All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
If politics were a science, the Bavarian-based Christian Social Union would be the automatic and overwhelming victor in every regional election. Bavaria is doing quite well: it’s the richest region of the richest country in Europe with the lowest unemployment (2.8 per cent) and crime rates. Bavaria, in fact, is so wealthy that it serves
In the Prime Minister’s statement to the House, Theresa May did her best to insist that despite an impasse in the Brexit negotiations it was business as normal. However, for all May’s claims that the differences between the UK and the EU were solvable, the hostile questions that followed from MPs showed just how hard
With the government on the brink of a full blown crisis, there was speculation that Theresa May would use today’s Brexit statement to the House to turn her ire on Brussels. In the end it wasn’t to be and the Prime Minister adopted a conciliatory tone – praising both sides – as she did her
Today, Theresa May stood before the Commons to update MPs on the state of the Brexit process. At this critical juncture in the negotiations and in her career, the Prime Minister tried to convey a solemn and statesmanlike appearance as she spoke about her dealings with the European Union. Unfortunately for her, the statesmanlike approach
How could the sort of bullying and sexual harassment detailed in Dame Laura Cox’s report on the treatment of House of Commons staff really have gone on for so long? There were policies in place for dealing with complaints, and on paper everything looked as though it was working well to prevent the rise of
John Bercow’s job is being saved by Brexit. Not just because the Brexit drama means that Dame Laura Cox QC’s damning report into the bullying and harassment of parliamentary staff is receiving less attention than it otherwise would, but also because many MPs are prepared to forgive Bercow’s failings because they think he is the
Now that fracking has resumed in Lancashire after a seven year hiatus, the green lobby which sought to frustrate it and delay it at every turn can reflect on what they have achieved: keeping the UK’s carbon emissions rather higher than they would have been, had our native fracking industry been allowed to develop more
With only weeks to go until a Brexit deal is put to parliament, the Conservative party is showing no signs of coming together over Theresa May’s Brexit plan. In fact, if tensions online are anything to go by, the party’s internal war between Remainers and Brexiteers may even be getting worse. The latest spat occurred
Will Theresa May’s government find a way out of the Brexit maze? As the Prime Minister’s backstop plans are deemed a dead end by her colleagues, it looks as though Downing Street are fast running out of options. But could inspiration be found in Jeremy Hunt? The Foreign Secretary took to social media to boast
What are MPs thinking? It’s easy to assume, in the age of Twitter, that we know more about the positions our politicians take than ever before: quite a few of them, after all, spend rather too much time online telling us what they think about stuff. That has changed political journalism, but not always to
James Kirkup’s article (‘The march of trans rights’) discussed many of the complexities created by the issue, and rightly so. It also briefly mentioned the ‘bathroom battles’ in the United States. Such episodes illustrate the practical problems with legislating against such societal developments — new laws often do not solve but escalate the issue. In
The Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab travelled to Brussels this afternoon, but not to shake on a deal. Rather, he was there to tell Michel Barnier that there are bits of the Irish protocol that the UK cannot accept. If the two sides can’t come to an agreement on this, then there will be ‘no deal’—an
No one has their finger on the pulse in the House of Commons like the government’s chief whip. To make sure every bill gets through parliament unscathed, the whip has to understand exactly how every MP in the party plans to vote, what they’re thinking about the government – and work out how they can
Iain Duncan Smith – The PM should put £2-3 billion of extra funding back into Universal Credit Sophy Ridge was joined this morning by the former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith. Duncan Smith resigned from the coalition government two years ago in protest at a lack of funding for his Universal Credit reforms.
