Politics

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

Tuesday

Daniel Rey

Book banning has come back to bite US conservatives

If you thought American book-banning couldn’t get any more ridiculous, think again. A school district in Utah, one of the most religious states in the country, has banned the Bible.  The Bible – fundamental to the state’s Protestant, Catholic and Mormon churches – is to be removed from elementary and middle school libraries for containing ‘vulgarity or violence’. The authorities for the school district of Davis County, just north of Salt Lake City, upheld a parental complaint that the Bible contained ‘incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide’. The parent, who attached an eight-page list of verses unsuitable for children, wrote: ‘Get this PORN out of our schools.’ The

Nigel Jones

Have we betrayed the D-Day generation?

Today is the 79th anniversary of D-Day, 6 June 1944, when Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to begin the liberation of Nazi-occupied Europe and the end of the Second World War. Despite the fears of prime minister Winston Churchill and others that the Anglo-American and Canadian landings would be a bloody fiasco, victory was achieved. A beachhead was secured, and the minutely planned Operation Overlord eventually secured a peaceful Europe, albeit at a fearful cost: 4,414 Allied servicemen died on that day alone. Naturally, the steady subsequent attrition of the years means that there are hardly any survivors left from that historic day. As a result, it

Ross Clark Ross Clark

A universal basic income wouldn’t help unemployed Brits into work

If you think nothing works in Britain now, just wait. Wait, that is, until a future government (I’ll guess a Labour one, but can never tell with the Conservatives any more) introduces a universal basic income – that is a guaranteed, unconditional income for everyone, regardless of means, and regardless of whether they are working, looking for work or completely hostile to the concept that they should ever be expected to earn their keep. Some on the left have been plugging away at the idea of a basic income for years, but the left-wing think tank Autonomy has now announced a pilot scheme by which 30 volunteers will be randomly

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Saint Jacinda becomes a dame

‘I was in two minds about accepting this acknowledgment,’ says the now Dame Jacinda Ardern, reflecting on how ‘humbled’ she feels today to receive the Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. ‘For me this is a way to say thank you – to my family, to my colleagues, and to the people who supported me to take on the most challenging and rewarding role of my life.’ Rewarding, eh? Note Dame J’s use of the world ‘acknowledgment’ – rather than, say, honour – a deft nod to her republicanism. It also, with less subtlety, reveals a certain arrogance. Is it really ‘humbling’ to be merely ‘acknowledged’?

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

How Pride lost itself

I was in my fondly forgotten twenties when I made it to 53 Christopher Street, site of the 1969 Stonewall riots and, since 1994, the second most historic address in Greenwich Village. (The apartment building from Friends is three blocks over.) The Stonewall Inn that stands there now is only the latest establishment to bear that name, the premises having served as a stables, then a bakery, and later a speakeasy before the mafia relaunched it as a gay bar in the late Sixties. There were no fire doors and no running water; the walls were painted black to cover up past fire damage. It was no Studio 54. In the small hours of

Steerpike Steerpike

What does the BBC have against Oxbridge-educated white men?

Has the BBC been taking diversity hiring tips from the RAF? Leaked emails released last week showed RAF officials urging the recruitment of fewer ‘useless white male pilots’. Now it appears BBC 5 Live might be just as done with white men.  Steerpike notes a tweet from Rick Edwards, co-presenter of the radio station’s breakfast programme, calling for applicants to a paid placement scheme: ‘You definitely do NOT need to be an Oxbridge-educated white man to apply,’ he writes. ‘We’ve got plenty of them.’ If Edwards is worried about diversity at 5 Live, there is one member of the breakfast team he might persuade to step aside in favour of a more

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Will Rishi Sunak ever deliver on his ‘stop the boats’ pledge?

When Rishi Sunak replaced Liz Truss in Downing Street last autumn, fundamentalism gave way to incrementalism. So far, the results have been suitably unspectacular: a nudging down of the inflation number more slowly than anyone envisaged; the bare avoidance of outright recession; debt at best stuck as a share of GDP; NHS waiting times that are only very slightly less appalling than they were. According to new polling from Ipsos UK, the electorate is so far unimpressed with these baby steps and generally believes Labour could do a better job.  Today Sunak travelled to Dover to give us an update on the last of his five key pledges – to

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Holly Willoughby addresses the nation

If politics is showbiz for ugly people, then showbiz is surely just politics by uglier means. By media standards, Mr S has barely covered the Phillip Schofield saga – penning just two articles on it – but given the skullduggery going on at This Morning, how could he not return to the fray? Especially when our elected leaders have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to summon ITV’s bosses before a parliamentary select committee for a ritual public flaying. Wearily then did Steerpike tune into breakfast television at the anointed hour – 10 a.m – to hear an address to the nation by our secular queen, Holly Willoughby. With eyes watering

Steerpike Steerpike

Prince Harry no-shows on first day in court

For a man who says that his ‘life’s work’ is to change the British ‘media landscape’, Prince Harry has a funny way of showing it. The Duke of Sussex skipped the first day of proceedings in his case against the Mirror because, er, he was celebrating his daughter’s birthday. Talk about getting off to a good start… The renegade royal is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages over alleged unlawful information gathering. But as court proceedings kicked off this morning, it was Harry who was the object of the judge’s ire. Justice Fancourt, who is hearing the case, told the court that he was left ‘a little surprised’ to hear

Robin Ashenden

The haunting words of Russia’s jailed Putin opponents

How many memorable quotes has the Russia-Ukraine war produced so far? Along with Snake Island’s defiant ‘F*** you Russian warship’, we’ve had president Zelensky’s refusal to leave Kyiv at the beginning of the war with the words: ‘I need ammunition, not a ride.’ We also have his ‘Bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to lead you to victory’ and his ‘No one’s going to break us. We are strong. We are Ukrainians’, though these are perhaps less interesting; the first a bit like something from a Disney poster (two kittens find their way home across the desert), the second awkwardly conjuring up memories of the Rocky films. Better,

James Heale James Heale

Is Andy Burnham a problem for Starmer?

