Politics

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

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Six of the most melodramatic warnings from COP26

The COP26 summit in Glasgow reaches its climax today, as world leaders try and thrash out a deal to halt climate change. But as well as attempting to find agreement, politicians and other bigwigs are competing to outdo each other in their dire warnings of what might happen if nothing changes. Here are six of the most melodramatic claims to emerge so far from COP: Boris Johnson’s ‘doomsday clock’: ‘The doomsday device is real,’ said Boris Johnson as he addressed COP26 delegates on the dangers of climate change. The PM said humanity’s situation was comparable to a James Bond film where ‘a red digital clock ticks down remorselessly to a destination

Steerpike Steerpike

The great Greta rebrand

Steerpike is no prude but even he has been surprised by some of the blue language from green activists at COP. Temperatures are running high outside the official conference zone, where angel-faced iconoclast Greta Thunberg has been leading protestors in a chorus of ‘You can shove your climate crisis up your arse’ and telling her devoted followers that it is now time for ‘no more blah blah blah’ and ‘no more whatever the fuck they’re doing in there.’ All this a day after her performance on the Andrew Marr show when Thunberg told the veteran broadcaster she was ‘pissed off’ with world leaders. So what is behind the sudden transformation from unimpeachable schoolgirl

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Sleepy Joe can’t keep his eyes open

That didn’t take long. It’s less than four hours since America’s septuagenarian president landed in Scotland and already he appears to have fallen asleep at the summit. Joe Biden was spotted shutting his eyes during one of the many, many speeches this afternoon, not opening them again until an awkward apparatchik ran over to disturb him. In fairness to the aged Democrat, sleep might have seemed like the most diplomatic option when faced with Brian Cox, David Attenborough and Prince Charles producing various outpourings of hot air in their efforts to curb global warming. Still, at least Biden’s COP is still going better than Justin Welby’s. The Archbishop of Canterbury today told the BBC

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Is Britain heading for a full-blown fish war with France?

As the COP26 summit gets underway, a diplomatic Brexit row is escalating on the sidelines of the conference over fish. After France threatened to block British boats from its ports and increase checks on vessels over a disagreement on fishing licences, the UK warned it could retaliate if France goes through with it. Suggestions from the French over the weekend that a solution in the form of ‘practical operational measures’ had been found were quickly shot down by the UK side. With a French election looming, Macron can be expected to do more not less of this This morning, Liz Truss doubled down – using a morning media round to say the UK is

Katy Balls Katy Balls

How can we define COP26 success?

13 min listen

COP26 is officially underway with world leaders meeting this morning. But what can these presidents and prime ministers promise given their domestic political challenges and the seeming disinterest of other nations like China? Katy Balls is joined by Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth to discuss the opening of COP26 and the continuing rise in Anglo-French tensions.

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Energy prices: Will there be a cost of living crisis this winter?

32 min listen

As the global shortage of gas continues to drive up energy costs, we take a look at these rising energy prices and the cost of living crisis that looms over the UK. How can we protect people from fuel poverty when bills are predicted to rise by hundreds of pounds? Moreover, as COP26 kicks off, how can this crisis be framed within the government’s plans for a green future? Kate Andrews speaks to Rebecca Sedler, the director for policy and regulation at EDF, Alan Brown MP, shadow SNP spokesperson on energy and climate change and Jonny Marshall, who is a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation. This podcast is sponsored

Steerpike Steerpike

CNN’s COP capital confusion

American network CNN appears to be bringing the same rigour and insight to COP26 that it displayed throughout the Trump administration. The broadcasters rocked up to the UN climate change summit in Scotland this weekend, brimming with their usual brio and bumptiousness at the chance to cover Biden, Boris et al rubbing shoulders. There’s only one problem – their staff do not appear to know which city they are actually in. Celebrated CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer fired off a beaming photo of himself this morning, grinning in front of Edinburgh Castle with the caption ‘I’m now reporting from Edinburgh in Scotland where 20,000 world leaders and delegates have gathered.’ Unfortunately COP26 is not actually

John Keiger John Keiger

Macron is following in the failed footsteps of the wrong Napoleon

Is Emmanuel Macron turning into Emperor Napoleon III? Not the great Napoleon who conquered Europe and was eventually defeated by a British-led coalition at Waterloo and exiled to Saint Helena in the south Atlantic. But his lesser nephew, whose obsession with his uncle’s glory drove him to flatulent demagoguery at home, grandiose schemes abroad and humiliating defeat at the hands of the Prussians in 1870.  Under the last monarch of France, the country descended into the revolutionary Commune, was amputated of Alsace-Lorraine and prostrated before a united and all-powerful Germany. The lesser Napoleon was eventually deposed, vilified and outlawed to Chislehurst, outside London. It was to Napoleon III that Karl Marx

Steerpike Steerpike

COP commences with chaos

‘COP26: no time for delay’ scream the signs at Euston station. But for hundreds of desperate delegates yesterday it proved to be a cruel irony after dozens of rail services to Glasgow were cancelled thanks to a fallen tree and severe weather sparked rail chaos. Members of HM lobby took to their WhatsApp group to complain about the chaos, with Britain’s hacks forced to engage in an undignified game of Planes, Trains and Automobiles to race across the country to reach the UN eco-jamboree. The i paper‘s Paul Waugh had his Glasgow-bound train turned back at Milton Keynes while Red Lion regular Eleanor Langford was one of many forced to board domestic flights, as

