Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Matthew Lynn

Five Brexit myths that will be exposed next year

There will be chaos at the ports. Only the occasional root vegetable will be sold in the supermarkets. The factories and farms will run out of workers, and the planes will all be grounded on the runway. We have yet to get an official warning about how the black death will ravage the land, or how cannibalism will make a comeback. But it may just be a matter of time. As we head into the New Year, and as our departure from the European Union, quite possibly without any form of deal, draws closer, the warnings will become ever more darkly apocalyptic. As 2019 starts, we still don’t have much idea what will happen with Brexit. We may grudgingly accept Theresa’s May’s deal.

Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott: How to save Brexit

We’re closing 2018 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 4: Tony Abbott on how to save Brexit: It’s pretty hard for Britain’s friends, here in Australia, to make sense of the mess that’s being made of Brexit. The referendum result was perhaps the biggest-ever vote of confidence in the United Kingdom, its past and its future. But the British establishment doesn’t seem to share that confidence and instead looks desperate to cut a deal, even if that means staying under the rule of Brussels. Looking at this from abroad, it’s baffling: the country that did the most to bring democracy into the modern world might yet throw away the chance to take charge of its own destiny.

Thursday

Anthony Browne

A no deal Brexit would be the EU’s fault

I stood next to Jean Claude-Juncker, then president of the European Council and prime minister of Luxembourg, when news flashed up on the TV screens of the astonishing rejection by French voters of the draft European Constitution in their 2005 referendum. He could have responded in so many ways, to try to understand why the voters in traditionally one of Europe’s most Europhile countries emphatically rejected further EU integration. But his immediate response, without drawing breath, was: “They will just have to vote again.” In fact, the French voters weren’t trusted to give the right answer second time around, and so the treaty was pushed through the French parliament instead.

Tuesday

Mary Killen

Richard Madeley: should I ban my guests talking about Brexit at Christmas?

Q. Christmas could be tricky in our home this year: roughly half our dinner guests are Remainers, the rest Brexiteers. Before I carve the turkey, should I announce that any discussion about the EU is strictly off-limits, or would it be wiser to divert differences of opinion into a harmless party game afterwards (charades would seem appropriate)? A. Traditional Christmas resentments will be heightened if Brexit differences are used to wage proxy wars — so yes, do decree the toxic topic off-limits. Distract with proxy referendums. Take votes on whether you attend Midnight Mass, bother with Brussels sprouts etc. With luck you will have landslide Yes votes for roaring log fires and roast potatoes, which will help with bonding.

Sunday

Rod Liddle

If only British politics had more people like Paddy Ashdown 

I didn't agree with much that Paddy Ashdown had to say. But what a man! If we could all die knowing that we have given a tenth as much to our country as Ashdown, we should be very pleased indeed. This is from a review of his autobiography I did nine years ago for the Sunday Times. - - - IT IS DOUBTFUL doubtful that when George Osborne's autobiography, say, hits the bookstands it will reveal that he once slashed his arm open on a viciously sharp bamboo panji while camped in the jungle of Borneo fighting a covert guerilla war against the Indonesians. Still less, I reckon, the method of treatment for said injury, fashioned by an aboriginal tracker scout: "He went to a nearby ant heap . . . and picked out, one by one, about two dozen very large soldier ants which he put in a box.

Nick Cohen

How much longer can Orbán’s apologists ignore what he’s doing to Hungary?

Hungary is the Venezuela of the Western right. Just as radical leftists revealed the emptiness of their concern for the powerless by applauding as Chavez and Maduro’s gang of thieves reduced the poor to starvation, so conservatives’ admiration for Viktor Orbán shows the ephemerality of right-wing 'civilisation'. Conservatives never fail to miss an opportunity to speak out against assaults on what one assumes are their basic principles when the assaults are committed by their own side. The rule of law? Orbán has stuffed the judiciary with his appointees for years, and is now establishing a system of courts that exempt his government from independent judicial review. The free market?

Qanta Ahmed

As a Muslim woman, I’d like to thank Boris Johnson for calling out the niqab

We’re closing 2018 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 9: Qanta Ahmed on the niqab: As a Muslim woman observing Islam, I am fully supportive of Boris Johnson’s rejection of the niqab. And I wonder how many of the former Foreign Secretary’s critics understand my religion, what this form of dress represents and the subjugation it implies. To defend the niqab and to defend Muslim women are, I can assure you, two very different things indeed. Growing up Muslim in Britain, not once was I compelled to cover my hair. This changed when I moved to Saudi Arabia to practice medicine.

