Politics Archives

Wednesday

5 Mar 2025

No Other Land isn’t what it seems

The Oscars, an institution that claims to celebrate artistic excellence, this week played a leading role in a sophisticated and cynical propaganda campaign against Israel. The 2024 Academy Award for Best Documentary went to No Other Land, a film that, beneath the veneer of raw storytelling and supposed human rights advocacy, is little more than a masterclass in Palestinian distortion. It is not a documentary in the truest sense of the word but a carefully crafted piece of demagoguery –designed not to illuminate but to vilify, to cast Israel as the villain in a narrative that, in reality, it did not write. The irony is staggering. Even as Israel fights to

Tuesday

4 Mar 2025

Owen Matthews

Trump’s Ukraine strategy is mad. But it might work

Will the real Volodymyr Zelensky please stand up? On Sunday, Ukraine’s president defiantly stated that ‘the final deal about ending the war is very, very far … nobody’s even started all those steps yet.’ But just three days later, Zelensky’s office issued a statement saying more or less the opposite. ‘None of us wants an endless war,’ read his official communiqué. ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer … we are ready to work fast to end the war.’ So is Kyiv’s plan a quick ceasefire or a fight till victory? Zelensky’s mixed messages have left his allies confused

Freddy Gray

How the ghost of Iraq haunts peace in Ukraine

It’s great that JD Vance is all for free speech, though he does tend to shoot off his mouth in an off-putting way. He is, as Disraeli said of Gladstone, ‘a sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity.’ In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity last night, the Vice President said: ‘If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine. That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or

Freddy Gray

Does Zelensky have to go?

31 min listen

Donald Trump announced last night he is suspending military aid to Ukraine until Zelensky is ‘ready for peace’. Following this, the Vice President JD Vance sparked further international outrage in a Fox News interview referring to Britain as ‘some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years’. JD Vance has since come out saying that he was not referring to the UK or France in that interview – although critics can’t work out who else he could have been talking about. Freddy Gray is joined by The Spectator’s Russia correspondent Owen Matthews to discuss whether the only way for there to be peace in Ukraine is

Svitlana Morenets

Will Zelensky’s apology work on Trump?

Volodymyr Zelensky is offering Donald Trump an olive branch after the American president paused all US military aid to Ukraine last night. Zelensky has expressed his regrets about the confrontation in the Oval Office and said his team is ready to come to the negotiating table ‘as soon as possible’. Ukraine wants to sign the minerals agreement with the US at ‘any time and in any convenient format’. Zelensky also praised Trump’s ‘strong leadership’ and offered the first steps towards a cease-fire. Will this be enough? White House officials earlier stated that aid would be on hold until Zelensky apologises for the Oval Office spat and demonstrates his readiness for

Katy Balls

Can Kemi Badenoch control her party?

Donald Trump’s decision overnight to pause US military aid to Ukraine has sent politicians across the world into a tailspin. Here in the UK, political leaders are still grappling with the fallout from Friday’s disastrous meeting between the US president and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. Keir Starmer has pitched himself as a ‘bridge’ between the two sides but the decision to halt aid, along with an escalating war of words, highlights the limits of his role. Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch has a fight on her hands controlling her MPs as there appear to be a series of mixed messages coming from her shadow cabinet and party on Trump and Ukraine. The Tory

Steerpike

Assisted dying panel rejects Down’s Syndrome safeguard

The western world might be collapsing but here in Westminster it is business as usual. In one of parliament’s dusty old committee rooms, Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill continues to slowly make its way through the legislative process, one agonising line at a time. But if you hoped that this exercise would be a Socratic discussion of open minds, you might be left somewhat disappointed. Virtually all of the amendments proposed have been struck down by the pro-Bill majority on the committee, by near-identical margins. Today it was the turn of the amendment on Down’s Syndrome. The committee voted by 13 to 8 to exclude specific provision on the face

Katy Balls

Where does Trump’s suspension of Ukraine aid leave Europe?

13 min listen

Overnight President Trump made another extraordinary move in his ongoing attempt to broker a deal between Ukraine and Russia, suspending all U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Katy Balls talks to James Heale and geopolitical analyst Mark Galeotti about how serious this development is and where it leaves Ukraine’s European supporters. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Cindy Yu.

Steerpike

JD Vance accused of ‘disrespect’ to British troops

As if transatlantic relations could not get any worse. Barely 72 hours after the Oval Office bust up, the Trump administration announced that the US had suspended all military aid to Ukraine – a move that caught much of Whitehall off guard. Now UK politicians of all stripes have hit out at JD Vance, after the Vice-President made some rather ill-judged comments on Fox News… Speaking to the broadcaster, Vance insisted that ‘if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine’. But the VP didn’t stop there. Going on, Vance remarked: ‘That is

Harvey Proctor

Operation Midland’s guilty men were never held to account

On March 4, 2015, I sat in the bedroom of my home, an old farmhouse overlooking the rolling beauty of the Vale of Belvoir, sipping tea with my partner, Terry. It was an ordinary early morning – until an unexpected knock shattered its peace. Through the glass, I saw the police. My first thought was that something was afoot at Belvoir Castle, where I worked as Private Secretary for the Duke and Duchess of Rutland. But as I opened the door, my world collapsed. A police officer handed me a search warrant. Subsequently, I now know it was an illegal warrant. Then, like an invading force, around 20 Metropolitan Police

Steerpike

Tory MP: Trump is a ‘Russian asset’