If last week was ‘hell week’ for Theresa May, the next few days could be classed as the Prime Minister’s trip to the ninth circle. With problems over the Irish border backstop unsolved, No 10 are fighting fire on multiple fronts ahead of a crucial EU Council meeting on Wednesday. The papers are filled with
The idea for the latest challenge, to provide a spoof version of the song ‘My Favourite Things’ for the constituency/demographic of your choice, was prompted by my discovery of a reimagining of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic recast as it might have been sung by an elderly Julie Andrews (‘Maalox and nose drops and needles
The indignation over the disappearance of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has taken an interesting turn now that Donald Trump has promised to inflict ‘severe punishment’ on the Saudi government should it turn out that he was in fact tortured and killed in the Saudi embassy in Ankara – though not obviously to the point
Sunday night was when the deal on the Irish backstop was meant to be done. But, as I say in The Sun this morning, this now seems unlikely to happen. The UK and the EU are just too far apart on too many issues. There are two big issues at play. One, whether there should
‘Final call to halt “climate catastrophe”’, said the BBC’s website, covering the ‘special report’ of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change after its meeting in South Korea. It won’t be the final call, though. Every IPCC conference is the ‘last chance to save the planet’, according to its promoters. What is more interesting is the
Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who is under intense pressure to explain what he knew about his disgraced predecessor, the sex abuser and ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Wuerl had asked to resign. He knew his position was untenable: not only is there widespread scepticism about his claim
From 30 March next year, of course, we will no longer be subject to all those silly EU laws on bent bananas (which was genuine, not a myth), toasters, balloons and all the rest. Instead we will be able to concentrate on passing our own good old British silly laws. Even the European Commission never
There are many clever people – pollsters, commentators, strategists – who say that Jeremy Corbyn’s past does not matter, that the voters do not care about it, and that his critics ought to move on. Recounting every Islamist he shared a platform with, every anti-Semite he rallied beside, every Irish republican he cosied up to
In this week’s books podcast I’m talking — this time in front of a live audience at Daunt Books — to Andrew Roberts about his new biography of Winston Churchill. Could even as deft a historian as Andrew find anything new to say about this most written-about of politicians? He says yes. We discuss whether
The row over Universal Credit is a reminder that reforming welfare is the toughest job in politics. The question, right now, is whether it’s too tough – and whether the government, distracted by Brexit and unable to defend its own successes, might give up on – or ‘pause’ – its flagship welfare reform. The UK
Today marks the marriage of Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank. Although the BBC didn’t jump at the chance to air the royal nuptials, ITV happily took up the offer. The broadcaster was rewarded with a star celebrity turnout – from Kate Moss to Robbie Williams. However, the part that caught Mr S’s attention relates to
In the final volume of his collected letters, Patrick Leigh Fermor recalls watching the wedding of Princess Anne in 1973 in Diana Cooper’s bedroom because she had a colour telly. “She was in an enormous bed, so we all lay on it side by side drinking champagne, watching the procession and the service. It was
Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance has shocked the world. The Saudi journalist was caught on camera entering the country’s consulate in Istanbul, but he never left. The world is outraged; why was he killed and what happens next? In this week’s Spectator, John Bradley says that Khashoggi’s crime was to fall foul of the Saudi ruling family. What does
Labour desperately needs to win over Jewish voters if Jeremy Corbyn is to make it to Downing Street. At the snap election, the party was damaged by underperformance in seats with large Jewish populations: Hendon (held by the Tories by a only 1,072 votes) and Finchley (Tory majority 1,657) are two examples. Labour’s summer of anti-Semitism has
Karen White is a rapist and child abuser who has committed several acts of sexual violence against vulnerable people. One of the women Karen White raped was pregnant. Karen White is now going to spend a long time in jail. Next week, a Government consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004 will end. That’s the
On 31st August, in a move celebrated by Benjamin Netanyahu as a ‘blessed change’, the Trump administration announced it would cut all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). It was a decision with far-reaching and catastrophic implications: the US has long been the largest individual donor to the UNRWA, which serves
Oh dear. This year’s Labour conference was notable for the fact that the big dispute was not between the moderates and the Corbynistas but instead the trade unions and Momentum. With the majority of Labour moderates now resigned to defeat on the direction of the party, it’s fallen to the various Corbynista hard left factions
Maybe I was wrong (words I probably don’t say enough). I thought the DUP would be fairly pragmatic about the terms of the ‘backstop’ designed to keep open the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland till a permanent solution was found (stop smirking). So when I learned that the draft backstop deal
With Theresa May’s Brexit proposals looking increasingly difficult to get through Parliament, the so-called ‘People’s Vote’ campaign has stepped up its efforts to bring about a second referendum… sorry, ‘vote on the final deal’. The campaign group runs on the idea that the facts have changed so it’s only fair that there’s another vote. In
Things are escalating fast in the row between the government and the DUP. Yesterday’s threat to vote against the Budget was followed by them abstaining on the agriculture bill. The message is clear: if we don’t like what you sign up to on the backstop, we’ll make it impossible for you to govern. So, what