Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Steerpike

Revealed: the Scottish uni courses for (feepaying) English students only

When Alex Salmond stepped down as First Minister, he famously unveiled a commemorative stone engraved with the message ‘The rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scottish students.’ If he wants to see melting, he should go to the UCAS website and look at the courses up for grabs in the clearing system – then change the settings to say you’re Scottish. The courses melt away. (For example, here is the English version of Glasgow University clearing courses: law, history, all sorts of gems. And here is the Scottish version). Why the difference? Because England’s students bring fees. As a direct result opportunities are created for them – even in Scotland.

Carola Binney

There’s only one way to win the war on drugs

Earlier this month, I attended a family-friendly music festival in the glorious sunshine. There was stone-baked pizza, a champagne bar and paddle board yoga. There was also quite a lot of ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine. You cannot attend a music festival – even a supposedly wholesome one – without realising how normalised drugs have become among my generation of middle class young professionals. The mention of Class A drug use may conjure images of single-use phones, street corners and sneaking into the toilets – there was none of that. Cheery, well-spoken dealers offered my friends and me their wares as we sunbathed outside our tent; by the stage, fellow attendees snorted lines for all to see.

Gavin Mortimer

Sweden must copy France’s approach to Islamic intolerance

There are 960 miles as the crow flies between Paris and Stockholm, but when it comes to dealing with Islam they are separated by light years. In France this week there has been something of a kerfuffle caused by a Gap back-to-school campaign that features a young girl in a hijab. One female MP from Emmanuel Macron's ruling La République en Marche party said the campaign left her 'sickened,' while Marlène Schiappa, the gender equality minister, has demanded an explanation from Gap, saying: 'You don’t choose to wear the veil at nine to ten years old.' Incidentally, France has looked on in bemusement at Boris Johnson and his comments about the burka.

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn’s road to sainthood

This week, a Sky News video has been doing the rounds on Twitter in which an exasperated Jeremy Corbyn supporter cast doubt on the row over the ongoing wreath-laying controversy by declaring that the Labour leader is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. End of. https://twitter.com/Jamin2g/status/1029448470028013570 Just in case readers are in any doubt, Mr S can confirm this claim is not true. But Mr S thinks he can guess where it came from. A few months ago, Corbyn’s supporters began to rebut questions about his commitment to peace by asserting that he was a winner of the Gandhi Peace Prize. The prize is bestowed annually by the Indian government for 'contributions towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods'.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 16 August 2018

Boris mishandled Sir: Your editorial ‘Bravo Boris’ (11 August) suggests that the treatment meted out to Boris Johnson by the Prime Minister and the party chairman makes a leadership challenge more likely. That is correct. This duo have demonstrated a breathtaking lack of political sophistication. Not only have they promoted Boris Johnson’s chances of the leadership, but they have also diverted the media spotlight from the Labour party’s very real anti-Semitism to a fictitious Tory party Islamophobia. Mr Johnson plainly argues a position that is more liberal than those of many European governments, including those of Denmark, France, Belgium and Germany.

The Spectator

The futility of terror

By now, the routine is familiar: a lone wolf strikes, roads are sealed off, buildings locked down and a biographical picture begins to emerge. Often, the perpetrator turns out to be born and bred in Britain. His astonished friends and neighbours say they saw no signs that he had succumbed to fanaticism. It later emerges that radicalisation happened incredibly quickly — perhaps inspired by online videos — and the terror plan was so low-tech that interception would have been impossible. How, it might be asked, can any country protect itself against such threats? But Britain has protected itself, both in thwarting such attacks and in blunting their impact. The latest attacker found the House of Commons protected by barriers.

Jennifer Williams

A grave omission

On Valentine’s Day, a homeless man was found dead in the pedestrian subway near the Houses of Parliament. This week, Communities Secretary James Brokenshire published the government’s response, its much-delayed £100 million ‘rough sleeping strategy’, which includes the eye-catching initiative to eradicate all rough sleeping by 2027. Charities and Labour were unimpressed, quickly working out that the promised funding was not new money but appeared to have been reallocated from other budgets. But what caught my eye was a vague plan to ‘work with’ local councils to carry out reviews into the deaths of homeless people.   It is hard to tackle a problem which at present is not even being monitored.

