Politics Archives

Monday

2 May 2022

Sam Leith

Googling Neil Parish, I came across a porn website

It really is quite easy to click on internet pornography by accident. There’s a persuasive argument that the whole of the modern world, as shaped by the internet, is an accidental by-product of the insatiable global market for new, easier, cheaper, faster and more private ways of looking at bare boobies. The clean and useful bit of the web is, in this account of it, but an apologetic cluster of barnacles hitching a ride on a great grizzled baleen whale of filth. I look back on partygate (‘BJ punishment’) and the Libor scandal (‘rate pegging’) with a shudder. Far and away the most plausible thing about Neil Parish’s account of

Steerpike

Alastair Campbell rides to Labour’s rescue (again)

Milestones are always a time for reflection. So the 25th anniversary of New Labour’s election triumph this weekend has prompted an outpouring of dewy-eyed reminiscences from commentators of a certain vintage about how great it all was. Cool Britannia, the minimum wage, PFI deals and the Millennium Dome. Truly, a golden age: things really could only get better. To mark this auspicious occasion, a familiar face from those halcyon days has re-emerged to remind voters about the best that New Labour had to offer. Alastair Campbell, the king of spin, has popped up with a new report by Labour in Communications urging Sir Keir Starmer to revamp his approach to PR ahead of the next

Sunday

1 May 2022

Steerpike

Cathy Newman ducks the questions

Privatisation isn’t the only issue currently worrying Channel 4 bosses. The network’s eponymous news programme has been facing questions for months about its alleged use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) amid mounting concern that they could be used to silence staff in equal pay, discrimination, harassment and victimisation cases. Campaigners, MPs and whistleblowers are among the dozens of high-profile women calling on C4 to release its ‘traumatised’ and ‘gagged’ former staff from such confidentiality agreements. Not the best look, perhaps, from a self-styled ‘progressive employer’… Not all of Channel 4’s staff though seem keen to publicly back the campaign to free the broadcaster’s former staff from their NDAs. This morning, documentary filmmaker Daisy Ayliffe – who worked on

Isabel Oakeshott

Angela Rayner has made her defenders look like fools

In Barnsley it’s a pork pie, in Ireland it’s a beer jug and in parts of the North, we now know the word ‘growler’ can mean something else entirely. Thanks to Angela Rayner, I have learned a vulgar term for female genitalia, and something much more useful – that after 20 years of dealing with slippery politicians, I am still capable of being taken in. There I was, thinking I’d seen it all before, when along comes the deputy leader of the Labour party, privately boasting about flashing her crotch in parliament – then publicly crying sexism. And, like many others, I fell for it. It is now abundantly clear

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: No ‘culture of misogyny’ in parliament, claims minister

Large parts of the UK vote in local council elections on Thursday. In Westminster, however, the focus is on the so-called ‘pestminster’ scandal after the revelation that as many as 56 MPs are under investigation for some form of sexual misconduct. The case that has most recently sparked headlines is that of the Conservative MP Neil Parish, who has admitted watching pornography while on the parliamentary estate. Sophy Ridge spoke to the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng about the culture in parliament, asking him if the environment was a safe workplace for women: Keir Starmer – ‘Cultural change has to be modelled from the top’ The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer made another

Steerpike

Lib Dems take a leaf out of Labour’s book

‘Secret election pact to stitch up Boris’ roars the front page of today’s Mail on Sunday. Ahead of Thursday’s local elections, Oliver Dowden, the Conservative party’s chairman, has written an angry letter to Sir Keir Starmer. He claims Labour is standing down candidates ‘in swathes of the country’ where Lib Dem support is strong to avoid splitting the anti-Tory vote. His fellow knight, Sir Ed Davey, is accused of doing the same where Labour is dominant elsewhere. Playing politics in an election campaign? It’ll never catch on. It marks a change of course from, er, Thursday when Labour were found to have spent a small fortune on online adverts attacking the Lib Dems. Messages on

Matthew Lynn

After 25 years it’s time to finally break with New Labour economics

The state would be prioritised over everything else. Taxes would be constantly, if stealthily, raised. Spending would be reclassified as investment, and shifted off the balance sheet wherever possible. And macro stability would be out-sourced to the Bank of England, while the Treasury would take total control of domestic policy. A quarter of a century ago this weekend, as New Labour was swept into power in a landslide election victory, Gordon Brown, then a relatively fresh-faced Chancellor, completely overhauled economic policy. In a whirlwind week, he put in place the most far-reaching reforms in a generation. And yet, 25 years on, that consensus is still in place. Twelve years of

Bruce Anderson

Tony Blair was a victim of his own success

Napoleon is said to have placed a high value on lucky generals, though no one has succeeded in identifying the source of the quote. Then again, he would hardly have been in favour of unlucky ones. Luck is equally important in politics. For ten years, Margaret Thatcher had it, and exploited it ruthlessly. Her successor, John Major, was less fortunate. Events, and his opponents, seemed determined to give him the doubt of every benefit. He hardly had any luck, and his enemies were also ruthless, in exploiting its absence. What a contrast with Tony Blair – who celebrates the 25th anniversary of his 1997 election win today. No British politician

Saturday

30 Apr 2022

Steerpike

Watch: SNP MP appears to break Scotland’s alcohol ban on trains

Last night, Mr Steerpike was on his way back to Glasgow Central station from a game between Ayr United and Partick Thistle, sipping a hot water and lemon. He would have liked something stronger, only the Scottish government — which took control of Scotland’s railway services on April 1 — has extended the Covid-era ban on the consumption of booze on trains. Some rebellious passengers were flouting the government’s rules, however. Among them, Mr Steerpike observed, appeared to be Mhairi Black — the SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (and subject of Tracey Ullman parody). Just weeks before, Transport Scotland announced that the ‘potential reintroduction of alcohol on Scotland’s

Steerpike

Neil Parish to quit after watching porn in the Commons

Neil Parish, the MP for Tiverton and Honiton, is set to quit the Commons. After he was this week accused of watching porn in the chamber, Parish swiftly had the whip withdrawn and referred himself to Parliament’s complaints process. But he initially claimed he would stay in the job and continue to represent his constituency until the inquiry finished. Now though the BBC has confirmed that Parish will stand down as an MP after admitting that he watched porn twice on the parliamentary estate. Parish suggested the first time he looked at porn it was accidental after viewing tractors on his phone, but the second time was deliberate. It’s certainly been a rollercoaster

Freddy Gray

What is the new right?

