Uk politics

Saturday

Charles Moore

No, David Miliband isn’t the Messiah

Rachel Sylvester of the Times is a brilliant journalist. I am proud to have given her her first Lobby job. But I cannot help smiling at her columns as she searches desperately for signs that a party which she thinks virtuous — centre-left, pro-European, with ‘open’ values — could rise from the dead (this, literally, is her metaphor in Easter week). Rachel’s current candidate for Messiah is David Miliband, who lives in New York. She quotes ‘one friend’ of his as saying, ‘David is still attracted to Britain.’ That is big-hearted of him, but the bigger question is, ‘Is Britain still attracted to David?’ One must recognise how deeply Blairism lies in

Friday

Steerpike

Corbynista MP: Tories using Salisbury poisoning as ‘smokescreen’

Here we go again. Although John McDonnell advised his Labour comrades to boycott Russia Today following the Salisbury poisoning, not everyone is willing to take heed of his advice. On Thursday, Chris Williamson – a key Corbyn ally – took to the airwaves of the Kremlin-funded broadcaster to cast doubt on the government’s handling of the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent. With Moscow claiming it has nothing to with them, the Labour MP said that it was diplomatic row with Russia was ‘very convenient for the Government’ and had been used ‘not so much as a smoking gun but as a smoke screen’ to divert attention from Brexit

Thursday

Steerpike

Watch: David Lammy’s interview fail

David Lammy has just popped up on BBC News to complain about the lack of police on Britain’s streets. Unfortunately for the Labour MP, as he was doing so Mr S couldn’t help but notice who was standing behind him: a police officer. Lammy told the BBC: ‘We haven’t seen a police while I’ve been here and I’ve been here for a little while.’ Maybe Lammy should look a little closer next time…

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Should the government share full intelligence with Corbyn?

Ben Wallace has caused a stir today with an interview on the Today programme. The security minister confirmed that the government had not shared full intelligence on the Skripal poisoning with Jeremy Corbyn – insisting that the ‘circle’ of those with access to the highly sensitive information should be restricted to only a small number: ‘This is serious stuff and the circle of who gets to see very sensitive information is very small, because if you leak it or it gets out, people’s lives are put at risk. The best example is Mr Skripal; that’s what happens to people if other countries to decide to take actions or they have

Steerpike Steerpike

Ruth Davidson’s advice for London Tories

In this week’s issue of The Spectator, Will Heaven reports that the beleaguered Tories in London mooted formally breaking away from the national party and become a separate entity with their own brand and leader, like the Scottish Tories under Ruth Davidson, in a bid to avoid electoral catastrophe in the upcoming local elections. Although the majority agreed it would create clear water between them and a ‘very provincial’ Theresa May, central command disagreed and vetoed the idea. Still keen for some help, the Conservative party then asked Ms Davidson if her team — after their outstanding performance at the general election — would consider heading south to mastermind the London

William Cook

What Brexit Britain can learn from German Reunification

Obscured by the hubbub of rolling news and the cacophony of Twitter, an important anniversary has passed by virtually unnoticed. The Berlin Wall has now been down for longer than it was up. Berlin’s ‘Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier’ (as the Communists used to call it) stood for 28 years and three months, from August 1961 to November 1989. It’s now been down for 28 years and four months. Its fall reunited the two Germanies, and changed the course of history. So, 28 years on, what can Brits learn from German Reunification? What lessons does the Wiedervereinigung hold for us today? I filed my first report from Berlin in the first year

Wednesday

Bob Seely MP

Karl Marx’s sinister legacy of anti-Semitism

When I lived in the Soviet Union in my early twenties, I developed a personal hostility to socialism. I saw the misery it had visited on that society – the political, spiritual and economic harm. I understood at first-hand how the secret police corrupted personal and public life, how state propaganda denied freedom of thought and how the regime hid the slaughter and imprisonment of millions of its own people. I came to the conclusion that whichever totalitarian power had survived World War II – Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union – they would probably have looked much the same by the time of their demise. I never understood why Westerners did not

