Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Katy Balls

The Susan Hall Edition

32 min listen

Susan Hall is a born and bred Londoner running for one of the most important jobs in the city. After leaving school at 18 she had dreams of being a mechanic and struggled to get into technical college. She was later a business owner, running a beauty salon and hairdressing business.  Susan has been involved in politics for almost twenty years. Starting out first as a Councillor in Harrow, she later ran the Conservative group before leading the Council itself. In 2017 she joined the General London Assembly replacing Kemi Badenoch. Within two years she was running the Conservative group there too. Her rise in Conservative politics continues, as this year she

Gavin Mortimer

The slow death of Macron’s political dream

Where did it all go wrong for Emmanuel Macron? In his New Year’s Eve address of 2022, France’s president called on his people to demonstrate ‘unity, boldness and collective ambition’ in the year ahead. There would be challenges, he acknowledged, referencing the impending pension reform, but the president expressed his optimism that together they could ‘strengthen our independence, our greatness of spirit’ and build a ‘stronger, fairer France’.  We can all dream. Macron’s 2023 has been a nightmare, his ‘annus horribilis’, as France has staggered from one disaster to another. Riots, strikes, Islamist attacks, far-right demos, rocketing crime, soaring drug cartel murders, out of control immigration and crises in education,

Sasha Lensky

How Vladimir Putin stays in power

With Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine well into its attritional phase, Western aid to Kyiv seems to be drying up. No clear strategy at all, it seems, has been found for dealing with the Russian leader. Some hope internal divisions at the Kremlin will lead to a collapse, others that an anti-Ceausescu-style uprising – as in Romania in 1989, culminating in the leader’s brutal execution by his people – will miraculously give the coup de grace to the president’s ambitions. Certainly, if Putin were to rule in a genuinely authoritarian manner, either of these things could happen. But up to now he’s been far too wily and flexible for that.

Gray Sergeant

How China is weaponising trade against Taiwan

Why should we care that Beijing has suspended tariff relief for 12 Taiwanese petrochemical products? The move certainly lacks the fear factor which Chinese military manoeuvres around Taiwan generate – exercises which have become more routine and grander in scale during 2023. Yet China’s economic warfare against Taiwan is just as pernicious. It is also premeditated, with moves on this front aligning with key moments in Taiwan’s political calendar and developments in the country’s relationship with the United States. By targeting specific products with restrictions and sanctions, Beijing seeks to punish both the Taiwanese people and their government. What’s more, while it seems unlikely to win the hearts of the former, these punitive

Thursday

Steerpike

Humza Yousaf gets Christmas roast at final FMQs

It may be the the last First Minister’s Questions before Christmas, but no one in Scottish Parliament is in the festive spirit. After the SNP announced a winter budget that would make even Scrooge seem upbeat, it’s no surprise that hapless Humza got a grilling today. Douglas Ross appeared to be enjoying himself, with the Scottish Tory leader mocking a recent claim made by an SNP cabinet minister that ‘world leaders were lining up’ to get advice from the Scottish government. With 2023 being the year of the motorhome jokes, Ross continued mischievously: Now, it got me wondering: who is this that’s been calling for their advice? Has Justin Trudeau

Ian Acheson

Should Brianna Ghey’s killers ever be released?

In the wicked murder of poor Brianna Ghey, it’s not hyperbole to say the Devil is in the details. Thousands of text messages sent between her two teenage killers were divulged in a court case that describe a moral void in their lives that veers between the banal and the satanic. It is clear that Brianna was not the first target for these would-be spree killers, obsessed with torture and death. Four other boys were targeted by her male and female assailants, both 15, prior to her murder. The girl, perpetrator ‘X’ in the court case, to protect her identity messaged the boy accomplice ‘Y’ when they were discussing ways of

Eliot Wilson

The truth about Ireland’s Troubles amnesty law challenge

Christmas is a time when those who are closest to each other fight most bitterly. Ireland, which is bringing a legal case against the UK under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), appears to be acting in the spirit of the season. The country’s deputy prime minister Micheál Martin announced yesterday that his government intended to challenge the provisions of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 at the European court in Strasbourg. The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, framed his government’s intervention in particularly provocative terms. ‘We did make a commitment to survivors in Northern Ireland and to the families of victims that we would stand by them,’

Limor Simhony Philpott

Why Hamas isn’t willing to strike a deal with Israel

Hamas’s chairman, Ismail Haniyeh, is in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials about a new temporary ceasefire deal with Israel. Haniyeh only reluctantly accepted Egypt’s invitation to attend talks. Hamas and its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, have been consistent in their demand that they will not negotiate a deal with Israel while they are still under fire. They are requesting that Israel stops all assaults, retreats, and begins a permanent ceasefire before negotiations for the release of hostages can begin. Although Israel is keen to make a deal, it currently draws the line at stopping the fighting before an agreement has been reached. It certainly will not consent to

Ross Clark

The Tories should be wary of an election tax giveaway

Anyone for more tax cuts in the spring budget? You might as well hand out free beer. For many Conservatives, tax cuts provide the last tiny chink of light before the door closes on their electoral prospects for good. This month’s government borrowing figures might just provide some encouragement, too. Net borrowing in November was £0.9 billion lower than it was in November 2022. The great bulge in the deficit which came with Covid seems finally to be subsiding. With inflation falling sharply, too, the outlook for the public finances begins to look a little brighter. The UK government has an unusually large slice of its debt in index-linked debt,

Cindy Yu

2023: The year in review

27 min listen

How well did Rishi Sunak do on his five pledges? Are we any clearer on what Keir Starmer stands for? Is the SNP done for in Scotland? On this episode, Cindy Yu, Katy Balls, James Heale and Coffee House Shots regular Stephen Bush look back on the past year in British politics. Produced by Cindy Yu and Joe Bedell-Brill.

