Politics Archives

Wednesday

1 Sep 2021

Raab faces an Afghan grilling from MPs

After a week of hostile briefings over his future as foreign secretary, Dominic Raab appeared before MPs this afternoon to face the music. As a blame game gets underway in Whitehall over the chaotic response to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Raab has found himself in the firing line. One government source suggested his handling of the crisis meant he ‘has about as much chance of being in a top four position by next spring as Arsenal’ when it comes to a cabinet reshuffle. This afternoon, Raab came out swinging — defending his department’s handling of the situation and pointing blame in the direction of others. Today’s appearance had been billed by

Steerpike

Watch: the four most awkward moments from Raab’s evidence

Fresh from his Crete holiday, Dominic Raab appeared at the Foreign Affairs Committee looking tense and awkward. The Foreign Secretary has been dragged to an extraordinary meeting of the panel specially convened in spite of the parliamentary recess to answer questions about the collapse of Afghanistan and rushed evacuation of the Western powers. Raab’s session overstretched to almost two hours and saw a range of hostile questions from right across the House. A glowering Tom Tugendhat ambushed the embattled minister with his department’s principle risks report from July 21 warning of collapse of Afghanistan while a deluge of questions about the Crete holiday were met by Raab’s insistence that such queries were

Steerpike

Carlton Club’s furlough funding

Few of London’s private members clubs have a richer history than the Carlton. Founded in 1832 to oppose the Great Reform Act, its premises hosted the famous 1922 meeting which toppled Lloyd George, withstood Hitler’s bombers and entertained countless Tory politicians over decades. Even today the club continues to fundraise for the Conservative Party and has gifted lifelong membership to Cabinet ministers Gavin Williamson and Michael Gove plus former leaders Theresa May and Lord Hague. Covid though appears to have represented a major challenge to the Carlton’s finances and philosophy. HMRC records show the £1,700-a-year establishment claimed between £195,000 and £400,000 between December 2020 and May 2021 under the coronavirus job

Lois Heslop

Should Britain brace itself for a major flu outbreak this winter?

Could flu be a bigger problem than Covid this winter? Professor Anthony Harnden, the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, has warned that it might be, suggesting that the low prevalence of flu over recent months could come back to ‘bite us’ as the weather worsens. There are also fears that reduced levels of flu in recent months could make it much harder to develop a successful jab. In a normal year, the route to a flu vaccine is well trodden. The annual flu vaccination programme first began in England in the 1960s, and since 2000, all over 65s have been offered the jab every year. Healthy children have also

Steerpike

Fact check: how much US kit have the Taliban got?

With the war in Afghanistan having officially ended on Monday, the world’s thoughts have turned to how the Taliban will govern Afghanistan – and what equipment left behind by coalition forces they now have at their disposal. Some $88 billion was spent by the US government alone since 2002 on security reconstruction – primarily equipping the Afghan army and police forces with training and kit. Now, with the messy withdrawal complete, much of that equipment has been left behind in Afghanistan. Caution should be taken with that headline figure however. Much of that $88 billion would have gone to the Afghan army in salaries, for instance, while consumables such as fuel and the

Carlo Moll

How Germany’s Free Democratic party capitalised on the AfD’s misfortunes

One of the most remarkable stories to come out of Germany in the last year has been the rise of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). Having struggled for relevance in 2020, the party has transformed itself into a political force that could decide the makeup of the next government – and maybe even anoint Angela Merkel’s successor as Chancellor. The FDP’s success follows an almost eight-year long self-reinvention in which the party has sometimes resembled a cult of personality centred around its charismatic chairman, Christian Lindner. It was Lindner who began the party’s revival after a shattering 2013 defeat led to the loss of all its seats in the Bundestag,

John Keiger

Is the EU trying to hamstring the French military?

