Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Saturday

Gavin Mortimer

JD Vance is right. Europe is in peril

On Wednesday evening, a man threw a fragmentation grenade into a café in Grenoble, leaving 15 people injured. The following day, an Afghan shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ drove his car into a crowd in Munich and injured more than two dozen. The previous week in Brussels, two men strolled through a metro station firing bursts from Kalashnikovs – one of several shootings that day in the Belgian capital, which wounded three people. It is believed that Wednesday’s attack in Grenoble was the latest in the drugs war being fought across the country by rival cartels from North Africa. Last year, I described Grenoble as ‘one of the most dangerous places in

James Heale

Kemi vs Nigel: who would Thatcher have backed?

15 min listen

It is 50 years since Margaret Thatcher was elected Conservative leader, and at this week’s shadow cabinet meeting, Lord Forsyth was invited as a guest speaker to mark the occasion. He noted the similarities between 1975 and 2025. Back then, the party was broke, reeling from defeat and facing the fallout from a reorganisation of local government. But, despite threadbare resources, Thatcher managed to rebuild to win power four years later. ‘You have the potential to do the same,’ Forsyth told Kemi Badenoch. However, when asked if a young Thatcher would have been drawn to the right’s insurgent Reform Party, Nigel Farage replied, ‘I don’t think there’s any doubt about

Eliot Wilson

Starmer is in denial about the high cost of defence

It is hard to think of a recent prime minister whose first months in office have seen defence in the headlines more often than Sir Keir Starmer. Even John Major, coming to power in 1990 as a United States-led coalition prepared to eject Saddam Hussein’s army from Kuwait, was dealing with an expeditionary adventure which soon concluded. Labour has come to power against the backdrop of a grindingly bloody and entrenched war in Ukraine and furious military activity in the Middle East. Starmer had also made choices: he had committed to an immediate strategic defence review. His party’s manifesto had also tried evasively to counter the Conservatives’ pledge of more

Sergey Maidukov

Could Ukraine descend into civil war?

US President Donald Trump has announced that peace talks with Putin are set to begin ‘immediately’. While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that he has not yet seen a ready US plan for ending the war, it seems that we are moving towards the final stages of the conflict. At some point the guns will fall silent, and the leaders of Ukraine and Russia will sign a peace agreement. But what happens then? Opinions vary, and not everyone is optimistic about how the war will wrap up. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Polish President Andrzej Duda warned that the war’s end could trigger a surge in international

Clifford Beal

Bring back shortwave!

Aeschylus is credited first for the time-worn aphorism that in war, truth is the first casualty. But in the next major conflict, truth could find itself joined by virtually all information.  As a society at war, we face becoming blind, deaf and dumb once the balloon goes up. Britain and most western countries have put all their eggs in one large basket: that of digital communications. In a time of global conflict, this could be a risky and painful prospect. The rise of digital communications has been a boon but has also opened society to grave risks through cyber war. Ukraine found this out in the first years of its

Mark Galeotti

How seriously will Putin take Ukraine negotiations?

We have no idea whether Vladimir Putin is serious about peace negotiations with Ukraine. He may simply be going through the motions while enjoying the spectacle of the West engaging in mutual recrimination and performative outrage, or he may genuinely feel there are grounds for some kind of agreement. More likely, given his track record as a tactician rather than a strategist, he is simply seeing what opportunities emerge. Nonetheless, his choices of format, venue and representatives may give us some sense of his intentions. His lead negotiator at abortive talks in Istanbul in 2022, for example, was Vladimir Medinsky. A former minister of culture, his main claim to fame

Friday

Gwythian Prins

Donald Trump has blown apart America’s failing status quo

Political science uses anaemic jargon. The ‘Overton Window’ frames all topics that at any given moment are deemed to be politically respectable. It moves. However, since Trump’s inauguration on 20 January we need more robust imagery. Potus47 – Mr Trump – is the captain of an ice-bound ship and he has been dynamiting the pack ice to get it free. Sequenced, linked charges have been exploded to create open water leads. The shock waves have global importance. Tariff threats were one stick of dynamite that detonated, particularly those levied on China to push back its gaming of the era of globalisation since the PRC was admitted to the WTO in 2001.

