Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Melanie McDonagh

What Ed Miliband got right on Syria

It’s not every day I spring to the defence of Ed Miliband, Secretary for Environment, Net Zero and all the rest of it. But for him to be taken to task for not backing the bombing of Syria back in 2013, as Wes Streeting cautiously does today, is actually to criticise him for his most statesmanlike act during his entire period as Leader of the Opposition. Miliband was given a rough ride by Nick Robinson on the BBC Today programme about it: would he be able to look the relatives of the unfortunate people murdered in the dictator’s prison in the eye and say that he does not regret not bombing

Alexander Larman

Prince Andrew’s Chinese ‘spy’ blunder is no surprise

It is fair to say that Prince Andrew has always had poor taste in friends. Notoriously, and reputation-shreddingly, he consorted with Jeffrey Epstein long after the latter’s disgrace. There is a rogue’s gallery of potentates and sheikhs who have been only too happy to provide what one royal biographer euphemistically called “alternative sources of income” for the not-so-grand old Duke of York. Yet today’s news that an alleged Chinese spy, who has now been banned from Britain, had close personal and financial links to Andrew is still, even by the standards of his previous behaviour, something of a marmalade-dropper. Yet again Andrew’s judgement has been tested and found lacking The

Ross Clark

GDP decline is not only Labour’s fault

Is the government going to create a recession out of thin air? This morning’s GDP figures from the Office of National Statistics are dire, showing that the economy contracted by 0.1 percent in October, following a similar fall in September. We are still a long way from a recession being officially called – that would only happen after two quarters of negative growth. Despite today’s figures, the economy still managed to grow by 0.1 per cent in the three months to October, so it wouldn’t be until next spring at the earliest that we could officially fall into recession. Nevertheless, it is remarkable how quickly that confidence has crumbled. A

Steerpike

Labour cabinet splits over Assad

Another day, another Labour drama. It now transpires that Sir Keir Starmer’s army is in turmoil over a previous Labour party’s response to Bashar al-Assad’s regime – with one current Cabinet Secretary taking a pop at another. Talk about trouble in paradise, eh? Appearing on BBC Question Time, Health Secretary Wes Streeting remarked that ‘if the West had acted faster, Assad would have been gone’. He went on: With hindsight, I think we can say, looking back on the events of 2013, that the hesitation of this country and the United States created a vacuum that Russia moved into and kept Assad in power for much longer. How curious –

Katy Balls

Economy shrinks in blow for Rachel Reeves

Another day, another piece of bad news for the chancellor. The economy shrank in October for the second month in a row. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show a 0.1 per cent drop despite speculation that the economy would return to growth following a fall in September. The ONS said pubs, restaurants and retail were among the sectors to report ‘weak’ months. Responding to the news, Rachel Reeves described the figure as ‘disappointing’ – but insisted the government has put in policies that will ‘deliver long-term economic growth’. However, this has not stopped the political attacks this morning. Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has described the fall in

Eliot Wilson

France’s defence spending debacle will infuriate Donald Trump

Donald Trump is right that some of Nato’s European members are essentially freeloaders. That these countries are holding talks about increasing the alliance’s target for defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP at its annual summit next June comes too little, too late. Countries like Germany and France have consistently underspent on defence, leaving Europe reliant on the United States as an ultimate guarantor of the continent’s security. When he takes office in January, Trump won’t stand for this. The political chaos in France is unlikely to reassure the president elect that Europe has got its act together when it comes to defence spending. The fall of Michel Barnier’s

Patrick West

There’s no such thing as a neutral centrist

Does religion matter in politics today? It certainly does, at least if you pose as someone who is neutral, as the BBC presenters do, or from the centre ground, or if you’re an avowed secularist. On BBC Radio 4 yesterday morning, Conservative MP Danny Kruger was asked how his stance on the Assisted Dying Bill was informed by his Christian beliefs. He said that it was, but hastened to add that many public Christians are in favour of the Bill, while many atheists oppose it. The MP for East Wiltshire has been questioned about the link between his faith and his politics before, and he will be asked again. It

