Politics Archives

Monday

13 Oct 2025

Why do boring economists always win the Nobel?

When Friedrich Hayek won the Nobel Prize, his entire lecture – titled ‘The Pretence of Knowledge’ – was an attack on economics itself. He believed economists were more worried about looking scientific than actually being scientific. The lecture was so controversial that Economica, the LSE journal that had published Hayek’s work since he was a young professor, refused to print the speech unless he made changes. Hayek, of course, refused. But that was the spirit of the Economics Nobel back then. It rewarded rebels. Since, the prize has become a monopoly for the ‘good boys’ of academia; those who publish in the top journals, collect citations and perfect their h-index. Today, the Nobel

Steerpike

Streeting: I’m glad we can accept Brexit is a problem

To the Cliveden Literary Festival, where Health Secretary Wes Streeting has offered up his support for Sir Keir Starmer’s Brexit attack strategy. The Prime Minister is planning to use Brexit – and Nigel Farage’s part in the campaign – as a way to both excuse the difficult decisions that will be made in next month’s Budget and as a means to take the fight to Reform UK. How interesting… Speaking at a panel event at the festival, Streeting doubled down on the Brexit message, telling his audience about how much Brexit can be blamed for the UK’s low productivity and growth: It’s part of it. There’s no doubt that that’s

Matthew Lynn

Reform is right to give up on ‘fag packet economics’

As Nigel Farage prepares to abandon pledges of up to £90 billion in tax cuts, there will be plenty of people arguing that his Reform party is giving up on its free market, small state roots. Other critics may say this is proof that Reform is shifting further to the left and pandering to its new voters in the old Labour heartlands. A few critics may well even accuse it of joining the ‘uniparty’. Perhaps so. And yet, with its dominant lead in the polls, Reform also had to get rid of a set of policies that often gave the impression they had been scribbled on the back of a

Oscar Edmondson

Spy scandal: what is Labour’s policy on China?

15 min listen

It’s a ‘great and beautiful day’, as Donald Trump wrote in the guestbook at the Knesset, where he will address the Israeli parliament after the final hostages were handed back to Israel. It is, of course, a historic piece of diplomacy, and the conversation in Westminster has turned to the extent to which the UK was involved. Bridget Phillipson claimed over the weekend that Britain played a ‘key role’ in bringing about peace – much to the chagrin of Mike Huckabee, the US Ambassador to Israel, who called her ‘delusional’. Is she? The government have more pressing issues, however, with the collapsed China spy case – the sudden abandonment of

Steerpike

Farage blames Starmer after Reform councillor attacked

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has hit out at Prime Minister Keir Starmer after the party’s youngest council leader was attacked in the street on Friday. George Finch suffered an allegedly unprovoked attack in Nuneaton town centre at the weekend, after which his assailant started shouting abuse at the 19-year-old Warwickshire county council leader – calling him a ‘fascist’ and a ‘racist’. Now Farage has blasted the PM for his ‘disgraceful’ rhetoric about Reform in recent weeks, while Labour has said it is ‘categorically incorrect’ to suggest Sir Keir was responsible. Farage fumed to the Daily Mail: I’m deeply upset that our young council leader was assaulted. The words used against

Brendan O’Neill

Donald Trump is the real anti-fascist hero

Tell me: who has done more for the cause of anti-fascism? Real anti-fascism? Those masked mummy’s boys of the Antifa movement for whom ‘fighting fascism’ means little more than hurling abuse at blue-collar oiks who voted for Donald Trump? Or Donald Trump himself, the man they love to loathe, who today accomplished the miraculous feat of liberating 20 Israelis from the anti-Semitic hell of Hamas captivity? It’s Trump, isn’t it? Today should be the day that Trump Derangement Syndrome is laid to rest As of today, following the soul-stirring emancipation of the last living Israeli hostages, whenever I hear the phrase ‘anti-fascist’ I will think of Trump. Forget those sun-starved

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The relief, joy and grief of Israel’s hostage homecoming

