Politics Archives

Wednesday

5 July 2023

Why Putin still needs Wagner

It will be a matter of deep regret for Vladimir Putin that, in the wake of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s ill-fated attempt to overthrow Russia’s military establishment, he has finally been forced to come clean about the Kremlin’s association with the Wagner Group. Deniability is a vital facet for a veteran spook like Putin. Even when Wagner’s band of mercenary cut-throats were spearheading the assault on the east Ukrainian city of Bakhmut earlier this year, the Russian leader rebutted claims of Prigozhin’s involvement. ‘He runs a restaurant business, it is his job – he is a restaurant keeper in St Petersburg,’ Putin told Austrian television. Putin’s challenge is to maintain Wagner’s global operations

Stephen Daisley

The moment I fell in love with Mhairi Black

I think it was when she described Margo MacDonald as ‘just magic’ that I fell in love with Mhairi Black. As summations of pivotal political figures go, it’s akin to a first-time Labour parliamentary candidate calling Nye Bevan an absolute mad lad. This is how Black speaks, assessing political history as if she’s talking about that time Architects played the Cathouse. It’s not what you might expect from a middle-class lassie from Ralston, but it’s nothing so cynical as an act. Glasgow zillennial patter is a rhetorical mix of imported American sitcoms and a self-consciously Scottish tone. It’s like someone remade The Big Bang Theory with an all-Weegie cast. I find admirable

Gavin Mortimer

France’s riots have left the country more divided than ever

There is a myth of France, specifically of its banlieues, that has been frequently repeated in recent days. Descriptions of ‘marginalised suburbs’, ‘ghetto-like suburban estates’ and of ethnic minorities ‘shunted away into suburban housing projects…out of sight and out of mind’ have emerged in the international media. It’s even been suggested in one British publication that rising food prices were to blame for the riots. Nanterre, where 17-year-old Nahel was shot dead by a policeman eight days ago, has some tough estates but it not a ghetto abandoned by the French state. The housing estate where Nahel lived was built in the late 1970s and at the time was considered ‘an emblematic project

Steerpike

What makes Biden think Ursula von der Leyen is fit to run Nato?

Steerpike hates to brag, but you heard it here first. The Telegraph is now reporting that Joe Biden, having glock-blocked Britain’s Ben Wallace as Secretary General of Nato, is now pushing for the German Ursula von der Leyen. What makes Ursula qualified to lead the defence of the West? Well, she was German Defence Minister between 2013 and 2019 and what a marvellous job she did … In 2015, German troops were so ill-equipped that they had to use broomsticks instead of machine guns for a Nato exercise. It also emerged that German rifles wouldn’t shoot straight in temperatures above 30°C. Boom! By 2019, the Bundeswehr’s ammunition stocks were reportedly so low that they

Isabel Hardman

How Enoch Powell helped make the NHS

Who are the giants of the NHS? Just off Central Lobby in Parliament is a bronze bust of Aneurin Bevan, the man who set up the health service in 1948. I have a rose named after him growing in my garden. When Britain marks the 75th anniversary of the health service today, Bevan’s name will be everywhere as the man who gave this country taxpayer-funded, state-organised, universal healthcare. The name you’re less likely to hear is Enoch Powell. Few even know that this Conservative politician was minister for health. Few know much more than one line of one speech, which he knew would ‘go up like a rocket’, and which

Tuesday

4 July 2023

Iain Macwhirter

What does Mhairi Black’s departure mean for the SNP?

Nicola Sturgeon says she is ‘gutted’ at the decision by the SNP Westminster group’s deputy leader, Mhairi Black, to stand down before the next general election. The MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South told the News Agents podcast that the House of Commons is a ‘toxic workplace’ that has taken a toll on her ‘body and mind’. She also says she is ‘just tired’ and wants to spend more time with her partner Katie, whom she married in 2022. Black joins a raft of SNP MPs, including the former Westminster leader Ian Blackford, who have decided to abandon Westminster politics in recent months. Also in the departure lounge are MPs