Jonathan Spyer

What al-Jolani’s past can reveal about Syria’s future

In late February 2012 I was travelling through Syria’s Idleb province. I stayed for a few days in a town called Binnish, not far from the province’s capital. It was, at that time, under the tentative control of the newly hatched insurgency against the regime of Bashar Assad.   The young host of the place I was staying – I’ll call him ‘D’ – was connected to the fledgling structures of what at that time was widely known as the ‘Free Syrian Army’. But through a cousin of his he also had links to another group of fighters just getting organised in the town. These men were a little older than the FSA members,

Thursday

Oscar Edmondson

Labour vs the NIMBYs, plus are sandwiches ‘for wimps’?

16 min listen

Today Downing Street has continued its reset – that is definitely not a reset – by providing more details on Labour’s plan to cut the planning red tape and deliver a housing revolution. Their target is to build one and a half million new homes over the next five years by building on green belt land and giving councils mandatory targets. This has predictably been met with robust opposition from several groups who are concerned about the plan, which involves building on a green belt area the size of Surrey. Can Labour win its battle against the so-called NIMBYs (not in my backyard)? In other news, it is publication day

Steerpike

Scotland’s Labour voters support two-child cap, poll finds

To Scotland, where a new poll has revealed results the Nats may be rather unhappy to see. It now transpires that more Labour voters north of the border support the UK government’s two-child benefit cap than oppose it – just days after the SNP said they would scrap the policy in Scotland. How very interesting… A Norstat poll for The Sunday Times revealed that 34 per cent of Labour voters in Scotland oppose John Swinney’s move to abolish the two-child cap, while only 31 per cent support its reversal. Despite the Scottish Greens blasting the Conservative policy as ‘morally bankrupt’, the party’s voters were the biggest proponents of the policy

William Moore

Christmas Special 2024 with Rod Liddle, Lionel Shriver, Matthew Parris and Mary Wakefield

71 min listen

Welcome to a special festive episode of The Edition podcast, where we will be taking you through the pages of The Spectator’s Christmas triple issue. Up first: our review of the year – and what a year it has been. At the start of 2024, the outcome of the US election looked very different, the UK had a different Prime Minister, and The Spectator had a different editor! Luckily, The Spectator’s regular columnists are on hand to declare what they got right – and wrong – throughout the year, and whether they’re optimistic for 2025. Rod Liddle, Matthew Parris, Mary Wakefield and Lionel Shriver take us through everything from Trump to trans (03:24). Next: ‘Good riddance

Edward Howell

Pyongyang is keeping strangely silent on South Korea’s turmoil

North Korea has long been infamous for its hyperbolic rhetoric. While there are some subjects – such as the locations of its nuclear facilities – that it has so far managed to keep quiet on, the ongoing calls to oust South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, following his botched attempt to impose martial law last week has proved too irresistible for Pyongyang to hold back on for long. After all, in North Korea’s eyes, any attempt to delegitimise South Korea is one worth taking. North Korea’s week-long silence following Yoon’s bizarre invocation and revocation of martial law in the South last week was unusual. Pyongyang did not even conduct any missile

Nigel Jones

Have Syria’s rebels really reformed?

There were two scenes from Syria last night screened by the BBC and Channel 4 News that should give the Panglossian optimists hailing the birth of a ‘new Syria’ a pause for thought. In one, filmed at the Assad family mausoleum in Qardaha, near the port of Latakia, armed members of the Islamist HTS who now control most of the country were joyfully burning the coffins of Hafez al-Assad, the ruthless dictator who ruled Syria from 1970 until his death in 2000, and that of his elder son and heir apparent Bassil, whose death in a car crash in 1994 opened the way for the second Assad son Bashar’s rise