Graham Stuart is perhaps not the best-known Tory backbencher, but the former energy minister has catapulted himself into the national limelight with his remarks this morning. Stuart, the longstanding MP for Beverley and Holderness since 2005, took to X today to float the idea that President Donald Trump is an, er, ‘Russian asset’. He wrote on the social media site that: ‘We have to consider the possibility that President Trump is a Russian asset. If so, Trump’s acquisition is the crowning achievement of Putin’s FSB career – and Europe is on its own.’ Even Tom Clancy might blush at that plot line… It comes after the Trump administration announced last night that

James Heale

Keir Starmer’s bridge to Trump is crumbling

So it turns out he wasn’t bluffing after all. Six weeks after taking office, Donald Trump has made two big decisions overnight: pausing all American aid to Kyiv and imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canada. Both will cause consternation in Whitehall – but it is the situation in Ukraine which is of most immediate concern. Less than 24 hours after Keir Starmer unveiled his ‘four-point plan’ in parliament, it already risks falling apart. Speaking in the Commons, the Prime Minister said yesterday that the West must keep military aid flowing to Ukraine. Asked by Stephen Flynn about the prospect of a pause in contributions, Starmer replied ‘As I understand it,

James Hanson

Nigel Farage will regret his anti-Zelensky comments

‘I just thought Reform cared about national borders and sovereignty’. So sighed the journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer at the end of her recent interview with the party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice. He’d been trying to argue that Donald Trump was right to cut Ukraine out of peace talks with Russia. A normally polished media performer, I have never seen Tice look so uncomfortable as he was when being grilled by Hartley-Brewer on ‘how much of Britain would you give away if we were invaded?’. This week, it was Nigel Farage’s turn to appear hostile to Ukraine on national radio. Discussing Friday’s showdown in the Oval Office on LBC, he took the

Julian Hughes

What would George Orwell make of the assisted dying debate?

George Orwell would have plenty to say about the language used in the assisted dying debate. As Orwell wrote in his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’: ‘When you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself’. He continued, ‘political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. Never has this been truer than in relation to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which is back for debate in parliament today. Dignity in Dying, the organisation that campaigns in favour of assisted dying, would certainly trouble Orwell. In 2006, after just

Gavin Mortimer

Is Macron a ‘danger for peace’ in Ukraine?

Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are in competition to be the de facto leader of the European response to the diplomatic crisis between Donald Trump and Ukraine’s president Zelensky. The cynic might wonder if Macron isn’t perhaps making the most of the fallout to boost his standing after a calamitous few months. The French president’s reputation has not recovered from his decision last June to call a snap election; the result was political chaos and three prime ministers in six months. Few French have confidence in their president to handle the situation Ukraine effectively Domestically, France is a disaster zone. Lawlessness, immigration and an ailing economy are just three reasons

Robin Ashenden

Why should Zelensky be grateful to Trump?

A consensus seems to be forming, in certain quarters, that the debacle at the White House meeting on Friday – which played out before an incredulous world – was in large part Volodymyr Zelensky’s fault. Ukraine’s president is certainly paying a heavy price: overnight, Donald Trump has halted military aid to Ukraine. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” a White House official has said. Aside from the Republican politicians racing to side with Trump following the White House row, there have been voices nearer home. Presenter of the Triggernometry podcast Konstantin Kisin, who initially sided with the Ukrainian leader, tweeted out after

Monday

3 Mar 2025

Michael Simmons

Trump announces 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico

‘He was bad on trade, very bad on trade,’ said Donald Trump ‘with due respect’ to Ronald Reagan in a broadcast from the White House. As the President went on, the Fox News coverage included a ‘Dow Watch’ ticker, which showed the markets in freefall. Trump was speaking to confirm that 25 per cent tariffs would be imposed at midnight on Tuesday on Canada and Mexico, with an additional 10 per cent tariff for China (which has already had 10 per cent tariffs imposed). This means new barriers for America’s three largest trading partners. ‘The tariffs, you know, they’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow,’ Trump said. In response

Mary Dejevsky

Peter Mandelson has become a liability

Well, that didn’t take long, did it? Less than a month after presenting his credentials to President Trump, His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador in Washington was being accused by an MP in the House of Commons of ‘freelancing on US TV’. The UK armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, had earlier distanced himself from comments made by Lord Mandelson, saying ‘that’s not government policy’. Both were referring to a typically mellifluous performance by Mandelson on ABC’s popular Sunday politics talk-show, This Week. The presenter was another master of fluent politics-speak, George Stephanopoulos, one-time spokesman for the Clinton White House turned media pundit, and the conversation flowed with amicable ease. So where had

Steerpike

‘Struggling’ Rayner gets her third aide

When you’ve got a majority of 167, how do you keep control? The answer, it seems, is jobs for the boys (and girls). Another round of government appointments made a week ago has seen yet more new MPs promoted. Alex Barros-Curtis, Joe Morris and Jack Abbott are among the 2024 intake who ascended the first rung on the ministerial pecking order by being named parliamentary private secretaries (PPS). But it was the appointment of Mark Ferguson as a bag carrier at the Ministry of Housing which caught Steerpike’s eye. The Gateshead Central MP gushed on LinkedIn that he is ‘especially excited to serve our Deputy Prime Minister and my friend Angela

Isabel Hardman

Starmer: Zelensky is a ‘hero’

Keir Starmer was careful in his Commons statement about Ukraine to distance himself from what happened in the Oval Office on Friday, while also insisting that Britain needs to maintain a strong relationship with the US. He told MPs that Friday’s public spat between Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump and JD Vance was ‘something nobody in this house wants to see’, but added: ‘I do want to be crystal clear, we must strengthen our relationship with America – for our security, for our technology, for our trade and investment’. He also repeatedly disagreed with any MP who suggested drawing back from the relationship with Trump. Later in the session, he said