Uk politics

Thursday

Katy Balls

Barnier: it may take months to get to phase two of Brexit talks

Theresa May’s Florence speech last week certainly prompted a warming of words from Brussels – but so far it has triggered little action. At today’s press conference between Michel Barnier and David Davis to mark the completion of the fourth round of Brexit talks, the EU’s chief negotiator said not enough progress had been made to move to talking about a UK/EU trade deal in the next round of talks: ‘I think it’s positive that Theresa May’s speech made it possible to unblock the situation, to some extent, and give a new dynamic to the situation. But we are far from being at a stage – it will take weeks,

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Scottish Labour’s leadership contest is turning ugly

The people’s flag is even deeper red in Scottish Labour, where the daggers are plunging in all directions amid a bloody leadership battle.  Interim leader Alex Rowley has been secretly recorded admitting he backs left-wing candidate Richard Leonard, despite promising to remain neutral in the contest. It comes barely a week after Rowley’s turn as Fife’s answer to Mark Antony at First Minister’s Questions, where a jeremiad against millionaires was widely interpreted as a veiled denunciation of Anas Sarwar, the centrist candidate and a chap with a bob or two million to spare.  The Rowley tape also contains a reference to ‘private discussions’ on the future of Kezia Dugdale, who has since departed as

Wednesday

Nick Cohen

‘Fake news’: the far left’s favourite new excuse

Admirers of violence and lies must go carefully. As true cowards they must leave themselves an escape hatch in case they are forced to retreat. They never quite commit to the suppression of rights, the rigged elections, the secret policemen and the torture chambers. Instead they tell us we are not hearing the full story, and switch the argument. The real problem is not the oppressive state and its suffering citizens, they say. The problem is the fake media. Not media faked by government propagandists and controlled by censors, not countries where every TV station and mass circulation newspaper must follow the party line, but the free media in their

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Brexit has opened the door to Corbynism

Like football, politics is a game of space and movement. Whoever controls the space has room to move. As matters stand, the Conservative party has ceded control to Labour. The Tories, consumed by Brexit, have opened the door to the very thing they fear most: a ‘socialism for the 21st century’, as Jeremy Corbyn put it in his conference speech this afternoon. The laws of unintended consequence are sardonic statutes, right enough. Who knows, if, at some point, Corbyn forms a government and if he then implements the agenda he hinted at today (an agenda better hinted at than stated openly, it is true) then perhaps, just perhaps, some Tories

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn is no longer a joke

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to Labour conference started strongly before flagging in an overly long middle section. But I suspect this won’t matter much. Those in the hall could have listened to Corbyn for hours and the speech will, I suspect, clip down neatly for the news. The speech was a reminder of why the words Jeremy Corbyn, Prime Minister are no longer funny to Tories. At the start of the speech, Corbyn had a grand old time mocking the Tories for their divisions over Brexit, their billion-pound deal with the DUP and the failures of the election campaign. Corbyn’s jokes might not have been great, but they were effective. There

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Labour party has now embraced Corbynism – will the public?

When Jeremy Corbyn gave his speech on Wednesday, the conference hall bore a closer resemblance to a stadium concert than your bog-standard political meeting. The Labour leader was given a hero’s welcome from party members decked out in Corbyn fan merchandise. He received a standing ovation before he’d even emitted a word, and an impromptu chant of ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn’ soon followed. Corbyn’s position has never been more secure and this year’s conference has  only gone to cement the new normal for Labour – it is a loud and proud socialist party. Buoyed by the snap election, MPs and members alike have embraced Corbyn’s anti-austerity narrative – no-one is having

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Corbyn cannot just condemn the abuse of those he is friends with

Jeremy Corbyn was generous to the Shadow Cabinet in his conference speech, especially to Diane Abbott, who had a terrible election campaign personally, suffering from problems with her diabetes and horrendous racist and misogynist abuse. The Labour leader led a standing ovation to the Shadow Home Secretary, followed by a rendition of ‘happy birthday’. He told the hall that ‘the campaign by the Tories and their loyal media was nasty and personal. It fuelled abuse online and no one was the target of that more than Diane Abbott.’ Let’s just recall the abuse of Diane Abbott during the election campaign. She said she had been called a ‘n***** bitch’, sent

