Politics Archives

Tuesday

18 Apr 2023

Is Britain getting back to work?

The UK’s labour market is cooling down, slowly. Although unemployment rose from 3.7 per cent to 3.8 per cent, figures published by the Office for National Statistics this morning show that job vacancies have fallen for the ninth consecutive period. They’re now down 47,000 but still stand at over a million. The number of people out of work and not seeking it (economically inactive) fell too, as students started hunting for work. The most startling figures, however, were those for wage growth. They showed that average pay rose 6.6 per cent in the three months to February. Hefty pay raises in normal times – but adjusted for inflation, that’s a

Gavin Mortimer

Does Macron regret celebrating Lula’s Brazilian victory?

The headline in the Guardian could not have spelt it out more clearly: ‘World leaders rush to congratulate Lula on Brazil election victory’. From North America to Europe to Australia, the sigh of relief that Lula had beaten Jair Bolsonaro in last October’s general election was audible. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was cock-a-hoop, so too French president Emmanuel Macron, who heralded the turning of a ‘a new page’ in Brazil’s history and declared. ‘Together, we will join forces to take up the many common challenges and renew the ties of friendship between our two countries.’ It turns out the friendship Lula values most isn’t with Macron or anyone else in

James Snell

Sudan’s dreams of democracy appear to be over

Fighting is raging once again in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, where a power struggle between rival factions has claimed the lives of hundreds of people. Around 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 injured in the wake of an attempted coup. A US diplomatic convoy came under fire yesterday and the EU’s ambassador in Sudan, Aidan O’Hara, was reportedly assaulted at his home. Journalists have been detained and beaten up by soldiers for breaking newly-imposed curfews. Across Sudan, international agencies, non-governmental organisations and charities are scrambling for a solution to prevent further bloodshed. Military aircraft have flown low over urban centres and engaged targets on the ground. Residents in Khartoum are terrified of the eruption

Euan McColm

Can Scottish Labour pull off an election victory?

After decades in the shadows, members of the Scottish Labour party are back out in the open, their confidence growing. Emboldened first by polls signalling the very real prospect of Sir Keir Starmer becoming the next prime minister, Scottish Labour politicians now watch with tastefully concealed glee as the SNP – under the stewardship of new leader Humza Yousaf – sinks into deepening crisis. The mood in the party – which is led in Scotland by 40-year-old Anas Sarwar – has, says a senior source, changed completely. ‘It’s like night and day. When Anas Sarwar became leader in 2021, people might sidle up to him at events and whisper good wishes,

Gareth Roberts

Angela Rayner is the odd one out in Starmer’s top team

Who are Labour? Focus groups regularly report a lack of familiarity on the part of voters with His Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition, even with their leader. ‘Don’t know’ looms quite loudly on Keir Starmer’s focus word cloud, though dwarfed by ‘Boring’. Despite this – maybe because of it – Labour are still a good stretch ahead in the polls. A recent slight crumbliness in that lead has sparked Labour to produce attack ads which use a formulation I hadn’t seen since reading the walls at my primary school, i.e. – ‘Do you think people should wash under their arms? Janet Figgis doesn’t’ – but even these flavourful communications are all

Monday

17 Apr 2023

Isabel Hardman

The NHS crisis won’t end soon

How long are the NHS strikes going to go on for? The collapse in agreement on nurses’ pay over the Easter recess has made it much harder for ministers to push the British Medical Association towards a deal on junior doctors’ pay, as well as undermining Rishi Sunak’s positioning as someone who gets things done. The Royal College of Nursing is now balloting its members on further strike action after they narrowly rejected the pay offer made by the government. Today, Health Secretary Steve Barclay was summoned to the Commons to answer an urgent question from Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting on how the government planned to stop further

