Politics

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

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Just Stop Oil involved in ambulance blockage

Just Stop Oil has been out of the news lately. But this week, its members are back and more annoying than ever, as they protest against the black stuff. Following an attack on a painting at the National Gallery on Monday, JSO activists have been holding up traffic in central London today by sitting in the road. Unfortunately, one of the vehicles that was blocked by congestion on Waterloo Bridge was an ambulance with its blue lights on. The paramedics who couldn’t get through were providing emergency life support for people whose lungs are not working properly, according to the Daily Telegraph. Just Stop Oil tried to pass the buck for the incident

Steerpike Steerpike

Tax pledge Tories turn to spirits

The watering holes of SW1 were full last night, with MPs dissecting the day’s King’s Speech. But as attention turns to the Autumn Statement and the next big parliamentary set-piece occasion, a collection of Conservatives were mulling their next moves. For a 20-strong tax cutting group of Tories got together in Smith Square – onetime home of Conservative Central Office, where the great quartet of Thatcherite election victories were celebrated throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. With spirits low but taxes high, the group met over a glass of Scotch Whisky to discuss an issue close to Steerpike’s heart: the price of booze. With Chancellor Jeremy Hunt mulling yet another

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

TikTok teens have an anti-Semitism blind spot

How could anyone hate Lily Ebert? The 99-year-old from Golders Green dedicates her life to teaching younger generations about the Shoah. Lily survived Auschwitz, where her mother and two of her siblings were gassed, and she went on to found the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre. For her contributions to Holocaust education, she was awarded the British Empire Medal. One of the tools she uses to reach young people is TikTok. Her account, managed by her 19-year-old great-grandson Dov Forman, has 2.1 million followers, drawn to educational videos from a woman who has lived some of the very worst of history. Then, one month ago, when Hamas murdered 1,400 Israelis in one

Lucy Dunn

A ban on laughing gas is long overdue

The recreational use of laughing gas has been banned in the UK from today. We are only the second country in the world to make the possession of nitrous oxide illegal – users of the now-class C drug will get up to two years in prison while dealers face jail time of up to 14 years. Though two government-led reviews concluded that the substance wasn’t dangerous enough to make it illegal, the growing evidence of insidious and long-lasting side effects suggests otherwise.  On the surface, laughing gas appears to be a fairly harmless drug. It doesn’t have a giveaway smell or any obvious adverse side-effects – and it’s cheap. Post-pandemic

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

‘The party of abortion’ is winning

Not so long ago, Republicans called Democrats the ‘party of abortion’ as an insult, or a pre-election attack line. Now, it is the Republicans, as the party against abortion, who are losing. This is a grim reality for Americans who believe that the unborn deserve protection.    Since Dobbs, in elections where abortion is on the ballot, the party of abortion keeps winning Since June last year, when the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs, overturning the right to an abortion under Roe vs Wade and returning the issue back to state legislatures, the Democrats have won over and over in elections all over America by campaigning to ‘preserve access’, as they like to say, to

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

When will those ‘marching for Palestine’ do the right thing?

Those of us who believe in freedom of expression have felt mighty lonely this week. We have watched as, one by one, our fellow opponents of cancel culture have given into the temptations of censorship. Many on the right in particular appear to have fallen under the spell of suppression. Gone is their devotion to the ‘marketplace of ideas’ and in its stead comes a chilling cry for a literal police clampdown on speech they don’t like. The target of these overnight converts to cancel culture? Saturday’s ‘March for Palestine’ in London. For the fourth weekend running, tens of thousands of people will gather in the capital to rage against

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The frightening bigotry of the French left

France’s most infamous antisemite is back in the headlines. At the weekend, the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, declared in an interview that he didn’t believe Jean-Marie Le Pen was an antisemite. This came as a surprise to many given that the 95-year-old Le Pen, who founded the National Front in 1972, has been condemned on six occasions by French courts for just such bigotry.  Le Pen’s most notorious declaration was during a television interview in 1987 when, discussing the gas chambers, he said that although he didn’t deny their existence they were nonetheless a ‘small point of detail in the second world war’. The remark caused uproar

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will more Labour frontbenchers resign over Gaza?

Overnight, Keir Starmer suffered his first shadow minister resignation over his position on Gaza. Imran Hussain has quit as shadow minister for the New Deal for Working People over his desire to ‘strongly advocate for a ceasefire’ in Gaza. While Hussain used a statement to insist that he remains committed to Labour’s agenda more generally, he said that his view on what is currently happening in Gaza differs ‘substantially’ from the Labour leader’s position. He wants to now be a ‘strong advocate’ for calling for a ceasefire: ‘It is clear that I cannot sufficiently, in all good conscience, do this from the front bench given its current position’. Labour MPs

Sean Rayment

To destroy Hamas, Israel must continue bombing Gaza

Israel has no other choice but to carry on bombing Gaza if it wants to destroy Hamas. Its campaign of relentless air strikes and long range artillery barrages has so far been effective at eroding Hamas’ military capability and limiting the Islamist group’s capacity to kill more Israelis. Hamas has been unable to respond in any meaningful way since Israel’s offensive began. It has been limited to hit and run attacks, inflicting only relatively light casualties. Israel’s unrelenting bombardments, combined with the internet and mobile phone outages, will have caused chaos within Hamas’ command structure. Palestinians are dying because Hamas attacked Israel and killed without mercy But the bombing campaign

Andrew Tettenborn

Do churches and cricket clubs really need anti-terrorism training?

