Politics

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

Saturday

Ian Leslie

Keir Starmer is ruthless. But is that wise?

In 2019 Labour lost its fourth election in a row and suffered its worst defeat since 1935. The party was crushed, not just electorally but emotionally. In 2015, it had parted ways with Ed Miliband and fallen for Jeremy Corbyn, like a wounded lover rushing from one dysfunctional relationship into an even worse one. For four years it tore itself apart in a series of unseemly internecine rows over a leader despised by most of its own MPs, pilloried in the press, and held in contempt by voters, including traditionally Labour voters. Ideologues held sway in the party’s institutions and at its grassroots. The electoral map had been reshaped to

Lucy Dunn

The party’s top figures are losing faith in the SNP

More keeps pouring out about the Scottish National party’s culture of secrecy. As revealed by the Times today, deputy leader Keith Brown suggested in 2021, four months after the police investigation into party finances – Operation Branchform – had commenced, that the SNP should produce a monthly summary of income and expenditure. Two key figures, Douglas Chapman and Joanna Cherry, had already resigned from their posts over concerns about party transparency, while several members of the finance committee had also quit. Yet Peter Murrell, chief executive of the SNP, shut down Brown’s plans. Brown compiled a 40-page transparency report for the party which concluded: ‘It is imperative that the workings

John Keiger John Keiger

Macron’s France is at a turning point

France is confronted by a serious social crisis, morphing into a grave political crisis, which could become a regime crisis.   To be fair, political instability did not begin with Emmanuel Macron. It has been growing since 2000 when the presidential mandate was cut from seven to five years, rendering it coterminous with parliamentary elections and reducing the President of the Republic to little more than a super prime minister. But Macron has made things worse.   Now at only the beginning of his second term he survives with a hung parliament, obliged to get his flagship pension legislation by executive order for fear of defeat.  Where will this lead France in the next

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Does the Church of England need evangelicals?

The Church of England is in for an explosive summer. In February, Synod decided to allow the blessing of gay couples, and hinted that it will lift the ban on actively gay clergy. Conservative evangelicals have warned the bishops that if they really go ahead with this they will create a split that dwarfs the division over the ordination of women. The bishops have accepted that this is on the cards: a ‘settlement of differentiation’ is likely to be needed, they have said, meaning new structures for the conservatives. Now there’s an awkward wait before the bishops’ next announcement, expected by July.  On one level, what’s new? The evangelicals have

Steerpike Steerpike

Lee Anderson savages Tom Watson over Labour attack ad

Day three of the row over Labour’s backfiring ‘law and order’ advert. The Keirleaders in party HQ have clearly decided that attack is the best form of attack and have been busy creating another graphic, switching their focus from ‘dangerous child abusers’ to ‘dangerous gunmen.’ Labour’s latest post cites figures which show that since 2010 some 937 adults have been convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to harm but have served no prison time. It prompted Tom Watson, Jeremy Corbyn’s onetime deputy, to take an ill-advised pop at the Tory party deputy chairman, writing on Twitter that ‘I’d love to know what @LeeAndersonMP_ thinks of 937 criminals holding

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Independence is no longer the SNP’s chief concern

Humza Yousaf’s government will be defined by two legacies, Nicola Sturgeon’s and his own as health secretary. The Sturgeon legacy can only be understood by looking at the distance between the previous first minister’s rhetoric and her record. Sturgeon was always heavy on mission statements but light on delivery. During the leadership election, Yousaf initially embraced his designation as the ‘continuity candidate’ then pivoted to reject the label. That ambivalence reflects not only the shifting tactics of a troubled campaign but the political realities that the victor would inherit.  Sturgeon was a very popular figure, both within her party and the general public, amassing approval ratings and political capital that

Mark Hollingsworth

What Putin could learn from Stalin

On 29 August 1942, as German tanks reached the Volga river near Stalingrad, Josef Stalin consulted his most senior General, Georgy Zhukov about his strategy. Despite his impoverished background, Zhukov was intelligent, demanding and strong-willed. The general persuaded Stalin to delay counter-attacking the Nazis for a week to allow time for supplies and artillery to reach the Red Army. Five days later Stalin discovered the Nazis had almost reached the Stalingrad suburbs. Incensed, the Soviet dictator ordered General Zhukov to attack immediately. The Soviets did counter attack but Zhukov later objected and argued this tactic was not feasible. Despite his despotic instincts, Stalin accepted the general’s advice and ordered him to

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Now the SNP’s auditors quit too

The SNP’s week goes from bad to worse. The party’s long-term auditing firm has resigned, according to reports today. Accountants Johnston Carmichael, which has worked with the party for over a decade, said that the decision followed a review of its client portfolio. The firm is understood to have resigned before the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell on Wednesday, according to the BBC. The SNP must now present their accounts to the Electoral Commission by early July or else face possible sanctions under political funding laws. The nationalists are currently looking for a replacement firm as political parties with an income or expenditure of more than £250,000 are

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Macron has made a fool of himself in China

At least there was no six metre-long table in Beijing separating Emmanuel Macron from Xi Jinping. But their meeting was about as fruitless as the French president’s socially distanced chat with Xi’s ‘best friend’ Vladimir Putin in Moscow last year, shortly before the Russian leader sent his tanks into Ukraine. Macron’s visit to China was a performance, aimed to bolster his credentials as an international statesman at a time of troubles at home There was something very retro about the Macron’s visit to China. It led to a scene almost from centuries ago when foreign plenipotentiaries would trail to the Middle Kingdom bearing gifts and seeking favours from the emperor.

