Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Lance Forman

What my cod's roe saga reveals about British decline

If you want a miniature parable of British decline – a sort of Aesop’s fable for the age of the over-regulated state – allow me to present one and a half tonnes of perfectly good cod’s roe, currently trapped in a bureaucratic purgatory of our own making. My company smokes fish. We have done so for more than a century, which is to say we have some experience in identifying what is edible and what is not. Last October, as we’ve done many times before, we purchased £20,000 worth of Icelandic cod’s roes via our long-standing Norwegian supplier. They were processed in an approved EU plant, stored in an approved

Sam Leith

What binds the celebrities featured in the Epstein files

The new naughty list just dropped, as the kids say these days. The pre-Christmas release of the Epstein files, or at least some of them – elves heavily redacted – has brought much-needed good cheer to all of us. Not every red face on Christmas afternoon will be down to port and brandy this year. And the cast of characters – Mick Jagger, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, Richard Branson and all the rest – sounds like the guest list for the worst Graham Norton Christmas Special ever. The release of the files as they stand, though, seems to me to add fuel to all sorts of conspiracy theories.

Ed Husain

How Britain can take on the Islamist threat 

I am writing this article from abroad because I do not currently feel safe in Britain, the country of my birth and where I grew up. Why? Because I have written books and articles exposing and warning about the danger of Islamism in the UK. I am not alone in feeling threatened. Many of our media organisations, universities, charities, government departments and judges live in fear of offending an extremist underworld, which has been strengthened by the disaster of the Israel-Gaza war. The Bondi beach attack is only its latest manifestation. Ten years ago, the Conservative government was willing to confront Islamist extremism when it commissioned a review into the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ross Clark

Would promising to rejoin the EU save Labour?

Could Labour, under a new leader, go into the next election with a manifesto promising to start negotiations to rejoin the EU? It is beginning to look like a real possibility given Wes Streeting’s assertion that Britain should rejoin the customs union. If Britain were to become part of the customs union, it would make questionable sense to remain outside the single market, and if Britain were to rejoin the single market, it could be sold as little more than a tidying-up exercise to apply for full membership of the EU.   Streeting’s remarks have left Keir Starmer – who spent months in opposition calling for a second referendum which he

Freddy Gray

Why is the West ignoring Jimmy Lai?

15 min listen

Father Robert Sirico joins Freddy Gray to discuss the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai – the British passport holder and Hong Kong media tycoon facing life in jail for opposing the Chinese Communist Party. Sirico reflects on Lai’s rise from poverty, his Catholic faith, the collapse of freedoms in Hong Kong, and why the West has failed to mount a serious campaign for his release.

Jonny Ford

How a late lunch can save Britain

Britain doesn’t have a productivity problem. We have a productivity mystery. The financial crisis was 17 years ago but still output per hour remains stagnant. The UK economy is predicted to grow at a slower rate than previously expected from next year, according to a November forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility. It lowered its growth estimates to 1.4 per cent in 2026 and 1.5 per cent for the following four years. If they’re right, it could leave a huge hole in the public purse. No wonder economists and politicians are scratching their heads. But there might be a straightforward solution to Britain’s productivity problem: more workers need to opt

David Werdiger

Bondi Beach and Australia’s failed multiculturalism

I knew two of the people murdered at Bondi Beach. That beach has always felt like Australia distilled: sun-bleached, open, and unserious in the best way. It is where the country goes to exhale. You don’t brace yourself at Bondi Beach. You assume the day will end the way it began. My late father once thought that too. A Holocaust survivor, he arrived in Australia after the war with just a suitcase in his hand and a number on his arm. Australia took him in without interrogation of his past loyalties or beliefs, expecting only that whatever horrors he had fled would not be imported here. He honoured that bargain,

