Read about the latest political news, views and analysis
45 min listen
Freddy Gray is joined in the office by Mike Baker a former CIA operations officer, CEO of the global intelligence and security firm Portman Square Group and host of the popular news podcast the President’s Daily Brief.
‘Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy,’ said Sun Tzu. The Biden administration takes the opposite approach. America’s Commander-in-Chief spent much of the last week warning America’s antagonists in the Middle East that the US would respond to the killing of three of its troops in Jordan last weekend. And last night the retaliation finally began. US forces used some 125 bombs on seven sites in Syria and Iraq, targets that the Pentagon believes are tied to attacks on Americans. Iran was not hit, importantly, even though the White House has directly blamed the Iranian regime for the many attacks against western assets since the war in Gaza began in October. The widespread fear
32 min listen
On this week’s episode, Lionel Shriver asks if Donald Trump can get a fair trial in America (00:39), Angus Colwell speaks to the Gen-Zers who would fight for Britain (08:25), Matthew Parris makes the case for assisted dying (13:15), Toby Young tells the story of the time he almost died on his gap year (20:43), and Harry Mount tells us about the grim life of a Roman legionary (25:38).
So is that the end of the property ‘crash’? Nationwide reported this week that its house price index was up by 0.7 per cent in January, already going some way to erasing the fall of 1.8 per cent it measured last year. The very similar Halifax index never even recorded a fall last year – it claims that prices rose by 1.8 per cent over the course of 2023, and by 1.1 per cent in December. No one should take the Halifax and Nationwide indices too much to heart. They are based on data from a limited number of mortgage approvals – those handled by the lenders themselves – in
13 min listen
This week in Westminster has been dominated by the news that we can expect to see power sharing restored at Stormont in the near future. James Heale gets the reaction of former DUP first minister Baroness Arlene Foster. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson.
Quite a number of people have been asking what Caroline Nokes MP is doing in the Conservative party after her very odd appearance on Newsnight on Thursday. She was meant to be discussing the asylum status of Abdul Ezedi, the sole suspect in the horrific Clapham alkali attack which left a mother with life-altering injuries and her two daughters in hospital. His asylum status – he was granted asylum the third time he asked after claiming to have converted to Christianity and therefore to be at risk of persecution in Afghanistan – was quite an issue, given that, in 2018, he was found guilty of a sex offence. Something there
Keir Starmer has a reputation for changing his mind. But on one issue at least, the Labour leader remains worryingly consistent. Addressing an LGBT+ Labour meeting in Parliament this week, Starmer declared, ‘Labour governments and the LGBT+ movement have a history of achieving incredible things together.’ His own contribution to this long march of progress has already been determined. Starmer yet again pledged that a Labour government will outlaw all forms of conversion therapy. Sir Keir is adamant that, on his watch, a conversion therapy ban will be ‘trans inclusive’. In other words, it won’t just outlaw attempts to turn homosexuals straight but, crucially, it will most likely make it
Is war coming our way? The warning last month from Admiral Rob Bauer, the chairman of Nato’s Military Committee, indicates as much. ‘Anything can happen at any time’, Bauer said, as he suggested Nato should prepare for a conflict with Russia in the next 20 years. No less alarming – in fact, rather more so – is the language emanating from Moscow. In a UN speech at the end of January, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov urged the West to listen to the Kremlin’s arguments ‘while there is still time’. TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov speaks regularly about nuking Europe, and just last week his fellow attack dog Margarita Simonyan (head of
The resumption of devolution in Northern Ireland – scheduled for tomorrow after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) reached a deal with the UK Government earlier this week – marks a big moment: for the first time in the history of Northern Ireland, there will be a nationalist First Minister. Sinn Fein, a party still viewed by the security services as being in lockstep with the IRA, became the largest party at the 2022 Assembly Election. As a result, their leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, is entitled to be nominated as the Province’s First Minister. Irish nationalists and republicans are now masters of a state designed for their exclusion. Sinn Fein
Rishi Sunak has made ‘stopping the boats’ central to his premiership. So it is, er, sub-optimal then that word reaches Steerpike that the efforts of the Home Office are being hindered by a lack of top talent. The department might have grown in staff numbers by nearly a third since 2010 but Whitehall sources claim that there was only one candidate last year to fill the department’s key role of Director of General Migration and Borders. The role in question was eventually filled by Daniel Hobbs, the department’s head of asylum, protection and enforcement, in August 2023. A Home Office spokesman told Mr S: Dan Hobbs was picked for the
12 min listen
In his Telegraph column, Fraser Nelson makes the case that it’s time to ban former politicians accepting jobs from foreign rulers. The likes of Tony Blair, George Osborne and David Cameron have all made money from government’s abroad. But is this becoming more of a problem? And are their critics simply a product of their success? Natasha Feroze speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Heale.
