Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Andrew Tettenborn

Why the WHO’s pandemic planning poses a threat to Britain

The fall-out from Covid continues. Its latest manifestations on the international stage are a draft pandemic preparedness treaty, soon to be formally published and opened for signature by the WHO, and an upcoming vote on proposals to amend the organisation’s International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR). The latter is a set of internationally binding rules for dealing with, among other things, pandemics. Neither text makes for gripping reading; both might look innocuous and almost uncontroversial. In fact, however, as a group of Tory MPs and peers from the all-party parliamentary group on pandemic response and recovery pointed out this week, they could carry considerable dangers for Britain’s sovereignty, freedom and democracy.  It is

Iain Macwhirter

Scotland’s pound shop Stasi

The Scottish government’s illiberal Hate Crime and Public Order Act isn’t even being enforced yet and already Police Scotland are being accused of behaving like a pound shop Stasi. The Conservative MSP, Murdo Fraser discovered last week that police had recorded him as a perpetrator of a ‘hate incident’ without informing him or giving him a chance to defend himself. An anonymous trans activist complained last year about a tweet in which the MSP had suggested that identifying as a non-binary was no more valid than ‘identifying as a cat’. He was not addressing any individual but responding to the Scottish government’s Non-Binary Action Plan. You might think a ‘non-crime

Isabel Hardman

The Waspi women won’t be compensated any time soon

If the ‘Waspi women’ (women against state pension inequality) were hoping that last week’s ombudsman report into the maladministration of the change to their pension age would lead to swift compensation, they will have been sorely disappointed by the government response yesterday. There wasn’t really a proper response to speak of, with Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride giving MPs what he described as an ‘interim update’ on the investigation. Neither, though, was there a call from the opposition for the government to get on and pay the compensation recommended by the parliamentary and health service ombudsman. Stride spent some time correcting what he called ‘inaccurate and misleading commentary since

Gavin Mortimer

Europe must tighten its borders to combat the Islamist threat

Europe is on a state of high alert after Friday’s Islamist attack in Moscow that left 137 concertgoers dead. France has raised its security alert to the highest level, and more soldiers will be deployed to patrol the streets and stand guard outside ‘sensitive sites’ including churches, synagogues and schools. President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Sunday that the group that carried out the Moscow attack, Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-K), an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State, had attempted to commit ‘several’ atrocities on French soil in recent months, including an attack in the city of Strasbourg. Will border controls be tightened? It would be futile. The Islamist threat

Freddy Gray

Trump’s legal troubles are paving his way to the White House

The Trump 2024 campaign’s fundraising email operations went into overdrive last weekend. ‘Dems threaten to seize Trump Tower,’ screamed one call to donate on Saturday. ‘Maniacs want to seize Trump Tower,’ read another. ‘If they seize Trump Tower…’ said a third. ‘Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower,’ added yet another.  The tone flitted from alarm to defiance. By Sunday, the message was: ‘Trump Tower will never be captured’ and ‘You’ll never get Trump Tower.’ And on Monday, after Trump was ordered to pay a mere $175 million (£138 million) bond in his civil fraud suit instead of the initial half billion, the campaign turned triumphant. ‘Trump Tower remains mine’ read an email

Nigel Jones

Was Russia right to torture the Moscow attackers?

The court appearance of the four men accused by Russia of carrying out the Moscow massacre of 137 innocent concert goers at the Crocus City Hall venue told its own grim story. All the suspects bore marks of torture: one was wearing a bandage on his ear, following reports that it may have been at least partially severed and forcibly fed to him during his interrogation; another was semi-conscious and appeared to be missing an eye. Meanwhile, a video did the rounds seemingly showing one of the men’s genitals hooked up to an electricity generator.  The footage of the battered men was shocking to tender western eyes, but hardly surprising:

