Politics Archives

Thursday

24 Aug 2023

Steerpike

SNP posts record deficit of £800,000

Well, well, well. The SNP’s annual accounts for 2022 are out and it’s not looking good. The party recorded its largest ever deficit of more than £800,000 in the last year of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell’s reign. As if we didn’t need any more evidence that the Nats aren’t good with their money… While the nationalists spent less than they did in 2021 – a still hefty sum of over £5 million – they didn’t manage to bring in quite enough income. Collecting just £4.25 million, the SNP deficit of £803,659 is up by almost £100,000 from 2021. Party officials received a mere £144,000 cash in hand in 2021 – a

Steerpike

Poll: two thirds of public back death penalty for Letby

Lucy Letby this week became only the third woman alive to be handed a whole-life jail term after being sentenced for murdering seven babies and trying to kill another six. But for an outraged British public it seems that sentence is not enough. A new poll for The Spectator by Redfield & Wilton show that 66 per cent of them favour the death penalty as just punishment. Polling of 1,500 people was conducted on Wednesday. It comes at a time when support for capital punishment has risen across the board. Half the public (49 per cent) would support reinstating the death penalty for ‘any murder’, a figure that has risen

John Ferry

The SNP ferry fiasco has become even more of a disaster

In retrospect, the computerised boat in the movie Titanic looked more believable than the one Nicola Sturgeon stood in front of the day she ‘launched’ the Glen Sannox ferry, almost six years ago. With its famously painted on windows and oddly delicate looking bulbous bow – one of many parts subsequently replaced as it was found not to be fit for purpose – we can look back now and wonder who they were trying to kid with their fakery. Historians might come to view that day as a microcosm of the SNP’s time in power. Children were bussed in and handed Saltire flags to wave and cheer as the ship

Paul Wood

Prigozhin sent ‘to hell’, but who gave the order?

As the first reports came in that Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed, I spoke to Marat Gabidullin, who was a senior commander in Prigozhin’s mercenary army and for a time his personal assistant for military affairs. Gabidiullin is living in exile in France and well known as a bitter critic of Prigozhin – he was forced to change addresses regularly, worried that Prigozhin would send someone to kill him. In the past, he described his old boss as brutal, greedy, smart, dangerous, and willing to sacrifice his men by the thousand for profit and power. But now he’s almost wistful at the thought of Prigozhin’s passing. He told me that

Steerpike

Sunak rapped over wife’s childcare interest

When your wife is worth £500 million, it can be tough to keep remember all her interests. Back in April, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, announced a probe into Rishi Sunak. It followed a Liaison Committee meeting in which Sunak did not mention the shares Akshata Murty held in the company Koru Kids, which was set to benefit from changes announced in the budget. Now Greenberg has delivered his report and ruled that Sunak ‘inadvertently’ broke the code of conduct for MPs by not correctly declaring his wife’s financial interest in the childminding company. Greenberg ruled that Sunak ‘confused’ declaring his interests as a minister with registering his interests as

Roger Kimball

Trump’s interview blows the Republican debate away

One of the reasons that Donald Trump is so despised by the beautiful people of America – the people that the New York Times columnist David Brooks memorably evoked when he began a tweet ‘We in the educated class…’ – is that he consorts with so many unbeautiful people: not just working stiffs but B-list entertainers, Nascar enthusiasts and prize fighters. It is from the world of the last-named agonistic endeavor that I learned a word that perfectly describes last night’s festivities. The word is ‘undercard’. It means that list of ‘minor or supporting contests printed on the same bill as the main event (primarily fighting or racing).’ Fox News, together with

Mark Galeotti

Prigozhin’s death has exposed Putin’s weakness

So much is still unclear about the fate of Wagner group head Yevgeny Prigozhin, from whether he really did die in the private jet that plummeted to the ground in Russia’s Tver region to what caused the crash. In today’s Russia, after all, ‘mechanical problems’ could be anything from maintenance issues to the difficulty in flying when a bomb has blown a hole in your fuselage. The odds are, though, that he is indeed dead. Putin himself offered lukewarm praise to the ‘talented businessman’ who nonetheless ‘made serious mistakes in his life’ (one of which may have been reassuring Putin’s guarantees). Three things would follow from this. First of all, that

