Society

Monday

9 Dec 2019

Labour’s succession battle is well underway

John McDonnell was insisting this morning that Labour was going to win a majority, but just in case, insiders are suggesting that the Shadow Chancellor is planning to take over as interim leader if Jeremy Corbyn resigns after a general election defeat. McDonnell has long championed Rebecca Long-Bailey as a future leader, and there is speculation that he could install her as his shadow chancellor in order to boost her credentials. This explains why those around Corbyn were so keen to try to abolish Tom Watson as deputy leader in September. They tried to force a rule change at the party’s ruling National Executive Committee meeting which would scrap the

Robert Peston

Could this be the defining moment of the election campaign?

An interview earlier today with my colleague Joe Pike captures the contradiction at the heart of Boris Johnson’s campaign. He wants to be seen as campaigning to lead a ‘new’ government, but the Tories have been in power since 2010. So he finds it impossible to take responsibility for four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr, left to lie on coats for hours in a Leeds hospital. As the video shows, he refuses to look at the picture of Jack – which comes across as him saying ‘I don’t want to own this’. This is certainly the political moment of the day and could be the moment of the campaign:

Katy Balls

Labour double down on NHS attack lines in election broadcast

It’s been a hectic election day for the two main parties. Labour managed to move the conversation to their preferred turf – the NHS – following the story of a four-year-old boy forced to sleep on the floor of an overcrowded A&E unit. As Isabel reports, Boris Johnson’s refusal to look at a photo of the boy during an interview has escalated the story further. Health Secretary Matt Hancock was then sent in to calm things down. But that only ignited tensions further after a row ensued over unconfirmed claims a Tory aide was punched leaving a Leeds hospital with Hancock – which were later shown to be false. Labour

Brendan O’Neill

Labour, Question Time and the cult of youth

When’s the Question Time for over-60s, then? Or maybe even over-75s? After all, elderly people face specific social problems: pension issues, care, loneliness. And yet they aren’t getting their very own QT, unlike under-30s, who are. Tonight the BBC is hosting a special youth version of its flagship political show and in the process it is sending out a pretty disturbing message: young people’s views matter more than old people’s. Presented by Emma Barnett and featuring politicians from across the spectrum, tonight’s QT for millennials promises to be an irritating affair. It’s not that I have anything against young people — I was young myself, once. It’s more that self-consciously

Ross Clark

Boris is right: it’s time to scrap the BBC licence fee

Has Boris decided this election is in the bag? I ask because this afternoon he’s made just about the first bold policy announcement of the campaign. After a safety-first manifesto and little other announcements so as not to frighten the horses, he has stuck his neck out and suggested that the TV licence might be on borrowed time. Having said he was under pressure not to make up policy ‘on the hoof’ he went on, well, almost to make a policy on the hoof: ‘You have to ask yourself whether that kind of approach to funding a media organisation still make sense in the long term, given the way other

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson gives himself a hospital pass as he avoids picture of sick child

Is Boris Johnson a robot? I ask this advisedly, given the connotations of that word in the political arena, but the way the Prime Minister responded to questions from a journalist this afternoon does suggest he might be turning into one. He was asked by ITV’s Joe Pike for a response to the photo of a young boy with suspected pneumonia lying on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary, waiting for a bed. It’s a difficult photo for anyone to look at without an emotional response, and Johnson initially refused to see it at all, taking the reporter’s phone out of his hand, and shoving it in his own pocket.

Steerpike

‘You’re destroying confidence’: John McDonnell taken to task by John Caudwell

Labour’s election strategy has been to go on the attack against Britain’s billionaires. Today one of them responded. Phones4U founder John Caudwell quizzed shadow chancellor John McDonnell on Labour’s economic policy today and it’s safe to say he wasn’t impressed. Caudwell warned McDonnell that his party’s plans could lead to an exodus of wealthy taxpayers from Britain. Here’s what he told McDonnell: Caudwell: ‘…Some of the Labour rhetoric I accept. But the central ethos, when I hear phrases like nobody deserves to be a billionaire, it frightens the living daylights out of me. You know John, the thing is, if the Labour rhetoric was ‘We admire billionaires and we’d like