Julie Burchill

It's hard to take the Palestine Action hunger strikers seriously

The phrase ‘the silly led by the sinister’ was originally used by the late, singularly great Christopher Hitchens to describe the ‘Not In My Name’ anti-war coalition of the early 2000s. But in the spirit of the ‘if you’re going to steal, steal from the best’ quote generally attributed to Pablo Picasso, I’ve used it about various loony-tunes types since then; the extreme eco-lobby come to mind in particular, with their gnarled humanity-hating Malthusian theoreticians and their youthful soup-flinging activists. But on their recent showing, I don’t think it fits anyone as well as those Hamas maniacs who want to see the Middle East purged of every Jew – and

Stephen Daisley

America is increasingly worried about free speech in the UK

Of the many political headaches Keir Starmer does not need right now, further American warnings that Britain is suppressing speech are pretty high on the list.  Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, another prominent US public official has voiced concerns about a crackdown on freedom of expression in the UK – and a Supreme Court justice no less.  Justice Amy Coney Barrett was interviewed on Sunday’s edition of Bishop Barron Presents, a podcast hosted by Catholic prelate and public intellectual Robert Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. During a discussion of the purpose of law, the risks of using legislation and courts to inculcate virtue, and the maintenance of pluralism, Justice Barrett

Michael Gove

With Michael Gove

30 min listen

Surely needing no introduction to Spectator listeners, Michael Gove has been a staple of British politics for almost two decades. As a Christmas treat, he joins Lara Prendergast to talk about his memories of food including: the ‘brain food’ he grew up on in Aberdeen, his favourite Oxford pubs and the dining culture of 1980s Fleet Street. He also shares his memorable moments from his time in politics from dining with Elizabeth Hurley and Donald Trump’s first state visit to his reflections on food policy as a former Education and also Environment Secretary. Plus – what has he made of the Spectator’s parties since joining as editor? Produced by Patrick

Sunday

Melanie McDonagh

Banning trail hunting is part of Labour’s endless culture war

If you actually wanted to create a law that would genuinely transform animal welfare in the UK, the sane approach would be to follow the example of the organisation Compassion in World Farming. They call for farming practices that ‘enable animals to engage in their natural behaviours as identified by scientific research’ (not that we need much scientific research to know what makes chickens and pigs happy). We would then have to pay and protect farmers to provide that kind of husbandry. It would be a very big, very expensive ask. The provisions in the current animal welfare bill banning colony cages for hens and farrowing pens fall way short

Peter Lilley

There’s nothing Christian about trapping people on benefits

What in Heaven’s name should we do about the benefit bill? And what on earth can be done about it? Both those questions were recently addressed by Kemi Badenoch’s thoughtful Wilberforce lecture on ‘The influence of Christianity on Conservative thinking.’ In the lecture, Badenoch asserted that ‘work is good for the soul as well as the economy’; affirmed ‘the Christian recognition that we all have duties to ourselves, our families, and communities’; recognised that ‘the state matters – no decent society abandons those with severe needs’ and quoted St Paul’s epistle to Timothy that: ‘Anyone that does not provide for his own household … is worse than an unbeliever.’ Hard-working people

Heddwen Uruska

Why Gen Z is relying on death to pay for life

What’s wrong with planning a once-in-a-lifetime holiday? Or dreaming of buying your first home? Nothing, of course – unless it hinges on the death of your elderly mother. Increasingly, it seems, many people’s future plans depend on such family tragedies. The sorrow of losing a loved one, soothed by an inheritance pay cheque. Friends speak openly about moving into a bigger house once their inheritance ‘comes through’ There is something unpalatable about the idea of using a deceased relative’s estate to repay a loan you chose to borrow, or finally booking the cruise that has been sitting in your Tui basket since your father’s first dose of chemo. But more

Dominic Sandbrook

Christmas II: Dominic Sandbrook, Philip Hensher, Steve Morris, Christopher Howse, Michael Hann & Mary Killen

