Society

Monday

Ricky Gervais

Full text: Ricky Gervais’ Golden Globes speech

Hello and welcome to the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards, live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel here in Los Angeles. I’m Ricky Gervais. Thank you. You’ll be pleased to know this is the last time I’m hosting these awards, so I don’t care anymore. I’m joking: I never did. NBC clearly don’t care either – fifth time. I mean, Kevin Hart was fired from the Oscars because of some offensive tweets. Hello [pointing at himself]. Lucky for me, the Hollywood foreign press can barely speak English and they have no idea what Twitter is. I got offered this gig by fax. So let’s go out with a bang. Let’s have

Christopher Snowdon

The truth behind the election’s so-called fact checkers

All election campaigns see politicians exaggerate, stretch the truth and make promises they can’t keep. But if a report issued in early December is anything to go by, the 2019 general election campaign was a particularly dishonest affair – and one party was particularly guilty. On 10 December, Metro reported: Similarly, the Independent reported: Websites which make no attempt to be impartial were more vociferous. Under the headline, The Tory war on truth – and how to fight back, Open Democracy reported: Independent fact checkers have found that 88% of Tory Facebook adverts contain lies, while 0% of Labour’s do. After the election, the (admittedly risible) Canary asserted that: The 2019 election was won on the back of lies

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour leadership contest: the state of the race so far

The candidates to replace Jeremy Corbyn have been busily launching their campaigns and giving political interviews this weekend, with the party deciding the rules for the contest at a meeting of its ruling National Executive Committee tomorrow. There are still a couple of candidates left to launch their official campaigns, including Rebecca Long-Bailey, who appears to have disappeared to a location far more secretive than any prime ministerial holiday, and Ian Lavery. But here’s what we know so far about each of the candidates: Keir Starmer: considered the frontrunner in the contest, the shadow Brexit secretary launched his campaign last night with a moving video. It was moving in the

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Jess Phillips – ‘I will fight’ to rejoin EU if I think it is right

Much of the Sunday shows were taken up by Labour’s upcoming leadership contest. Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley who has been a thorn in the side of Jeremy Corbyn over the course of his leadership, spoke to Marr about her stance on the EU. Marr asked her if she would be minded to rejoin: JP: You’d have to look at what was going on at the time… The reality is, if our country is safer, if it is more economically viable to be in the EU, then I will fight for that regardless of how difficult that argument is to make. I would ‘absolutely’ take action to protect

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Podcast: Jess Phillips – My family left Labour over Blair and Iraq

Jess Phillips is viewed as an outside bet when it comes to the Labour leadership race. While she has a good chance of making it through the parliamentary round, Phillips will have her work cut out among the membership. The Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley has been openly critical of Jeremy Corbyn and also once told key Corbyn ally Diane Abbott to ‘f— off’ (see Steerpike for full details of the incident). Another issue is that in comparison to some of the candidates (as Isabel noted on Coffee House) less is known of Phillips’s political beliefs in terms of policy. I sat down with Phillips last year to record an episode

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Keir Starmer lurches left with campaign launch

The Labour leadership contest is yet to get officially underway – with an NEC meeting to be held on Monday to decide a timetable – but already several horses have entered the race. On Saturday night, Sir Keir Starmer announced his leadership bid – joining Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips who earlier declared. Starmer is seen as a frontrunner in the contest behind Corbynite candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey. However, where Long-Bailey has had a very quiet start to her campaign (she is yet to officially declare), Starmer has been making up ground. The shadow Brexit Secretary recently topped YouGov’s first Labour leadership poll. The survey of Labour members forecast that were

Saturday

Seth J. Frantzman

Qasem Soleimani’s demise is a gamechanger for Israel

The targeted assassination of Qasem Soleimani is a game changer for Israel in its simmering conflict with Tehran. This drone strike could mean an Iranian attack on Israel in response. But whether Iran seeks to attack or not, it means that the country’s remaining allies in the region – such as Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah – will know they could meet a similar, sticky end to Soleimani. For Israel, Trump’s decision to target Soleimani is a moment to celebrate. Israel viewed the Iranian Quds Force commander as a central figure behind Tehran’s threats to destroy Israel. In August, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu gave a stark warning to Soleimani, blaming him for

