Politics Archives

Friday

8 Aug 2025

Why is Spain trying to pick a fight with Trump on defence?

When I joined the House of Commons Clerk’s Department 20 years ago, there was a helpful list of formerly common phrases which were no longer to be used. Among them was ‘Spanish practices’, that arch description often applied to irregular or restrictive workplace arrangements, which I suspect had hardly been spotted in the wild for a decade or more. It was an impermissible slur, of course, dating from the days of the first Elizabeth, but it came back to my mind yesterday. A contretemps with the notoriously intemperate and thin-skinned Trump might seem an attractive distraction The Financial Times picked up an announcement in the Madrid daily El País that

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Will the occupation of Gaza allow Israel to crush Hamas?

In a decision of historic weight, the Israeli government has formally approved a plan to expand its military operation and establish full control over the Gaza Strip. This has come despite the opposition of Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, who raised pointed warnings during a meeting that began at 6:00 pm Israeli time last night and stretched late into the night. Tensions between Zamir and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surfaced throughout the protracted session, with several ministers directly challenging the chief of staff over his stance. Eventually, the Political-Security Cabinet voted by an ‘overwhelming’ majority to endorse Netanyahu’s proposal to defeat Hamas through a combination of military occupation, strategic disarmament,

Lucy Dunn

Kate Forbes: I am not a quitter

Kate Forbes’s announcement on Monday that she would be standing down as an MSP next year caught most people – her political allies, former backers, current colleagues – by surprise. She decided to make her intentions clear a few days prior to her attendance at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, where she was set to be interviewed by the Herald newspaper. But the timing of the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP’s exit news also coincided, incidentally, with Storm Floris hitting the UK. ‘At about 11 a.m., just after making the news, the power went off completely,’ she confessed to Thursday’s audience. The Wi-Fi broke, a mobile phone mast went down, and

Gareth Roberts

Reform’s amateur hour problem

Britain is in a terrible state (you may have noticed). We have a busted economy, a broken social contract and also what are euphemistically known as ‘community tensions’. But Reform is riding to our rescue. Apparently. Now if I’m drowning I’ll grab gladly at any piece of passing driftwood, however unpromisingly flimsy. But I’m afraid I just can’t successfully lie to myself – and I’ve tried – about Reform. There is something cheap and cheerful about Reform, an erratic, homespun quality that would seem amiably slipshod in a comfortingly British way – if only conditions weren’t so dire What is the essence of Reform? If you were going to assemble a

Thursday

7 Aug 2025

James Heale

The homelessness minister had to go

A relatively quiet recess has been enlivened by a government resignation. Rushanara Ali quit as Homelessness Minister after accusations of hypocrisy by the i newspaper over how she handled rent increases on a house she owns in east London. Ali ended her tenants’ fixed term contract to sell up but then re-listed the house for rent at a higher price within six months, which is something she is currently trying to outlaw under the Renters’ Rights Bill. She had already lost part of her brief after attending an event linked to the parent company of a firm criticised by the Grenfell inquiry. The Labour MP’s resignation came in an exchange of

Fergus Butler-Gallie

Has Kemi Badenoch really thought about the problem of evil?

The problem of evil has stumped some of the greatest thinkers in the history of human philosophy and theology. It was, however, a cinch for Kemi Badenoch. In an interview designed to make the sometimes aloof Leader of the Opposition seem more relatable, Mrs Badenoch described how the case of Josef Fritzl made her ‘reject God’. She referred to the loss of faith as being ‘like a candle being blown out’ when she realised that while her prayers – for, inter alia, longer hair and good exam grades – appeared to have been answered, the prayers of the imprisoned Elisabeth Fritzl were not. The dominance of an elite which essentially believes

Madeline Grant

What will Rachel Reeves take credit for next?