Amber Athey

The winners and losers of the first Republican primary debate

The first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin wrapped in the early hours of this morning. Here is the definitive list of the evening’s winners and losers. Winners Vivek Ramaswamy Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is the only candidate on the stage who spoke to an issue larger than partisan politics: a lack of American identity and purpose. He accurately pinpointed the undercurrent of malaise in the country. Ramaswamy also was the first to raise his hand unapologetically when asked if he would stop sending money to Ukraine and if he would support former president Donald Trump as the nominee even if he were convicted in one of his pending legal cases.

Wednesday

23 Aug 2023

Owen Matthews

Yevgeny Prigozhin was a dead man walking

Yevgeny Prigozhin died, as Macbeth almost said, as one that had been studied in his death. In the last three minutes of its existence, Prigozhin’s private Embraer Legacy jet climbed fast towards the sun, reaching the giddying height of 8,800 meters before parabolically returning to earth, spinning slowly in flames before hitting the ground at a speed of 768 feet per second. In what must be the least surprising story of the year, Prigozhin’s rise from violent criminal to billionaire caterer to mercenary leader to mutineer who dared mount an armed challenge to Vladimir Putin ended in a fatal, flaming fall. Both Russian state media and the Wagner Group’s Telegram

Lisa Haseldine

Yevgeny Prigozhin reported dead in plane crash

From the moment Yevgeny Prigozhin aborted his march on Moscow it was a question of when and how – not whether – he would end up dead. Yesterday we saw a video of him for the first time talking about Wagner promoting Russia’s interests in Africa. Now, two months to the day after that coup was launched, we hear that his plane has crashed in Russia – apparently shot down. The Russian press is saying that Prigozhin was one of ten passengers listed on a small jet that crashed in the Tver region to the north east of Moscow earlier today. Footage has emerged on social media showing what looks

Steerpike

NatWest’s CEO set for £2.4m payout after Farage scandal

Very few people came out well of the Nigel Farage banking scandal – which saw the former Brexit party leader lose his Coutts bank account over his political views. In the end, Farage managed to claim two scalps over the affair, with both NatWest’s and Coutts’ CEOs forced into humiliating resignations. Still it may be that all is not lost for the NatWest chief – with reports today that she may be in line for a huge payoff. Despite resigning over what Dame Alison Rose herself admitted to being a ‘serious error in judgement’ – including sharing the personal banking details of the former MEP with a journalist – the bank has announced

Freddy Gray

Trumpvision: He’s making America watch again

It was hardly a surprise when Donald Trump said last weekend that he would not be participating in the televised Republican candidate debates. ‘New CBS POLL, just out, has me leading the field by “legendary” numbers,’ he declared on his very own Truth Social platform. ‘The public knows who I am & what a successful presidency I had… I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES.’ In other words, I am winning so I do what I want. Trump’s arrogance puts many people off. It’s also compelling because he has a point. On the right of American politics – and, to a large extent, on the left and centre too

James Heale

The problem with the Tories’ ‘local heroes’

You know the Conservative party is in trouble when it does not dare use its name on leaflets. Instead, it took a two-pronged approach in the last two general elections: a presidential campaign for the national media and local politics for the doorstep. With the Tories now 20 points behind Labour, it seems the strategy for next year’s general election is to once again go easy on the Conservative brand and emphasise the local-hero credentials of the candidates. All they need is to find some local heroes. It’s not just that local candidates are seen as more attractive, the barriers to outsiders have been fortified ‘Voters want someone who is