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech showed how much of Labour’s power comes from the Tories’ mess

What is Jeremy Corbyn’s vision for Labour in government? Before the snap election, that question seemed so very irrelevant and hypothetical, but the 2017 result and the way the Tories have behaved since makes a Jeremy Corbyn premiership far more likely than anyone could have imagined. So his speech at Labour conference was quite understandably upbeat, confident, and well-received. It was the best speech he’s ever given – fluent, well-structured and unapologetic. Though of course it went on a bit too long. It included the mandatory pops at the media, and repetitions of crowd-pleasing policy announcements on nationalising various industries. Labour feels so powerful now that it doesn’t need to

The Spectator

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour conference speech, full text

We meet here this week as a united Party, advancing in every part of Britain, winning the confidence of millions of our fellow citizens, setting out our ideas and plans for our country’s future, that have already inspired people of all ages and backgrounds. And it’s a privilege to be speaking in Brighton.  A city that not only has a long history of hosting Labour conferences, but also of inspirational Labour activists. It was over a century ago, here in Brighton, that a teenage shop worker had had enough of the terrible conditions facing her and her workmates. She risked the sack to join the Shop Workers’ Union, after learning

Steerpike Steerpike

John McDonnell’s business charm offensive falls flat

John McDonnell has never had an easy relationship with big business. The shadow chancellor thinks there is a ‘lot to learn’ from Karl Marx and says one of his favourite pastimes is ‘fermenting the conditions to overthrow capitalism’. McDonnell is hoping his latest charm offensive to woo businesses will help them to forget those remarks. But the shadow chancellor might have to try a bit harder to win them over. The Labour Business Fringe Reception at the party’s conference last night was a chance to do just that. A smattering of businesses, including Microsoft, were there. The only problem? John McDonnell was nowhere to be seen. After waiting over an hour

Tuesday

Steerpike

‘Where is he?’: No-show Corbyn heckled at Israeli fringe event

This year’s Labour conference has been largely overshadowed by a row about anti-Semitism. At a Labour Friends of Israel event on the final night of the party’s conference, Jeremy Corbyn had a perfect opportunity to send a message of support to worried Jewish Labour members. Instead, he didn’t show up. Labour MP Joan Ryan, who was chairing the event, said she was ‘disappointed’ Corbyn didn’t come. Some in the crowd were not happy either at the Labour leader’s decision to stay away, with cries of ‘Where is he?’ and ‘Why is he not here?’ greeting the announcement that Corbyn would not be coming: It’s something of a surprise that Corbyn didn’t show up:

Steerpike Steerpike

Corbynista MP: Media bias is the real story in Venezuela

Despite admitting in an interview in this morning’s edition of the Morning Star that he was ‘no bloody expert on Venezuela’, Chris Williamson, the Labour MP for Derby North, made it quite clear this afternoon who he believes is to blame for the socialist country’s problems – and it most certainly isn’t Maduro’s socialist government. Speaking at a Solidarity with Venezuela fringe event at Labour conference, Williamson described how the country – a place where women now exchange sex for nappies for their babies and where the capital city is the most murderous city on earth – was undoubtedly witnessing ‘difficult and tough times’ and that ‘mistakes had been made’.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Lammy: We should be more like Farage

Brexit has been an odd sideshow to the Labour conference, with pro-Corbyn factions such as Momentum working hard to keep the topic away from any awkward votes on the floor of the Brighton Centre hall. Perhaps that’s why it took more than an hour for anyone to mention it as a potential issue the party needed to think about at tonight’s Fabian Question Time fringe. By this point, we had run over the same arguments for solving the housing crisis that are wheeled out and then packed away without much progress, tax avoidance, and the Labour Party’s problem with anti-semitism (none of the speakers tried to claim this didn’t exist,

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tom Watson signs up to the cult of Corbyn