David Patrikarakos David Patrikarakos

Iran’s generals are weeping for Qasem Soleimani. But soon they will prepare to fight

It has been 24 hours since America droned Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad airport. Now both Iran and the United States are getting ready to deal with a new reality in the Middle East that has (quite literally) exploded into being. There is a mutual recognition that when Soleimani died, the old rules of the game died alongside him. What is instructive about his assassination is not that it happened, but that it took so long. After all, this was a man whose carefully posed portrait spread across Twitter every time he visited yet another of Iran’s many wars in the region. If I knew when Haji Qasem was in Syria, then the Americans surely did too.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Sajid Javid: it’s time to tear up the old investment rules

The next Budget will signal some pretty big changes in the way government spending is distributed, with investment directed towards the parts of the country that have tended to be denied it. The shift in policy was first disclosed by the Prime Minister to James Forsyth and Katy Balls in an interview during the election campaign. The Treasury, he said, judged potential infrastructure projects in a way that always tended to point investment to London and the South East. ‘I take a different view. That this country is so underprovided for in brilliant infrastructure that you can make a good business case for many things.’ A few days later, Sajid

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Ten handy phrases for bluffing your way through the coming Iran crisis

That gathering drumbeat you hear could be the sound of World War III, or it could be 10,000 journalists still Googling facts about Iran following the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. The internet is a bluffer’s paradise, but it also means that everybody— not just the hacks — now feels a strong impulse to talk knowledgeably about the Middle East when news happens. You have to know your Shiite, as they say, your IRGC from your Kataib Hizbollah. Don’t muddle Khamenei with Khomeini. But more importantly don’t be afraid! The Spectator is here with some handy phrases to get you through any difficult Twitter spat or pub chat. 1) Say ‘Iran’s

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Labour’s leadership race shows the party has truly lost the plot

The Labour party has lost the plot. That is the only explanation for the bizarre, self-destructive antics it has been engaged in since its drubbing in the December election. It has learnt nothing. It is blissfully and stupidly carrying on down the path of Remainerism and/ or Corbynism that lost it the election. Instead of taking a breather and asking why working-class voters rejected it en masse last month, Labour is doubling down on its unpopular nonsense. Pretty much every door-stepping canvasser and opinion pollster said the same thing about Labour’s historically awful showing in working-class ‘red wall’ constituencies: it was down to the party’s betrayal of Brexit or to

Friday

James Dorsey

The US has just chosen asymmetrical war with Iran. But can it win?

The Iranians are masters of asymmetrical warfare, masters at playing the grey areas. After the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, there will be a response. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow: the Iranians will be very calculated. The response could be in Iraq, which runs the risk of being a battlefield in a proxy war. Or it could be against American targets almost anywhere: think back, and we have even seen operations by Iranian backed-groups for example in Bangkok. If this does get out of hand, it’s going to take a lot of work to try and manage this conflict. We could see emotions stirred across Asia, particularly

Robert Peston Robert Peston

How will Boris Johnson respond to Qassem Soleimani’s killing?

President Trump’s decision to assassinate Qassem Soleimani accelerates perhaps the most important post-Brexit decision faced by Boris Johnson: whether to stand with the US or the EU at moments of potentially acute global crisis. What happens next will largely be conditioned by how Iran responds and retaliates. But all Western governments are examining their options. In particular, France’s president Macron will be working hard to forge a coordinated EU and European response, not least because through the G7 over the summer he endeavoured to engineer a dialogue between president Trump and Iran. Those close to Macron say he admires Johnson. But there are members of the government who harbour the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What does Jess Phillips actually believe in?