Iain Macwhirter

The Greens are sticking the knife into the SNP

The Scottish Green party are often accused of promoting ‘student politics’ so it is perhaps no surprise they are fielding a 20-year-old social policy student, Cameron Eadie, in the forthcoming Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election. What is a surprise is that they are standing at all. They’ve never stood here before. Indeed, Greens tend to avoid contesting constituency elections since they generally do rather badly, having only around 8 per cent of the popular vote in 2021. What mischief is the ‘wee green man’, Patrick Harvie, and his band of stop oil disrupters up to now, wonder SNP insiders. Haven’t the Greens caused enough trouble recently? The SNP government is

Lisa Haseldine

Putin tries to turn Africa against the West

After Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Brics global summit in South Africa, there can be no doubt that the Russian president has set his sights set on wooing the nations of Africa. In an effort to present Russia as a cooperative ally to, and leader of, the Brics bloc (currently made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, but with 40 more aspiring members) Vladimir Putin pinned the blame on the West’s ‘illegal sanctions regime’ for the global food supply problems experienced by many countries in the wake of his invasion of Ukraine. The Russian president acknowledged the grain issue was ‘hurting the most vulnerable poor countries first’,

Matthew Lynn

It’s time to get on with the Indian trade deal

The trade secretary Kemi Badenoch will be in India this week for a meeting of G20 trade ministers. The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be visiting the country in September. With so many ministers on hand, it might seem the perfect moment to unveil the long-awaited UK-India trade deal. After all, the former PM Boris Johnson at one point promised to get it wrapped up before Diwali in the autumn of 2022, although as so often he over-promised and under-delivered. Even so, the dithering is getting more and more alarming. A trade deal with India is now the big prize of Brexit – and should be wrapped up without delay.

Ross Clark

House prices are falling. But it’s still terrible for first-time buyers

Hurrah. Housing is now more ‘affordable’ for first-time buyers than it was a year ago. Or so says Halifax, which has produced figures this morning showing that the average home now costs 6.7 times the earnings of the average worker, down from 7.3 times a year ago. This is thanks to two opposing trends. The value of the average home has come down from £293,586 to £286,276. Meanwhile, average earnings have increased by around 7 per cent. Spot the missing factor from this analysis. Yes, that’s right: it’s interest rates Spot the missing factor from this analysis. Yes, that’s right: it’s interest rates. Housing is only more ‘affordable’ now than

Andrew Tettenborn

The EU is heading for a bruising showdown with eastern Europe

Eurocrats don’t naturally do compromise, but Brussels may have to learn to compromise quite fast if it is to have any hope of avoiding a bruising showdown with eastern Europe. As often happens the backdrop is formed by events in Poland, where the ruling PiS party under Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki faces a crucial election in October. Apart from a rather esoteric ongoing argument about the rule of law which it is fair to say even most Europe-watchers don’t understand, Warsaw currently has two big gripes against the central EU bodies. One is their increasing insistence on centralising immigration control, and in particular the relocation of irregular arrivals; the other,

Gavin Mortimer

The developing world has grown tired of Britain’s hypocrisy

The timing could not have been worse for Rishi Sunak. Just days after it was confirmed by Downing Street that the Prime Minister would host Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in the autumn, a human rights organisation published an extensive report accusing Saudi Arabia of the ‘mass killing’ of migrants at its border with Yemen. The 73-page report was released by Human Rights Watch (HRW), and its contents have been relayed by several media outlets, including the BBC and the Guardian. It is a harrowing read. Brics countries are no longer prepared to tolerate the hypocrisy of Washington, London and Paris HRW allege that Saudi border guards killed ‘hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum

Tuesday

22 Aug 2023

Steerpike

Musk’s minions put Labour in its place

Oh dear. It seems that, in their earnestness to make capital out of tragedy, Labour have slipped up again. The party yesterday sought to exploit Lucy Letby’s refusal to attend her sentencing, tweeting that ‘Rishi Sunak has dragged his heels over changing the law to make criminals attend their court sentencing. We believe victims deserve better than this. Agree? Add your name below.’ What Labour should also have known, if it didn’t already, is that nearly two hours beforehand Alex Chalk, the Secretary of State for Justice, had tweeted a few hours earlier that the government was already ‘looking to change the law so offenders can be compelled to attend