Much recent discussion has focussed on the collapse of Afghanistan and the decline of the West. The humiliating American-led Western retreat from Kabul is most poignant for the signal it sends to other ‘protected’ states, present-day and future. The Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, Global Times, mockingly jibed in its editorial at the history of America abandoning its allies and warning how this might be an omen for Taiwan. But the Afghan smokescreen has obscured another aspect of Western decline: a European Court of Justice ruling of 15 July enforcing the same restrictions on ‘work time’ for member states’ military personnel as for any other worker, except on clearly specified military operations. If

Tuesday

31 Aug 2021

Cindy Yu

Who is to blame for Afghanistan exit failures?

12 min listen

The Pentagon says the UK pushed to keep Abbey gate at Kabul airport open, which was later the site of a terrorist attack that killed 13 US soldiers and 170 Afghans. Dominic Raab took on today’s broadcast round and defended the work of the Foreign Office during the evacuation process, but said the intelligence community’s assessment of the strength of the Afghan government was wrong. Who is to blame for the chaos of the last few weeks? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Steerpike

Is troubled Trudeau the new Theresa May?

Oh dear. For years Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been at pains to prove his feminist credentials. Whether it’s correcting a woman for using the word ‘mankind’ or promising to turn a ‘she-cession’ into a ‘she-covery,’ the hereditary premier has done his damnedest to prove he’s the wokest leader in all the West. But now Tudeau has unwittingly followed in the footsteps of one woman whose example he would not want to follow: another onetime embattled PM Theresa May. A fortnight ago, Trudeau called a snap election to improve his precarious parliamentary majority but the move looks to have backfired spectacularly. Far from increasing his majority, Trudeau is now desperately trying to preserve it as his incumbent

Stephen Daisley

The shame of the SNP’s grubby power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens

This afternoon Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, co-leaders of the Scottish Greens, will become ministers in Nicola Sturgeon’s government. The appointments come after Green members ratified a cooperation agreement over the weekend. The unity pact is a strategic masterstroke by Sturgeon, handing her an overall majority at Holyrood, insulating her from internal SNP criticism and coopting a rival nationalist party. There is one midge in the porridge, however, and it’s this: the Scottish Greens are unhinged. Not merely eccentric or a little outside the mainstream, but full-blown, solar-powered, honest-to-Gaia cranks. For an illustration, consider a motion debated at their autumn 2015 conference in Glasgow. I was a political reporter back

Ross Clark

Can schools return without disruption?

A lot of people won’t want to take much notice of Mary Bousted, joint-general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), who warns today that schools face significant disruption by the end of September as Covid-prevention measures have to be reintroduced. It was the NEU, after all, which not only opposed the return of schools after the first lockdown, but simultaneously advised its members not to take part in online lessons either. The NEU has often given the impression of being motivated first and foremost by a desire to obstruct the government’s plans. Sir Patrick Vallance’s original verdict on the virus – that it is not possible to stop it

Matthew Lynn

Rishi Sunak should blame Brexit for ditching the pensions triple lock

Car workers in Sunderland are doing just fine. Construction workers still have jobs. And the food is still getting to the supermarkets, even if there are some occasional disruptions to supply. Not many of the dire warnings about the consequences of leaving the European Union have actually come to pass. There is, however, one group that looks likely to be hit, even if no one quite predicted it. The pensioners. It looks certain to cost them the ‘triple lock’ on their pensions: although since many of them voted for Brexit, they can hardly complain. The government is tying itself up in knots on how to wriggle out of the ‘triple lock’

Steerpike

Crumbling Commons gears up for new term

It’s less than a week until MPs return to Westminster after a summer full of llama drama and Afghan disaster. But as our elected leaders gear up to debate the great issues of state once more, Steerpike has unearthed figures which suggest Parliament’s foundations are not as solid as they would like to think. Whether it’s asbestos, falling stonework or the risk of incineration, all too often the Palace of Westminster resembles a house of horrors. Mr S has obtained a copy of the most recent parliamentary ‘Asbestos Management Survey’ – drawn up between July 2019 and April 2020 – and it makes for depressing reading. Released under Freedom of Information laws,

