Politics Archives

Tuesday

16 Mar 2021

Is Nicola Sturgeon’s loyalty her big weakness?

Loyalty is an important virtue. Indeed, it was loyalty to my former boss which led me to offer to act as Alex Salmond’s spokesman during his Court of Session battle with the Scottish Government. It was, at the time, a thankless task, trying to persuade sceptical former media colleagues that the whole affair was a stitch-up. Those same journalists don’t require much persuasion today. Once the Scottish Government belatedly conceded the errors in their flawed complaints procedure, at a cost to the taxpayer of at least a million pounds, and the accusations against Salmond were thrown out by a criminal court, the repercussions began. The Scottish Parliamentary Inquiry into how

Dr Roger Henderson

Is the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine safe? A doctor’s view

One of the few positives to have come out of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the remarkable speed at which vaccines have been developed and rolled out in months, rather than the many years that was the previous norm. Their effectiveness is being increasingly proved as more people are vaccinated, and they appear to be extremely well tolerated in terms of side effects. In the UK at least, vaccine hesitancy does not appear to be as great a problem as was initially feared and no new potential side effects have been reported that were not already known about from the vaccine trial data. It was therefore something of a surprise

Monday

15 Mar 2021

Katy Balls

Labour and Tories clash over policing

After the widespread backlash against the policing of the Sarah Everard vigil over the weekend, the government and Labour have managed to find some common ground. While both parties raised concerns over the handling of the event, Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer agreed that the Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick should not resign. However, any hopes for cross-party unity on the issue received short shrift in the chamber today. The Home Secretary appeared before the Commons to update MPs on the government response to the Met’s policing of the event. Patel began by talking about the sense of national unity in the aftermath of Everard’s death. She said it had ‘rightly ignited’ anger at the

Steerpike

Inside the £2.9 million Downing Street press room

This afternoon ITV got the scoop they were all after – pictures of the elusive Downing Street press conference room. The room is based in No 9 Downing Street and has enjoyed an eye-watering £2.9 million makeover to host the cream of the nation’s press for televised lobby briefings. The £2.9 million spending includes £1.8 million for ‘main works’ plus spending on other items such as £198,000 for ‘long lead items’, £33,000 for ‘broadband equipment’ and £1,400 on a core drill. It is here that Allegra Stratton, the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary, will do battle with the parliamentary lobby in the site which formerly hosted the Privy Council Office courtroom. Decked out in royal

Brendan O’Neill

The twisted logic of Shamima Begum’s defenders

Shamima Begum is back in the news. Firstly because she’s had a makeover. She can be seen on the front page of today’s Telegraph sporting long, flowing locks, trendy shades and Western clothing. Is Shamima the Islamist now aspiring to be Shamima the celeb? Perhaps she’s angling for her own reality TV show: The Real Housewives of Raqqa. But the second reason she’s in the news is because the British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor has expressed sympathy for her. He says she’s a victim of British racism. I really wish Sir Anish would stick to what he’s (very) good at — public art installations — and leave the Shamima business alone.

Kate Andrews

Andrew Bailey’s note of Covid caution

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Andrew Bailey threw his support behind one of the more optimistic scenarios for a post-Covid economic recovery: that the UK will be back to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year. The combination of the UK’s hugely successful vaccine rollout combined with increased levels of lockdown immunity – that is, the economic impact of restrictions ‘reducing as we all adapt’ – had the Governor of the Bank of England suggesting that we could see a full recovery by the end of the year (notably earlier than the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Budget forecast of roughly the middle of next year). Bailey

Lloyd Evans

Corbyn’s plan to revolutionise the mainstream media

Jeremy Corbyn is hitting the comeback trail. The former Labour leader made the keynote speech at this week’s Media Democracy Festival organised by the Media Reform Coalition. He began by citing his own journalistic credentials. ‘I produced 500 columns for the Morning Star.’ Then he turned to India where 250 million strikers are protesting against the removal of state support for farmers. The strike involves ‘one in thirty of the entire population of the world,’ enthused Corbyn, which makes it the largest industrial dispute in history. But coverage in the UK has been minimal, ‘which says a lot about the priorities and the news values of much of our media outlets

Ian Acheson

Who’s to blame for the Clapham Common debacle?