James Forsyth

The three things that would have to happen to block a Tory majority

In 72 hours time, voting will be well underway. We will be talking about turnout being ‘brisk’. Right now, the polls are indicating that a Tory majority is the most likely result. But it is not certain and a combination of three things could still stop it. First, mass Remainer tactical voting. The margins in this election are fine and if Remainers starting backing whoever was most likely to defeat the Tories in their seat, that could put a Tory majority at risk very quickly. There will be lots of calls for tactical voting in the coming days. But it is worth remembering that in 1997, when there was widespread

James Kirkup

Jo Swinson has finally made the BBC do its job on trans rights

Jo Swinson won’t be our next prime minister but her election campaign has achieved one significant thing already: she’s helped the BBC to start doing the job of journalism on trans rights issues. The Lib Dems have taken a conscious decision to go into the election campaign as the party of trans rights and inclusion. They think that embracing the transgender issue plays well with the degree-educated, socially liberal voters in university towns. I can’t judge how well the Lib Dem trans strategy is playing out with those key voters. I can simply assess the public results of that decision, which has been a string of frankly horrible broadcast interviews

Stephen Daisley

Take it from this expert: Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite

‘Racists are racists are racists and Jeremy Corbyn is a racist.’ Yair Lapid is not mincing his words. One of the leaders of Israel’s main centre-left party broke with protocol this morning at a conference in Jerusalem to urge British voters not to elect Jeremy Corbyn. He said the Labour leader was an anti-Semite, but that his anti-Semitism was not the ‘new anti-Semitism’ seen in recent decades as a result of the ‘black and red coalition’ of traditional fascists and leftists. ‘This is old-school, plain anti-Semitism,’ he said. Lapid, a former television presenter, entered politics in 2012 with a new liberal party, Yesh Atid. Earlier this year, it merged into

Bruce Anderson

Why I’m still convinced Boris will win a majority

Everyone seems agreed. Although the numbers may not have moved much, this election is still wide open. So anyone who tries to predict the outcome in the final days risks looking very stupid. Even so, I will take that risk. The campaign has been simultaneously tense and dull. There have been no dramatic errors: no real excitements. From the outset, the polls have not moved much, generally showing a Tory lead of between ten and fourteen per cent. So is that a clue to the likely outcome? The answer is probably ‘yes’, for a number of reasons. First, why should anyone who voted Tory in 2017 desert the party now? After all,

Katy Balls

How the Conservative strategy is faring across the country

It’s the week of the election and Boris Johnson is to spend the final days of the campaign visiting every region in England and Wales – starting off with a tour of Leave-voting Labour marginals. The polls vary in the size of the Tory lead – starting from a 6pt lead and going up to a 14pt lead. Anything below seven points suggests that a majority is not guaranteed and the Tories could find themselves in hung parliament territory. The Conservative result rests on how successful their electoral strategy is in different parts of the country. As ConHome’s Paul Goodman recently said on the Spectator’s Edition podcast, it’s like a

John Connolly

14 ‘Portillo moments’ to look out for on election night

At around 3am on election night in 1997, the Conservative leading-light Michael Portillo suffered at shock defeat when he was ousted from his seat in Enfield Southgate by Stephen Twigg. Ever since, the surprising departure of a high-profile politician on election night – and their disbelieving face as the result is declared – has been dubbed a ‘Portillo moment’. The unpredictable nature of this election, and the potential upending of traditional voter loyalties means there are unusually large number of potential ‘Portillo moments’ to watch out for this week, as Cabinet Ministers, Corbyn allies, and even party leaders are vulnerable to being spectacularly dethroned. Below are the high-flying candidates who could be booted from