34 min listen

Freddy Gray talks to the journalist James Pogue about his latest piece for Vanity Fair magazine, in which he details the key figures and thinking behind the ‘new right’. Pogue is the contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine and author of ‘Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West’.

Sam Holmes

James Bartholomew, Freddy Gray and Kate Andrews

20 min listen

On this week’s episode, we’ll hear from James Bartholomew on how taking in a Ukrainian refugee has improved his social clout. (00:50) After, Freddy Gray on the Republican fight against Disney. (06:27) And, to finish, Kate Andrews on overcoming her arachnophobia. (13:46) Entries for this year’s Innovator Awards, sponsored by Investec, are now open. To apply, go to: www.spectator.co.uk/innovator

Fraser Nelson

Why is it so hard to become a British citizen?

20 min listen

A big congratulations to Linda Nelson who has just become a British citizen. Fraser details the long and taxing journey it took for his wife to reach this point in his Telegraph column this week and asks why as an immigrant nation do we make becoming British so challenging for new arrivals? On the podcast, Fraser talks with Cindy Yu and James Forsyth about this question. And Cindy brings a few questions from the citizenship test, to see if her colleagues would pass.

Patrick O’Flynn

Britain needs Kemi Badenoch – but not just yet

It seems to many of us that British society is falling apart and that this – even more than our present economic difficulties – is the biggest problem politics has to deal with. This falling apart is not by accident, but by the design of a new cult of leftism that seeks to divide people into rigid identity groups ranked in a hierarchy of vice and virtue based upon the privilege they are said to have enjoyed or the oppression they have suffered. In the face of prevailing evidence that modern Britain is one of the least racist societies ever to have existed, the public square has become hyper-racialised, with

Friday

29 Apr 2022

Cindy Yu

Will Starmer get a Covid fine?

19 min listen

Labour has admitted that deputy leader Angela Rayner, was also at an event where Keir Starmer was pictured drinking a beer. Could the pair be fined? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Kate Andrews

Isabel Hardman

Neil Parish investigated over Commons porn claims

Neil Parish has now been suspended from the Conservative whip after referring himself to Parliament’s complaints process following allegations he watched pornography in the Commons chamber. The Tiverton and Honiton MP spoke to the chief whip today and had the whip removed pending the outcome of the investigation. Two female Conservative MPs alleged earlier this week that they had seen a colleague watching porn in the chamber while sitting next to a female minister. The claims were naturally explosive and have dominated Westminster ever since. They have opened up the debate on misogyny and sexism in Parliament more widely. It has led to MPs making separate allegations against other figures

Steerpike

Tory MP suspended over alleged porn-watching

War is raging and prices are spiking but there’s only question on the people in Westminster’s lips: who is the MP accused of watching porn in the House of Commons? The investigative sleuths of HM parliamentary press gallery – those fearless seekers after truth – have dedicated much of their energy these past two days trying to work out just which MP was spotted by two female colleagues looking at such images in the chamber and in a committee. Now though, the Telegraph has finally succeeded where many others have failed. Devon MP Neil Parish, 65, has this afternoon had the Tory whip withdrawn from him. After discussing the allegations with

Nigel Jones

Pestminster’s return spells trouble for Boris

Some male MPs behave ‘like animals’. In the wake of the recent spate of bad behaviour among our lords and masters, Attorney General Suella Braverman’s comments confirm what many of us already knew. So what is going on down at the Westminster farm? Whoever is to blame for the moral degradation in SW1, this string of stories should trouble Boris Johnson. After all, political scandal is often followed by political upheaval. Female MPs have claimed that a Tory MP has been openly watching porn on the green benches. A troubled Tory, Bridgend MP Jamie Wallis – who recently announced that he was intending to transition, and has spoken of the trauma of being raped –

James Forsyth

The hole at the heart of Boris Johnson’s premiership

No. 10 will be waiting nervously at 10pm on Thursday. Will the end of voting in the local elections bring forward more Tory MPs calling for Boris Johnson to go? At the moment, that seems unlikely: there is a sense among the plotters against the Prime Minister that Thursday is not the right time. So Johnson will move on to the Queen’s speech. But this will reveal another problem for the government. There will be lots of legislation but a lack of a defining theme. This has been a creeping issue for Johnson since his 2019 victory. Before the Tories go to the country again, they’ll have to show they have a

Steerpike

Sir Roger Gale’s Botswana bothers

Word reaches Mr S of a bizarre story emerging from Africa. Sir Roger Gale, king of the Tory discontents, is embroiled in an extraordinary war of words with the president of Botswana over allegations of corruption, hunting tourism and deliberate disinformation. Alongside bashing Boris and serving the good people of North Thanet, Sir Roger’s interests include animal welfare, with the longtime backbencher being an ardent critic of big game trophy hunters. Gale attacked Botswana’s president Mokgweetsi Masisi last Saturday in an online debate for committing ‘vandalism’ by allowing hunting tourism in his country. The former Tory vice-chair described hunting as ‘murder’ and implied that Masisi personally benefitted financially from it, in an online discussion