On Saturday evening, daughters, fathers and mothers of daughters and siblings of daughters gathered in Clapham Common at a vigil. Facing these police officers were hundreds of people seeking to remember Sarah Everard. What followed was a clash that turned what could have been a respectful memorial into a moment of apparently callous state repression threatening the future of the Met’s first female Commissioner, Cressida Dick. Dick has called out the armchair critics of her officers’ actions in Clapham. But make no mistake: the Met Police is in the dock. And Dick’s condemnation of those criticising her force won’t wash, either for politicians or the senior leadership of the Met, who jointly carry the can.

Dr Mark Toshner

Europe’s vaccine suspensions could come back to bite Britain

Germany is the latest country to suspend the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine over concerns about possible side effects. The Netherlands and Ireland have taken similar steps. So too has Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria and Iceland, while Italy and Austria have halted the use of certain batches of the drug as a precautionary measure. Britain has done many things wrong in its handling of the pandemic, but it has done one thing well: the rollout of the jab. It’s the one place where we have useful lessons to teach the world in Covid-19. Europe, in particular, does not appear to be listening. Vaccine programmes as ambitious as the one needed now require joined-up international co-ordination and action. These latest delays

Katy Balls

Will Tories kickback on new police powers?

12 min listen

Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick is facing calls to resign after women were forcibly removed from Saturday’s vigil for Sarah Everard. It comes as a bill that gives police more powers to crack down on protests will soon come before Parliament. How big will the backbench rebellion be? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.

Steerpike

The Guardian’s troubles with Roy Greenslade

Roy Greenslade’s confession last month that he was a dedicated supporter of the IRA during the Troubles has not gone down well on Fleet Street. Greenslade secretly wrote for the republican newsletter An Phoblacht and provided bail surety for an IRA man accused of involvement in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing. He wrote in the Sunday Times three weeks ago that he was in ‘complete agreement about the right of the Irish people to engage in armed struggle’, adding: ‘I supported the use of physical force.’ The backlash from journalists and victims of the IRA alike caused Greenslade to resign his post as honorary visiting professor of journalism at City,

Nick Tyrone

Priti Patel’s cowardly response to the Clapham Common debacle

Priti Patel’s reaction to the ugly scenes on Clapham Common on Saturday has been to point the finger. ‘Some of the footage circulating online from the vigil in Clapham is upsetting. I have asked the Metropolitan Police for a full report on what happened’, she has said. But do we really need to wait for a report to work out what has happened? Perhaps, instead, the truth is rather simpler: the police were enforcing laws put into places by Priti Patel’s own government. Of course, there is some debate as to whether officers should have exercised more judgement in the applications of these laws. On this point, though, Patel has been clear:

Matt Dryden

Relative values: how extremism spreads through families

Isis supporter Sahayb Abu has been convicted of plotting a sword attack on the streets of Britain. But the 27-year-old isn’t the only member of his family who has succumbed to extremist ideology. In 2015, two of Abu’s half-brothers joined Isis in Syria; both are believed to have died in the fighting. In 2018, another half-brother Ahmed Aweys and half-sister Asma Aweys and her partner were jailed for terror offences, including sharing Isis material in a family chat group The case of Abu is just one of a number in the UK in recent years which have seen multiple family members committing terrorist offences together, or who have committed separate

Stephen Daisley

Will Boris Johnson take responsibility for the Union?