Owen Matthews

The Moscow terror attack is Putin’s 9/11

The Crocus City Hall attack blindsided Putin’s vast security state. Employing nearly a million policemen, 340,000 national guards and over 100,000 spies, that apparatus has proved ruthlessly efficient at terrorising babushkas bringing flowers to Aleksei Navalny’s grave, tracking down lone bloggers and persecuting homosexuals. But as the Crocus attack demonstrated, the Kremlin’s securocrats are utterly incompetent at doing their actual job, which is to protect the lives of Russian citizens. Rather than keep a relentless watch for emerging threats from all over the region, Putin’s security chiefs have instead focused on only two tasks – repressing internal dissent, and stealing money.  Putin is locked into his own lies about Ukraine

Gareth Roberts

Let’s kick ‘racial justice’ out of the Church of England

Holy Week is the most important part of the year for many Christians, but it will come as little surprise that some members of the Church of England appear to be focusing on racial justice rather than Jesus. ‘I went to a conference on whiteness last autumn,’ the Venerable Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, archdeacon of Liverpool, wrote on Twitter. ‘It was very good, very interesting and made me realise: whiteness is to race as patriarchy is to gender. So yes, let’s have anti-whiteness, & let’s smash the patriarchy. That’s not anti-white, or anti-men, it’s anti-oppression.’ Miranda Thelfall-Holmes is a name for a trendy vicar that a comedy show would strike out for

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Is the UK’s China policy about to change?

What difference is the revelation that China was behind two cyber attacks – on the Electoral Commission and UK parliamentarians – really going to make when it comes to the government’s approach to Beijing? Oliver Dowden told MPs today that the two attacks ‘demonstrate a clear and persistent pattern of behaviour that signal hostile intent from China.’ But he came in for criticism for the scale of the government response – just two individuals and one entity associated with the attack have been sanctioned, and there is a promise to continue to ‘call out’ this activity in the strongest terms. The Chinese ambassador is also being summoned to respond to the

Limor Simhony Philpott

The UN’s ceasefire call will only strengthen Hamas

The UN has passed a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to last until the end of Ramadan in two weeks’ time, possibly leading to a permanent ceasefire. The resolution was backed by Russia, China and by the 22-nation Arab Group. This is the first time that the security council managed to pass a ceasefire resolution, after all the others were vetoed. The UN resolution is highly unlikely to result in the release of hostages by Hamas The non-binding resolution calls for the ceasefire ‘to be respected by all parties’ and demands ‘the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.’ It does not call for Hamas to

Freddy Gray

Why do Trump’s enemies always overreach?

37 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to editor-at-large of the Wall Street Journal Gerry Baker about why the media’s wrong reporting of Trump’s ‘bloodshed’ comments have played to his advantage; why America has lost trust in its institutions; and whether voters think the economy was better off under Trump. 

Steerpike

Steve Bray is silenced, finally

It must be a hard job being the Metropolitan Police. Too hardline and you risk howls of protest from the left; too soft and you’re lambasted by the right. So Steerpike is pleased to bring his readers news of a policing decision that will please all inhabitants of the Westminster village, regardless of their political affiliation. For six long, miserable years, Steve Bray – the Hiroo Onoda of the Remain campaign – has tormented those who work in and around Whitehall, blaring out music from his loudspeakers on Wednesday mornings before PMQs. But last week the artist known as ‘Stop Brexit man’ met his comeuppance after the Met sent some

Katy Balls

Scott Benton triggers another by-election

10 min listen

Former Conservative MP Scott Benton has resigned, triggering a by-election in Blackpool South. The outgoing MP had the Tory whip removed after suggesting to undercover reporters that he would be willing to break lobbying rules for money. Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Katy Balls about the likelihood of another Tory election defeat in Blackpool South, plus whether the Conservatives are pivoting on their China stance following an alleged cybersecurity threat. 