Joanna Williams

EastEnders isn’t the place for a lecture on climate change

Soap operas are cultural punctuation points. Big plot lines unite colleagues, neighbours and distant family members in shared conversation starters. Den and Angie’s Christmas divorce? Brookside’s before-the-watershed lesbian kiss? Tony Blair’s support for the wrongly-imprisoned Deirdre Barlow? I was there for it, along with millions of others. I even got caught up in Rob’s coercive control of Helen over in Ambridge. But not any more. When drama gave way to a continual stream of awareness-raising, I got bored. And if ratings are to be believed, I’m not alone. Now soap’s directors and script editors are fighting back: unfortunately with a plan to ratchet up the political messaging still further. They

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Has COP26 already flopped?

‘There is no chance of stopping climate change next week,’ the Prime Minister told me in an interview for ITV News. ‘There is no chance of getting an agreement to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees’. Standing in Rome’s magnificent ancient Colosseum, he warned that the cost of this failure, if not somehow rectified, would be far worse than the recent pandemic: ‘The Romans thought they were going to go on forever…Then wham, the middle of the fifth century, they hit a complete crisis, uncontrolled immigration, you have the Dark Ages. The lesson is things can go backwards… for a long time. Unless we fix climate change, unless we halt

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: All countries must ‘stand up and be counted’ at Cop 26

Alok Sharma – All countries must ‘stand up and be counted’ at Cop 26 The much anticipated Cop 26 is getting underway in Glasgow, and there is a lot riding on the government having a successful couple of weeks. The Prince of Wales has already given an address on climate change to the G20 summit in Rome this morning, in hope of inspiring fruitful negotiations as governments aim to keep global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees. The President-Designate of Cop 26, Alok Sharma, joined Trevor Phillips and imposed that this conference was a critical juncture, adding that getting satisfactory agreement would be ‘tougher’ that at the Paris talks of 6

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

COP kicks off with another eco-quandary

At long last, COP26 is finally here. Tomorrow, the world’s largest eco-jamboree will begin in Glasgow, with some 20,000 to 25,000 delegates expected to attend. For Alok Sharma et al, it must have felt at times that the ‘last chance’ to save the Earth was being damned by the gods themselves, with strikes, pestilence and vermin all plaguing the rat-infested city in recent months.  And there was one last biblical surprise for long-suffering civil servants yesterday: torrential rain in north west England and Scotland forced the cancellation of all trains from London to Glasgow. This prompted the latest eco-quandary for attendees: should they fly there instead? Ministers have been advised

Damian Reilly Damian Reilly

Why Boris wins

Although it’s deeply unfashionable to say so – particularly if you work in the media – I like Boris Johnson tremendously. I’m sure I’m not alone. I like him chiefly because he’s unfailingly funny. Every time I hear him on the radio or see him on the television, he says or does something that brightens up my day. Most recently it was his comments after President Macron’s hissy fit over AUKUS – ‘donnez-moi un break’ – but he’s been doing it for years. I believe there are two types of people in the world: people who are funny and people who are not. It goes without saying people who are

Max Jeffery Max Jeffery

Max Jeffery, Kate Andrews, Maggie Fergusson

16 min listen

On this week’s episode, we hear from Max Jeffery on his first impressions visiting Israel. (00:45) Then Kate Andrews on her difficult relationship with Newcastle Football Club. (04:58) And finally, Maggie Fergusson’s review of the new book Blacksmith: Apprentice to Master: Tools and Traditions of an Ancient Craft. (10:53) Produced and presented by Sam Holmes

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Has Andy Burnham found the key to beating Boris?

They were queuing up to eclipse Keir Starmer this week. Rishi Sunak – already ahead of Starmer in the polls when it comes to who would make the better prime minister – came brimming with barbs designed to make the leader of the opposition look like a chump on Budget day. In the event, Starmer did that to himself by getting hit with a Covid sicknote and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves took his place, securing rave reviews from leftist commentators in her leader’s absence. But the most significant and damaging eclipse of Starmer occurred far away from Westminster and was therefore the least noticed. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, the

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Why did neo-Nazis patrol the German border?

Just after midnight last Sunday, around 50 vigilantes gathered in east Germany to ‘patrol’ the country’s border with Poland. They were there to stop illegal immigrants, armed as they did so with batons, a machete, a bayonet and pepper spray. They were discovered by local police forces, but a certain nervousness from the authorities was palpable as they pleaded with residents in the eastern border regions to not take the law into their own hands. While the array of confiscated weapons suggests a well thought out plan, these ‘patrols’ are by no means coherent. The largest single group was reportedly stopped by the police in the border village of Groß Gastrose

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Britain’s fish fight with France risks triggering a new low in EU relations

Another day, another troubling development in UK/ EU relations. Earlier this week, a British trawler was seized by France and another fined. Now, France’s prime minister has written to the EU asking for its backing for further measures against the UK because of the refusal of various fishing licenses. The letter asks for support because, Jean Castex says, it must be demonstrated that ‘leaving the Union is more damaging than remaining in it.’  It isn’t only fishing which is causing tensions The UK, for its part, has summoned the French ambassador over the issue. Britain has made it clear it will carry out ‘rigorous enforcement processes’ on EU vessels fishing in UK waters if the French carry