Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Saturday

Chris Reiter and Will Wilkes

German reunification never really happened

It’s not easy for Germany to celebrate itself. But on Friday, the country tried. At the official celebration festivities for the Day of German Unity, the city of Saarbrucken near the French border hosted musicians, breakdancers, acrobats, magicians, and oddly, two actors dressed as a ‘talking sofa’ to entertain visitors. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the official head of state of the Federal Republic, spoke, alongside Chancellor Friedrich Merz. French President Emmanuel Macron also took part, to underscore the European dimension of Germany’s reunification. Notably, Angela Merkel, the only chancellor born in East Germany, and Joachim Gauck, the only federal president from the former communist ‘new states’, were not present – absences that highlight how Germany is

Lloyd Evans

Obsolete message: Led By Donkeys in conversation, reviewed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVdR7DvLbjw The founding members of Led By Donkeys granted a public interview last Thursday at a theatre in Walthamstow. They were questioned by Guardian columnist Zoe Williams. Seated on squashy sofas, the four men looked like an ageing boyband who met at public school. James Sadri, suave and handsome, seems to be the boss. Ollie Knowles is the ebullient charmer. Ben Stewart, who scowls as he talks, is the grumpy technical wizard. And Will Rose, who says very little, seems to be the token northerner. The Donkeys specialise in harmless political pranks. Their approach is new but their content is stale. In their latest stunt, they projected a short film about Donald Trump and

Ghaffar Hussain

How we can prevent further anti-semitic atrocities

The atrocious attack on a community of peaceful Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in Manchester yesterday shocked us all. But it was also the predictable outcome of converging trends that British society has either ignored or failed to stop. Since 7 October 2023, extremist organisations such as Isis and al Qaeda have repeatedly called for violence against Jewish communities in Europe. Isis even published an article called ‘Practical steps to fight the Jews’ in its al-Naba outlet that encouraged attacks on synagogues in Europe. This is not passive propaganda but a deliberate framing of Jewish people as complicit in foreign conflicts, followed by explicit calls for violence – often by lone actors

Lucy Dunn

Why is Scottish Labour so upbeat?

Scottish Labour may be down but they’re not out. The polls have not been moving in their favour over the last few months and on the eve of Labour’s conference in Liverpool a Norstat survey for the Sunday Times brought more bad news: never mind losing out on first place at the 2026 Holyrood election, Scottish Labour could crash into third next year thanks to a surge in support for Nigel Farage’s leaderless tartan outfit. It would be a pretty humiliating state of affairs.  Yet despite all this, the mood in Scottish Labour is oddly buoyant, even upbeat. At the conference’s Scots Night, the Prime Minister made a quick cameo

Gareth Roberts

So long, G-A-Y

The G-A-Y Bar in Soho’s Old Compton Street is to close for good this weekend. It opened in the mid-1990s, spinning off from the Saturday club night of the same name at the nearby Astoria (itself long gone, thanks to Crossrail). Entrepreneur Jeremy Joseph, who has run the ‘brand’ since its inception, posted the news on Instagram: ‘Old Compton Street has been my home and my work. When I opened G-A-Y Bar, it was to be one of the safest and most proudly LGBT streets – a place where you could be who you are and feel safe. For me, Old Compton Street has lost that LGBT identity. Old Compton

James Heale

Inside London's embassy parties

Like the new school year, ambassadors to Britain usually change each September. Among those leaving this summer are the German, Swiss and Canadian representatives; their successors will shortly begin limbering up on the cocktail circuit, eager to make their social mark. The man they will have to beat is the US ambassador, Warren Stephens. His great advantage is Winfield House, his palatial private residence, which boasts the second-largest garden in the capital after Buckingham Palace. Every year, the London elite pile in here to toast the Fourth of July. At this year’s Independence bash, Stephens made his mark with spectacular fireworks and a star-spangled smorgasbord of food from across the