This morning in Israel began like no other: layered, dissonant, momentous. A collision of spectacle and salvation, of grief and hope, of noise and meaning. It was a morning composed of many parts: part show, part hope, part illusion, part bluster, part redemption, part commercial deal, part peace plan, part threat, part diplomacy, part war. For a few hours, all those contradictions briefly aligned to form a kind of harmony. They may yet fall apart again but, for now, they have converged in one extraordinary sequence of events. Palestinians not aligned with the regime’s grip are being hunted down, tortured, and silenced On one side of the news screen, Donald

James Heale

The Tories smell blood in the China spy case saga

The Prime Minister is in Egypt today at a peace summit aimed at ending the Gaza war. The question of whether he deserves any credit for the ceasefire is a contentious one. Some within Labour will claim that British recognition of a Palestinian state proved to Israel that it was alienating its allies. British officials argue that this country has performed some useful functions in the conflict. After the felling of Powell’s close friend Peter Mandelson, the Tories clearly smell blood Operational intelligence gathering and hostage negotiations are two examples cited by Whitehall staff. Britain’s longstanding relationships with key Gulf States like Jordan and Saudi Arabia is credited with helping

John Keiger

Can Louis XX save Macron’s France?

From the stability of the Fifth Republic’s institutions, France is regressing to the chronic instability of bygone republics. In eight years as president, Emmanuel Macron has expended eight prime ministers. For the moment, one per year compares favourably with the Third and Fourth Republics, whose governments averaged nine and six months respectively. But the pace is accelerating. Since Macron’s re-election in May 2022, his prime ministerial tally is five, with the last government surviving 14 hours. Where to look for a ray of hope in France’s darkening political crisis? New government, dissolution, presidential resignation? None seem likely to unblock France’s political and institutional gridlock General de Gaulle designed the Fifth

Robert Taylor

Move over shy Tories – it’s all about shy Reformers now

It was the most blatant and shameless piece of virtue signalling I’d ever seen. After a long day of training at a government department a couple of years ago, we went for a drink off Whitehall and talked politics. Suddenly, out of nowhere, one of my fellow trainers took a card out of her bag and proudly displayed it to us, her eyes beaming with anticipation of our admiration and approval. What was it? A Labour party membership card. ‘Isn’t this perfect evidence of my superiority as a human being?’, her eyes said, as she turned to each of us in turn. She looked like she wanted a round of

Christopher Sandford

What happened when Thatcher, the ‘milk snatcher’, came to my school

When Margaret Thatcher, who was born hundred years ago today, came to visit my school I was in the midst of my stroppy-leftie phase. To my shame, I remember announcing that all Tories, let alone Thatcher – the notorious kiddies’ milk-snatcher – should be put up against a wall and shot. When Margaret Thatcher, who was born hundred years ago today, came to visit my school I was in the midst of my stroppy-leftie phase ‘That’s not exactly civilised,’ my friend Owen Paterson, who became a Tory MP later in his life, retorted. ‘What makes you think we’re civilised?’ I said. ‘I didn’t say we are,’ said Owen. ‘But we

Sunday

12 Oct 2025

Joe Bedell-Brill

Bridget Phillipson: UK played a ‘key role’ in Gaza peace deal

Bridget Phillipson: ‘We’ve played a key role behind the scenes’ Israel and Hamas have agreed on a ceasefire, and Israeli troops are withdrawing from parts of Gaza, as Hamas prepares to release the remaining hostages on Monday morning. Later that day, Donald Trump and the Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi will chair a peace summit with other leaders, including Keir Starmer. The ceasefire represents a big diplomatic success for President Trump. On Sky News this morning, Trevor Phillips asked Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson what role the UK had played in the negotiations. Phillipson said she recognised ‘the critical role that the American government played’, but suggested the UK was involved

Matthew Lynn

Don’t blame Trump for the crypto crash

Hundreds of billions have been wiped off the value of the crypto currencies. A prominent Ukrainian blogger and influencer on digital coins has been found dead. And traders are bracing themselves for a rocky start to trading on Monday as markets start to tumble. We will have to see whether it develops into a full-blown crash or not. And yet, all the major equity indices were already wildly overvalued, and a correction was always inevitable – it was just a question of when it would start. There may well be a rough few days ahead for investors. An estimated $400 billion was wiped off the value of the main crypto