At this year’s Labour conference, party moderates are an endangered species. A lot of centrist MPs have given the event a miss – while those that are in attendance rarely make an appearance in the conference hall. So, Tom Watson’s speech today marked a turn up for the books. Labour’s deputy leader was given a whole ten minutes to speak despite being deemed a Corbyn-sceptic. But much like with Sadiq Khan’s speech the day before, Watson used his platform to channel his inner Corbynista. In a marked contrast to last year, Watson came across as one of Corbyn’s true comrades – even embarking on a cringeworthy chant of ‘oh, Jeremy Corbyn’ before praising the

The Spectator

Tom Watson’s Labour conference speech, full text

Conference, thank you for being here. Thanks for your enthusiasm, for your passion,  for all your hard work on behalf of the Labour Party, on behalf of our country. I’m grateful to every one of you. Last week, the Prime Minister made yet another speech to reboot, yet again, her Brexit strategy. She chose to deliver this latest oration in the great city of Florence, though no-one seems to know why. For politicians, Florence, even more than the city of Dante, the Medicis and Michelangelo, is the city of Niccolo Machiavelli. I can only assume Michael Gove picked the venue. Michael Gove, who undermined his own Tory leadership bid last

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s lost moderate MPs adopt ‘sleeping crocodile’ strategy

One of the reasons this seems to be the happiest Labour Party conference in a long time is that there is very little conflict between the two very different factions in the party. Before the snap election, it seemed as though Labour was going to split – or at least that what was left of it after an electoral drubbing was going to split. But the result meant that the Corbynites have won the argument and sealed their ownership of the party. The factions aren’t at war any more. The most obvious symbol of this victory is the way MPs haven’t been given passes for the conference floor. Some argue

Steerpike Steerpike

Chris Williamson blasts fellow Labour MPs over Venezuela

Venezuela’s crisis shows no sign of stopping: protesters have been gunned down, opposition leaders rounded up – and the country recently unveiled a plan to combat food shortages by telling people to eat their rabbits. The country’s situation ‘ain’t perfect’, admits Labour’s Chris Williamson. In an interview with the Morning Star – where else? – the Corbyn ally is still keen to look on the bright side though: ‘I accept that Venezuela has its problems still…But look at where they’ve come from and where they’ve got to’ Admittedly, Williamson is angry at the ongoing situation. But instead of directing his fury at the country’s leadership, he turns it elsewhere: towards

David Sinclair

In banning Uber, London is fighting the future

For the last ten months I have been working as an Uber driver in London. It is an amazing company to work for. Totally flexible, constantly innovative, fair and prompt in its payments. I’ve driven old people, youngsters, businessmen, drunks, choirgirls, cancer patients, a woman about to give birth, athletes (fit and injured) and visitors from every corner of the globe all over our great capital without any problem. It is a fantastic social enabler for anyone on a budget in the metropolis. And I’ve found it to be a perfectly fair and reasonable provider of income for self-employed, self-motivated people, such as myself. I first started working in London

Steerpike Steerpike

Listen: ‘Disgruntled Blairites’ blamed for Labour anti-Semitism accusations

Labour’s anti-Semitism row spills on to the front pages of today’s papers. ‘Labour is the real nasty party’, says the Daily Mail, following up remarks made at an event on the fringes of Labour conference. The party votes today on rule changes aimed at sending out a message that Labour will not tolerate anti-Semitism. But at another event at Labour’s conference last night, a speaker suggested that many of the charges of anti-Semitism levelled at the party were simply ‘politically motivated’. Speaking at the launch of Jewish Voices for Labour, Oxford Professor Avi Shlaim told the audience that: ‘I shall argue that many of the charges of anti-Semitism that have

William Cook

Why artists should stay off Question Time

Do you have to be a boring lefty to enjoy the films of Ken Loach? The reason I ask is, the British Film Institute have just rereleased three of Loach’s finest films on DVD, and though I loved them when they first came out, when I sat down to watch them again, after twenty years, my heart sank. Why? Because nowadays, when people mention Ken Loach, I don’t think of his masterpieces like Kes (one of the greatest British movies ever made) so much as his dreary appearances on political discussion programmes like Question Time. Ken Loach is a socialist filmmaker – whatever that means. If you’re a socialist, maybe