Steerpike

Police to probe Bernard Jenkin bash

Scotland Yard has opened an investigation into allegations lockdown rules were breached at a party attended by Tory MP Bernard Jenkin in parliament. The announcement from the Met comes more than a fortnight after allegations emerged about the senior MP’s attendance at the gathering held in December 2020, to mark the birthday of his wife Anne. Socialising indoors in London was banned at the time. Jenkin sits on the privileges committee that delivered a withering verdict on Boris Johnson’s partygate conduct. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman tonight said: ‘Following assessment of material relating to a gathering in Parliament, the Met is opening an investigation into potential breaches of the Regulations at an

Isabel Hardman

Sajid Javid’s medicine won’t save the NHS

Does the NHS need a royal commission? Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, thinks so. ‘It is abundantly clear the status quo cannot continue,’ he writes in the Times. He argues that ‘a dispassionate and honest assessment is required’ from an ‘institution that is above the political fray’. Javid suggests that a royal commission that is ‘set up correctly’ could perform this function. Royal commissions sound august but don’t have a great track record of really helping governments make difficult decisions. They have become a byword in Westminster for kicking something not so much into the long grass as into a thick forest of delay. The Labour government set up

Steerpike

Five of the worst Mhairi Black moments

Another one bites the dust. Mhairi Black today becomes the sixth SNP MP to announce she is standing down at the next election. It’s a rather big deal given Black is the Westminster group’s deputy leader. She famously pushed Labour’s Douglas Alexander out of his seat at only 20 years of age, with her entry to parliament symbolising the party’s landslide victory in 2015. Black follows in the footsteps of former Westminster group leader Ian Blackford, onetime party treasurer Douglas Chapman, Peter Grant, Angela Crawley and Stewart Hosie in quitting the Commons. Currently Mr S calculates that 13 per cent of the SNP group will not be standing as MPs

Isabel Hardman

Sunak faces a grilling over his key targets

Does Rishi Sunak think he’s going to hit his key targets? The Prime Minister had to answer this question repeatedly today after being asked by members of the powerful Liaison Committee. His basic answer was that he was still very committed to the targets – but couldn’t say that he definitely would meet them. A particularly difficult set of questions came from Home Affairs Select Committee chair Diana Johnson, who grilled him on the details of how his Rwanda deportation policy would stop the boats, as Sunak has promised. The Prime Minister was very keen instead to talk about the agreement the government had struck with Albania, but said he

Lisa Haseldine

Drone strikes Russian military base near Moscow

Just as Moscow was beginning to recover from the shock of Evgeniy Prigozhin’s march on the capital, the city has, once again, been targeted by drones. In the early hours of this morning, according to the Russian ministry of defence, five drones were intercepted before they reached the capital. Eyewitnesses reported seeing two of the drones flying in the direction of Moscow at a low altitude of approximately 200 metres. They came within touching distance of the city, getting as far as the New Moscow suburb to the south west. According to Russia, four of the drones were shot down. Footage circulating on Russian social media allegedly filmed at the time the

Jake Wallis Simons

Don’t condemn Israel for defending itself

Car-rammings, shootings, stabbings and bombings targeting innocent men, women and children are a constant fear for Israelis. This morning, seven people were wounded in a ramming attack in Tel Aviv. Only a fortnight ago, four Israelis were gunned down by Hamas murderers. Last year, there were 5,000 such attacks. In 2023, more than 28 Israelis have so far been killed. How would we in Britain react to such events? The IRA years show all too clearly that, in the wake of a terror threat, the security forces fight back. Israel is adopting a similar approach – but is being roundly, and unfairly, condemned for doing so. On Monday night, Israeli

Katy Balls

Rishi’s Tory rating turns negative

As the average mortgage rate for a five-year fixed deal rises to 6 per cent, Rishi Sunak can find little relief in his personal approval ratings. ConservativeHome has published its monthly cabinet league table in which the Prime Minister’s support among Tory members has hit its lowest level since he entered 10 Downing Street. Sunak at least has plenty of company in the red – he is one of a record nine cabinet ministers to find themselves with sub-zero approval ratings. These ministers include his deputy Oliver Dowden, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove and Therese Coffey. Sunak is now on -2.7, compared to a positive rating of

James Heale

Rishi Sunak’s Tory approval ratings turn negative

12 min listen

Rishi Sunak’s personal approval rating among Tory members has turned negative for the first time in his premiership. Why is the Prime Minister becoming more unpopular in his party? Should he be worried about internal dissent? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Kate Andrews. Produced by Max Jeffery.

