Politics Archives

Wednesday

23 February 2022

Andrew Bailey’s revealing salary slip-up

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 to tackle inflation. Eagle began like the late Bamber Gascoigne with a series of quick-fire questions on the median salary of UK workers and care workers. Alas, salaries turned out not to be Bailey’s specialist subject — not even when Eagle asked him about his own. 'It’s somewhere over £500,000,' Bailey stumbled, before adding 'I don’t carry that around in my head'.

Isabel Hardman

Are UK sanctions all bark no bite?

12 min listen

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 talks with James Forsyth and Katy Balls about the UK's response to the Russian invasion.

Annabel Denham

How much did the Covid crisis cost?

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 felt by households, it’s worth exploring how the nation’s balance sheet could have looked had this virus never appeared.

Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Boris Johnson faces pressure to be tougher on Russia

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 full package of sanctions. Starmer repeatedly said the Labour party was supportive of what had been announced so far but that it wanted much more from the government. This included cracking down on the Russian state-backed broadcaster RT, which he said should be prevented from spreading Vladimir Putin's propaganda around the world.

James Forsyth

Why we shouldn’t ban Russia Today

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 this as an excuse to kick out the BBC and other British broadcasters. Just look at how Russia closed the Moscow office of Deutsche Welle, the German public service broadcaster, and ended the accreditation of its journalists after a German-language version of RT was taken off air in Germany. The least-worst option would be for guests to refuse to go on RT given the credulous way in which it reports Kremlin propaganda.

Steerpike

The New York Times blunders (again)

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 don't run on time and swamp-dwelling locals feast on legs of mutton. When it's not denouncing Boris Johnson as a despot, it's exploiting JK Rowling for subscribers or suggesting the UK's vaccination plan amounts to pumping pensioners with a dangerous cocktail of Covid jabs. The NYT was, until recently, headed by Mark Thompson, the former director-general of the BBC.

Tuesday

22 February 2022

Steerpike

Christian Wakeford hires new comrades

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 a majority of only 402, Wakeford just has to hope he's taken a number of his Tory-voting constituents with him to line up in the Labour column by the time of the next election. Not all though are convinced by Wakeford's defection, coming as it did just a day after he sat through a four-hour dinner with Conservative MPs and didn't reveal a word about his decision.

Steerpike

Five of the worst responses to the Ukraine crisis

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 MPs meet to ponder the future of the region. Gulp. Johnson told the House that he was announcing sanctions against five Russian banks – Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank – and three Russian high net-worth individuals. While many across Parliament want the PM to go further, it's by no means the worst response to the ongoing situation in the Baltic.

James Forsyth

Britain’s Russia sanctions are underwhelming

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 certification of Nord Stream 2 has. Johnson’s defence of the limited nature of these sanctions is that they are the ‘first tranche’ and the UK needs to hold things back to try and deter Russia from further action. But given that the UK, rightly, considers what Russia is up to an invasion of Ukraine, these sanctions are nowhere near robust enough. The three oligarchs hit have been on the US sanctions list since 2018.

Steerpike

BBC political editor race blown wide open

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 the deadline for applicants had been extended by a fortnight. And now he can tell his readers that in doing that the Corporation opened it up to outsiders too, despite the job originally being advertised as an internal appointment only. The decision to widen the net was likely prompted by a number of BBC stars ruling themselves out of the competition despite a prospective salary north of £250,000.

Cindy Yu

Russia invades: what comes next?

11 min listen

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 Putin’s court. This is at the maximal end of responses that were expected' — James Forsyth.Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Steerpike

Mayites collect their Brexit dividend

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 this week and it seems the man tasked with selling May's Brexit deal is doing better at selling himself, with his firm's assets jumping from £142,000 in 2020 to £292,000 in 2021 – a surge in capital and reserves from £79,000 to £228,000. Kerching!

Philip Patrick

Is this Scottish anti-Brexit exhibition really ‘art’?