There’s no rest, they say, for the wicked. Nobody, however, ever deigns to inform us what amount of downtime will be allocated to the incompetent. If the presence of Rachel Reeves in Wales this afternoon is anything to go by, they don’t get a great deal of rest either. In the midst of the summer holidays, our Playmobil-haired Chancellor had donned her hardhat and inflicted herself on Wales. As she stomped around Port Talbot it was hard to know where the plastic ended and the human began. Nothing Reeves says bears even the tiniest semblance to reality On the back of an interest rate cut, the Chancellor was proudly trumpeting

Steerpike

Labour’s freebie scandal rears its head

It wouldn’t be recess without a sleaze scandal, eh? Now Sir Keir Starmer’s wife is in the limelight, after it transpired that she has accepted yet another set of freebies. Victoria Starmer accepted free tickets to Royal Ascot worth hundreds – almost exactly a year on from when Lady Starmer and the Prime Minister were embroiled in a freebie fiasco row over free clothing and hospitality. Dear oh dear… Sir Keir’s register of interests revealed that Lady Starmer nabbed £650 worth of tickets for her and two family members to attend Royal Ascot, as reported by the Express. The Prime Minister himself wasn’t lucky enough to benefit from the gifts

Kate Andrews

Has the Bank of England forgotten what its job is?

15 min listen

Some excitement on Threadneedle Street today after the Bank of England cut interest rates to 4 per cent. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has just voted five to four – after a revote – for what is the third cut this year. This takes interest rates back down to levels not seen since the beginning of 2023. Concerns about an increasingly slack labour market seem to have driven the MPC’s decision. This sounds like good news – and Starmer will welcome it as such – but the Bank’s apparent comfort with loosening policy in this context is baffling says Michael Simmons. Its own forecasts show inflation climbing back to

Michael Simmons

Has the Bank of England forgotten what its job is?

The Bank of England has cut interest rates to 4 per cent. Threadneedle Street’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has just voted five to four, after a revote, for what is the third cut this year. This takes interest rates back down to levels not seen since the beginning of 2023. Concerns about an increasingly slack labour market seem to have driven the MPC’s decision. A second vote was required – the first since 1998 – because initially four members of the committee voted for a 0.25 per cent cut but one member voted for a larger cut of 0.5 per cent. Markets expect the rate to be cut once more to 3.75 per

Matthew Lynn

Reeves can’t continue to ignore the entrepreneurs fleeing Britain

Major listed companies have already switched from London to New York. The non-doms are all fleeing for Milan and Dubai. And now it turns out that company directors are quitting Britain in record numbers. The exodus of entrepreneurs is accelerating all the time. And yet, so far the Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have remained completely silent on the issue. Surely, sooner or later they will have to say something? An analysis by the Financial Times this week found that almost 3,700 company directors have left Britain over the last few months, almost double the number before the Budget. Given the time lags involved in filing

Ross Clark

Higher gambling taxes won’t solve child poverty

As the man who first gave Britain a £150 billion deficit, I don’t think Gordon Brown is the best person to advise the current government on its fiscal policy. But even so the gaping hole in his call for higher gambling duties does raise the eyebrows. Brown seems to think that higher gambling taxes are capable of lifting half a million children out of poverty. Writing in the Guardian, he claims that raising online gaming taxes from 25 per cent to 50 per cent will raise an extra £1.6 billion, jacking up general betting duty from 15 per cent to 25 per cent will raise an extra £450 million and

Owen Matthews

What Putin wants from his meeting with Trump

With just a day to go until the expiry of his ultimatum to Vladimir Putin to halt the war on Ukraine or face dire consequences, Donald Trump has once more reset the clock. Trump intends to meet in person with President Vladimir Putin of Russia as soon as next week, the New York Times has reported. That summit will be followed by a second, trilateral meeting including Trump, Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Trump reportedly told top European leaders in a conference call on Wednesday night. The announcement came after Trump’s envoy, real state developer Steve Witkoff, met Putin for three hours of talks at the Kremlin. Trump

Steerpike

Josef Fritzl caused Badenoch to lose faith

‘The testing of your faith produces perseverance’ – James 1:2-3. That may be the case, but too much testing can also result in secularism apparently. In an interview with the Beeb, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has said that while she was ‘never that religious’ growing up though would have ‘defined myself as a Christian apologist’. She revealed, however, that all this changed in 2008 – due to Josef Fritzl. The Tory leader said that when she discovered what Fritzl had done to his daughter Elizabeth – imprisoning and repeatedly raping her in his basement over 24 years – it changed her attitude to religion forever. Badenoch – whose maternal