Steerpike

SNP show goes from bad to worse

A new week has come around, and it brings yet more turmoil for the SNP. Calls for Nicola Sturgeon to resign as MSP for Glasgow Southside have grown louder after a leaked video showed the former SNP leader angrily warning colleagues about speaking negatively of the party’s finances. Despite her colleagues returning to the Scottish parliament post-recess, Sturgeon’s spokesman confirmed that the former First Minister will not in fact be back in Holyrood this week – ‘to ensure the focus is on the new First Minister’. Nevertheless, Humza Yousaf’s time is still being consumed by desperate attempts to convince the public that nothing is amiss. ‘I don’t think there is

Lisa Haseldine

The jailing of Kremlin critic Kara-Murza is a message from Putin

In a warning to Kremlin critics everywhere, the prominent Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza has today been sentenced to 25 years in a penal colony by a Moscow court. His conviction is based on several charges, all of which he denies, including treason and ‘discreditation of the Russian Army’ – a move that has been internationally criticised as politically motivated. Kara-Murza’s sentence is significant for being the longest to be handed down to critics of Vladimir Putin’s regime so far. Not even Alexei Navalny, so hated by Putin he famously refuses to ever call him by name, received a sentence that long – last year he began a nine-year term

Ross Clark

Net zero will make flying more expensive

Are we going to have to give up flying to save the planet? Many climate campaigners have been saying so for years, but now Sustainable Aviation – a trade body which represents the UK aviation industry – seems to agree, at least in the case of less well-off passengers. It is rather significant that the UK aviation industry seems to have nodded along with the idea that some passengers are going to be priced out of the air Today, it has published a ‘road map’ showing how the industry intends to decarbonise, in order to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 – in line with the government’s self-imposed, legally-binding

Gerry Hassan

Humza Yousaf can’t save the SNP

Under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, the SNP was renowned for its discipline, unity and its impressive electoral success. Since the former first minister resigned, a series of revelations have chipped away at the party’s reputation leaving Scotland’s dominant party standing on shaky ground. If people had cared to look they would be forgiven for thinking that decay has always been present in the SNP – and the leaked video of the former first minister lecturing her politicians about SNP finances back in March 2021 doesn’t help matters – but it is the extent of the rot that is hard to stomach. And no one feels this more than First Minister Humza

Steerpike

Sleaze watchdog probes Sunak’s interests

Bang goes Rishi Sunak’s big maths speech. Fresh from delivering a paean to the joys of numeracy, the Prime Minister is now facing an investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into his outside interests. The probe is understood to concern Sunak’s wife’s shareholding in a business that runs Koru Kids – one of the childcare providers which stands to get taxpayer funding from Jeremy Hunt’s Budget scheme. The issue was raised by Labour’s Cat McKinnell last month at the Prime Minister’s Liaison Committee grilling and serves as a reminder that Sunak’s extensive family wealth has the potential to be a political liability for him. A No. 10 spokesman told Mr

Cindy Yu

Does Sunak’s maths plan add up?

11 min listen

Parliament is back from the Easter break and Rishi Sunak has taken the opportunity to reiterate his commitment to improving maths literacy in the country. Listeners will remember that the plan to make maths compulsory until 18 was first announced in Rishi’s new year’s speech along with his five priorities. Why is maths provision so important to him? Also on the podcast, with local elections on the horizon, how does Tory campaigning shape up against Labour’s new tactics? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Cindy Yu and Oscar Edmondson.

Steerpike

Brecon Beacons sheds its name and logo in eco-crusade

‘The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation’ claimed Robert Conquest ‘is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.’ If that is the case then the Brecon Beacons National Park must be run by a veritable junta of saboteurs. Park bosses have today announced that it will no longer be using its historic English name, dropping it in favour of the less well-known ‘Bannau Brycheiniog’. The reason for the name change is to signal a ‘commitment’ to the Welsh language, which is spoken by less than a third of the population. Catherine Mealing-Jones, chief executive of the authority, is quoted in the

