Politics Archives

Friday

4 August 2023

Watch: Tory minister prepares for a Labour election win

Oh dear. It seems Health Minister Maria Caulfield failed to get the memo on government lines to take this morning, when she made the fatal error of assuming that her own party would be defeated in the next election. Speaking to Sky News as part of her morning broadcast round, she questioned the consequences of Labour’s environmental policies ‘when they get into government’. Caulfield was being asked about Sadiq Khan’s expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone to the entirety of London, expressing her concerns about the impact of the draconian policy on working Londoners: ‘I think the worry that people have is if that’s what Labour do in London

Cindy Yu

If Rishi halves inflation, will you feel richer?

14 min listen

Rishi Sunak is likely to hit his target of halving inflation by the end of the year, according to the latest Bank of England forecasts. But is that enough to make people feel better off, and will the Tories reap any political benefits for doing it? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and Michael Simmons. Produced by Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery.

Gavin Mortimer

Macron is pushing France to tipping point

In the last three years, Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger have all undergone coup d’états. The most recent regime change was last week in the west African nation of Niger, where Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by the elements of the presidential guard. The coup’s leader is Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane. Last Wednesday he informed Niger’s 24 million citizens on state-run television that President Bazoum had been removed because of ‘the continuous deterioration of the security situation, the bad social and economic management’. Islamist terrorism is just one reason why Emmanuel Macron is a deeply unpopular figure Military men were also behind the coups in the other four African

Ben Domenech

Could Trump’s indictments boost his election chances?

When Donald Trump’s attorney and spokeswoman Alina Habba took to the streets on Thursday in front of the federal courthouse in Washington, DC, she described the former president as ‘the leading candidate right now for president for either party’. It’s a slight stretch, but only slightly. Trump is within the margin of error against Joe Biden in virtually every poll, largely undamaged by the ever compounding series of ‘solemn days’ when he faces new legal woes. Biden’s team is calculating that Trump is the least formidable candidate for them to take on next autumn The American football cliché usually attributed to the NFL great John Madden is simple: if you’ve got two quarterbacks,

Tom Bennett

Is Sadiq Khan trying to make London’s schools more dangerous?

London’s schools are about to become less safe. The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has decided to appoint Maureen McKenna to join its violence reduction unit (VRU), with a view to reducing crime by ‘driving down exclusions in schools’ while ‘increasing a sense of students’ belonging’. The VRU has equally noble aims: ‘we believe violence is preventable, not inevitable’, they state. Lib Peck, its director, launched a scheme last year to reduce knife crime by preventing some of the 900 school exclusions a year across London. Glasgow, it was claimed, had seen a 48 per cent reduction in violence across the city since it also decided to reduce exclusions, to almost

Thursday

3 August 2023

Michael Taube

Will Justin Trudeau’s divorce affect his career?

Canada’s Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, have jointly announced on their Instagram accounts that they are separating after 18 years of marriage: Hi everyone, Sophie and I would like to share the fact that after many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate. As always, we remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build. For the well-being of our children, we ask that you respect our and their privacy. Thank you. The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement that Trudeau and Grégoire Trudeau had ‘signed a legal separation agreement’

Lara Prendergast

Supercops: the return of tough policing

40 min listen

In this week’s cover article, The Spectator‘s political editor Katy Balls takes a look at the bottom-up reform that’s happening in some parts of the country, and asks whether tough policing is making a comeback. Katy joins the podcast together with Kate Green, Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor of Crime and Policing. (00:50) Next, the war has finally gone to Moscow. Recently, a number of drone strikes have hit targets in the Russian capital. Though Ukraine hasn’t explicitly taken responsibility, in the magazine this week, Owen Matthews writes that it’s all a part of psychological warfare. Owen is the author of Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin and Russia’s War Against Ukraine and he

Stephen Daisley

Locking up shoplifters won’t solve Britain’s crime problem

The Conservative party has had an idea. It’s not a very good idea, but it’s an idea and those are rare for the Tories. The idea is to start banging up repeat shoplifters and other low-level offenders. Transport minister Richard Holden has complained that ‘the police haven’t concentrated enough on some of these offences’ even though ‘they really do have a huge impact on our high streets and shops right across the country’. Without invoking the term, the minister was calling for an amped up version of broken windows policing, stamping out petty crimes that undermine public confidence and encourage more serious offending. So far, so 1980s right-wing criminology. No. 10 may like the

Andrew Liddle

Why Labour needs a clear victory in this Scottish by-election

The Labour party could hardly ask for better than the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election as a means to judge the strength of their resurgence in Scotland. Sitting on the cusp of Greater Glasgow, it is situated in the party’s former central belt heartlands — an area once so Labour it was joked that votes for the party were weighed, not counted. The seat was lost in the nationalist landslide of 2015 before Labour quickly won it back in 2017. Though the party lost it again to the nationalists in 2019, it now has an eminently beatable SNP majority of 5,230. Perhaps most importantly, the by-election is taking place because

Steerpike

Where did it go wrong for the Scottish Greens?