Steerpike

The Covid Inquiry goes on tour

The Covid Inquiry seems to be fixated on one thing at the moment: how much cash can it burn through before it is expected to conclude in 2027? So far the Inquiry has already racked up £56 million on costs to fund its army of lawyers and civil servants, with £1.3 million alone spent on its website and online form. Still, it seems like the Inquiry has found a new way to keep the gravy train moving next year: by going on tour. According the Inquiry’s latest newsletter (of course the Inquiry needs a newsletter) the Every Story Matters project is set to hit the road. The project aims to collect

Katy Balls

Will the 2024 mortgage timebomb be less bad than feared?

Rishi Sunak hasn’t had much good news of late. The BBC’s ‘fact checker’ declared this week that he has achieved only one of his five priorities this year – bringing down inflation. As has been pointed out multiple times, bringing down inflation is not something entirely in the Prime Minister’s control and it has been falling across the continent. But the news yesterday that inflation slowed sharply to 3.9 per cent in the month of November – well below predictions – could yet give Sunak a boost as speculation grows that next year could have better economic news than expected. Economists are now predicting a fall in borrowing costs and

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s tax and spend delusion

What do you think when you think about teachers? Two things, if you are anything like me: low pay and time off work with stress. It’s a hard job, no doubt. Teaching unions jealously guard their grievances and if you say that teachers are actually quite well paid and that teaching is a rewarding career you’ll be hounded by legions of miserabilists on social media. So better not tell them that from next year many teachers are to be classed as high earners thanks to the Scottish government’s latest stealth tax raid.  Basic grade teachers earning over £43,662 next year will find themselves paying a marginal tax rate of 42p. I’m told that many teachers will still

Wednesday

Mary Dejevsky

Why the law on assisted dying must change

Esther Rantzen’s decision to join the campaign to legalise assisted dying, in the light of uncertainty about her cancer prognosis, has rekindled and broadened a debate that has been simmering for many years.  Talking on the latest BBC Today podcast, Rantzen disclosed that she had recently joined Dignitas, the Swiss organisation that helps people who are terminally ill to end their lives. Now 83, the television broadcaster and founder of Childline and Silverline, said that her cancer was now being treated with what she called a miracle drug, but that if it didn’t work, then she wanted to be able to end her life while she is still able to without exposing

Ross Clark

Scotland pioneers the 84.5 per cent tax rate

You can say one thing about Jim Callaghan’s Labour government of the 1970s. It certainly kept migration under control. Over the course of his government, Britain saw net migration of around minus 65,000. That had quite a lot to do with a top tax rate of 83 per cent. Whether Scotland’s new tax rates will actually raise any revenue is another matter But if Keir Starmer says he won’t return to punitive tax rates, the SNP is certainly giving Callaghan’s Chancellor Denis Healey a run for his money. The Scottish government has just announced a new rate of 45 per cent for earnings between £75,000 and £125,140. But in some

Freddy Gray

Is America heading towards Civil War?

52 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to classicist, military historian and author Victor Davis Hanson.  In an end of year review, they talk about antisemitism in the US today, the battle between right and left since 2016, and a potential future Trump presidency. 

Steerpike

SNP dualling project delayed by a decade

Congratulations to the SNP, which has today given new meaning to the phrase ‘slow and steady wins the race’. Members of hapless Humza’s government have announced today that they will complete dualling of Scotland’s ‘most dangerous road’ by 2035 – a decade later than first planned and a rate of construction that works out at, er, four miles a year. A perfect analogy of Scotland’s progress under the SNP… So far there have been 121 deaths on the treacherous road since 2009, two years after Alex Salmond promised to fix the death trap. Transport Secretary Mairi McAllan assured the Scottish Parliament today that the upgrade would be finished within the original

Steerpike

Jolyon Maugham fails again

They say that April is the cruellest month but for Jolyon Maugham it seems to be December instead. Four years ago, the kimono-wearing, baseball-bat wielding KC infamously beat a fox to death, incurring much mockery and the opprobrium of the RSPCA for his boastful tweets about the slaying. And now the Babe Ruth of the bar has slipped up again for his online antics. In his never-ending quest to signal his virtue, Maugham ended up risking contempt of court with his posts about the case of transgender schoolgirl Brianna Ghey, who was killed ten months ago in a Warrington park. The subsequent trial concluded today, with two sixteen-year-olds convicted of

Ross Clark

Are Red Sea ship attacks the start of a crisis for the global economy?

Covid provided a revelation of the vulnerabilities of the global supply chain, but now war in Yemen has provided another. Attacks on shipping by Iranian-backed Houthis has reminded the world of how much trade is reliant on free passage through the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, an 18-mile wide waterway at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. If shipping cannot get through that then it struggles to get through the Suez Canal. In the past month, 15 ships have been attacked in the strait with missiles and drones, and now shipping lines have had enough. They are instead routing their container vessels an extra 3,000 miles around the Cape of Good Hope. That

Matthew Lynn

Does falling inflation show that interest rates are too high?

Well that was a surprise. At just 3.9 per cent, down from 4.7 per cent, the latest inflation figure published today came as a shock for many. The figures are far lower than the consensus forecasts, and even low enough to allow the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to meet his forecast to halve the rate by the end of the year. But should we really be surprised that inflation has fallen so rapidly? Monetarists – who noticed that the money supply has been contracting since the start of the year – won’t be taken aback by the inflation figures. They said all along that the flow of money is the