William Moore

Reform’s motherland, Meloni’s Italian renaissance & the adults learning to swim

46 min listen

First: Nigel Farage is winning over women Does – or did – Nigel Farage have a woman problem? ‘Around me there’s always been a perception of a laddish culture,’ he tells political editor Tim Shipman. In last year’s election, 58 per cent of Reform voters were men. But, Shipman argues, ‘that has begun to change’. According to More in Common, Reform has gained 14% among women, while Labour has lost 12%. ‘Women are ‘more likely than men… to worry that the country is broken.’ Many of Reform’s most recent victories have been by women: Andrea Jenkyns in the mayoral elections, Sarah Pochin to Parliament; plus, there most recent high profile

Rod Liddle

The lies of the land

You can gauge the fragility of an ideology by the blind fury with which it reacts to questioning. So it is with neo-liberalism. Teacher Simon Pearson, for example, was sacked for suggesting that the jailing of Lucy Connolly – who said very nasty things about asylum seekers – was an example of two-tier justice and that, while her words were indefensible, she should not have been sent to prison. One could counter that opinion, but only at the risk of coming into collision with hard facts concerning sentencing – hence the sacking. Best to get shot of your political opponents, especially when he or she is demonstrably correct. Only by

Tim Shipman

Motherland: how Farage is winning over women

On the campaign trail in the Midlands ahead of May’s local elections, a journalist asked Nigel Farage: ‘Do you have a woman problem?’ The twice-married, twice-separated father of four laughed and said: ‘God, yes. I’ve had 40 years of it.’ His response was characteristic of Reform UK’s leader – a determination not to take things too seriously and a tacit acknowledgement that every political cause he has espoused has been more popular with men than women. ‘Around me there’s always been a perception of a laddish culture,’ he says. ‘Ukip was the rugby club on tour.’ In last year’s general election, 58 per cent of Reformvoters were men. Since May,

Wednesday

6 Aug 2025

Lisa Haseldine

Is Putin calling Trump’s bluff on Ukraine?

US special envoy Steve Witkoff was back in Moscow today to meet with Vladimir Putin, ahead of Donald Trump’s Friday deadline for Russia to make peace with Ukraine. This was Witkoff’s fifth meeting with Putin this year. Similar to his previous audiences with the Russian president, today’s one-on-one lasted for three hours. While broadly we know that the two will have been meeting to discuss the Ukraine war, the details or results of the meeting so far remain unknown: according to Russian presidential aides, the Kremlin will hold off from issuing public comments on what transpired until Witkoff has had a chance to brief Trump. The President’s increasing frustration and

Michael Simmons

What Douglas Murray’s court win means for press freedom

10 min listen

The Spectator and Douglas Murray have comprehensively won a defamation case brought by Mohammed Hegab. Hegab, a YouTuber who posts under the name Mohammed Hijab, claimed that an article about the Leicester riots, written by Douglas Murray and published by The Spectatorin September 2022, caused serious harm to his reputation and led to a loss of earnings. However, the judge found that the article did not cause serious harm to Hijab, that what was published was substantially true, and that Hijab had ‘lied on significant issues’ in court and had given evidence that ‘overall, is worthless’. What does this case mean for the future of press freedom? On today’s podcast, Michael Simmons discusses

Freddy Gray

Why the Trump-Russia story never ends

In June, Tulsi Gabbard found herself in a difficult position. As a dovish Iraq war veteran who happens to be Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, she’d spent weeks trying to stop America launching air strikes against Iran. She’d cited intelligence reports which contradicted Israeli suggestions that Tehran was just days away from having a nuclear bomb. Trump didn’t want to know. ‘I don’t care what she says,’ he told reporters, before ordering the strikes on Iran. Gabbard had been humiliated. Surely she had to resign? Nothing is sure in Trumpworld, however, and humiliation is half the fun. Rather than falling out with the Donald, Gabbard instead redoubled her efforts