Why is no one only slightly wrong any more? We don’t say or do things that are foolish or ill-thought out – rather we are immediately guilty of fascism, genocide or child abuse. We don’t deserve to be merely argued against – we deserve to put before an inquisition, in a cage. I guess that academics at Winchester University have deliberately chosen to use the words ‘child abuse’ in a paper in the Journal of the British Philosophy Association, arguing that schoolchildren shouldn’t be forced to play rugby in order to gain attention. If so, they have succeeded, because it is doubtful that the story would have made it into the newspapers, and
Here’s my question about Abdul Ezedi, the suspect in the Clapham chemical attack: what the hell was he doing in this country? He came here from Afghanistan by illegal means. He was twice turned down for asylum. And in 2018, at Newcastle Crown Court, he was found guilty of sexual assault. And yet despite all that he was later granted asylum, after a priest vouched that he had converted to Christianity. Now this supposed Christian stands accused of repaying the witless charity of our nation by allegedly carrying out one of the grimmest crimes imaginable: dousing a mother and her two daughters with a corrosive substance. The injuries sustained by
All eyes were on Hungary’s Viktor Orbán at yesterday’s EU summit in Brussels. The issue at stake was simple but vital. The EU wanted to provide €50 billion (£43 billion) in aid to Ukraine over four years, but this use of the bloc’s funds required unanimity from all member states. Orbán remained unconvinced. But would he continue unmovable, or would he budge? And if so what price would he demand? Hungary has always been concerned to keep as judiciously uncommitted as possible in the Russia – Ukraine conflict. Orban was instinctively unhappy about supporting the EU’s stance that was, whatever its virtues, highly partisan. Besides, he had other bones to
In a week full of symbolism in France, the most striking image was the sight of armoured cars blocking the path of tractors outside Paris. The city’s first great wall was constructed at the end of the 12th century on the orders of Philip Augustus, but here was a new wall, of armour, erected at the command of Emmanuel Macron. They shall not pass. And so they didn’t. A few tractors made it as far as the international market at Rungis, five miles south of Paris; their drivers were arrested and held overnight. They were released a short time before Prime Gabriel Attal announced a new set of measures to placate
Another day, another story about Labour’s plans to ditch its pledge to spend £28 billion a year on green investment. The Guardian reports that party sources say the policy is destined for the chopping block – despite Keir Starmer saying on Thursday at the party’s business conference that the plan to spend £28 billion a year on green investment in the second half of the parliament remains in place so long as it meets the party’s fiscal rules. Notably, his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves was less effusive, refusing to commit to the policy despite being asked ten times in a Sky News interview. As I say in this week’s magazine,
32 min listen
Gina Miller was born in Guyana to a political family, but was sent to England for her education. Fleeing dictatorship, she couldn’t receive financial support from her family, and so began finding work in hotels and handing out flyers. With an entrepreneurial spirit, Gina set up her first company in 1987 – a property photographic company. Since then, her CV boasts a myriad of achievements, degrees, the Vanity Fair Challenger Award and financial services. But she is most well known as the woman who set up the first legal challenge to the government’s attempts to trigger article 50 in 2016. Since then, my guest has worked on many anti-Brexit campaigns and
It’s not often that an ex-spymaster is spied upon by his former colleagues. But just that has happened in Germany, where Hans-Georg Maassen, the former head of the country’s internal security service, the BfD (equivalent to Britain’s MI5), has been placed on a watch list for official observation as a suspected right-wing extremist. Maassen, who ran the BfD until he was elbowed out in 2018 after appearing to play down the threat of violence from right-wing extremists, is no stranger to attracting attention. In 2021, Maassen said that chancellor Angela Merkel’s immigration policies were ‘fatal’: The spy agency has also accused its former chief of being in close touch with the
12 min listen
At the ‘Labour Business Conference 2024′, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves wooed business with a pledge that Labour would not raise corporation tax in their first term. Instead, she told the audience of FTSE 100 chief execs that a Labour government would keep the current cap at 25 per cent. How convincing is Reeves’ big pitch to business? Also on the podcast, the big news this week has been the Northern Ireland negotiations. What’s happened in parliament today? Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson.
43 min listen
On the podcast: have the Tories given up on liberty? Kate Andrews writes the cover story for The Spectator this week. She argues that after the government announced plans to ban disposable vapes and smoking for those born after 2009, the Tories can no longer call themselves the party of freedom. Kate is joined by conservative peer and former health minister Lord Bethell, to discuss whether the smoking ban is a wise precedent for the government to set. (01:22) Also this week: can the UAE be trusted on press freedom? At The Spectator that’s a question close to our hearts at the moment as we face possibly being sold off to an Abu Dhabi