

Covid Inquiry costs soar to £56 million

It would be easy to get the impression that the Covid Inquiry – with its relentless focus on bad language and offensive WhatsApp messages – has so far been a waste of time. But that’s not quite true: it’s been a massive waste of money too. Today the Inquiry released its accounts for up to September 2023, which show that the cost of the lumbering investigation has already ballooned to £56 million, even though public hearings only began in June. As you’d expect, the largest expenses so far have been on lawyers, with the Inquiry shelling out £19.6 million to keep 62 barristers (including 12 KCs) and a team of solicitors on

Stephen Daisley

Suella Braverman is right for once

There can be few sins in politics graver than giving Suella Braverman a point. Yet that is exactly what the Home Secretary has in her Times op-ed when she writes: Unfortunately, there is a perception that senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters. During Covid, why was it that lockdown objectors were given no quarter by public order police yet Black Lives Matter demonstrators were enabled, allowed to break rules and even greeted with officers taking the knee? She’s not wrong, is she? Some progressives are arguing that she is because, they contend, Boris Johnson ‘essentially authorised’ the BLM protests when he said in an 8 June

Steerpike

SNP minister runs up £11,000 iPad bill

The SNP’s finances are back at the top of the news agenda. Michael Matheson, Holyrood’s hopeless health secretary has somehow managed to rack up an £11,000 bill on his parliamentary iPad. It appears that when the government minister was holidaying in Morocco with his family, he forgot to switch on his WiFi. But instead of admitting to the foolishness of his blunder and paying up, Matheson has begrudgingly made a ‘donation’ of £3,000 from his publicly funded office allowances. ‘Shameless’ doesn’t quite cut it… Holyrood insiders told the Telegraph that the former net zero secretary refused to pay the remaining £7,935.74 from his own purse, deferring it instead to the Scottish parliament.

Lucy Dunn

NHS waiting list reaches record high – again

Rishi Sunak pledged in January that his government would cut waiting lists by 2024 — but the latest stats show the PM is failing to meet his target: the NHS waiting list has hit a record high of 7.8 million waits, according to figures released this morning. 6.5 million patients are languishing on lists, with around 15 per cent waiting for more than one thing. The bad news for patients – and for the Prime Minister – is that things are likely to get worse before they get better. October has been the busiest month for A&E attendance so far this year with over 2.2 million people showing up at emergency departments

Andrew McQuillan

Suella Braverman has a point about Northern Ireland

Suella Braverman’s description of pro-Palestinian protests as being ‘disturbingly reminiscent of Ulster’ has given the Province’s political class yet another reason – not that they need one – to chunter on at length. The professionally po-faced, from SDLP leader Colum Eastwood to Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party, dutifully trod the path to X/ Twitter, or whichever broadcasting studio would take them, to intone about how off piste the Home Secretary had gone. They said Braverman’s remarks showed how ignorant about the reality on the ground in Northern Ireland she was. For all the claims the Home Secretary doesn’t know what she’s talking about when it comes to Northern Ireland, she

Max Jeffery

What is Suella Braverman up to?

10 min listen

Suella Braverman has again dominated conversation with her controversial rhetoric, this time comparing the pro-Palestinian marches to the Orange Marches of Northern Ireland in a punchy op-ed for the Times. Has she finally gone too far for this government? Max Jeffery talks to Katy Balls and James Heale. Produced by Max Jeffery and Cindy Yu.

Patrick O’Flynn

Sacking Suella could sink Sunak

If prizes were dished out for saying what the unwashed and un-woke are thinking then Suella Braverman would be garlanded in medals and have a mantelpiece groaning with trophies. The Home Secretary scored bullseye of the year when she said that multiculturalism had failed. A couple of weeks later groups of people waving Palestinian flags and dressed in the garb of the Middle East could be seen dancing in the streets of London as news broke of the 7 October pogrom by Hamas: No further questions, your honour. Since then, she has made utterances that have shot to the top of the news agenda several times more. Demonstrations taking place

Isabel Hardman

Is Suella Braverman trying to get sacked?

Tory MPs are in an even more fractious mood than usual following Suella Braverman’s article in the Times. No. 10 has now clarified that while Rishi Sunak has full confidence in Braverman, the article was not cleared by Downing Street. As Katy Balls explains here, the Home Secretary does seem to be pushing the limits of what Downing Street will accept. There is also considerable impatience among MPs with No 10. I’ve been shown WhatsApp messages from the Home Office group this morning where MPs have been demanding clarity from Braverman’s special advisers and Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPSs) on whether the piece was indeed cleared by No 10. Kit Malthouse in

Steerpike

Nadine Dorries’s bizarre Today interview

In these difficult times, at least we can all count on Nadine Dorries to give us a good laugh. The former Culture Secretary was up early on the Today programme to mark publication day of her book on the supposed ‘plot’ to bring down Boris Johnson. Her thesis, she told a bemused Nick Robinson, was that five Tory leaders in quick succession have been brought down by a cabal of insiders known only as ‘The Movement.’ One of them, Dorries intoned sinisterly, was Dougie Smith, the longtime Tory operative, who, she says, ‘decides who becomes an MP, who becomes a minister, who becomes a Prime Minister and remains as Prime Minister and party

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