Read about the latest political news, views and analysis
22 min listen
On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Katy Balls on the political power of Angela Rayner. (00:49)Then Lionel Shriver on the unscientific divisions between the vaxxed and unvaxxed. (06:52)And finally, Nick Newman looks at the differences between British and American cartooning.
13 min listen
Katy Balls talks to James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson about the latest lockdown in Austria, the prospect of Germany following suit, and Austria's plans for mandatory vaccination.
It’s been a rough old week for Hamas. The UK announced plans to proscribe the organisation, Justin Bieber ignored its call to cancel his 2022 concert in Tel Aviv, and even the recently friendly Labour party has vowed that it ‘does not and will not support BDS’. One minute, you’re going about your business, trying to drive the Jews into the sea, and the next you’re being treated like you’re the bad guy. Priti Patel’s decision to add Hamas to the Home Office list of terrorist organisations corrects a 20-year-old error which saw the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades — Hamas’s paramilitary wing — outlawed in 2001 but the rest of the organisation unaffected.
I suppose this happens to all of us at different speeds, but I am getting a little fed up of this government. In particular, I am getting fed up of the gap between its rhetoric and its actions. Most of the time this is most noticeable with the Prime Minister, who gives his base the occasional morsel of right-wingery only to then force-feed them great dollops of lefty-greenery. On a trip to Washington, Priti Patel has demonstrated that she is also no stranger to this tactic. So far we have had Patel (the DC version) talk about ‘the mass migration crisis’, as though she is merely an observer of the crisis in the Channel rather than one of the only people actually able to solve it.
Nicola Sturgeon wants to extend vaccine passports in Scotland, and today her government released a 70-page document purporting to show evidence. The snag? There’s not a shred of evidence to show that her vaccine passports are having any effect. The document, entitled Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine certificationww: evidence paper update makes a very bold claim: that Scotland’s choice is more vaccine passports or restrictions. To suppress the virus further we are now faced with a choice. This is to limit social contacts and the risk of infection by limiting social contacts by closing venues, limiting group sizes and advising people not to meet each other.
So farewell then Geordie Greig. The Daily Mail editor is leaving his post this week after just three years in the role, following an internal power struggle at Associated Newspapers. The supremely connected Old Etonian addressed the troops late this afternoon in the Northcliffe House newsroom, with many sharing in the ‘funereal’ atmosphere that greeted news of his departure. Fortunately Steerpike’s spies were in attendance and were able to record Greig’s (brief) farewell comments to his Mail men and women as they prepared to bang him out in age-old fashion… It's a profound pleasure and privilege to be editor of the finest newspaper in the world. Three times in three years, newspaper of the year.
The Tory position in the polls is weakening. Partly this is because of the vaccine bounce wearing off and a fortnight or so of sleaze stories. But, as I write in the Times today, ministers thinks that there’s another issue harming the government: small boats. ‘The sleaze is bad, but the issue that causes me most trouble with my constituents is the boats,’ says one cabinet member. Johnson himself has long been concerned about this problem. He worries about the sense of disorder that the small boats convey: he thinks they make a mockery of ‘taking back control’ of the borders. A long-serving No. 10 aide says that ‘other than Covid, no issue has taken up more of the PM’s time’.
A new poll was released yesterday showing 50 per cent of Americans don't think President Biden is in good health. Turns out: they are right, with the country's oldest ever Commander-in-Chief today forced to transfer power to his deputy while he is under anesthesia getting a colonoscopy. That means, for a 'brief period of time' the leader of the free world will be none other than Biden's bungling running-mate... Vice President Kamala Harris. Officials have been keen to stress that the arrangement has a precedent from the Bush-Cheney years when the former underwent the same operation in 2002 and 2007.
Is Downing Street planning to sue for a story suggesting that Boris Johnson has 'buyers’ remorse' over his marriage? That’s the question asked at today’s lobby meeting after the New European ran a story alleging that the Prime Minister had said this at a Telegraph leader writers’ reunion at the Garrick Club. The original story met with an on the record denial from the press office — stating that Johnson ‘did not make this remark and the allegation is untrue and defamatory’. This denial did not appear in the story, to Downing Street’s fury. The New European’s editor-in-chief Matt Kelly claims that behind the scenes, No. 10 went further.
12 min listen
Priti Patel has blamed the European Union's freedom of movement for the 'mass migration crisis' that Britain is facing. In a visit to Washington, the Home Secretary said: 'the real problem on illegal migration flows is the EU has no border protections whatsoever — Schengen open borders'. Tories MPs are reportedly frustrated at the government's failure to stop the flow of migrants getting boats across the channel, so what should Priti Patel do? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.'I think this is a little bit like a sailor complaining about the sea. It is more diplomatic than blaming the French. So in some ways it's an improvement.