‘Hate is not welcome in Scotland’, apparently, at least according to a public information film released in 2018 by the Scottish government. ‘We believe in acceptance, and it’s time you accept that’ continue the bright-eyed young people featured in the ad. Anyone who believes in this uplifting message might be puzzled if they pop into the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, where a new exhibition by artist Rachel Maclean seems to be very short on acceptance for Brexit and the awful Brits who voted for it. ‘Native Animals’ is a set of paintings and video installations which, according to the blurb are ‘examining the various motivations behind Brexit and its repercussions’.

Monday

21 February 2022

Isabel Hardman

Ending restrictions won’t save Boris

Boris Johnson certainly managed to rally the troops on their first day back from recess this afternoon as he told the Commons that all remaining domestic Covid restrictions were coming to an end. The most explosive moments of the past few months haven't been about the continuation of Covid restrictions From this Thursday, the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test will come to an end. Until 1 April, people who test positive will be advised to stay at home, but after that 'we will encourage people with Covid-19 symptoms to exercise personal responsibility, just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others'.

Steerpike

The Globe adds Shakespeare anti-Semitism warnings

Mr S enjoys a good show: many of the best dramas are to be found on the Westminster stage. After all, what is politics but show business for ugly people? But away from SW1, Mr S has found a cast of characters even more histrionic than the performers of Westminster. For just down the Thames in Southwark, the right-on thespians at the Globe theatre have surpassed themselves in their current winter production of The Merchant of Venice. Hosted by the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe, the show has taken every effort not to offend any sensibilities by including a warning on its website for all potential ticket-buyers.

Winston Marshall

Tracy–Ann Oberman – Political purity tests in films and theatre

45 min listen

This week on Marshall Matters Winston is joined by British actress Tracy-Ann Oberman, star of Afterlife, Toast of London, Ridley Road and Eastenders, to name but a few. Tracy-Ann discussed the problem of anti-Semitism with relation to Equity – the trade union for actors - as well as in the entertainment industry more broadly and beyond.

Nigel Jones

Get well soon, your Majesty

The news that the Queen had tested positive for Covid must have sent a shiver of dread down the spines of all but a tiny minority of hardhearted Republicans. Most of us don't want to even imagine a country bereft of the monarch who has been a seemingly immortal part of the fabric of the lives of all but the very old. Yet the brute fact of human mortality means that we will have to face a world without this indomitable 95-year-old woman at some point. How will we cope? Under the Treason Act of 1351 it was a capital offence to 'imagine' the death of a reigning sovereign, but in our time whole departments of state have long not only 'imagined' our Queen's passing, but have planned for it down to the finest detail.

Steerpike

SNP try to hijack Ukraine crisis

'Never let a good crisis go to waste' said Churchill. And it seems the SNP have taken that maxim to heart, judging by the alacrity with which they've sought to exploit the current rumblings over Ukraine. Alyn Smith, the party's foreign affairs spokesperson, was straight out there in a fuel-guzzling jet at the beginning of the month, accompanied by several party cronies who smelt an opportunity in the east. None of them have any role in UK government foreign policy whatsoever. Smith, a man who has never met a camera he didn't like, duly clipped himself standing solemn in front of the country's foreign ministry, gravely intoning about the ongoing crisis – as if the poor Ukrainians hadn't suffered enough already.

Cindy Yu

Will Brits with Covid still self-isolate?

11 min listen

With Boris Johnson set to announce the end of legal Covid restrictions later today, how will people respond? Will they continue to isolate, or choose to go about their life even if they have the virus?Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth, Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson about the change, as well as the continuing crisis in Ukraine.

Sam Leith

What if we aren’t ready to live with Covid?

Quite the constitutional twist, yesterday. Just as what Walter Bagehot called the efficient side of our ruling set-up was merrily announcing a final bonfire of the Covid regulations, the dignified side (aka her Majesty the Queen) was letting it be known that she has contracted Covid. Not what you’d call perfect timing. Taking the wide view, she’s just one elderly lady. Policy shouldn't hinge on the susceptibility of any single elderly lady to a disease, be she never so dignified. Still, if her Maj is carted off to hospital it’ll be bad PR for Number 10s ballsy new Living With Covid policy. She's a visible reminder that, yes, it’s still out there, burning through the population like a peat fire.