Steerpike

Scotland caves to UK puberty blocker ban

Well, well, well. It now transpires that the Scottish government will follow Westminster’s lead on the UK puberty blocker ban – after Health Secretary Wes Streeting told parliament that he would be extending the policy following the findings from Baroness Cass’s review. How very interesting… On Wednesday, the Health Secretary told MPs that the way the medications had been used was a ‘scandal’, adding he would continue on the medication block introduced by the Tories in May, noting: I know it won’t feel like it based on the decisions I’m taking today, but I really do care about this and so does this government. I am determined to improve the

Ross Clark

Ofgem’s standing charge crackdown is a win for the wealthy

At last some good news for owners of second homes: Ofgem has ordered electricity providers to offer tariffs which have no standing charges, but where instead householders pay more per unit of electricity consumed. True, it isn’t second-home owners which Ofgem had in mind when it came up with the idea, rather low income consumers whom it believes are losing out under the current system. But there is no question as to whom will be the biggest beneficiaries: people who only use their properties occasionally. If you visit your Cornish clifftop mansion for only four weeks a year you stand to make a substantial saving. Standing charges have become the

Laurie Wastell

Why Kemi Badenoch keeps being trounced on immigration

At yesterday Prime Minister’s Questions, for the second week running, Kemi Badenoch was savaged by Sir Keir Starmer on the key issue of immigration.  A fortnight ago, eye-watering ONS figures showed that we have added a city the size of Birmingham to our population, with most of the influx coming from outside Europe. This is down to Boris Johnson’s significant relaxation of visa requirements as part of his points-based ‘Global Britain’ immigration system. The numbers are so large they have even prompted Keir Starmer to deride the Tories for their ‘one-nation open border experiment’.  When Starmer made this barb at last week’s PMQs Badenoch lamely attempted to deflect – ‘I am

Danny Shaw

Can the gargantuan court backlog be fixed?

Just like London buses, you wait ages for a criminal justice review – and then three come along at once. First came the announcement of a sentencing review, led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke. Then there was a homicide review, to be conducted by the Law Commission. Now there will be a review of the criminal courts, with Sir Brian Leveson in charge. Billed as a ‘once in a generation’ review, the aim is to come up with ‘bold’ ideas to tackle the bulging backlog of trials in Crown Courts across England and Wales. The latest figures show there are over 73,000 outstanding cases, almost double the number five

Philip Patrick

Why did South Korea’s President Yoon declare martial law?

The aftershocks of last Tuesday’s declaration, and then cancellation, of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol continue to be felt by South Korea’s ruling elite. Every day brings a new development and fresh revelations in this shocking and somewhat bizarre episode, along with evidence of the deep fissures in what had seemed a stable and relatively harmonious society. Yoon survived an impeachment vote on 7 December, but will likely face another on Saturday. He is under police investigation and two attempts have reportedly been made to raid his parliamentary office. There have been protests and strikes (by metalworkers at Kia plants) in a push for his exit. He has

Neve Gordon

Israel must leave Syria

As I walked through Vienna last weekend, I happened upon several protests organised by Syrian refugees celebrating the downfall of Bashar al-Assad, the butcher from Damascus. People were singing, some even crying, as they rejoiced the end of the father-and-son al-Assad dictatorship, which had lasted 53 years.   The protestors had not yet seen the images of tens of thousands of released political prisoners, the slaughterhouses, or the underground torture chambers, but they had already seen enough. They were among the 12 million people who were displaced during the Syrian civil war and many of them undoubtedly had family members or close friends who had been among the over half million

James Heale

The role of political spouse has changed completely

The changing nature of political power was neatly demonstrated in Westminster yesterday. In the House of Lords, members debated Labour’s plans to purge parliament of its hereditary peers. Yet down the corridor in the Commons, that same principle seems alive and well. Ten Labour MPs are descended from former members, including scions of the Benn, Kinnock and Chamberlain families. The trend is certainly a cross-party one: a tenth of all Conservative MPs have had family members serve as Honourable Members. They include Victoria Atkins, Andrew Mitchell, Jerome Mayhew and Bernard Jenkin, whose fathers served as ministers under Mrs Thatcher. But the shift between the last parliament and this is the