Politics

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

Monday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The BBC’s Meloni problem

Here is a quote from the BBC Europe Editor, Katya Adler’s, very short piece on the BBC Radio 4 Six O’Clock News this evening, concerning the electoral victory of Giorgia Meloni in Italy: Millions of Italians didn’t vote for her. They say they do not recognise themselves in her nationalist, protectionist proposals, her anti-immigration rhetoric and her conservative family mores. Isn’t that remarkable? Can you imagine the awful Adler, or indeed any correspondent, commenting on the victory of a left-wing candidate:  Millions of people didn’t vote for her. They say they do not recognise themselves in her mentally unbalanced identity politics, ranting support for cripplingly high taxation, foreign policy characterised

Winston Marshall

Jordan Peterson: The Book of Revelation, Ronaldo and the role of the artist

117 min listen

Winston speaks with best-selling author, clinical psychologist and leading public intellectual Dr Jordan Peterson. They discuss the role of artists in society and the state of the arts today. What is so original about Dr Peterson’s work? How hopeful is he for universities? Is it the duty of the privileged to serve the oppressed? And, among other things… Ronaldo, the Book of Revelation, the New Atheists, the Queen’s personality traits and how the energy crisis will end in apocalypse.

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Can the Bank of England inspire confidence?

It has dawned on the government that last week’s mini-Budget might have been a bit too one-sided: £70 billion worth of extra borrowing and not a single mention of spending cuts or efficiency gains has seen borrowing costs spike (up by 0.3 per cent just today). As James Forsyth reports on Coffee House, this afternoon’s announcement that a ‘medium term fiscal plan’ will be announced next month is an attempt by the Treasury to reassure markets – and convince them that fiscal responsibility has not totally disappeared from this government’s agenda. Emphasis is being placed on previous promises to make sure debt falls as a percentage of GDP in the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can Kwarteng reassure the markets?

The Treasury has just released a statement saying that a medium term fiscal plan will be delivered by Kwasi Kwarteng on 23 November, accompanied by an Office for Budget Responsibility forecast. This plan will, the Treasury says, set out the government’s fiscal rules and how it intends to ensure debt falls as a percentage of GDP in the medium term. The Treasury also confirms the Times story this morning that there’ll be no new spending settlements, meaning an effective cut for departmental budgets. The question is whether the government can persuade the market that it is prepared to hang tough on public spending The Bank of England has also issued a

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour’s assisted suicide pitch

It’s day two of Labour conference and there’s no end of attractions for bleary eyed delegates. Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband, David Lammy: all the party’s intellectual heavyweights are up before the faithful. But away from all the centrist paeans and ritual Tory bashing, Mr S couldn’t help but observe the roaring popularity of one of the fringe stalls in the conference hall. ‘My Death, My Decision’ are campaigning to legalise assisted suicide in the UK, urging delegates to pressure MPs to change the law on euthanasia. A novel approach to win the grey vote? Intrigued – and all too aware of the obvious puns – Mr S sidled up to

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

The miscalculations exposed by Kwarteng and Truss’s Budget

The Chancellor’s first ‘fiscal event’ has revealed two major miscalculations – one by most of the political class and the other by the government. The political class broadly didn’t think Liz Truss’s government would actually push forward with its campaign pledges. It did. The government, for its part, appears to have badly underestimated the sceptical reaction of the markets to its economic agenda. Let’s take these in turn. First, anyone who is shocked by discussion of higher interest rates wasn’t paying attention during the leadership campaign. The attacks on ‘Treasury orthodoxy’ were frequent and explicit. Rishi Sunak insisted it was inappropriate to take aim at the Bank, while Truss called

James Heale James Heale

Is Labour on the cusp of victory?

13 min listen

It’s day two of Labour Conference and the party appear upbeat and confident of their chances at the next election. But are they being too reactionary in their narrative? What do they have to offer other than not being the Conservative party?From Liverpool, James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Liz Truss is a liberal. So how will she approach immigration?

Should Tories already be feeling buyer’s remorse over their new leader? It has been only 20 days since Boris Johnson, a liberal who pretended to be a populist, was replaced by Liz Truss, a liberal who doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a liberal. Whereas Johnson’s was a patrician liberalism with a keen sense of public opinion, Truss is an economic liberal with a swot’s enthusiasm and a swot’s grasp of human instincts. In short, the Tories have swapped a lazy dissembler for an ardent geek. It’s not all they’ve swapped. The communitarian shift that began under Theresa May has been set in reverse and libertarianism has regained the

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

The anger behind Shinzo Abe’s state funeral

Tokyo While not quite on the scale of Her Majesty’s service, Tuesday’s state funeral of Japan’s longest serving PM Shinzo Abe, gunned down while campaigning on the streets of Nara in July, will be an extravagant affair. The ceremony will take place at the Nippon Budokan in central Tokyo with approximately 6,000 attendees including the US Vice President Kamala Harris, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and Australian PM Anthony Albanese. Theresa May will represent the UK. It will cost 1.6 billion yen (10.5 million pounds). The event has become mired in controversy. Many in Japan are fiercely opposed to the decision, made by current PM Fumio Kishida, to grant a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Rachel Reeves takes aim at ‘Tory trickle-down economics’

Rachel Reeves’s speech to Labour conference was very warmly received – though her thunder was rather stolen by the rapturous reception for Ed Miliband shortly before. The shadow chancellor made her refrain ‘it is time for a government that is on your side, and that government is a Labour government’.  Like her other frontbench colleagues, she took care to be upbeat about the future, rather than merely focusing on how dreadful things are at the moment. She talked about the potential that British workers had, saying: ‘The world is changing fast but the British capacity for enterprise for innovation and for hard work remains undimmed.’ She claimed that a Labour