11 min listen

James Heale is joined by Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls to discuss Rishi Sunak’s visit to Dover in a bid to tackle small boats. Also, following a clash between Keir Starmer and members on the left of the party, how much of a problem has Andy Burnham become for the Labour leader?

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Russia flounders as Kyiv gears up for its counter-offensive

According to Moscow, Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive has begun, and has begun badly for Kyiv. Of course, we need to treat the Russian account with all necessary scepticism, but the evidence is that the droney, phony war stage of this campaign season is ending and the real fighting is beginning. The unverified Russian claim is that Kyiv launched a ‘large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front in the South Donetsk direction’, which was beaten back at the cost of some 250 Ukrainian casualties and the loss of a full 16 tanks and 24 other armoured vehicles. Even by the Russian account, this attack comprised just six mechanised and two tank

Nigel Jones

Sixty years on: How the Profumo affair ended the age of deference

These days our sex scandals seem like another symbol of Britain’s national decline. They are diminished, petty and tawdry, certainly compared to the grand affair that took its name from its main actor: John Profumo. Sixty years ago today, on 5 June 1963, Profumo rose in the House of Commons to admit that he had lied to his wife, his cabinet colleagues, and the nation, about an affair with a 19-year-old model, and was therefore resigning and retreating into obscurity. In the early 1960s Profumo was a rising star in the durable but tired Tory government of that eminent old Edwardian Harold Macmillan. He had enjoyed an exceptionally good war –

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Burnham clashes with Starmer in left-wing mayoral row

Oh dear. The long-running feud between Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham has blown up again this weekend, this time over a row about the decision to block a sitting mayor from standing for a new role in the North East. Jamie Driscoll, the serving North of Tyne mayor, revealed on Friday that he has been ‘barred’ by the Starmer army from running as the Labour candidate to contest the North East mayoralty but that ‘no explanation has been given’. Talk about bad manners… Driscoll, who has been described as the ‘last Corbynista in power’, was not included on a long list to be the next North East mayor – a

Steven Barrett

The government can’t weaponise legal fees against Boris

The Cabinet Office is trying to weaponise the law against a former prime minister. They have threatened to withdraw funding for his legal fees during the Covid inquiry. Government lawyers wrote to Johnson: The funding offer will cease to be available to you if you knowingly seek to frustrate or undermine, either through your own actions or the actions of others, the government’s position in relation to the inquiry unless there is a clear and irreconcilable conflict of interest on a particular point at issue. To even threaten this is a tyrannical act, the capricious move of a mad monarch. Oddly, it’s the kind of arbitrary behaviour that Boris Johnson’s

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Did Eat Out to Help Out rekindle Covid? A look at the data

John Edmunds was, with Neil Ferguson, one of the main advocates of lockdown but has been remarkably silent about how this theory held up against the results. But he does, still, pop up to attack those who were sceptical of his old advice. Chief amongst them was Rishi Sunak, his target today. The Observer discloses that ‘a leading scientist’ has attacked Sunak for the work he did trying to repair the damage of lockdown on commercial activity with the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. That scientist was, of course, Edmunds, back to his old tricks using his position on Sage (which has still not been disbanded) to attack ministers who

Anna Arutunyan

Who is running Russia while Putin plays war? 

As the war in Ukraine spilled into Russian territory, with shelling in the Russian city of Belgorod, President Vladimir Putin was busy explaining that he ‘sleeps like a normal person’ during an online meeting with families to honour Children’s day. That Putin mentioned his healthy sleeping pattern, without discussing the ongoing Ukrainian incursion into Belgorod – where civilians, including children, were being evacuated – left some observers wondering who is actually running the country while he plays war.   The Russian regime is far from monolithic, and there are other forces in power besides Putin and the turbo-patriots Putin has a penchant for disengaging and struggling to make decisions, especially when there

Saturday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Who will be on the candidates list?

14 min listen

James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Lord Stewart Jackson, regional chairman of the Conservative Democratic Organisation. On the podcast they discuss Labour and the Conservative’s candidates selection process and the politics behind it.

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The European left’s fascism fantasy

France, Sweden, Italy, Finland and now Spain. The demise of the left in western Europe continues apace and yet their only solution is to seethe about fascists in a make believe world of their own.   Nine months after Giorgia Meloni was elected Prime Minister – remember the hysterical warnings about her being Mussolini in heels – the only horror the Italian left has experienced is electoral wipeout. At last weekend’s local elections, Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy party romped to victory in many towns that were once staunchly Socialist. As a jubilant Meloni crowed: ‘Strongholds [of the left] no longer exist.’ Nine months after Giorgia Meloni was elected Prime