Politics

It’s been a difficult week for Sinosceptics in Westminster, following the revelation that a parliamentary researcher was arrested in March on suspicion of spying for China. Much of the media attention has focused on the MPs to whom the researcher was linked: namely Alicia Kearns and Tom Tugendhat. For the past three years they have championed the ‘cautious engagement’ school of thought on China. This is in contrast to the more hardline position adopted by Sir Iain Duncan Smith and supporters in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.  The two bands have sometimes clashed since Ipac’s formation in June 2020. But now, amid attempts by Chinese state media to turn the national

Labour’s long-awaited approach to stopping the Channel boats is so pusillanimous that it ought to be a political gamechanger for the Conservatives. But it probably won’t be. As Sir Keir Starmer outlines in various newspapers today, an administration led by him will abandon the Rwanda removals plan and get rid of the Illegal Migration Act which puts in place a bar against people who have arrived illegally claiming asylum. Instead, he will enter talks with the EU about the UK taking a percentage of the ever-increasing flow of irregular migrants over its southern and eastern borders. As a quid pro quo, he hopes that EU nations, especially France – whose

If a little tyrant theatre is your goal, then rumbling across the border in an armoured train decked out like a palace (if your palace was decorated in the 1970s) is hard to beat. As North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin met at the Vostochny spaceport, the Bond villain vibes were strong – and one might suspect that was the point.  As of writing, we don’t yet know the precise terms of whatever deal has been thrashed out. Even though his factories are running 24/7, Putin clearly wants more munitions for his war in Ukraine. North Korea’s are reportedly of stunningly poor quality, but something is better