Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Wednesday

15 September 2021

Saigon’s sequel: Afghanistan and the failed lessons of Vietnam

The greatest American defeat of modern times was — until very recently — Vietnam. The fundamental reason for the debacle was clear. As Washington was loath to turn the Cold War into a hot one, it was unable to stem Soviet support for the Vietcong. This left America with a choice: mount a full invasion of North Vietnam or suffer the indignity of a humiliating retreat. It chose the latter. That same strategic error could be seen this summer on the streets of Kabul. But this time, the opposing power was Pakistan. Two decades ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, Islamabad trumpeted the severance of its bond with the terrorist militia on its northern border. The truth, however, was rather different.

Katy Balls

What to make of the reshuffle?

16 min listen

Boris Johnson has reshuffled his cabinet. Gavin Williamson is gone. Dominic Raab is no longer Foreign Secretary, but is now the Deputy Prime Minister, with Liz Truss taking over his former position. These changes and many more are dissected by Katy Balls and James Forsyth on today's Coffee House Shots.

Steerpike

Culture Secretary joins the culture wars

After six hours of speculation, most in SW1 seem ready to re-shuffle off their mortal coil. As the hacks and hangers-on picks over who's up and who's down, attention has focused on the newly-appointed Culture Secretary. Former nurse and part-time novelist Nadine Dorries succeeds Oliver Dowden in the post, having served two years in the health department in which capacity she made headlines for being the first MP to test positive for Covid. Dorries is an interesting choice for the role sometimes known as the 'Minister for fun.' Elected in 2005 she is considered to be on the right of the party: a proto-Brexiteer who advocated sexual abstinence for girls in sex education and reductions in the abortion time limits. Her appearance on I'm a Celebrity...

Stephen Daisley

Can doctors be ‘neutral’ on assisted dying?

The British Medical Association (BMA) has dropped its opposition to assisted dying after a landmark vote. In doing so, it marks a journey from professional principle onto the ethical fence. This is not the first time the BMA has declared itself neutral on the termination of post-natal human life. In 2005, the organisation voted to switch from opposition to neutrality on physician-assisted suicide but that position was overturned the following year amid charges that the policy shift had been achieved through an ‘extraordinary manoeuvre’ and ‘procedural tactics’. A decade later, in 2016, the body again rejected adoption of a neutral stance following a consultation with 500 association members and the general public.

Lloyd Evans

PMQs: Boris blustered his way out of trouble

What were they? Model broomsticks? Mini cricket bats? The chewed ends of lolly-sticks? At PMQs today many MPs arrived with odd sprigs of material attached to their clothing. The badges turned out to be ‘wheat-pins’ which are part of ‘Back British Farming Day’. Sir Keir Starmer had attached his device firmly to his jacket. Very sensible. Boris had lazily shoved the thing into his breast pocket. It slowly descended into the depths of the lining and disappeared. The session began sombrely as members expressed their sympathy with Boris over his recent bereavement. Sir Keir Starmer took just three seconds to turn it into a story about himself. ‘I offer my condolences to the Prime Minister on the loss of his mother,’ said the Labour leader.

Steerpike

Harry and Meghan named world’s most influential icons

It's still some months until awards season gears up but Mr S is happy to announce this year's winner of the Steerpike 'Slurp Prize for Sycophancy.' In a tough field, full of the usual deferential dross, slimy pseudo-babble and glutinous grovelling, one entry has today blown away all competition to clinch the gong, with an entry so obsequious it would make Uriah Heep cringe. Step forward José Andrés with his fawning submission to this year's Time magazine list of the 'World's 100 most influential people.' The Spanish chef has prepared an appropriately nauseating entry on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, replete with a suitably airbrushed front cover which has them staring vacuously into the distance.

James Kirkup

No, Gavin Williamson wasn’t the worst education secretary ever

Gavin Williamson was the worst education secretary in history, according to Sam Freedman, a former Tory education adviser. In the wake of Williamson’s departure from the Department for Education, many other commentators are being even less generous. No one has a good word to say about the man. No one except me, that is. I write here in defence of Gavin Williamson. To be utterly clear, my defence is a very narrow one. I am speaking up for Williamson over only a portion of what he did as Education Secretary, and not the largest part either. While a lot of things Gavin Williamson did were indeed dismal, not everything he did was bad or wrong.

Coffee House

Boris Johnson’s reshuffle, as it happened

Boris Johnson's long-awaited cabinet reshuffle is over (at least for today). After weeks of rumours that the Prime Minister would shake up his top team, today Boris finally made his move. Here are the changes to his top team: Dominic Raab has been demoted from Foreign Secretary to Justice Secretary, replaced by Liz Truss.Gavin Williamson has been sacked as Education Secretary. Nadhim Zahawi will take on the job (the new vaccine minister is yet to be appointed).Michael Gove has been appointed Housing Secretary. Steve Barclay is his replacement as Cabinet Secretary.Anne Marie-Trevelyan has been appointed Trade Secretary, replacing Liz Truss who becomes Foreign Secretary.Robert Jenrick and Robert Buckland have been sacked. 6.25 p.m.

David Paton

Will vaccinating teenagers really prevent disruption to schools?

After the JCVI recommended against offering vaccines to children aged 12 to 15 on health grounds, the government asked the four chief medical officers to consider the broader case, including the impact on schooling. As we know, the government has now accepted the chief medical officers’ recommendation: that all 12 to 15 year olds should be offered one dose of Pfizer on the grounds that doing so will reduce disruption to education. The government has released details of the modelling that underpins that rationale. The approach was first to estimate the number of infections with and without vaccination under different scenarios of infection spread. Next, they used this to model the number of days of lost education that could be prevented by vaccination.

Steerpike

Watch: Shamima Begum begs for forgiveness on breakfast TV

It's amazing what the collapse of a caliphate will do to a girl. Shamima Begum popped up on GMB this morning sporting a Nike baseball cap, pink nail varnish and a sleeveless top to ask the British public for forgiveness. The former London schoolgirl who ran away to Syria in 2015 has spent the past two years, err, trying to get back into the UK after it turned out that life in the Islamic State was not quite the land of milk and honey she envisaged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVb1PXFIxCo Begum told hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley that she had no idea that Isis was a death cult, stating baldly that: 'I thought it was an Islamic community' before adding 'I did not know that there was war...

Steerpike

BBC promote convicted arsonist

The BBC has been plunged into a fair few impartiality controversies recently. But while such rows can often be a matter of subjectivity and taste, you would hope that Corporation staff would draw the line at promoting a convicted arsonist accused of orchestrating a 'terrorist campaign' against Oxford University. Yikes. This latest BBC East drama hails from Cambridgeshire and was caused by Auntie's coverage a fortnight ago of an animal rights protest outside a facility that breeds dogs for laboratory research. Activists have been protesting outside Marshall BioResources against such breeding for the past two months, with 15 arrests made at the time the Beeb published its original article. Among those protestors interviewed for online and broadcast was one Mel Brown.

Alex Massie

Humza Yousaf has revealed a dark truth about the SNP

American journalist Michael Kinsley once observed that in Washington DC a 'gaffe' should be understood as a moment in which a politician or public official inadvertently blurts out a truth it would have been better, and certainly wiser, to leave unsaid. By that standard Humza Yousaf, currently serving as health secretary in the Scottish government, is a mighty friend to journalists. Pondering the meaning and significance of what has become known as the Alex Salmond affair, Yousaf told the comedian Matt Forde that the conflict between Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon was 'really upsetting because it could have done our cause a hell of a lot of damage – it still might do our cause a hell of a lot of damage'. Sometimes it is better not to say the quiet bit out loud.

Tuesday

14 September 2021

Katy Balls

Johnson’s reshuffle rumours won’t go away

When Boris Johnson was asked at this week's Covid press conference whether he could rule out an imminent cabinet reshuffle, he didn't give anything away. The Prime Minister joked that it was a question for the chief medical officer before avoiding offering an answer himself. While Johnson may take the view that the focus on a reshuffle was a distraction from his Covid winter plan announcement, it's also the case that the constant rumours are starting to become a serious distraction for ministers, aides and civil servants. Given the decision to hold a reshuffle is down to one person, predicting the timings of any such shake-up is a fool's game.

Freddy Gray

What will inflation mean for Biden and America?

17 min listen

Freddy Gray sits down with The Spectator's economics editor Kate Andrews to discuss the American economy. During the pandemic, inflation grew rapidly - but the latest reports show that it is on its way down again. Is this just a dip before another spike? And is the Met Gala the right venue for championing the poor?

Isabel Hardman

Javid avoids Tory fightback – for now

Tory MPs were not happy when Sajid Javid unveiled the Covid winter plan in the Commons this afternoon. They’re dissatisfied with the government holding so many powers – such as vaccine passports, further lockdowns and other restrictions – in reserve as part of its Plan B, which will be activated this winter if cases breach what the NHS can cope with. The Health Secretary explained Plan B thus: ‘It is absolutely right that the government have a contingency plan, and the trigger, so to speak, for plan B, as I mentioned in my statement, would be to look carefully at the pressures on the NHS.

Steerpike

Watch: Sturgeon’s soft-balls up

Oh dear. It was less than a week ago that Nicola Sturgeon mixed up two of her SNP backbenchers in the Holyrood chamber and gave pre-emptive answers to their questions, thus appearing to be clairvoyant. Now the same thing has happened again today.Asked by one of her MSPs for an update on the establishment of a Covid-19 inquiry, the First Minister gave an answer solely on education and reducing risk of outbreaks in schools. Baffled parliamentarians heard the following exchange: Question: Thank you very much Presiding Officer. Can the First Minister provide an update on the work being conducted to establish an independent public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland?

Katy Balls

What are Javid’s winter Covid plans?

13 min listen

Health Secretary Sajid Javid today laid out his two plans for dealing with Covid this winter. The first, Plan A, proposes a booster shot for everyone over 50, combined with the flu jab. This would also see contact tracing continue, along with self-isolation for the infected and financial support for those isolating. Plan B proposes vaccine passports and mask mandates in certain settings. To discuss how this was received in the Commons, Katy Balls is joined by Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and, making a surprise appearance, Fraser Nelson.

Annabel Denham

The misguided experiment of British childcare

Everybody agrees that childcare in Britain is an unholy mess. According to a new study, tens of thousands of parents are desperate for 'radical change'. And yesterday, after a petition bemoaning childcare costs received 112,907 signatures, Labour’s Catherine McKinnell kicked off a Westminster Hall debate to address funding and affordability. Her answer, inevitably, was more state spending — on nurseries, parents, even an independent review. But the awkward truth is that more state interference makes childcare more expensive. We already pour £6 billion of taxpayer money into the sector each year, and the results are miserable. The quality is often poor, staff retention a perennial battle, and closures common.

Stephen Daisley

From Neil to Nigel: the descent of GB News

I can’t claim to know any behind-the-scenes rivalries or boardroom brouhaha motivating Andrew Neil’s departure from GB News but I am glad to see him go. Neil is out at the still ill-defined channel which can’t decide whether it’s a populist classical-liberal network, standing up to authoritarian cancel culture, or a British version of Fox News. It excels at neither. Given wobbly ratings, staff departures and one instance of very off-brand knee-taking, it's not entirely surprising that Neil has finally had his fill and walked away. He was not only chairman but the underwriter of the promise — issued in his opening monologue — that the channel would dissent from the broadcasting mainstream with quality, rigour, open-mindedness and intelligence.

James Forsyth

Can booster shots help Britain avoid another lockdown?

For weeks now, ministers have been getting increasingly frustrated by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation's failure (JCVI) to back a wide-ranging programme of booster shots. Today it has finally recommended a third dose for everyone in clinical groups one to nine, which is, essentially, everyone over 50. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, has already accepted the recommendation and the programme will begin next week. Will this be enough to prevent the need for another lockdown? The booster programme should prevent the waning immunity problem, which was one of the reasons why Israel was hit by an unexpected fourth wave. The government is relying very heavily on boosters to avoid more restrictive measures this winter.