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour try to show they are serious about governing

The mood at Labour conference so far has been pretty upbeat. Last night on the fringes, frontbenchers were visibly happier and more relaxed than they’ve been for years, feeling emboldened to criticise left-wing groups such as Momentum (Wes Streeting told one meeting they’d be better named ‘Inertia’). The broadcast screens around the centre underline why the party is feeling confident: the fall of the pound is just, in Labour’s view, the latest sign that the wheels have come off the Conservative party. The fall of the pound is just, in Labour’s view, the latest sign that the wheels have come off the Conservative party That’s not to say that everyone

Gabriel Gavin Gabriel Gavin

Life among the Russian refuseniks

Yerevan, Armenia It was getting dark outside Yerevan Airport when I arrived, but there were still a dozen flights from Russia yet to land. Groups of young men in their twenties and thirties were milling around the terminal building, stacking suitcases onto trolleys, changing money and working out what to do next. Armenia is one of the few countries they can still fly to since much of the western world closed its skies to Russian planes; it is almost alone in not requiring them to have visas. ‘I’m just here for a holiday,’ one weary traveller carrying four heavy bags insists, ‘everything is fine in Moscow.’ Others are more up front

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

How worrying is the falling pound?

19 min listen

Following Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini’ budget, the pound has fallen to a record low against the dollar, fueling speculation that the Bank of England will hike interest rates. How worrying are these figures? ‘I think the pound falling is a bit of a distraction from the real problem’ – James Forsyth Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and James Forsyth. Produced by Natasha Feroze.

Jack Smith

Will Meloni be able to govern Italy?

Mario Draghi’s national unity government lost badly in yesterday’s Italian election – worse even than the polls predicted. Fratelli d’Italia, the main opposition party, was the big winner. Five Star, which pulled the plug on Draghi’s government, also gained. What we did not see is a big shift between left and right. The right coalition of Fratelli d’Italia, Lega, and Forza Italia, got 44 per cent. The really big movements occurred within the coalition. Giorgia Meloni’s FdI ended up with 26 per cent – way ahead of the published polls. Lega got only 9 per cent. The coalition is on course to secure a majority in both houses of parliament,

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The Bank of England has no good options

How will and how should the Bank of England, and the Treasury, react to this morning’s continued fall in the value of the pound? I’ve been talking to former Bank of England executives and ex-Treasury officials, who make clear that the stakes are incredibly high and that reassuring markets will not be easy. This further devaluation in the currency is a serious problem for Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after his maxi ‘mini-Budget’ on Friday because it means the price of imports will continue to rise, stoking already-high inflation. And it raises the spectre that the government will struggle to borrow what it needs at acceptable interest rates, because of the falling

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Will the Bank of England now move to steady the pound?

After a weekend where the markets digested the Kwasi Kwarteng plan for growth, the pound hit $1.03 in early trading in Asia – the lowest rate since the dollar was invented in 1792. The fall was shortlived – it later rebounded to $1.07 – but the fact that it touched such a low at all has set off speculation that the Bank of England will stage an emergency intervention putting up interest rates by as much as one percentage point. ‘We’ve entered the part of the currency crisis where psychology takes over. That could mean the markets continue to test the Bank and the pound falls further, suggesting that the Bank

Steerpike Steerpike

Lisa Nandy takes aim at BT

The wine was flowing last night at Labour conference as delegates toasted the fall of Boris Johnson. And before Mr S staggered off to Dawn Butler’s Jamaica night – where ‘Beijing Barry’ Gardiner enlivened the crowd with his dancing on the DJ decks – it was time to go behind enemy lines at the New Statesman annual party. This year’s star attraction at the Museum of Liverpool was the shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy, a woman who has never been shy at making her feelings known. And it was in that spirit that the former Labour foreign affairs spokesman poked fun at herself and new Prime Minister Liz Truss

Sunday

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Can Starmer convince voters to back his vision of Labour?

Here in Liverpool, at the start of Labour conference, politics feels more familiar than it has for many years, and also quite confusing and not wholly predictable. And the cause, mostly, is Friday’s budget, which very deliberately delivered the bulk of additional income from tax cuts to those on highest earnings. This feels in many ways like a return to the kind of class based politics – what used to be called class war – we haven’t seen since the Thatcher years of the 1980s. After all, ever since the election of Blair’s New Labour in 1997 we are all supposed to be middle class. So you might think, 18

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Andy Burnham: ‘Where is the fight?’

Keir Starmer is having a pretty good Labour conference so far. His decision to kick off the annual meet with a rendition of ‘God Save the King’ went off without hitch. There are few tricky motions or crunch votes heading to the conference floor. A new ComRes poll says the party is on course to win a majority of 56 in the next election. Yet there is still an internal row brewing: how should Labour fight the Tories? Labour’s prince across the water in Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has been touring the studios and fringe events to share his thoughts on exactly this. In an ‘in conversation’ with the Guardian’s

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Can Starmer pitch Labour as a government-in-waiting?

Party conferences offer oppositions space to set out their stall and get far more attention than any other time in the political year. But this year’s Labour conference will see the party being much more reactive than it might have hoped, given this is supposed to be the point where Keir Starmer sets out his stall for Labour as a government in waiting.  The government’s ‘Plan for Growth’ was unveiled on the very eve of this meeting in Liverpool, and it is so big that naturally the party’s spokespeople are going to spend a fair amount of their time in interviews, speeches and fringe debates responding to it. This conference