Roger Scully

Ruth Davidson’s success could come at a price for the union

As in 2017, the Prime Minister decided to spend some of her Easter break enjoying a walking holiday with her husband in Wales. It is very unlikely that this year’s mini-holiday will be followed by a similar decision as was last year’s: to hold an early general election. The failure of the Conservative campaign in that election, and the consequent shock loss of the party’s parliamentary majority, have dogged Theresa May’s government and party ever since. Of course there is one part of the UK where the 2017 Tory election campaign was not a failure. In both England and Wales the Conservatives suffered a net loss of seats, rather than

Douglas Murray

The Guardian letter defending Jeremy Corbyn is a sham

Yesterday I wrote about a letter that was in the Guardian on Monday defending Jeremy Corbyn from accusations of anti-Semitism. In particular I noted that the signatories of that letter, who the Guardian described as being ‘forty senior academics’, were nothing of the sort. By way of example I gave readers one William Proctor from the University of Bournemouth, whose field of expertise turned out to be One Direction and Star Wars. Sadly he is not alone. Further research reveals that the rest of the list of fourth-rate figures named as ‘senior academics’ by the Guardian includes: A saxophonist A zombie expert An expert in videogames Someone whose listed university

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

There is no crack in Theresa May’s case against Russia

Theresa May has never published her case blaming Russia for the Salisbury poisoning. She has reason to be wary of Blair-style intelligence dossiers, and she didn’t need to make everything public to win the support of allies. But as things stand, her case against Russia is open to misinterpretation by the Kremlin. As we have seen with this morning’s headlines. Yesterday, Sky News interviewed Gary Aitkenhead, chief executive of Porton Down, who said: “We were able to identify it as Novichok, to identify it was a military-grade nerve agent. We have not verified the precise source, but we have provided the scientific information to the government, who have then used

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Gender pay gap hysteria could make things worse for women

Next time I hear a government minister on radio or television bemoaning Britain’s poor record on productivity I request that the interviewer puts to them a simple question: can you tell us how many man-hours have been spent by large British firms in fulfilling their legal duty to provide data on their gender pay gap – something which they must do by midnight tonight? Whatever happened to that grand talk about taking advantage of Brexit in order to deregulate, to attract investment by giving businesses the freedom to run their own affairs and by getting the government off their backs? In January last year Philip Hammond made a speech in

Tuesday

Katy Balls

No 10’s Novichok damage control

Theresa May’s widely-praised handling of the Salisbury poisoning hit a bump in the road this afternoon with the news that British scientists at Porton Down have not been able to establish that the Novichok nerve agent used to poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal was made in Russia. In a clumsy interview, Gary Aitkenhead, the chief executive of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at the facility in Wiltshire, said although the nerve agent was identified as Novichok, scientists had not been able to prove it was created in Russia. The government were quick to go into damage control mode – making clear that this was ‘only one part of the

Douglas Murray

The truth about the ‘senior academics’ defending Corbyn

The Guardian has published a letter headlined ‘Stop Jeremy Corbyn’s trial by media over antisemitism.’  The paper explains: ‘More than forty senior academics write to condemn what they see as an anti-Corbyn bias in media coverage of the antisemitism debate.’  Mark. Not just forty academics, but forty senior academics. Why this quantity of Regius professors should be writing to the Grauniad about Jeremy Corbyn’s treatment in the media I have no idea. But I read on, and wade my way through the sixth-form politics letter to see who has signed. Scanning the list I cannot recognise one name. Well, I think, perhaps they are not in fields I am acquainted

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Gender pay gap row – Stella Creasy vs Kate Andrews