Saturday

Ed Husain

Britain should not turn its back on MBS and the Saudis

For more than a decade, I have been a public critic of Saudi Arabia. I should, therefore, be applauding recent global efforts to cast the Kingdom into pariah status and punish the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). But I fear that such calculations are flawed, short sighted and will weaken the West. Instead, Britain should be the voice of sanity and take a longer view. Such a move would be warmly welcomed by our Arab allies. Across the Middle East, there are daily skirmishes and battles, but there is a much larger war underway for the future of Islam and the type of region that will emerge in three or four decades. A regional war of ideas is being fought now and the winners will shape the lives and attitudes of 1.8 billion Muslims around the world.

Steerpike

Fact check: David Dimbleby vs John Humphrys – who’s posher?

After chairing his last ever episode of Question Time, David Dimbleby today guest-edited the Today programme. While there were a range of interviews and special guests, it was Dimbleby's own appearance which piqued Mr S's interest. The BBC broadcaster managed to come to verbal blows with regular host John Humphrys after Humphrys suggested Dimbleby was quite posh during a discussion on the monarchy. https://twitter.com/BBCr4today/status/1076422121981661184 Dimbleby's reply? DD: I'm sorry, there was a total sneer in that question – 'you're quite posh'. I'm about as posh as you are. I come from Wales as you do. I'm not posh, I happen to have been a broadcaster for a long time. JH: You had a very distinguished father? DD: Well, that doesn't make me posh! I had a distinguished father.

James Forsyth

Can Theresa May get the DUP back on board?

Westminster might it be on its Christmas holidays, but the question that is still on everyone in government’s mind is can Theresa May find a way to get the DUP to back her Brexit deal. As I write in The Sun this morning, key Cabinet Ministers believe that her only chance of winning the meaningful vote comes from getting the DUP on side. One Secretary of State who has kept open lines of communication with them, tells me that ‘by grim necessity, they will need something more than cosmetic concessions to vote for the deal’. This minister explains that ‘the DUP want a bankable reassurance that the backstop won’t be permanent and that there won’t be progressive divergence between Great Britain and Northern Ireland’.

Rod Liddle

Jeremy Corbyn is either deeply sinister – or a total idiot

We’re closing 2018 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 10: Rod Liddle on the leader of the opposition: The crowd were singing ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn’ again, at a festival in Cornwall, the words appended to a riff by the White Stripes which I once liked but now find a little nauseating. Vacuous, dimbo, middle-class millennials and — worse — their stupid, indulgent parents, all waving their hands in the air for Jezza. Meanwhile, the rest of us were trying to work out if Jeremy is a sort of even more retarded Forrest Gump and thus the most stupid man ever to lead a political party in the history of our nation, or something altogether more sinister.

Friday

Eric Kaufmann

The myth of white exceptionalism

The British government’s new white paper on immigration has been shaped by a social norm which argues that the white British ethnic majority's interest in limiting the pace of cultural change and facilitating assimilation is racist. The emphasis on skills rather than numbers, on economic over cultural considerations, and on rebalancing immigration away from Europe speaks to this. The document reflects the thinking of both Brexit and Remain politicians. Yet it does not align with the motives of many who voted Leave, or a considerable chunk of those who voted Remain. These voters seek lower levels of immigration, and research shows that this is driven more by identity threat than by economic considerations.

Brendan O’Neill

Putin’s motives may be cynical but he’s still right about a second referendum

It is coming to something when Vladimir Putin has a better understanding of democracy than many in Britain’s own political class. When this not especially democratic bruiser from the East demonstrates greater respect for the will of the British people than some of our own leaders do. Yes, just when you thought 2018 couldn’t get any odder, here comes actual Vladimir Putin to put British politicos straight about the nature of democracy. Yesterday, Putin lashed out at those in Britain who want a second referendum — and presumably a third and a fourth and a fifth until the plebs finally relent and say: ‘Okay, okay, we’ll vote to stay in the EU!’ Britain has to ‘fulfil the will of the people expressed in the referendum’, said Putin.