Dear oh dear. Things haven’t been going well for for the Green party lately and now they’ve just got a whole lot worse. The Green’s first UK parliamentarian and former leader of the Scottish Greens Robin Harper has quit the party, announcing that the Greens have ‘lost the plot’. Mr S wonders how long it took him to notice – has he been living under a rock? In a scathing letter written to his successors ‘after lengthy consideration’, the octogenarian let loose on the party he’s been part of for decades. Berating the party’s leftwards move ‘into the gap’ vacated by the Scottish Socialist party, the former MSP raged about the

Ross Clark

Britain might be in a wage-price spiral

The Bank of England has raised the base rate yet again, this time to 5.25 per cent, a high not seen since April 2008. Like a child trapped in the back seat of a sweltering car, the response of many people will be: ‘Are we nearly there?’ Many people seem to think so – that perhaps there will be one or two rises to come before rates peak and perhaps even start to fall modestly next year. Markets seem to think that 5.75 per cent will most likely be the summit. I wouldn’t be so sure. What stands out most from the Monetary Policy Report that accompanied the interest rate

Stephen Daisley

Robin Harper is right: the Scottish Greens have ‘lost the plot’

Robin Harper, the first Green parliamentarian elected in the UK, has resigned from the Scottish Greens, saying his former party has ‘lost the plot’. His resignation letter cites ‘serious concerns’ about the party’s handling of trans issues and hopes ‘the Scottish parliament will return to listening mode’ following the Cass and Sandyford reviews into gender identity services for children. Robin Harper was and remains a man of the decent, outward-looking left, tolerant of disagreement, more interested in cooperating with his opponents than condemning them. He urges ‘a complete overhaul’ of child and adolescent mental health services. Harper has previously called for the closure of the Sandyford, a Glasgow-based NHS clinic providing gender identity services to children

Matthew Lynn

Britain’s growing army of pensioners should be delivering pizza

Over-50s could deliver pizza. They could try their hand at Uber driving. Or they could put in the occasional shift at the Amazon warehouse. Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, won’t have done his political career any favours this week with his suggestion that retired people who are struggling to make ends meet could earn extra cash in the gig economy. But whether voters in the leafy shires like it or not, Stride is spot on: many pensioners can, and should, work part time and they can’t be too fussy about what jobs are available. The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is probably already wondering how quickly he can fire

Zoe Strimpel

Chess doesn’t need Rishi Sunak’s cheesy cheerleading

There’s something embarrassing about Rishi Sunak’s plan to revive chess in Britain. The PM is set to announce half-a-million pounds funding for the English Chess Federation. The money could be used to send teams to international tournaments, install chess tables in parks and teach the game to school kids. But Rishi’s cheesy cheerleading for government-sponsored chess is reminding me a lot of a parent buying condoms for their teenager: there’s no better way to take the sexiness out of sex. Perhaps the PM is trying to take inspiration from eastern Europe. Last October, I went to Budapest to interview the world’s best-ever female chess player, Judit Polgar, and also attended the

Wednesday

2 August 2023

Lucy Dunn

Is Scottish Labour embarrassed by Starmer?

They had balloons, handmade posters and a big red van lit up with ‘Michael Shanks: A Fresh Start’ flashing on the side. The Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election is Labour’s to lose and don’t they know it. Despite the pressure on the modern studies teacher and now-Labour candidate Michael Shanks, the atmosphere at Labour’s by-election launch was relaxed – if the Glaswegian weather miserable. Former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier lost her seat on Tuesday night and constituents will face a second vote in October, a by-election that will bring the SNP and Labour head to head. Tuesday’s result was a small win for Labour – literally. The recall petition’s low

Freddy Gray

Why has Trump been indicted…again?

19 min listen

Freddy Gray sits down with Jacob Heilbrunn to discuss Donald Trump’s latest indictment over January 6th. The former President faces 78 charges which, if found guilty, could mean he will spend several years in prison.

Philip Patrick

America’s female footballers should sing their national anthem

Just four members of the US football team at the Women’s World Cup sang their country’s national anthem before their game against Portugal yesterday. The rest stayed silent and impassive with their hands conspicuously by their side, not over their hearts. This was the third time the US team, or much of it, has made a silent protest at this World Cup in New Zealand. Are they to be condemned for this, or does every player have the right to express their feelings for their country, or lack of, in their own way? Pre-match protests have become popular in recent years and the US players are not alone in seizing the limelight to make a point. Germany’s

Cindy Yu

Can Labour take back Rutherglen and Hamilton West?

13 min listen

A by-election is on the cards for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, after former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier was recalled by her constituents. She’d flouted lockdown rules in 2020, taking a train from London to Scotland despite testing positive for Covid. Given that Labour will need to make gains in Scotland in order to win the next election, this by-election has become a bellwether for the party. Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Lucy Dunn about what to expect. Produced by Cindy Yu.

Katy Balls

Supercops: the return of tough policing

In a few weeks’ time, police across the country will receive a new order: ‘Investigate every crime’. It may not sound like a novel concept, but over the past few years forces – including the Metropolitan Police – have largely given up on low-level crime. Austerity was seen as a reason to ignore burglaries, thefts and minor assaults if officers believed there was little chance of identifying a suspect. But now a new theory is about to be put into practice: that investigations will lead not just to more convictions, but to more deterrence. Not that the Tories would use the phrase, but this is a back-to-basics strategy This change

The Spectator

Trump’s indictment and the trouble with the law

The latest charges against Donald Trump will do nothing to deter his many supporters within the Republican party. On the contrary, his indictment by a grand jury set up by special counsel Jack Smith plays into the former president’s narrative of victimhood and makes it even more likely that he will be chosen as a candidate. And that, curiously, is exactly what many senior Democrats want. To his electoral opponents, Trump seems reliably toxic – millions of Americans will turn out to vote against him. It is a depressing development when legal processes are used as a political tool Even if he is convicted of the latest four charges –