Jawad Iqbal

JD Vance’s criticism of Europe is hard to take

JD Vance certainly knows how to grab people’s attention. In a landmark address to the Munich Security Conference, he accused Europe’s leaders of being scared of voters and failing to defend democracy. In a fiery speech, he criticised Europeans for abandoning their roots as ‘defenders of democracy’ and of shutting down dissenting voices. Vance even went on to claim that  the demise of free speech posed a far bigger threat to Europe than Russia. Harsh words indeed. Vance’s criticisms came as something of a shock to his audience, who had been expecting to hear more from him about the US administration’s priorities for the transatlantic alliance, military spending, and President Trump’s approach

James Heale

James Heale, Andrew Kenny, Lara Prendergast, Ysenda Maxtone Graham and Nina Power

41 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale wonders what Margaret Thatcher would make of today’s Conservatives (1:28); Andrew Kenny analyses South Africa’s expropriation act (6:13); Lara Prendergast explores the mystery behind The Spectator’s man in the Middle East, John R Bradley (13:55); Ysenda Maxtone Graham looks at how radio invaded the home (30:13); and, Nina Power reviews two exhibitions looking at different kinds of rage (35:13).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Coffee House

Read: JD Vance’s full speech on the fall of Europe

Here’s a full transcript of the speech that JD Vance gave at the Munich Security Conference this afternoon. One of the things that I wanted to talk about today is, of course, our shared values. And, you know, it’s great to be back in Germany. As you heard earlier, I was here last year as United States senator. I saw Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and joked that both of us last year had different jobs than we have now. But now it’s time for all of our countries, for all of us who have been fortunate enough to be given political power by our respective peoples, to use it wisely

James Heale

The UK’s balancing act over Trump’s ‘Ukraine peace plan’

13 min listen

Leaders from around the world are gathering at the Munich Security Conference, with the UK represented by Foreign Secretary David Lammy. All attention has turned to Ukraine, given statements this week by President Trump that he had spoken to Putin (and later Zelensky) about ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Trump’s statements, for example that NATO membership should be off the table, put him at odds with European allies. The UK signed a joint statement with leaders from France, Germany and others, that Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity are unconditional. Is the UK walking a tight-rope between the US and Europe? Where does this leave the NATO alliance? And, with a strategic

Steerpike

Vance: Free speech ‘in retreat’ in UK

To Germany, where the Munich Security Conference is in full swing. The city is hosting a number of political bigwigs – although Prime Minister Keir Starmer didn’t make an appearance – including US Vice President JD Vance. Addressing the conference this afternoon, the VP gave a rather punchy speech, first taking aim at Nato before claiming that ‘in Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat’. Crikey. Using the example of abortion buffer zones to describe how the ‘religious liberties’ of Britons were being curbed, the VP stressed his concerns about the role of the state in European countries and the UK. Going on, Vance told the

Max Booth

Feminist coding and Armenian fashion week – my findings from Spaff

The Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding, or Spaff, has been launched this week to shine a light on government waste. To help track down examples of frivolous spending, The Spectator has created a search engine that allows anyone to look at government transactions, foreign aid projects and procurement contracts all in one place for the first time. If you’re like me, and your eyes light up at the idea of rooting out government profligacy, the search engine is a treat. Here’s what I’ve found so far: Let’s start with the Arts Council, which has burnt through a tremendous amount of taxpayer cash. Particular funding highlights are a feminist creative coding

Steerpike

£1m spent on 2024 Jobcentre translation services

Well, well, well. It turns out that just under £1 million was spent on Jobcentre translation last year, with £882,118 splashed on language assistance including the International Pension Service. The figure was revealed in a parliamentary answer from the Department for Work and Pensions to Reform’s Rupert Lowe this week – who has called on the department to bin off all of its foreign language interpretation services. The revelation comes after it emerged that interpreters for benefits claimants have cost the British taxpayer almost £30 million over the last five years. As reported by the Telegraph, £27 million has been spent on language help since 2019. The highest yearly spend