Even for a virtual party conference, Boris Johnson’s speech to the Scottish Tories was a muted affair. As might be expected, the Prime Minister talked up the strength of the Union as demonstrated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost 2 million Scots had received a jab thanks to the 400 million vaccine doses secured by the Treasury’s deep pockets — proof, he said, of ‘the United Kingdom’s collective strength’. He took time to praise UK Armed Forces personnel, 500-strong at present, who are spread across 80 Army-established vaccination centres throughout Scotland. This of course was a reminder that the British Army had been there to pick up the slack when the

Damian Reilly

The problem with Facebook’s ‘Supreme Court’

He might now be one of the most powerful men in global media, but I find whenever I see a photograph of Nick Clegg, Orwell’s quote about everyone getting the face they deserve by 50 comes to mind. Now 54, the remnants of the boyish idealist are still just about there, but the eyes to me are ledgers of too much unhappy compromise – deadened, I always assume, by the principles he felt forced by David Cameron to sacrifice for personal advancement, and by the amazing decision to see out the remaining years of a career spent failing upwards as Mark Zuckerberg’s lavishly remunerated PR lickspittle. For a decade and

Sunday

14 Mar 2021

Isabel Hardman

Voting down the police bill could backfire on Keir Starmer

Labour has decided today that it will be opposing the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill when it has its second reading in the Commons tomorrow. Some of the party’s MPs say they had been told they would be whipped to abstain on this stage of the Bill, but following the scenes on Clapham Common last night, shadow frontbenchers have rushed to say they will vote against. I understand that the party hadn’t reached a firm position on whipping until today, though there had been discussions within the PLP about what the position would be. But there was a discussion this morning between Sir Keir Starmer, Shadow Home Secretary Nick

Tali Fraser

Women have lost faith in the Metropolitan police

Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive living in Brixton, and a ‘wonderful daughter and sister’, was killed earlier this month. Last night, the women trying to remember Sarah at a vigil in Clapham Common were dragged and arrested by Metropolitan police officers. Not only did this show poor judgement, it was an unnecessary and careless use of force. Sarah Everard was just trying to walk home, the women out last night were just trying to mourn her. The Met’s chief, Cressida Dick, said after Sarah Everard’s disappearance that ‘Every woman should feel safe to walk our streets without fear of harassment or violence.’ Yet on Saturday night, her officers disturbed

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: minister says it’s right the police explain their actions

Victoria Atkins – Police response to Sarah Everard vigil ‘very upsetting’ On Saturday, a vigil was held on Clapham Common in memory of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old woman who disappeared from London’s streets earlier in March and whose body was later found in a Kent woodland. After talks between the police and the organisers of the event broke down, the vigil was held unofficially, and the Metropolitan Police have been criticised for their conduct in managing the crowd of several hundred people. Andrew Marr spoke to the Home Office minister Victoria Atkins about the incident, which saw scuffles break out and four arrests made: AM: What did you think when

Alastair Stewart

It’s too early to call for Cressida Dick’s scalp

Politics, at its most pathetic, is the Downing Street pack screaming at Prime Ministers, ‘Will you resign?’. At its best, politics and political journalism build up an unanswerable case against a miscreant and take a scalp. The scenes at Clapham Common, last night, were shocking. I have, however, worked in TV news for long enough to know that the cutting room is a minefield. As with vox-pops, the selection and rejection of pictures and voices is one of the most powerful editorial forces in a newsroom. I wasn’t at Clapham Common last night, nor were most in the mass-ranks of social media. Suffice to say, what I saw on social

Steven Barrett

Mark Drakeford’s men-only curfew would break international law

Politicians, including Baroness Jones of the Green Party and Mark Drakeford, who is the Labour leader in Wales, have spoken of the possibility of a 6pm curfew for men. That looks to be a breach of international law and so is something often referred to as illegal. A curfew is a punishment. A curfew directed at any of us on the basis of gender/sex (or any characteristic protected from discrimination) is a collective punishment of those who have that characteristic. Or as Oxford Public International Law terms it: ‘A collective punishment is a form of sanction imposed on persons or a group of persons in response to a crime committed