Katy Balls

How Rishi Sunak’s spring challenge could decide the election

Over the past month, there has been increasing optimism within the Tory party that the political situation may not be as apocalyptic as first feared. The polls appear to be narrowing slightly, Rishi Sunak’s approval ratings have risen and there are early signs of progress on the Prime Minister’s policy priorities. But it’s the coming months – as MPs return to Westminster following their Easter recess – that will show whether this trend is here to stay, and if Sunak can stay in control of events. The Prime Minister is kicking off the new season with a speech on one of his favourite topics: maths until 18. When Sunak first

Steerpike

Three times Emily Thornberry attacked Starmer’s CPS

Following the row over those Labour attack adverts about child sex offenders, it seems it’s open season now on Sir Keir Starmer’s record as Director of Public Prosecutions. Over the weekend the Sunday papers have been filled with stories from when he led the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) including his poor record in, er, prosecuting sex offenders. And in that spirit of reminding people who said what and when, Mr S thought it worth revisiting the past comments of Emily Thornberry, one of the most vocal supporters of Labour’s new adverts. Thornberry has served as Starmer’s Shadow Attorney General since November 2021 but previously served in that same capacity under

Steerpike

Take the Rishi Sunak maths challenge

Rishi Sunak is back in the headlines today, saying it’s time for greater maths literacy. But when it comes to his own political pledges, how many of those stand up to mathematical scrutiny? A Spectator mug for the first person to complete all challenges.

Matt McDonald

How Liz Truss is wooing Washington

Many Brits who’ve outstayed their welcome in the Old Country head across the Pond for pastures new and the chance of a fresh start. The Pilgrims, Thomas Paine, John Oliver. Could former prime minister Liz Truss be the next to follow that well-trodden path? Since her astonishing fall from grace last September, when she managed just forty-four days as prime minister, Truss has found a couple of excuses to come to Washington. The latest DC think tank to welcome to the most impactful economic mind of the last decade is the Heritage Foundation, who had Truss give their 2023 Margaret Thatcher Freedom lecture last week. The auditorium was three-quarters full

Sunday

16 Apr 2023

Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman’s Sunday Roundup – 16/04/23

11 min listen

Isabel Hardman hosts the highlights from Sunday morning’s political shows. This morning’s shows heavily focussed on the crisis in the NHS, after the Royal College of Nursing voted against the government’s pay deal, meaning further strike action. Pat Cullen says the strikes could last as long as Christmas. Conservative Party Chair, Greg Hands disagrees and says the deal is a ‘very reasonable offer’. In an interview with Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health Secretary says he is deeply worried about patient safety.

Steerpike

Wiltshire Police chief’s hunting Troubles

Oh dear. It seems that another police chief is making headlines, for all the wrong reasons. Perusing his copy of this week’s Spectator, Steerpike was bemused to read in Charles Moore’s notes about Wiltshire Police’s latest edict. No officer may join the force’s rural crime team if he or she has any link with hunting, even a pre-ban one or one with legal trail-hunting. Wiltshire Police say they are also barring anyone linked with anti-hunt protests. But as Lord Moore argues: ‘There is no symmetry here. Hunting is part of a rural way of life. Anti-hunt protests are political/ideological.’ Intrigued to find out more, Mr S took a look at

Joe Bedell-Brill

Sunday shows round-up: strikes show no sign of stopping

Pat Cullen – respect nursing, or strikes could continue ‘until Christmas’ This morning’s shows heavily focussed on the crisis in the NHS, after the Royal College of Nursing voted against the government’s pay deal, meaning further strike action. The RCN’s General Secretary Pat Cullen stood by her union’s members, telling Laura Kuenssberg that patients were at risk at all times due to the working conditions of nurses and doctors, not just on strike days. She said only ministers could stop strikes, and that they needed to return with an improved offer: Greg Hands – ‘it’s a very fair and reasonable offer’ Defending the government, Conservative Party Chair Greg Hands was