Ned Donovan

The patron prince

It’s like any traditional bazaar. Cushions litter the floor and crowds gather around displays of Chinese pottery and Persian rugs. Tea cups stand ready to celebrate a hard-bartered purchase. Except no tea will be poured: this market happens to be in the middle of a stateroom in Buckingham Palace and is the centrepiece of the Prince of Wales’s new exhibition showcasing his favourite pieces of art and craftsmanship. The show is titled ‘Prince and Patron’, and it is packed to the brim with objects he loves. It also offers a glimpse of what the eventual reign of King Charles III may look like. There has been court gossip that the Prince will choose another name to reign with rather than be identified with the two previous monarchs called Charles.

Brendan O’Neill

The shameful double standards of the Corbyn crew

Imagine if there existed a photograph of Boris Johnson next to a man whose associates subsequently axed to death four imams in a mosque. Just imagine it. Imagine how much discussion there would be about the mainstreaming of Islamophobic fascism. About how Boris was enabling murderous racial hatred. About how the Tory party was falling to an extremist loathing of Muslims. Corbynistas in particular would never stop talking about it. Everything they wrote about Boris, forever, would mention his rubbing of shoulders with a man who was cool with the slaughter of imams. Of course, no such photograph of Boris exists. But a photograph of Jeremy Corbyn in a similar position exists. It was revealed in the Times this morning.

Katy Balls

Theresa May’s social housing plans are another step away from Cameronism

These days Theresa May has less time to spend distancing herself from her predecessor. With blue-on-blue warfare rife and her premiership at a continual rocky patch, the Prime Minister's priorities tend to be getting through the day/week rather than killing David Cameron's pet projects. However, this week's social housing green paper serves as a reminder of the difference in their approaches. After leaving the coalition government, Nick Clegg recalled a senior Conservative minister telling him: 'I don't understand why you keep going on about the need for more social housing – it just creates Labour voters.' This dismissive attitude to social housing could be found in the policies the Cameron government adopted.

Katy Balls

May’s exit strategy | 16 August 2018

There’s an advertising campaign for the Swiss Alps at the moment urging people to go hiking there ‘and find the route back to yourself’. As Theresa May treks through the mountains of Switzerland on her annual summer holiday, Tory MPs are wondering what route she might find, or what life-changing ideas she might return with. The Prime Minister’s infamous decision to call a snap election occurred to her while hiking in Snowdonia. A year on from that vote, her problems have only increased — but she has clung on. The question, for her and for her party, is how much longer she clings on for. The standout achievement of the May premiership has so far been her extraordinary durability.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Gordon Brown’s selective praise

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is at the Edinburgh International Book Festival today to give a talk called ‘First Among Equals.’ Audience members will be charged £12 to hear Brown’s ‘painfully honest account’ of the ‘highs and lows’ of his political career. Alas, Mr S has reasons to believe though that Brown may be offering a rather specific account when he speaks today. On the festival website he is hailed as ‘one of the most formidable chancellors that Britain has ever seen’ by an unnamed political journalist. It’s a quote Brown has used once before, to promote his book My Life, Our Times which came out in November 2017. But who is the journalist, and where does the quote come from?

Katy Balls

How damaging will the latest anti-Semitism row be for Jeremy Corbyn?

Will the latest anti-Semitism row damage Jeremy Corbyn? The row over the Munich memorial rumbles on for another day following the Labour leader's refusal to apologise for attending a wreath-laying ceremony for members of the terrorist organisation behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. Although there are photos of Corbyn holding a wreath near those gravestones – and he previously said that he laid a wreath at the ceremony – he says there were multiple wreaths and multiple people moving wreaths. His wreath was for the victims of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation base in 1985. Not helping matters is the fact that Corbyn appears to have changed his story a number of times. However, Corbyn's main supporters have been keen to show that they are standing by their man.