Christopher Snowdon

The CMA is wrong to go after high supermarket fuel prices

Picture two village shops. If both shopkeepers are doing nicely out of selling the same product at a high price, they may decide to keep their prices the same even when the wholesale price falls. This is known as tacit collusion. Both retailers have an incentive to co-operate with each other at the consumers’ expense. But each shopkeeper also has an incentive to lower the price to make more sales and more profit. If another shop opens, this temptation will grow stronger. If a dozen shops open, it is almost certain that one of them will start a price war. Unless, that is, they form a cartel – which would

Steerpike

Secessionists seethe over the ‘Scottish coronation’

King Charles III is all set for his ‘Scottish coronation’ in Edinburgh tomorrow. Yet despite the royal fervour north of the border, Mr S hears that the nationalists are still not satisfied. Alex Salmond of the pro-independence Alba party and Green co-leaders, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, have all snubbed the royal invitation. Quelle surprise. ‘This ceremony is entirely wrong-headed and neither fish nor fowl,’ raged Salmond, after revealing he has declined the monarch’s invitation to what he called the ‘artificial and second rate ceremony’. According to Salmond, ‘Charles is being poorly advised by a group of courtiers who have a great love of pomp and no understanding of circumstance.’

Hardeep Singh

When will the world wake up to the persecution of Nigerian Christians?

More Christians are killed in Nigeria for their faith than anywhere else in the world. Of the 5,621 people murdered worldwide in 2022 for their belief in Christ, almost nine in ten died in Nigeria, according to the charity Open Doors. On average, this equates to 14 Christians killed every single day last year in Nigeria. Many more Christians are being kidnapped, and there is little sign of this terrible violence ending any time soon. Such horrifying figures are hard for us in the West to comprehend; we take freedom of religion – a protected right enshrined in law – for granted. But despite the unending and seemingly escalating cycle

Monday

3 July 2023

Kristina Murkett

Is this really the best Labour can offer teachers?

Bridget Phillipson was appointed Labour’s shadow education secretary in November 2021. After 18 months in the role, she has now finally unveiled Labour’s ambitious new idea to help tackle the teacher retention and recruitment crisis: use the tax raid on private school fees to fund a £2,400 welcome bonus to every teacher who has completed their two years of training. This is a classic case of copying someone’s homework, except – no surprises – it wasn’t very good the first time round. The Conservatives have already increased the starting salaries of newly-qualified teachers to £30,000. Teaching unions have already overwhelmingly voted to reject a one-off payment. The government has already tried giving bonuses to maths teachers,

Kate Andrews

The NHS isn’t underfunded

We’re going to hear a lot about the NHS this week: mostly tributes and praise – and even a few prayers – all in recognition of its 75th anniversary on Wednesday. The loudest criticism you’re likely to hear will be about underfunding – which is not the fault of NHS officials, really, but rather the fault of politicians who set the health service’s budget. The NHS is only falling short on patient outcomes, the logic goes, because it’s being denied resources in the first place. Is it really? New data published by the OECD this afternoon pops some of those birthday balloons. It reveals that the NHS actually remains one of the best-funded

Isabel Hardman

The ‘New Conservatives’ are useful for Braverman

How unhelpful are the New Conservatives to their party in government? They insist that they’re fully supportive of Rishi Sunak, but today’s 12-point plan to cut net migration isn’t exactly a love letter to the Prime Minister. Someone who does seem rather less annoyed by the new caucus is Suella Braverman, who as luck would have it was taking Home Office Questions in the House of Commons this afternoon. One of the members of the new caucus, James Daly, had a question about ‘what steps she is taking to reduce net migration’, and the Home Secretary replied: Net migration is too high, and this government are determined to bring it