Lisa Haseldine

Starmer backs Nato membership for Ukraine

Keir Starmer has reassured the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of Britain’s ‘commitment to Ukraine being on an irreversible path to Nato’ membership. The Prime Minister made the comments in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart this morning. This appears to be a rebuttal of comments made by senior members of US President Donald Trump’s team stating that Nato membership for Kyiv in the aftermath of the war with Russia is unrealistic.  Starmer’s pledge to Zelensky comes after the US defence secretary Pete Hegseth declared on Wednesday during a defence summit in Brussels that ‘the United States does not believe that Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of

Eliot Wilson

Why didn’t Starmer go to Munich?

The Munich Security Conference, which this week gathers in the Bavarian capital for its 61st edition, is a big deal in defence and foreign policy circles. When it first convened in 1963, there were just 60 delegates, but that has now grown to more than 350 heads of state, government and international organisations, ministers, senior military leaders, parliamentarians, business leaders and others. The incoming chairman of the conference is former Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg. Sir Keir Starmer is not among the attendees. While Boris Johnson gave speeches in 2021 and 2022, and Rishi Sunak addressed the meeting in 2023, the current prime minister will be represented by David Lammy, John

Michael Evans

Why Britain is crucial to Ukraine peace talks

Britain has the opportunity to become a master in tightrope diplomacy between Donald Trump and an increasingly alarmed Europe after the 47th president’s blitz of foreign policy announcements. To say that European leaders have been hyperventilating over the dramatic chess move made by Trump in his 90-minute phone call with Vladimir Putin is to put it mildly. Trump has been accused of appeasement a la Neville Chamberlain and his paper of peace following the US president’s seeming surrender to Putin’s two key demands to end the war in Ukraine: permanent retention of ground seized and no future membership of Nato for his suffering neighbour. Horrified leaders and politicians in Europe have

Steerpike

Assisted dying bill could see ‘death czar’ judge cases

Back to the assisted dying bill which, it would appear, seems to be dying a slow death itself. The legislation is losing support after an amendment was introduced by its sponsor Kim Leadbeater – which removes the need for a high court judge to approve cases – ruffled feathers, with the Sun newspaper now coming out against the plans. Meanwhile some unsavoury discussions about the bill’s misuse have left onlookers feeling rather uncomfortable about the whole thing. Last night, the full wording of the amendment was published. Despite Leadbeater’s previous insistence that the role of high court judges in the euthanasia process is ‘really, really important’, the alteration would remove

Stephen Pollard

Europe and the death of Nato

There has been no more effective and successful defensive alliance in history than Nato. The unity and determination of Nato’s members meant the Soviet Union understood that the doctrine of ‘Massive Retaliation’ was real: if they attacked, Nato would respond with nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union did not attack. But it is clear from events this week – and, in truth, has been clear for some years – that Nato is now effectively dead as a serious force for defence and deterrence, snuffed out by the myopia and weakness of the European political class. Russia’s invasions of Ukraine, first in 2014 and then in 2022, demonstrate how enfeebled deterrence has

James Hanson

Donald Trump is making the same mistake as Neville Chamberlain

It is easy to forget how popular Neville Chamberlain was in the autumn of 1938. Proclaiming ‘peace in our time’ after signing the Munich Agreement, he was heralded as the deal-maker supreme. A leader who’d averted needless bloodshed and whose critics were merely warmongering naysayers. You don’t need me to tell you the rest of the story, but you might have thought its lessons wouldn’t be so easily forgotten. Today it is Donald Trump casting himself as the bringer of peace to continental Europe. Posting on his Truth Social platform, the president said he’d spoken with Vladimir Putin, and that they two men had ‘agreed to have our respective teams