Fraser Nelson

Why I think a no-deal Brexit is the best remaining option

There are about a dozen Cabinet members now who think the best strategy is to go full speed in preparing for a no-deal Brexit - if a better EU offer comes along, great, but if not then no-deal is better than the alternatives. In my Daily Telegraph column I say why I think they are probably right. It's not an option that anyone can, or ought to be, enthusiastic about. All of the disruption (and there would be plenty) would stem from political failure on both sides. But it would be better than the alternatives. We are (or were) very close to an agreed deal. If Brussels just granted the UK the ability to walk away from its proposed future Brexit talks in one piece (as Nato and even EU members can walk away) then May's deal would be approved by Parliament. Panic over.

Steerpike

Fiona Onasanya gets tough on crime

In a dramatic end to the year, the Labour MP Fiona Onasanya was found guilty on Wednesday of perverting the course of justice, after a court found that she had lied to police about speeding to avoid putting points on her driving license. Bizarrely, the MP has since compared herself to Jesus and Moses, and hinted that she may continue on as an MP even though she has had the Labour whip withdrawn. But even if Onasanya is not the Messiah, she will still need God on her side in the new year, when she returns to court to be sentenced for her crimes. There, a judge will have the difficult task of weighing up whether the honourable Member for Peterborough deserves to go to jail - Onasanya potentially faces a prison term of up to four years.

Thursday

Katy Balls

Ivan Lewis resigns from Labour – what was his real motivation?

As Parliament rises for the Christmas recess, Jeremy Corbyn ends the term one MP down. Ivan Lewis has this afternoon quit the party citing Corbyn's response to allegations of Labour anti-Semitism as a motivating factor. Complicating matters is the fact that Lewis – a former Labour minister – has been suspended by the party since November pending an internal party investigation into an allegation of sexual harassment. In his resignation letter, Lewis – MP for Bury South – says it was with 'great sadness' he had come to this decision to quit the party – before turning his ire on Corbyn's handling of anti-Semitism allegations: 'All too often you have been unwilling to condemn those whose hatred of Israel becomes Jew hatred'.

Steerpike

Fiona Onasanya’s not the Messiah, she’s a very naughty girl

As MPs begin to drift back to their constituencies this afternoon, there's one MP who’s definitely not finished the year on a high. Labour MP Fiona Onasanya was found guilty yesterday of perverting the course of justice, after a court found that she had lied to police about speeding and using her mobile phone to avoid getting points on her driving license. Obviously being found guilty of a serious offence while being an elected representative would prompt some soul searching, but Onasanya has come up with a rather novel interpretation of what the judgment means for her.

Steerpike

New York Times strikes again: what if Brexit were a restaurant?

Here we go again. The New York Times has a habit these days of publishing pieces which take a rather dim view of Brexit Britain. The paper has published a questionable report on 'austerity Britain' complete with a slew of glaring omissions, news of Brits allegedly stockpiling food, an article on British cuisine with glaring inaccuracies and most recently asked UK citizens to get in touch with their accounts of experiencing petty crime in the capital. Now the paper has turned its ire on the UK franchise Bluebird London. The restaurant has opened shop in New York. The reviewer wasn't impressed by the dishes on offer and so has naturally compared the restaurant to...

Robert Peston

Are ministers ignoring what a Brexit no deal would really mean?

There is considerable straw-clutching in Whitehall and Westminster about the impact of a no-deal Brexit. For example, a respected and experienced minister contacted me last night to give me the good news that the European Commission had decided that, in the event of no-deal, the ports of Dover and Folkestone would be kept open “for nine months with no checks”. The minister had been given the great news in an internal departmental briefing. “Wow” I thought. And then “you what!

Wednesday

Melanie McDonagh

Is calling Theresa May a stupid person better than saying she’s a stupid woman?

There’s something about the 'stupid woman' controversy I am not getting. So, it’s fine to call someone a stupid person, but not fine to call her a 'stupid woman'? It’s the qualifier, the adjective, not the noun, that makes the remark rude, though in the case of Theresa May I think Jeremy Corbyn is merely making a truthful observation, whether the noun be woman or people – as he maintains he said. Would it be equally problematic for Mrs May to call Mr Corbyn a stupid man? “Stupid” may be unparliamentary language, but I can think of a lot worse. She is a person, certainly, but she is also a female person, a woman. Therefore, if she’s stupid, she’s a stupid woman, no?