Sue Mitchell

The truth about life in migrant hotels

A string of fairy-lights is the only item dividing the hotel room Shayan, 12, shares with her 14-year-old brother, Roman. In her ‘half’ of the room – slightly larger than the single bed she sleeps in – is a neat stack of shoe boxes she uses for her notebooks, make-up and jewellery. When I visit, the room is airless: the blinds are drawn all day to stop outsiders from seeing in, and the windows are sealed shut for safety. The air conditioning doesn’t always work and, although the coast is only a few miles away, Shayan’s family rarely leave the hotel. ‘We’ve spent thousands of pounds just to get into

Andrew Fox

How Britain should help Europe build its 'drone wall'

When Defence Secretary John Healey announced that Britain would help build a European ‘drone wall’, he was right to push the idea of a curtain of British-made interceptor drones to guard Nato’s eastern flank. Recent Russian incursions have shown that business as usual is no longer enough. Now, the challenging part begins: turning those buzzwords into a functioning defence system before the next crisis tests the alliance. The impetus is obvious. In recent weeks, Europe has been prodded by a rash of incursions and ‘mystery drones’ over airports and military sites across the continent. Denmark and Sweden have both, in the past week, closed airspace in Copenhagen and Oslo, with the former

Robert Jenrick

Debate: what next for the British right?

30 min listen

The general election result of 2024 reflected – among other things – a collapse of trust among British voters in the Conservatives. How can the British right evolve so it learns lessons from the past and from across the pond, in order to win back its base? This is an excerpt from an event hosted by The Spectator and American Compass; a leading US think tank. The panel includes: Robert Jenrick MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and MP for Newark Miriam Cates, former MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge and GB News Presenter Gavin Rice, head of political economy at Onward Nick Timothy, MP for West Suffolk Henry Olsen, Senior

Friday

Nick Cohen

Why won't the Left call out anti-Semitism for what it is?

If they were from any other minority, no one on the left would have the slightest trouble denouncing the deaths of 53-year-old Adrian Daulby and 66-year-old Melvin Cravitz as the result of a lethal racist attack. A terrorist with the resonant name of Jihad Al-Shamie – talk about nominative determinism – went for them because they were Jews. That’s all there was to it. The assassin, a British citizen of Syrian heritage, showed his appreciation for this country by ramming his car into the grounds of the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in my home city of Manchester and stabbing any Jew he could find. He had never talked to them.

Damian Thompson

What can we expect from the first female Archbishop of Canterbury?

19 min listen

Dame Sarah Mullally has been announced as the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Previously the Bishop of London, she becomes the first woman to lead the Church in its almost 500 year history. She also had a 40 year career as a professional nurse, rising to be the most senior nurse in England and Wales. The Rev’d Marcus Walker, rector at St Bartholemew the Great in the City of London, joins Damian Thompson to react to the news – what can we expect from her leadership? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Steerpike

Watch: Lammy heckled at Manchester synagogue vigil

In Manchester, a vigil is taking place after Thursday’s horrific terror attack left two people killed and three seriously injured in hospital. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to do ‘everything’ in his power to protect Jewish people in Britain, condemning the ‘horrific’ terror attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has also paid her respects to the victims and their families – before, this morning, turning on pro-Palestine protestors.  And while new Justice Secretary David Lammy has also urged pro-Gaza protestors to ‘stop and stand back’ instead of joining planned marches this weekend, he has not been well received in Manchester.

Ross Clark

Kemi is right about the Climate Change Act

According to Theresa May, Kemi Badenoch’s promise to repeal the Climate Change Act is a ‘catastrophic mistake’. Writing for The Spectator today, Ed Shackle, who works for a market research firm called Public First, was adamant that the policy change won’t just degrade the planet or obliterate Lady May’s thin political legacy – it is a bad electoral error, too. Quoting one of his polls, he claims that 37 per cent of Conservative voters say they wouldn’t vote for a party which is not committed to reaching net zero. He also claimed: “The British public consistently backs energy infrastructure – even when it’s close to their homes.’ Not round my way, in Cambridgeshire. It