Emmanuel Macron told his people last summer they would have to learn to live with Covid. A year-and-a-half on, France is unrecognisable to the country it once was: Covid passports are in force and face masks remain mandatory in many places. The president of France is not alone among Western leaders in his uncompromising approach to the pandemic: Holland, Austria and Germany are re-imposing restrictions and Boris Johnson, who used the 'learn to live with it' line in July, has refused to rule out a Christmas lockdown. Yet while Europe's presidents and prime ministers appear ready to go to any length to protect their people from this virus, their approach to another threat – the danger posed by Islamist terrorism – is far more insouciant.
Well, it's official: Britain is facing a mass migration crisis. On a trip to Washington Priti Patel used the term yesterday as she turned her guns from the French to the EU's system of open borders instead as 'they do not have border controls and border checks'. She told reporters there: There is a mass migration crisis. I've said this from day one – from the minute I walked into the Home Office... there isn't a silver bullet. There's no point saying, "Well you could just push boats back." It will not stop it. There all sorts of issues with criminal gangs, smugglers etc. The admission comes as Patel approaches the two-and-a-half year mark in her post as Home Secretary.
34 min listen
Sarah Vine is a columnist for the Daily Mail and formerly wife of Cabinet minister Michael Gove. On the podcast, Sarah talks to Katy about growing up in Italy, working her way up tabloid journalism (including what it was like to work for Paul Dacre), and her reflections on being a columnist with a politician (ex-)husband.
As the race for the Elysée hots up, presidential candidates are busy courting voters and raising funds. And with Macron's poll ratings flatlining in Paris, all eyes are on Eric Zemmour, the right-wing talkshow host who is still yet to declare but is nevertheless third in the polls. So Mr S was intrigued to learn that Zemmour plans to come to London this weekend in light of the capital's considerable French contingent, with the metropolis often cited as the sixth biggest French city. Unfortunately Zemmour's plans have run aground, with successive venues cancelling on the anti-establishment candidate in light of his controversial past statements — some of which have put him beyond the pale of much of polite Parisian society.
This morning saw a profound breakthrough in the trans debate. I say that on the basis of an interview Nancy Kelley, Stonewall's CEO, did with the BBC’s Emma Barnett on Woman’s Hour. What’s important is not really anything that Kelley said, though some of that was indeed interesting and I’ll come to it in a second. What matters is that the interview took place at all, since that constitutes a significant shift in the way Stonewall does its work. Stonewall's instinct has been to largely avoid mainstream media and other political debates about its work on trans issues that is now its primary focus.
12 min listen
The announcement of the Integrated Rail Plan has left many, including a number of Conservative MPs, disappointed due to the proposed new routes and notable omissions. This comes at a bad time for Boris Johnson who is already in the dog house over his handling of the Owen Paterson affair. 'Boris Johnson is not in a good place with his party and it's not just over second jobs, it's over a number of things.' - Isabel HardmanKaty Balls talks to James Forsyth and Isabel Harman about the Prime Minister's popularity going off the rails.
Cricketer Azeem Rafiq shocked the political word on Tuesday with his revelations about the abuse he suffered while a young player at Yorkshire Cricket Club. But Mr S has now been sent social media posts which show Rafiq himself was no stranger to using racist language when young, with a leaked message revealing the former player posted anti-Semitic content on Facebook when he was 19 years old. Screenshots obtained by Steerpike show Rafiq joking about 'a jew' going 'after my 2nds again ha' as 'only jews do tht sort of shit' in 2011. He appears to be referencing an (unknown) cricketer at Derby, with a man by the name of Ateeq Javid claiming the Derby cricketer is: 'a dik he will nt pay!!!!
The sheer number of useless interventions that have been touted as offering a solution to the cross-Channel migrants crisis is bewildering. Various rounds of talks with France about heightened cooperation to make the route non-viable; paying large sums of money to France to fund beach patrols; appointing a cross-Channel Clandestine Threat Commander; threatening to 'call in' the Royal Navy; threatening to turn back overladen boats in the world’s busiest shipping lane; pressuring social media platforms to prevent successful landers from sharing videos of themselves looking happy and triumphant that supposedly create a pull factor for others; even a direct prime ministerial interview to camera promising 'we will send you back'.
Taxes are rising, inflation is climbing, sleaze is everywhere and the Tories are divided. With Labour ahead in the polls for the first time since January, can anything stop the party's return to power? Enter Zarah Sultana, Coventry's answer to Citizen Smith. The baby-faced bolshevik – designed in a CCHQ lab as a walking Tory recruitment advert – popped up at Commons questions today to remind us all of Labour's less electable elements. Launching one of her trite attack lines, Sultana railed against the government's 'dodgy Transport Secretary' and 'dodgy Leader of the House' before asking Jacob Rees-Mogg if he was 'proud of this shameful record.
17 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Pano Kanelos, the president of the newly announced University of Austin, about what his project is hoping to achieve.