All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
As the current crisis unfolded in Ukraine, some of Westminster’s finest sought sanctuary in its watering holes. Among those enjoying libations on Tuesday night was Tory MP Stuart Andrew, recently reshuffled out of the much-maligned Whips’ Office to become the eleventh housing minister in ten years. Andrew popped into the popular Red Lion establishment next
Did Boris Johnson fail to put his money where his mouth is when it came to hitting Russia with sanctions? The Prime Minister’s critics think so: they argue that the targeting of five Russian banks and three oligarchs as a response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was too little, too late. These cries came not only from Labour,
The world’s eyes are, naturally, all on Ukraine. But elsewhere in Europe, diplomats are locked in a series of talks to prevent an altogether different war in another region. In a hotel in Vienna, negotiators from Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China have been meeting their Iranian counterparts. In an adjacent hotel, negotiators from the
Remember Alex Salmond? The former SNP leader is back. Since 2017 his little-known programme, The Alex Salmond Show, has aired weekly on RT which receives its funding from the Kremlin. Today at PMQs the party leaders combined to plug Salmond’s programme and to boost his ratings. It wasn’t a debate. It was a 30-minute Salmond
Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer had one thing in common at PMQs: they were both keen to talk about the escalating situation in Ukraine. While the Prime Minister wants to use the crisis to show there are more important issues than parties, the Labour leader views it as an opportunity to put some clear blue
When is money so soiled that merely accepting it makes you tainted? It has been reported today that the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) and Scottish Ballet are ending their sponsorship deals with the oil and gas company BP following years of protests. Climate activists argue that these sponsorships launder the reputations of those responsible for
If Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey was expecting to bat away some gentle questions on monetary policy before the Commons this morning, he hadn’t reckoned on Labour MP Angela Eagle. She was quietly frothing with rage at Bailey’s recent suggestion that workers need to exercise restraint when asking for a pay rise in order
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For the last few weeks, the UK has condemned Putin and promised a strong response in the face of more Russian aggression. But when Boris Johnson announced his sanctions, for many, including those within his own party, they felt a little small. Particularly when compared to Germany cancelling the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Isabel Hardman
The true cost of Covid cannot be quantified only in death rates or GDP figures. Though it could have been far worse, the pandemic nonetheless inflicted a deeper wound on our society than any productivity calculus can measure. But as legal domestic restrictions end, and the economic fallout from months of stringent controls is increasingly
Boris Johnson came under sustained pressure at PMQs today to introduce tougher sanctions against Russia. Both Sir Keir Starmer and Ian Blackford pressed the Prime Minister on the matter, with the Labour leader opening his questions by arguing that given a sovereign country had been invaded, ‘if not now, when’ would the government unleash a
Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, has written to Ofcom urging it to keep the situation with Russia Today ‘very carefully under review’ given events in Ukraine. At PMQs, Keir Starmer called for the government to ask Ofcom to review RT’s license. But if RT lost its broadcast license in the UK, then Putin would use
It seems that the world’s most pompous newspaper has got it wrong again. This column has regularly reported on the caricature of Britain which exists in the fevered imagination of the New York Times and its correspondents. According to them, the UK is a plague-riddled, rain-drenched fascistic hell-hole on the verge of democratic collapse where the trains
While the world is focused on Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron has withdrawn all French forces from Mali. Last weekend, thousands of soldiers were flown out of the former French colony after nine years of fighting Islamist insurgents in the Sahel. Malian protesters bid the French soldiers farewell by shouting ‘Shit to France’ at the departing planes.