Steerpike

Blackpool by-election battering looms for Rishi

So. Farewell then Scott Benton. The disgraced Blackpool South MP today becomes the disgraced former Blackpool South MP after he announced plans to quit the House of Commons. In April last year Benton lost the Tory whip after being filmed in an undercover Times sting in which he offered to lobby for gambling industry investors. Since then Benton has vigorously protested his innocence but, with a by-election via the recall process looking likely, he has now decided to jump before he was pushed. In a statement he wrote that: It’s with a heavy heart that I have written to the Chancellor this morning to tender my resignation as your MP.

Duncan Gardham

Why Islamic State is fixated with Russia

Islamic State (IS) has released a graphic video showing gunmen storming the Crocus concert hall near Moscow in an attack that killed at least 137 people. The footage corroborates the terrorist organisation’s claim of responsibility. The most likely culprit is the organisation’s offshoot based in Afghanistan. For years, IS-Khorasan Province (IS-K) – a branch of IS based in Afghanistan – has been fixated with Russia. It holds Moscow responsible for destroying its power base in Syria by backing president Assad, and accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood on its hands. President Putin is a regular target in its propaganda. President Putin is a regular target in IS’s propaganda IS said

Eliot Wilson

Can Britain afford Trident?

The prime minister is in Cumbria today, visiting Barrow-in-Furness to announce a ‘national endeavour’ to support the defence and civil nuclear industry. This includes a partnership with companies including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, EDF and Babcock to invest more than £760 million in skills, jobs and education over the next six years. The Barrow Transformation Fund will receive £20 million from the government immediately, then £20 million a year for the coming decade. Barrow is important because it is where the Royal Navy’s new Dreadnought-class ballistic missile nuclear submarines are being built. BAE Systems Submarines also built the Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarines, of which four are in service with three more

Ross Clark

The pension triple lock is a drain on the taxpayer

Jeremy Hunt’s promise that the Conservative manifesto will protect the ‘triple lock’ on the state pension is a desperate measure to appeal to the one group of the population whom the Conservatives feel they can rely on. But taxpayers will not be thanking him in a few years’ time. On the contrary, by keeping the triple lock – which increases state pensions by either the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), average earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is greatest – Hunt has abdicated any remaining fiscal responsibility and condemned the public finances to further ruin. The triple lock is already costing taxpayers £10 billion a year. Since 2011/12 when the triple

Alexander Larman

Will the slimmed-down monarchy cope without Kate and the King?

The reaction to the Princess of Wales’s courageous and affecting video, in which she discussed her cancer diagnosis, was largely as might be imagined. Most people, including those who had previously exhibited confusion or scepticism about the various failings in the royal family’s communication strategy, found it both shocking and deeply moving, and commended Kate for her candour. However, there remains a small but vocal minority who seized upon the statement to lambast her further. What this story has inadvertently done is to reveal the weakness of the slimmed-down monarchy We do not need to give the deluded and vicious the oxygen of publicity, but nonetheless, once the initial burst

David Loyn

How Islamic State rose from the ashes to attack Moscow

Since America’s disastrous scuttle from Kabul in August 2021, there had been rising concern that Afghanistan would once again become a crucible of international terrorism. The claim by the Islamic State group to have carried out the Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow appears to have justified that fear.  An Islamic prophecy says that when the Mahdi, the messiah, returns to herald the end of the world, he will come bearing black flags in the land of Khorasan The four gunmen – who are said to have walked casually as they fired into the crowds, leaving more than 130 people dead – were citizens of Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan to the

Steerpike

Flashback: Rayner claims WASPI pensions were ‘stolen’

Come with Mr S on a trip down memory lane, to a long-forgotten era known as, er, the last parliament. Back then, Labour were all too keen to be all things to all men (and women). A prime example of that was the campaign by Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) to give compensation to women born in the 1950s who claim they were not properly informed of changes in the state pension age. In the heat of the 2019 election campaign, Labour jumped on the WASPI band wagon. They effectively committing to signing a blank cheque worth billions by signalling their support for the campaign without doing the sums.