Oh dear. On Bank Holiday Monday, Stella Creasy took to the airwaves to promote the #PayMeToo campaign launched to close the gender pay gap. The campaign claims to give working women advice on how to tackle the gender pay where they work. Alas, the Labour MP appeared to be taken by surprise to find the Institute of Economic Affair’s Kate Andrew not only take issue with the campaign – and its close name association to the #MeToo campaign on sexual harassment – but also with Creasy’s use of data. Mr S will leave readers to decide who won this tussle…

Steerpike Steerpike

David Miliband to the rescue

There are some things in life that are inevitable: the sun rising in the east, the bus always being late and Labour centrists suggesting David Miliband is the saviour of British politics. Today Rachel Sylvester has delivered on the latter. Writing in the Times, Sylvester suggests that the answer to the lack of centre in British politics at the moment is… the Miliband rejected in the 2010 leadership contest. The former Labour MP – who is now stationed in New York – would supposedly be just right to lead a ‘socially and economically liberal’ party: ‘Imagine if David Miliband announced that he was returning to Britain to set up a new

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The left’s anti-Semitism blindspot

None of this is normal. It’s important that we cling to that. It’s not normal that British Jews are forced to protest for their fair treatment and safety. It’s not normal that four-fifths of the Labour Party think such protests are a political tactic or a Zionist plot. It’s not normal that the man who would be Britain’s next Prime Minister has to delete his Facebook account because he cannot be sure how many hate groups he is a member of.  Anti-Semitism is a historical constant but it is not normal. We decide our norms and if we are still a just and civilised people we ought to regard it

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Jeremy Corbyn and the far left’s anti-Semitism doublespeak

The supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are meant to comprise the most cultish movement British politics has seen. Yet on the issue of left anti-Semitism they do not blindly follow their leader. For once in their lives, they give every impression of thinking for themselves. Corbyn has come as close as he can to admitting a mistake – which by most people’s standards is not close at all. Like Stalin airbrushing his own history, he has deleted his Facebook account. He did not explain how he found himself a member of Facebook groups that featured Holocaust denial, or defending  medieval fanatics who believe Jews drink the blood of Christian children, or

Steerpike Steerpike

Shadow minister: I’m not endorsing Corbyn’s leadership

Oh dear. The Labour party is once again divided thanks to the unfolding row over allegations of anti-Semitism. Although Jeremy Corbyn has insisted there is no place in the party for anti-Semitic views, the Labour leader has antagonised many of his MPs further with his decision to attend a Jewdas – ‘radical Jewish diaspora group’ – event on Sunday evening. Now it seems even his own front-bench are having doubts about their leader. In an interview with Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk Radio, Stephen Pound – the shadow minister for Northern Ireland – said he doesn’t endorse Corbyn’s leadership on a ‘personal basis’: JHB: By serving on his [Corbyn’s] frontbench you are endorsing

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Jacob Rees-Mogg, radical feminist?

OK the headline isn’t serious, but it got your attention. It also highlights a serious point about the politics of transgender rights which might have been missed over the Easter weekend. The Mail on Sunday this week carried an interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg. The paper didn’t make much of it, but it contained quite an important line: He is uneasy about some aspects of the transgender rights debate. ‘If you have people who have no intention of changing sex but think it would be fun to go into the women’s changing room, we cannot ignore that.’ In other words, JRM is worried about self-identification, which the Government is – nominally –

Monday

Katy Balls

Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of Labour’s anti-Semitism row goes from bad to worse

After a weekend of horrid headlines for Labour over anti-Semitism, Jeremy Corbyn is keen to be seen to be talking tough on the issue. The Labour leader has told Channel 4 news that his party will not be ‘tolerating anti-Semitism in any form’ and Momentum – the pro-Corbyn grassroots group – has acknowledged that ‘accusations of anti-Semitism should not and cannot be dismissed simply as right-wing smears’. Only, despite this, Corbyn appears to have gone one step forward and two steps back. Guido reports that the Labour leader tonight attended a Seder in Islington held by ‘Jewdas’. Jewdas are a ‘radical Jewish diaspora group’ who sit on the fringes of the Jewish community.