Sunday

8 Dec 2019

John Keiger

France’s doomed socialist project should make Corbyn voters think twice

What will happen if Jeremy Corbyn wins? Will it be a nightmare on Downing Street, as Liam Halligan suggests in this week’s Spectator? Or might Corbyn not be as bad as his critics fear? Helpfully, France provides a useful parallel of what prime minister Jeremy Corbyn might mean for Britain. And it doesn’t make happy reading for the Labour leader. It’s Spring 1981 and France, the fifth largest economy in the world, elects the most left-wing administration since before the Second World War following eight years of conservative rule. The government immediately begins implementing its radical manifesto: nationalisation of 11 industrial conglomerates and most private banks, higher tax-rates at the upper

Isabel Hardman

Tories benefit from no-show at chaotic TV debate as election enters final days

Believe it or not, there was yet another televised election debate tonight, this time on Channel 4, called the ‘Everything But Brexit’ debate. The Tories had refused to take part, and while their decision will have been partly down to their ongoing battle with the broadcaster, which they have accused of being biased, they will also have viewed tonight’s programme as an opportunity for them to make their central election pitch without even turning up. This debate worked in the Conservatives’ favour because it was chaotic, with the representatives of the five parties who did turn up constantly talking and even shouting over each other and the presenter Cathy Newman.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: what’s the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done Boris?

Boris Johnson – I deliver where it matters The Prime Minister showed his face once again this morning, appearing in a pre-recorded interview with Sophy Ridge. With voters heading to the polls this Thursday, Ridge began by asking Johnson whether people could trust him, a theme that has featured throughout the campaign: BJ: If you look at what I do as a politician – what I say I’m going to do, and I do – I have a record I think, of delivering for people where it really matters. Whether that’s running London, where I was able to cut crime very substantially, or deliver more affordable homes than people thought

Steven Fielding

Could Keir Starmer succeed as the next leader of the Labour party?

During his last days as manager of Manchester United it was widely thought that whoever came after Sir Alex Ferguson would have an impossible job. The same might be said of Jeremy Corbyn’s successor as Labour leader. For while Sir Alex won every trophy in club football and Corbyn has won nothing at all there is a paradoxical similarity. Because in losing, Corbyn has made many Labour members feel as happy as Manchester United fans did about winning the treble. Corbyn was elected leader in 2015 promising to speak for members rather than talk down to them about the hard choices that needed to be made if the party wanted

Charles Moore

Never mind Big Pharma and Big Oil – watch out for Big Uni

Climate alarmists and Corbynistas (the former increasingly a front organisation for the latter) often put the word ‘Big’ in front of industries which they dislike — Big Pharma, Big Oil. Those of us who do not share their views should copyright a comparable concept — Big Uni. Universities now compose an absolutely vast interest group, determined to increase their fee-paying student numbers almost regardless of qualifications or their own capacity to look after them properly. They are constantly on to the government for money. The salaries of vice-chancellors are huge and the wages of lumpen-academics are low. These impoverished workers feel little responsibility for their students and so go on

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: Shakespeare on eyebrows

This time round you were asked to submit Shakespeare’s newly discovered ‘Woeful ballad to his mistress’ eyebrows’, as referred to by Jaques in As You Like It (‘…And then the lover,/ Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad/ Made to his mistress’ eyebrow…’). For the purposes of this challenge, a ballad could be any sort of poem (most of you wrote sonnets) and anachronisms were allowed. The prizewinners, in another fiercely contested week, take £20. Basil Ransome-Davies What blessing crowns thy outward loveliness? A coiffed, enrapturing head of sable hair That blazes rank above the common press. Yet there is hair invisible elsewhere. Those secret, curling wisps that underlie Thy

Stephen Daisley

The 15 Scottish seats that could decide the general election

For at least a generation — something we define loosely up here — Scottish hacks have been trying to interest London newsdesks in Scotland’s role in general elections. Then, in 2015, we had the good fortune of Scotland deciding to up and turn into a one-party state overnight. Then, in 2017, we revised our arrangements to a one-and-a-bit-party state when Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives liberated 12 seats from Nationalist control. Scotland may end up being the main story of this election too, if, as Eeyore types like me have been warning, the Tories do not romp home on December 12. In those circumstances, the Tories’ performance in Scotland could be the