If you are worried about the uncertain fate of democracy in today’s world, what should you do? Become a human rights advocate, maybe, or a campaigning journalist. Or maybe you should consider becoming a Protestant missionary. In today’s Times, Danny Finkelstein draws our attention to the democracy index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit. It
Jeremy Corbyn’s question in the House of Commons this week filled me with the relief of catastrophe averted. Addressing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, the former Labour leader and Morning Star columnist said: ‘Would he be prepared to countenance, if the Russians pulled back, any reduction in the Nato presence on the border as well in
‘I know Vladimir Putin very well,’ said Donald Trump yesterday, speaking of the Ukraine crisis, ‘he would have never done during the Trump administration what he is doing now.’ As with a lot of Trump utterances, that statement is at once arrogant, preposterous — and probably true. Maybe it is a coincidence — or Trump’s
Has the New York Times found a new bête noire? It was for a number of years Britain, damned for having had the temerity to leave the European Union. As Steerpike noted, the Sceptered Isle became a ‘plague-riddled, rain-drenched fascistic hell-hole’. But now it is the turn of France to receive a finger-wagging from the
‘The EU is united and acting fast,’ said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, as she condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A new package of sanctions, swiftly agreed upon by EU member states, appeared to show von der Leyen was right. Yet in reality, the measures were disappointing: a number of Russian officials had
As the Soviet Union fell to pieces around our ears, we in the Moscow embassy used to discuss the Weimar precedent. A great nation, humiliated by a lost war and economic misery, tries but fails to set up a democracy. It then falls victim to a dictator who promises to restore his country’s greatness and
Like many rulers of Russia before him, especially Stalin, Vladimir Putin is a keen student of History. Judging by his current actions, it seems as though he has been particularly brushing up on the story of 1938, when another dictator, one Adolf Hitler, deliberately provoked the destruction of an independent European state – Czechoslovakia –
Budapest Russian troops, many apparently without insignia, began advancing into the disputed Donbas region yesterday. The question now is how much further they will go. The Donbas rebels claim an area three times the size of the territory they currently hold, which is roughly equivalent to the area of Devon. If Moscow were to try
‘He has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.’ So once said Robert Gates, the former US defence secretary, of the now president Joe Biden. We don’t yet know if Biden is wrong about the current Ukraine crisis. We may be about to find out.
Whatever the West’s response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty, the crisis demonstrates the limitations of western politics and policy across the board. If Vladimir Putin understands any demographic better than the Russian people, it is the governing class of the West: that Harvard-Oxbridge-Sciences Po axis of toweringly smug and practically interchangeable global-liberals who weep
The star of the Beijing Winter Olympics wasn’t an athlete: it was Bing Dwen Dwen, the spacesuit-clad panda mascot. It was deployed to cover the harsher political edges of the games, and was romping around on the ice at the closing gala. Bing Dwen Dwen is only the latest example of China’s use of ‘panda
It’s been a month since Christian Wakeford defected to Labour but the former Tory publicly insists he is loving life in opposition. Despite appearing as happy as a hostage victim when he ‘crossed the floor,’ the Bury South MP claims the ‘quite nasty personal’ attacks on him from former colleague vindicate his decision to leave. With
President Emmanuel Macron may or may not have imagined that his mission to Moscow would head off armed conflict in Ukraine. He will nevertheless have calculated that while his mission was an abject diplomatic failure, it was a modest political success. The French pro-Macron media (most of it) bigged up the visit as a triumph
Impact-Site-Verification: de2f122d-4b66-49e8-911d-d4d5628b0063 Today’s snap decision by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to halt Nord Stream 2 — the new pipeline intended to export vast amounts of Russian gas into the EU — will make precisely no difference to European energy security, at least in the short to medium term. It could force a rethink of Berlin’s
Boris Johnson has just got up in the Commons to announce Britain’s response to the ongoing Ukraine crisis. Vladimir Putin last night ordered troops into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine run by Moscow-backed separatists, prompting fears that the balloon is about to go up. There are a lot of grim faces in Parliament today as
The sanctions that Boris Johnson has just announced in response to Russia’s breach of international law are fairly underwhelming. Five banks are being hit, three rich individuals and those members of the Duma who voted to unilaterally recognise the breakaway republics. They will not make Moscow take notice in the way that the decision end
The BBC seem to be having some difficulties filling their top job. Laura Kuenssberg is off as the corporation’s political editor after nearly seven years in the post, prompting a bun fight for the most high-profile job in British broadcasting. Yet it seems many of the would-be candidates have other ideas. First Mr S revealed that
So, Nord Stream 2 will not be plugged into Germany’s gas grid. A little surprisingly, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been first out of the blocks this morning in the western economic response to Putin’s recognition of breakaway states in eastern Ukraine. The block is not total: what Scholz says is that the certification process for
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Last night Vladimir Putin gave an hour-long television address to the Russian people over his decision to move troops into Ukraine. Amid international condemnation, Boris Johnson held a Cobra meeting this morning to discuss the UK’s next moves. Meanwhile, Germany has put the brakes on Nord Stream 2. ‘The ball is now back in Vladimir
Vladimir Putin’s threats towards Ukraine have, in part, been an operation in stoking divisions throughout the West. As James Forsyth explains in the magazine’s latest cover piece, it was just weeks ago that Germany was not on the same page as the US and the UK about what actions from Putin might classify as an
Few people in Westminster have a good word to say about the Theresa May years. But for those who served at the heart of the former PM’s doomed administration, life now seems to be pretty sweet. Take Sir Robbie Gibb, May’s director of communications, who now runs his own firm, RPG Consultancy. The company published its accounts