Paul Stott

We're making the same mistakes after the Manchester attack

The terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue – on the morning of Yom Kippur – can be described as a lot of things. Horrific, shocking, vile, but it was a not a surprise. Britain has been heading in this direction for many years. Jews in Manchester already knew they were potential targets While the 7/10 attacks, the worst slaughter of Jews since the Second World War, brought antisemitic terrorism into global focus, Jews in Manchester already knew they were potential targets. In 2012 a husband and wife from Oldham were jailed for an Al-Qaeda inspired plot to bomb Jewish buildings in Greater Manchester. In May 2024, three men appeared in court charged

Michael Gove

Manchester attack: Michael Gove on the rise of antisemitism

24 min listen

On today’s Coffee House Shots, Tim Shipman is joined by Michael Gove to reflect on the terrorist attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, which left two people dead. They discuss how the Jewish community has long warned of rising anti-Semitism, often forced to fund its own security, and how inflammatory rhetoric on recent pro-Palestinian marches has deepened the sense of vulnerability. Michael warns that Britain remains naive about Islamist ideology and risks only ever reacting to violence, rather than preventing it. While there are capable people in government and the security services, he says, real leadership is needed to confront the ideology that fuels attacks before more tragedies occur.

Adam James Pollock

Kemi's Northern Ireland Brexit blunder will continue to haunt her

Ahead of the Conservative party conference this weekend, party leader Kemi Badenoch has, once again, demonstrated her lack of suitability for the role she has found herself in. Speaking on the topic of Brexit in an interview with BBC News Northern Ireland, Badenoch mistakenly said that ‘last time I checked, Ireland, Northern Ireland did vote to leave’ the European Union. Badenoch may want to ‘check’ a little better next time, as Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union at the 2016 referendum, with only 44 per cent of the population voting in favour of leaving. Of course, the United Kingdom as a whole voted in favour of Brexit,

Robert King

What was Jeremy Corbyn doing in South Africa?

Jeremy Corbyn has spent a lifetime attaching himself to lost causes abroad and failed movements at home. Now, as the still-unnamed ‘Your Party’ continues to tear itself apart, Corbyn quietly slipped away from the domestic drama to South Africa and neighbouring Namibia, where he has been doing what he does best: surrounding himself with trade unionists, pro-Palestinian activists and any podcaster willing to lend him a microphone. For Corbyn, South Africa has long been a stage on which to project his political fantasies For Corbyn, South Africa has long been a stage on which to project his political fantasies. In the 1980s he was a fixture of the anti-Apartheid movement

Steerpike

Humza Yousaf: Manchester attack had ‘nothing to do with Islam’

What was your reaction to the attack on a synagogue in Manchester yesterday? Most right thinking people, you’d hope, simply recoiled in horror and dread on hearing the news that two Jews had been killed and three seriously injured in a terrorist attack on British soil. For the ‘The Centre for Media Monitoring’ (CfMM), an offshoot of the Muslim Council of Britain, though, it seems now is the perfect time to examine how the media is covering the attack. Last night, the body’s social media account tweeted out the front page of the Daily Mail, headlined: ‘He was an Islamic terrorist’. The paper pointed out that the attacker, Jihad Al-Shamie,

Philip Patrick

Japan's Asahi cyber attack is a national embarrassment

Could Japan be about to run out of beer? Or at least of one of its favourite brands Asahi, whose ‘Super Dry’ is the number one best seller in this nation of hop heads? This is the alarming and looming prospect in the country after a cyber attack on Asahi forced the company to close its production facilities. There are rumours of only a few days’ supply left in the convenience stores and izakayas (Japanese style pubs). If true, and if Asahi can’t solve the problem quickly, panic buying is a distinct possibility in a country with a per capita consumption of 34.5 litres a year. Then, with no indication

Steerpike

Shabana Mahmood slams 'un-British' pro-Palestine marches

The country is still reeling from the horrific attack that took place at a Manchester synagogue on Thursday morning. The car and knife attack left two victims dead and three seriously injured in hospital, while the suspect was shot and killed by police. More details have come to light since then: police have said they believe the attacker was Jihad Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to do ‘everything’ in his power to protect Jewish people in Britain, condemning the ‘horrific’ terror attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has also paid her respects to