Andrew McQuillan

The intellectual hollowness of Scottish Labour

The implosion of the Scottish National Party has led Scottish Labour to dream again of one day returning to what it assumes is its birth right: the berth at the top of Scottish politics. Many of the banalities and buzzwords in Labour’s most recent manifesto make Humza Yousaf’s blandishments about a ‘wellbeing economy’ sound deep and serious. Humza Yousaf’s increasingly pyrrhic looking triumph in the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon was met with much merriment in Labour ranks; one source quoted in the Times during the leadership contest bluntly said, ‘I hope Humza wins because he is fucking s****.’ Polling since Yousaf’s win has found that the SNP’s lead over

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

The problem with Rishi Sunak’s migrant housing plan

All politics is local, as the old saying goes. It is, of course, an exaggeration. But it contains easily enough truth to merit keeping in mind if you are, say, a government approaching the last year of its mandate and anxiously seeking a path to a new one. One lesson contained within the phrase is that a policy can lumber you with a net loss of votes or seats even if it is found to be nationally popular: it may just be that where it bestows a broad benefit the policy is of low-salience, while where it impacts negatively it becomes the overwhelmingly dominant issue. This might well prove to

Ann Coulter

Democrats are playing Republicans like a fiddle

A few years ago, I posted this riddle on Twitter: What’s easier to roll than an Easter egg? Answer: Donald Trump. Now, I can add: What’s easier to roll than Donald Trump? Answer: Republican voters. Democrats are playing Republicans like a fiddle. The left’s sole objective is to make Trump the Republicans’ 2024 presidential nominee. He’s already lost three election cycles for the GOP — why not make it four? A month ago, things were looking bad for the Democrats. Immediately after Trump announced for president last November, he may as well have gone into the witness protection program. Even Fox News cut away from his announcement speech. He had to have

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour’s ‘law and order’ attack ad backfires

Oh dear. It seems that Labour have been caught trying to be too clever by half with their latest anti-Tory attack ad. The Starmer army proudly put out a hard-hitting graphic last night, which read: ‘Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn’t’ alongside a smiling photo of the Prime Minister. The party says that its basis for this tweet is figures from the Ministry of Justice which show that 4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children since 2010 have served no prison time. Such a claim is dubious, to say the least. For a start, Sunak was only elected in 2015 and has

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Kyiv wants to make it untenable for Russia to hold Crimea

Crimea matters to Russians – whether they adore or abhor Vladimir Putin – in a way none of the other claimed or occupied Ukrainian territories do, and as such the peninsula’s fate will probably be central to any eventual resolution of the current war. That some Ukrainian sources are now talking about a military reconquest in the summer campaign season and others of diplomatic solutions suggests the possibility of movement. Whatever the official line, there are also many in Kyiv who are uncertain if they really want Crimea To be sure, there is no fundamental shift in Kyiv’s official position, that Crimea – like all the occupied territories – must

Iain Macwhirter

Scotland’s sentencing nightmare

Not content with putting trans rapists in women’s prisons the Scottish government is now accused of keeping heterosexual rapists out of prison altogether. A furious row has broken out after 21-year-old Sean Hogg was given a community payback sentence by a Scottish judge after being found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl in a country park in 2018. This bizarre situation has arisen from those good intentions which so often pave the path to perdition What does the SNP have against women? cried rape victims. JK Rowling reached for her keyboard to condemn ‘progressive Scotland’ for failing to protect women’s safety. ‘Young Scottish men’, she told her 14 million followers on

Kevin Toolis

The Good Friday Agreement and the amnesia over the Troubles

It was an overcast Sunday morning in January 1983 and two IRA gunmen were waiting outside Belfast’s St Brigid’s church. After attending mass, judge William Doyle was settling into the driver’s seat of his green Mercedes. He was hoping to escape the congregation throng when two Provisional IRA killers, wearing duffel coats with their hoods up, fired at point blank range through the side driver’s window. As the gunmen fled, they passed Doyle’s daughter, Liz, who saw them hand their weapons to a girl walking a dog. In the chaos, the gunmen and the girl disappeared. The judge’s brother Dennis, a doctor who was also at mass, immediately started CPR

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Are Germany’s Greens on borrowed time?

Have cracks started to show in Germany’s traffic light government? Less than 18 months after chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic party (SDP) formed a coalition with the Green and Federal Democratic (FDP) parties, collaboration and harmony have been replaced by division – not least when it comes to the push for net zero. Scholz summoned his coalition partners to a three-day summit last week. Their mission? To hash out policy differences that had been hanging over the government for several months. Emerging from 30 hours of negotiations, however, the SDP, FDP and Greens seem further apart than ever. The main point of contention for the three parties is, perhaps surprisingly,

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Humza Yousaf turns on Sturgeon

For all his praising of Nicola Sturgeon’s governance and Peter Murrell as an ‘election winner’, it now looks as though continuity candidate Humza Yousaf is cutting ties with the SNP establishment. Questioned on the raid of his predecessor’s house and the party’s Edinburgh headquarters, Yousaf has, for the first time, dared to criticise his former boss. Speaking to journalists at his official residence Bute House today, Yousaf commented that he was ‘very, very clear that the governance of the party was not as it should be’ and that ‘a review of transparency…is clearly needed’. Questioned on how the new First Minister will keep an eye on party finances, he replied: