Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Saturday

James Forsyth

Why Boris Johnson is so determined to stand by Priti Patel

Internally, Boris Johnson has given short shrift to those who have suggested that he distance himself from the Home Secretary. There is a view in Downing Street that several of the most dramatic charges against her don’t stack up. Number 10 knows, though, that it has a fight on its hands to save Patel. One source tells me, ‘Yes, she can survive. But there’s no smoke without fire. It is shaping up to be quiet a big struggle’. Part of the issue is that there is a view among senior civil servants that because the top civil servant at the Home Office has quit because of this row, Patel should go too. But Downing Street know that if Patel goes, it would become harder to push reform through the system.

Alex Massie

The row over Suzanne Moore is a test for the Guardian’s liberal credentials

The Guardian is a great newspaper and it remains so even if, puzzlingly, more than a fifth of its workforce - both editorial and commercial - appear to think there is something appalling about working for a newspaper. That is the first and most glaring conclusion to be drawn from the extraordinary letter signed by 338 Guardian and Observer employees lamenting the paper’s willingness to run a column written by the great Suzanne Moore earlier this week, in which Moore argued that “we have gone through the looking-glass and are being told that sex is a construct” and that “you either protect women’s rights as sex-based or you don’t protect them at all”.

Robert Peston

Inside the relationship between politicians and the media

Global system breakdown has defined all our lives for 13 years. From the banking system’s boom and bust to the rise of a new anti-globalisation, the populist generation of politician and political leader, to the mounting cost of global warming, to the exponentially charged proliferation of a jumping-the-species virus.  There is definitely no sleep till Brooklyn, or for the wicked. And we have a choice, as people, as nations, as culture. We can try to understand what is happening in a balanced, calm, rational, scientific way and rebuild some sense of control over our destiny. Or we can continue shouting at each other, in social media’s Tower of Babel, and turn Call of Duty4: Modern Warfare into the model of our future.

Charles Moore

The ugliness of zero-carbon

The government is trying to get onshore windfarms going again, defying the damage they do to unique environments. I am perplexed by how its zero-carbon policies can be reconciled with its wider economic aims of ‘levelling up’ or of fostering a beautiful environment. It is an odd fact that Greens can be extremely hostile to the natural world when it gets in their way. Announcing the above story, the BBC’s environment analyst, Roger Harrabin, informed listeners that the wind turbines could go on ‘empty moorland’ in Scotland and Ireland. Empty?

The Spectator

The Tories cannot afford a war with the civil service

Thirteen years ago, when John Reid became Home Secretary, he declared the ministry he presided over ‘not fit for purpose’. He was talking about border control but he might well have been referring to the department in general. When Theresa May became PM, things at the Home Office went from bad to worse. Her paranoid style as PM, developed as a survival mechanism when she was Home Secretary, was disastrous. The Windrush debacle, the most shameful example of government dysfunction in recent times, was a sign that change was long overdue. And yet this chaotic department, riven with internal feuds and a lack of accountability, now has a gargantuan task ahead of it.

Freddy Gray

My worrying encounter with Joe Biden

I met Joe Biden last month, after one of his town hall events in New Hampshire. His team had turned the music up loud, presumably so that 77-year-old Joe — the gaffe machine from Scranton, Pennsylvania — would not be recorded saying something stupid as he mingled with the fans and reporters. I shook Biden’s hand and — limey hack that I am — asked: ‘Mr Vice President, how, as President, would you approach Brexit Britain and Boris Johnson?’ ‘What?’ he said. I repeated the question, shouting this time. ‘What?’ he said again, smiling. His dentures were brilliant; his eyes mad blue. He had no idea what I was talking about. I tried one last time, screaming ‘Boris Johnson!’ in his ear.

Katy Balls

Toryism, but not as we know it: an interview with Ben Houchen

Who do the Conservatives have to thank for helping them win so many seats in the north of England? Tory MPs normally name Boris Johnson, for his different approach to politics. Sometimes Dominic Cummings, too, for applying focus. But there’s one other figure regularly mentioned as a patron saint of Red Wall Tories: Ben Houchen, mayor of Tees Valley. He’s perhaps the most influential politician you’ve never heard of. The initial Tory breakthrough in the north-east of England came three years ago when Houchen, aged 30, beat the Labour favourite to become metro mayor. ‘I thought I’d give it a good go, put up a bit of a fight, cause the Labour party a bit of a black eye — then hopefully do well and move on to something else.

James Forsyth

The Budget’s corona contagion

When Sajid Javid resigned in a row with No. 10, there was much speculation about what would be in the coming Budget. No one, though, predicted that it would end up being overshadowed by coronavirus. The short-term economic effects of this outbreak are almost unknowable. It is still hard to work out how serious it is going to be. One of those drawing up the government response plan tells me they would be happy if, in a year’s time, people thought they had wildly overreacted. Boris Johnson once said that the mayor in Jaws — who keeps the beaches open despite reports of a shark — was his hero for resisting the clamour for action. But now that he is in Downing Street he has no intention of taking a similar risk.

Matthew Parris

The unbearable lightness of Boris Johnson

Months ago, not long after Boris Johnson’s 2019 general election triumph, I wrote a Times column of a cautiously hopeful nature about his prospects in Downing Street. The column was in reaction to well-sourced reports that Mr Johnson’s management philosophy was to encourage ministers to get their heads down and get on with the job, to avoid the TV sofas and broadcasting studios unless there was something important to get across, and not to suppose that media exposure should be equated with career success.

Nicholas Farrell

Italians believe the coronavirus outbreak shows their superiority

During times of contagion, you begin to understand why fascist salutes were once so popular. The foot-tap is replacing the handshake in parts of China. Here in Italy, which has far more cases of coronavirus than any countries except China, Iran and South Korea, a left-wing government is telling Italians not to shake hands. It reminds me of 1922, when Mussolini came to power after the first world war had killed 20 million and the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 at least as many again. The Duce replaced the handshake with the Roman salute. The handshake, according to fascist ideology, had to go because it was unhygienic and bourgeois. The connection Mussolini made between the power of the hand to infect the human body and the power of the bourgeoisie to infect the body politic is fascinating.

James Delingpole

Why I’ve lost respect for Jeremy Clarkson

If Jeremy Clarkson had lived through the Wars of the Roses he would have been neither a Yorkist nor a Lancastrian. He would have lurked in his castle, reassuring each side of his unswerving loyalty, till the moment came when Richard III lost his crown. At this point Clarkson would make his position absolutely clear: he'd been a diehard Lancastrian all along. How do I know this? Because I've just seen 'Seamen' (The Grand Tour) in which Clarkson reveals himself as an ardent believer in climate change. He mentions it about half a dozen times in one episode - almost to the point where you wonder if he isn't taking the mickey. Perhaps he is.

Ross Clark

Donald Trump’s ‘hunch’ about coronavirus is likely correct

Donald Trump is in the soup again, this time for appearing to reject the World Health Organisation’s estimate for the death rate from coronavirus (Covid-19): 3.4 per cent. 'I think the 3.4 per cent is really a false number,' he said on Thursday before adding that he had a ‘hunch’ that the real death rate is less than one per cent. Twitter, needless to say, immediately went into meltdown, the most polite response was to call him ‘irresponsible’. Trump is not quite the person I would call upon for insight into matters relating to virology. He does, of course, have a reputation for shooting from the hip, yet his reasoning on this is more sound than many of his critics would admit. Indeed, the WHO itself was at pains to stress that it’s 3.

Friday

Jacob Heilbrunn

Warren’s decision not to endorse a candidate is a kind of endorsement

She wanted to be the Tin Lizzie of the presidential race, chugging to victory as the champion of the middle-class. But her campaign started running out of gas before it could even really get on the straightaway. Today the denouement arrives. Elizabeth Warren will announce that she’s packing it in. Will she endorse either Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden? Or will she, like Barack Obama, wait until the victor has been anointed? Intense and cerebral, Warren came across during the debates not as a nutty professor but a hectoring schoolmarm. She wanted to be Sanders-lite but the left wasn’t buying. 'Here’s my advice: cast a vote that will make you proud,' she said on Super Tuesday. 'Cast a vote from your heart.

Thursday

Cindy Yu

Planet Corona: is this the tipping point for globalisation?

38 min listen

As the coronavirus sweeps across the globe, it's causing businesses, consumers, and governments to rethink their globalised lives. Is this a tipping point for hyper-globalisation (1:00)? Plus, is the government slimming down its Budget plans (13:40)? And last, is it harder to be eco-friendly if you are a woman (26:35)?

Steerpike

Jolyon Maugham avoids fox-clubbing prosecution

On Boxing day last year the lawyer and Remain-supporting campaigner, Jolyon Maugham, made probably the most unwise decision of his life. He decided, after having an altercation with an animal in his garden that morning, to recount his experience on social media.  At 8am, the campaigner and QC revealed that:  'Already this morning I have killed a fox with a baseball bat. How's your Boxing day going?' In subsequent messages, Maugham explained that the unlucky fox had become trapped in his chicken coop and, to complete the picture, that he had been wearing his wife's kimono as he dispatched the desperate animal.

James Forsyth

Coronavirus is putting politics on hold

The coronavirus is putting politics on hold. The Budget, as I say in this week’s magazine, will be a much less dramatic event because of it. Given the level of economic uncertainty the virus is creating, it would be sensible to wait for the autumn Budget — when the situation should be clearer — before making big, fiscal policy decisions. The Budget, as a consequence of this, will largely be about ‘delivering’ on the Tories’ manifesto commitments. In Downing Street they know that trust is a huge issue for both the government and Boris Johnson personally, so they want to show that they are keeping their promises.

Steerpike

Watch: Boris struggles to say if he’ll change nappies

After a prolonged spell of avoiding media interviews, Boris Johnson finally came out of hiding today and appeared on breakfast television. The Prime Minister was interviewed by Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on ITV's This Morning. And while Boris handled questions on the coronavirus,  flooding and the Priti Patel bullying scandal with relative ease, in the end it was a rather simpler question that seemed to stump the PM.  At the end of the interview, Willoughby and Schofield congratulated Boris – who is famously reluctant to discuss his private life – on the news that he is expecting a child in early summer.