Jess Phillips is expected to launch her bid for Labour leader this evening, having only said up to this point that she is seriously considering a bid to take over from Jeremy Corbyn. She is both the candidate most identified with the ‘moderate’ side of the party and the most high-profile, but that doesn’t mean she is launching with a particularly well-formulated policy platform. In fact, while Phillips is well-known for her dislike of Corbyn and her altercation with Diane Abbott pretty early on as an MP, it’s not quite as easy to work out what she thinks. Phillips has largely exerted her influence in Parliament in two ways. The

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Give Nigel Farage a peerage

Almost half of Tory supporters think that Nigel Farage deserves a peerage, according to a new poll. And while some 53 per cent of the overall public are said to oppose the elevation of Farage to the Lords, if anyone does deserve to become a peer the Brexit party leader should certainly make the shortlist. Elevation to the Lords is meant to be an exceptional honour for exceptional people. This, of course, isn’t always the case. Over recent decades it has all too often been a reward for reliable placemen who have done a party leader’s bidding with such obsequiousness that not sending them down the corridor to wallow in

Paul Wood

Iraq may now have to choose between America and Iran

To be fair to president Donald Trump, he has not rushed to confront with Iran. Last June, he stopped airstrikes from going ahead – the US military ‘cocked and loaded’ – after a US surveillance drone was shot down and after Iranian actions threatened international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. He did not – to the grave disappointment of the Saudis – order retaliatory strikes when Tehran orchestrated an attack on Saudi oil facilities by the Shia militia in Yemen in September. Publicly, the Iranians denied responsibility but I was in the room with a Middle Eastern contact when he made a video call to a senior official in the Revolutionary Guard.

David Patrikarakos David Patrikarakos

How Iran will strike back after the killing of Qasem Soleimani

In the early hours of the morning, Iraqi State television reported that the leader of Iran’s Qud’s Force, Qasem Soleimani had – along with six other people including Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis – been killed in a US strike near Baghdad airport. Make no mistake: this is the most significant military assassination in the 21st century Middle East. More significant even than the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Bin Laden was the more famous man but was, by the time of his death, a lone figure stuck impotently in a compound in Pakistan. As the orchestrator of 9/11, his death was necessary closure for Washington, but

John R. Bradley

The Soleimani assassination is Donald Trump’s biggest gamble yet

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president on a non-military interventionist platform, sceptics have questioned his commitment to withdrawing troops from the Middle Eastern quagmire and stopping the endless wars he claims to despise. Now he has authorised the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the head of the powerful Iranian Quds Force, we can be in absolutely no doubt on whether he stands: he’s no different to the other US presidents. It’s a massive strategic gamble. Soleimani was the second most powerful figure in Iran, answering only to the Ayatollah himself. For more than a decade he has been the architect of Iran’s regional military strategy. He helped Iraq and Syria

Thursday

Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

Can our prison system ‘cure’ convicted terrorists?

We’ve just celebrated the birth of a refugee who went on to radicalise a group of fishermen and transform the worldview of millions of people. You might not feel comfortable with this depiction of Jesus Christ but it does illustrate the challenges and limitations of language and labelling when dealing with contemporary violent extremism. I was on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning to speak about Healthy Identity Intervention (HII) – a psychosocial approach to changing the mindset of terrorists which was used in prison to treat Usman Khan prior to his murderous rampage on London Bridge. I was asked to comment after the HII programme’s main architect, the forensic

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Cummings offers a glimpse of the incoming Whitehall revolution

Over the parliamentary recess, there’s been much speculation over what the government’s mooted Whitehall revamp will mean in practice. Part of the plans include a shake-up of the current government departments – the Home Office is expected to be divided, with immigration taken out, while there are plans to beef up the business department. However, the more significant changes will likely take longer to bring into force. Plans are being drawn up to rewire government, change the way the civil service works and ultimately transform the public sector. Today Boris Johnson’s senior advisor Dominic Cummings has offered a taste of things to come. In a blog post, Cummings has called