41 min listen

On this week’s special Christmas edition of Spectator Out Loud – part two: Dominic Sandbrook reflects on whether Lady Emma Hamilton is the 18th century’s answer to Bonnie Blue; Philip Hensher celebrates the joy of a miserable literary Christmas; Steve Morris argues that an angel is for life, not just for Christmas; Christopher Howse ponders the Spectator’s enduring place in fiction; Michael Hann explains what links Jeffrey Dahmer to the Spice Girls; and, the Spectator’s agony aunt Mary Killen – Dear Mary herself – answers Christmas queries from Emily Maitlis, Elizabeth Day, Rory Stewart and an anonymous Chief Whip of Reform UK.  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Saturday

David Shipley

Britain shouldn't rely on foreigners to guard our prisons

Shabana Mahmood’s plans to reduce migration hit a setback yesterday. It emerged that around 2,500 foreign national prison officers who no longer qualified to remain in the UK will have their visas extended. The officers, most of whom are from West Africa, were going to have to leave their jobs because the new skilled worker scheme requires that people earn £41,700 a year, above the level which most early-career prison officers are paid. Just six weeks ago it seemed that the Home Secretary wouldn’t budge, but it seems that concerted lobbying by Justice Secretary David Lammy and prisons minister Lord Timpson, along with an intervention from the Prime Minister, has

Ian Acheson

Britain's justice system has failed Andrew Clarke

In 42 months’ time we will be at the start of yet another summer that Andrew Clarke will never see. That’s the amount of time the law has decided Mr Clarke’s killer Demiesh Williams, convicted of manslaughter, should spend in custody before being released on license. Our sentencing guidelines and the judge interpreting them have failed to deliver justice that is recognisable to many people outraged at that leniency. That is a dangerous place to be in an already low-trust society. The facts are that Mr Clarke and Williams got involved in an altercation at a south east London Sainsbury’s in March this year after Williams pushed into a queue in

Mark Galeotti

Macron is right: Europe should talk to Putin

‘Macron is right’ is not one of those statements I honestly expected to find myself writing, but when the French president said, ‘I think it will become useful again to talk to Vladimir Putin,’ after the cup-half-full negotiations in Brussels over continued financial aid to Ukraine, he was spot on. ‘I believe that it’s in our interest as Europeans and Ukrainians to find the right framework to re-engage this discussion’ with Moscow, he said, and that this should be done ‘in coming weeks’. Of course, there are some who equate talking to Putin as somehow legitimising him, or meaning the same thing as negotiations. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas

Theo Hobson

We shouldn’t shy away from the question of national identity

Please remember not to talk about religion or politics over the turkey this Christmas. It can cause terrible rows. One of the functions of the BBC, especially Radio 4, is to host such discussions, so that we don’t have to. The Moral Maze is still worth a listen, from time to time. This week, some of the panel and some of the guests were half-daring to discuss a profoundly difficult question. Is ethno-nationalism something we should condemn? Or should we be realistic, that it is an inevitable component of politics? We are schooled in the evasion of this question. The evasion is largely benign. For there is a fine line between brave

Neal Pollack

The Epstein files will disappoint Donald Trump's critics

When I was a boy, Friday nights were time for a new episode of The Rockford Files, a show about a hapless ex con PI, played by James Garner, who lived on a boat in a California marina. Fifty years later, Friday nights are for a different kind of files: The Epstein Files. Usually, the government saves Friday evenings for the kinds of things it doesn’t want the news to cover, and the Friday before Christmas is generally a good place to hide. But in the age of the instantaneous news cycle in a world without a Santa Claus, they’re not going to get their holiday wish. This week’s episode of The

William Atkinson

Has Badenoch bounced back?

Much like Alan Partridge, Kemi Badenoch hopes to have bounced back. After an unsure start to her first year as Tory leader – hopeless interviews and PMQs showings, and a local election shellacking – she now seems to be on a roll. Her two recent set piece speeches at conference and responding to the Budget were successes, her parliamentary performances have been more assured, and she can now get through an interview without declaring war on her ethnic enemies. The Conservatives are no longer spiralling towards fourth; her personal ratings have ticked up to the dizzying heights of -14. For the first time since Badenoch became leader, I feel a