One problem clearly emerged after an Islamist fanatic blew himself up at a major pop concert in the Manchester Arena in 2017, killing 22 other people. This was that no one there had a clue about how to react to events of this sort. The government promised action. Action we now have, in the form of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill announced in the King’s speech. Unfortunately, as with many well-intentioned ‘something must be done’ measures, this Bill, aimed at requiring a degree of terrorism preparedness at events like this, could well go too far the other way. If enacted as suggested, the cure could end up being worse

Jim Lawley

Spaniards are horrified by an amnesty for separatists

When has a government ever offered an amnesty to fugitives from justice in order to stay in office? That’s what’s happening in Spain at the moment. Following July’s general election the only way in which the caretaker prime minister, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, can cling to power is by cutting a deal with a hodgepodge of small parties, including two Catalan separatist groups. Their price includes a general amnesty for those indicted for their involvement in the illegal referendum on independence for Catalonia in 2017 and the subsequent unilateral declaration of independence. In July’s election Sánchez’s left-wing party, PSOE, won just 121 seats. The support of the radical left party

Constantin Eckner

Will Germany’s ‘Rwanda-style’ migrant plan ever materialise?

Germany’s chancellor is cracking down on asylum seekers – but he is not doing so willingly. The country’s federal government is weighing up a system – similar to the UK’s mooted ‘Rwanda plan’ – for asylum applications to be processed abroad. But Olaf Scholz, who was essentially cornered into the announcement following a marathon session with regional leaders from Germany’s 16 state governments, is sceptical. ‘There are…a whole series of legal questions,’ Scholz said after emerging in the early hours of Tuesday morning from an acrimonious meeting with state leaders. The plan, a 17-page agreement, is an attempt to counter the rise of far-right parties like Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Starmer loses his first frontbencher over Gaza

Oh dear. Just hours after Keir Starmer was touting Labour as a government-in-waiting, he lost his first frontbencher over the ongoing Gaza conflict. Imran Hussain last night quit as Shadow Minister for the New Deal for Working People, after eight years serving as a party spokesman. Hussain was one of fifteen Labour frontbenchers who have called for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. Will others now follow suit? In his resignation letter to Starmer, Hussain said: ‘Over recent weeks, it has become clear that my view on the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza differs substantially from the position you have adopted… I believe the party needs to go further and

Steerpike Steerpike

Eddie Lister’s intriguing inquiry evidence

Shock, horror! Something surprising happened today at the Covid Inquiry. Thus far, much of what we have heard has been predictable or even mundane. Simon Case made a fool of himself? Stop the presses. The civil service thought No. 10 was a shambles? Halt the front page. Nobody liked Matt Hancock? Quick, get the editor. But the appearance today of Lord Udny-Lister – the artist formerly known as Eddie Lister – brought with it some intriguing revelations. Unlike Cummings or Helen MacNamara, Lister does not have an obvious axe to grind. Since quitting as Boris Johnson’s chief strategic adviser, the onetime City Hall aide has largely kept his own counsel

Steerpike Steerpike

Carole Cadwalladr loses for the final time

Oh dear. It seems after repeatedly trying (and failing) to defeat Arron Banks in court, Carole Cadwalladr has now lost for the final time. For the Supreme Court today refused the Observer journalist’s application for permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s costs ruling in the libel case of Banks v Cadwalladr. Leaving her with a hefty bill to pay… To recap: back in February, the Brexit-backing Banks won a partially-successful appeal of an earlier libel ruling from June 2022 over Cadwalladr’s TedTalk claims that he had a ‘covert relationship with Russia.’ In May, the Court of Appeal subsequently ordered that Cadwalladr had to pay 60 per cent of Banks’

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What did King Charles say?

12 min listen

It was the King’s speech today. King Charles announced that the government would introduce new laws to, among other things, force criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, scrap most jail sentences of less than a year, and sell all new houses as freehold properties. Is it enough for the Tories to turn around their deficit in the polls? Katy Balls speaks to James Heale and Isabel Hardman.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

All Sunak wants to do is attack Labour

Rishi Sunak wants voters to see the Conservatives as taking difficult, ambitious choices, including on net zero and transport. He told MPs: ‘This King’s Speech is about what this government is about, taking long-term decisions to build a brighter future for our country. It builds on foundations that are far stronger than they were just a year ago.’ He said that the impact for the British people would be ‘more jobs, more investment, and higher growth, more police on the streets with stronger powers to keep us safe, places people are proud to call home, a country strong at home, confident abroad and with a better future ahead for all

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

After 13 years of Tory rule, is this it?

There were no big surprises in the King’s Speech today. That’s a shame. Rishi Sunak and his ministers like to insist their agenda for the next year is an ambitious one. They’re making ‘difficult but necessary long-term decisions to change this country for the better’, as read out by the King to parliament. Yet the legislation put forward seems miles away from the priorities of voters – not to mention the many problems facing the country. Some of those issues were mentioned at the start of the speech. Lip service was paid to ‘increasing economic growth’ and taking ‘action to bring down inflation’, two of the Prime Minister’s pledges set

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Tory MP jokes about Boris and Carrie

From the Lords to the Commons: the state opening of parliament is truly a bicameral affair. Fresh from diadem-spotting in the Upper House, Mr S headed down to the other place after lunch, to hear the Loyal Address. This is the parliamentary procedure used to formally open the debate on the King’s Speech, with the proposer typically a eminent grandee/crusty old windbag and the seconder a rising star/ambitious young so-and-so (delete as appropriate). Today the honour of proposing the first Loyal Address of King Charles’s reign fell to Sir Robert Goodwill, the long-serving, long-suffering Member for Scarborough. In an entertaining speech, Sir Robert told the House of the ups and