Steerpike

Momentum’s Boris stunt backfires

Oh dear. As many politicians have discovered, trial by Twitter rarely ends well. And neither does poll by Twitter. Where in a normal poll, factors such as sample size and demographic can be controlled, these thing are taken out of control when you ask the Twitterati to decide. Despite this, many campaigners see this set-up as actually beneficial to their aims – starting polls on issues they believe to know their own followers' opinions on already in order to prove a point. So, spare a thought for the pro-Corbyn grassroots organisation Momentum. They asked their followers whether Boris Johnson ought to have the Conservative whip withdrawn for comparing women wearing the full face veil to letterboxes.

Steerpike

Watch: Chris Williamson blames BBC for wreath-gate

Poor old Chris Williamson. Jeremy Corbyn’s changing story over whether he did or didn’t lay a wreath on the graves of the Munich terrorists must make keeping up difficult for his loyal and faithful follower. Which perhaps explains why Williamson was somewhat lost for words when he was challenged on the subject on Newsnight last night: https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1029486867924697088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Evan Davis: 'A wreath was laid by your party leader at the graves of four members of Black September – true or false?' Chris Williamson: 'Jeremy was there to lay a wreath...' ED: 'You’re unable to answer that question and that is why this fuss goes on.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

How Corbyn’s opponents made it easier for him to dodge scrutiny

Benjamin Netanyahu's intervention in the row about Jeremy Corbyn and the memorial wreath has been incredibly handy for the Labour leadership. The Israeli Prime Minister said Corbyn's presence at the wreath laying for members of the group behind the 1972 Munich terror attack 'deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone - left, right and everything in between'. A number of Labour MPs have been calling on Corbyn to show contrition in order to resolve the ongoing row, but instead the party leader decided to hit back, accusing Netanyahu of 'false' claims and pointing to 'the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza'.

Steerpike

Listen: Chris Williamson on ‘alleged’ Munich terrorist

Jeremy Corbyn is facing mounting criticism over whether he did or didn’t lay a wreath at the grave of one of the Munich terrorists, but helpfully his acolytes are staying faithful. Still, while the loyalty of the likes of Chris Williamson isn’t in question, Mr S isn’t so sure that their support is actually all that helpful. In an interview on The World at One this afternoon, Williamson appeared to refer to one of the Munich killers as an ‘alleged terrorist’: But Williamson didn't stop there, going on to compare Corbyn to Nelson Mandela... Oh dear. Still, at least that should take some of the heat off Corbyn for a bit...

Steerpike

Watch: Jeremy Corbyn turns nasty over wreath-gate

Did he or didn’t he? The question, of course, is whether Jeremy Corbyn laid a wreath or not for one of the Munich terrorists. Given the Labour leader’s shifting position on the subject it’s somewhat difficult to keep track. But Corbyn, it seems, has run out of patience with those confused about his wreath-laying antics. Here he is rolling his eyes at a reporter who tried to question him on the subject: https://twitter.com/VJRichMcCarthy/status/1029351739005313024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Corbyn: I was there when the wreaths were laid, that’s pretty obvious. There were many others who were witness to that, I witnessed many others laying wreaths. Reporter: Did you lay the wreath?

Ross Clark

Falling unemployment marks another black day for Project Fear

It is another black day for Project Fear. The latest employment figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show yet another fall in unemployment, to 1.36 million or 4 per cent of the adult population. There have never been more people employed in the UK economy, and the unemployment rate is at its lowest since early 1975. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, according to George Osborne’s crystal ball. In May 2016, a month before the referendum, he warned us all that should we vote to leave the EU we could expect unemployment to rise by up to 500,000 within two years. Admittedly, George himself has bagged a few jobs since then, but I don’t think his work ethic is wholly responsible for the rise in employment.

Tom Goodenough

Police treating Westminster car crash as terrorist incident

A man in his twenties has been arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences after a car crashed into security barriers outside Parliament. A number of cyclists and pedestrians were injured in the incident which took place at 7.37am today. Armed police officers were filmed leading a man in handcuffs away from the scene. The Met Police's assistant commissioner Neil Basu confirmed that the incident is being treated as a terrorism. He said: 'Given that this appears to be a deliberate act, the method and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident and the investigation is being led by officers from the Counter Terrorism Command. Officers are searching the vehicle and no other weapons have been found at this time.