Max Jeffery

Jeremy Corbyn’s new party is self-destructing

On Friday evening in the Windrush Lounge at The World Transformed conference in Manchester, British socialism was autocannibalising. No more comrade this or comrade that. No other little politburo manners. In a storage unit in an industrial estate – this was the lounge – Max Shanly, an influential left-wing activist and former Momentum member, was jabbing his finger in the direction of Alan Gibbons, an independent councillor in Liverpool who is involved in building Jeremy Corbyn’s new party, which is for now confusingly named Your Party. ‘You are one of the select few!’ Max said. ‘You are the Comical Ali of Your Party!’ Max’s issue – in fact it seemed

James Graham

Who killed the London Stock Exchange?

Stock exchanges around the world compete with each other to entice the most exciting companies to sell their shares on their markets, via Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). London was once the financial capital of the world, and a leader in IPOs. Now it has fallen to number 23 in the global IPO rankings, having been surpassed by the likes of Mexico and Indonesia. In 2006, at its fundraising peak, $51 billion was raised on the London Stock Exchange, with companies such as Unilever and Vodafone making London their home. This year, London IPOs raised just $250 million. Even companies already listed on the London exchange, such as AstraZeneca, are shunning it

Michel-Yves Bolloré

It’s getting harder for scientists not to believe in God

Many Baby Boomers are sceptical about God. They think that believing in a higher power is probably incompatible with rationality. Over the last few centuries, religious belief has appeared to be in rapid decline, and materialism (the idea that the physical world is all there is to reality) has been on the rise, as the natural outcome of modern science and reason. The majority of Gen Z respondents believe that you could be religious and be a good scientist But if this scepticism is common among my older generation, times are changing. As we come to the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, the tables are turning

Adam LeBor

What Margaret Thatcher meant to Hungary

It is a most fitting tribute: an iron and steel statue of the Iron Lady in a city once behind the Iron Curtain. And not just any city – but Budapest, a place that Mrs Thatcher electrified with her visit in February 1984. The statue commemorating her 100th birthday was unveiled last week in the Millenaris culture complex in the Hungarian capital. The ceremony was both moving and beautifully choregraphed as several luminaries of the Thatcher era and her children Sir Mark and Carol gathered with Hungarian government ministers to commemorate her legacy. More than 40 years after her first arrival, the Iron Lady is still remembered in Budapest with

Saturday

11 Oct 2025

Steerpike

Watch: Activist blasts SNP for ‘mistrust’ in party

Well, well, well. SNP conference has gotten off to a rather, er, interesting start. As one might expect, the subject of independence has dominated the first day of the big meet-up in Aberdeen. The party’s strategy as laid out by First Minister John Swinney says that an SNP majority at next year’s Holyrood election would be a mandate for a second independence referendum. But party activists aren’t happyabout the state of the SNP: both its independence stance and the way the party has conducted itself more generally over the last few years. Mr S can hardly blame them… The crowd sat up when veteran Graeme McCormack – of ‘flatulence in

Patrick West

The tyranny of ‘kindness’

The vice-chancellor of Oxford University, Professor Irene Tracey, has been giving some gloriously counterintuitive advice recently on how to safeguard free speech in academia. On Tuesday, she claimed that teaching the ethos of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) ‘goes hand in hand with our commitment to academic freedom and free speech.’ Yet diversity training always has the opposite effect. The only things students inducted into the race-obsessed, hyper-liberal doctrine of EDI are likely to learn is what words not to say and what opinions not to air in order to avoid ostracism, censure or cancellation ‘Kindness’ is the velvet glove covering the iron fist of hyper-liberalism The next day, speaking

Lucy Dunn

Is anyone listening to the Scottish Tories?

There may have been a decent turnout of both youthful Tory members and elderly cardholders at this year’s Conservative party conference in Manchester, but it was the missing group in the middle that made all the difference. The crowds were significantly slimmed down without the corporate types, with parts of the venue ghostly quiet by mid-afternoon. And the party could have done with more support from its elected representatives: despite the Holyrood election being just seven months away, just a smattering of MSPs journeyed down from Scotland. Former crime journalist-turned-party leader Russell Findlay was on good form, however, quipping during the Scottish reception that Wales was Kemi Badenoch’s ‘second favourite