Steerpike

Covid collapse fails to revive MPs’ bars

The bars at Parliament have played host to many scenes over the years – plots, arguments, merriment and even fisticuffs – but rarely to an empty house. But for much of Covid, the watering holes of Westminster have been remained closed, in line with government guidance. And now Mr S has found that the restoration of our liberties and the collapse of Covid cases has failed to prompt a surge in sales; sobering news when one considers how some within the estate are itching to close its taverns. A list of the top 100 bar items sold between January to July reveals a dismal return of 2,967 items sold for an estate which

Monday

30 Aug 2021

William Nattrass

The battle for Eastern Europe’s energy sector

The fight to power eastern Europe is heating up. As Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to meet Joe Biden at the White House, competition for Ukraine’s energy market is increasingly being framed as a battle between East and West. And as western investments into renewables vie with fossil fuel imports from Russia, the struggle for the nation’s energy supply is assuming a moral dimension reminiscent of the Cold War. Tens of thousands of panels at Ukraine’s huge Nikopol solar farm harvest the sun’s energy for nobody. In late 2019, the Canadian owners of the farm, TIU Canada, were informed that the nearby Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, owned by the notorious Ukrainian oligarch Ihor

Steerpike

Fears for Red Arrows amid takeover trend

Concerns in Westminster are growing about the impact that a string of recent takeovers will have on Britain’s sovereign capability. In recent weeks deals have been agreed by foreign firms to take over two leading UK defence manufacturers – Meggitt and Ultra – despite doubts about the impact such moves will have on the UK’s manufacturing ability. There are fears that it could mean that the next generation of aircraft for the iconic Red Arrows will not be built here in Britain. Coventry-based Meggitt supplies wheels and brakes for fighter jets used by the Royal Air Force and is the subject of two bids from American firms Parker Hannifin and TransDigm for £6.3 billion and £7 billion respectively. Ultra meanwhile supported coalition

Andrew Tettenborn

The Liberal Democrats have a dangerous vision for the City of London

Liberals have always set great store by laws and declarations. It was joked about Lord Loreburn, the liberal Lord Chancellor in the years before the First World War, that if told the Germans had landed he would immediately have taken steps to obtain an interim injunction from the Chancery Division requiring an immediate withdrawal. These days something similar seems to be happening as regards the Liberal Democrats’ approach to climate change. Last Thursday Ed Davey took aim at the City, which he has decided to add to the party’s growing list of climate change villains. In a curious interview with the Guardian he put forward a modest proposal to deal

Patrick O’Flynn

Why Boris Johnson’s opponents keep failing

Which Boris Johnson should Labour fight? There is little doubt about the personality traits most left-wing activists think they have detected in the Prime Minister and which motivate them to campaign tirelessly for his removal from office. The Johnson they are fighting is a cruel and dastardly right-wing serial liar who wins elections by pulling the wool over the eyes of the voters. A British Trump, in other words. One social media activist is very proud that his video of the PM ‘lying’ to the Commons and elsewhere has 32 million views. But one wonders how many of those views came from people who were not already convinced Boris-haters? In

Sunday

29 Aug 2021

Ross Clark

The NHS blood tube shortage should concern us

One of the great lessons from the early stages of the pandemic was the need to shorten supply chains and make them more robust. This was especially true for medical supplies. Just-in-time supply chains have been developed over the years to increase efficiency, but had never been tested in a global crisis when demand for certain medical products is high and supply is weak. The government ended up paying huge sums for PPE which, in some cases, was not even suitable for use. The shortage raises eyebrows because a plastic tube is, after all, a plastic tube It seems the lesson has not entirely been learned. There is now a shortage of

Sam Ashworth-Hayes

What the Afghan animal airlift says about Britain

The evacuation of Pen Farthing and his pets from Afghanistan this week is not a ‘feel-good’ story. It is not a charmingly eccentric rescue mission. It’s a moral abomination that shames Britain. While American soldiers lifted their dead for their final flight home, British soldiers were carrying dogs onto a plane. When time was running out to get people who served with us out alive, ministers were sponsoring clearance for his charter flight and senior commanders were dealing with his supporters. Before we go any further, I’d like to be clear about one thing: I don’t particularly blame Pen. I’d probably want to get my pets out of a warzone