Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Sunday

Robin Ashenden

Putin’s feminist crackdown won’t crush the spirit of Russia’s women

In the wake of draconian laws against ‘LGBT Propaganda’ introduced in Russia at the end of last year – namely, speaking with anything but flagrant condemnation about LGBT matters in public – Russia’s politicians seem to have sunk to a new low: feminism could soon be reclassified as an ‘extremist’ activity. A draft law setting out this crackdown has been put together by Oleg Matveychev, member of United Russia, Putin-supporter and deputy chairman of a state Duma committee. It’s currently being chewed over by the ‘Commission for Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs’ and, if judged a runner, will then pass to the state Duma for ratification.

Robert Service

Putin only has himself to blame for the end of Finlandisation

Joseph Stalin knew better than Vladimir Putin. After world war two, as the Cold War began, the Soviet dictator took the view that it was more trouble than it was worth to invade Finland again, as he had done with humiliating setbacks in the Winter War of 1939-1940. Too many parents or grandparents of those in the Finnish audience had died in the 1939-1940 war for suspicion of Russia to have faded And so the Finns were spared the fate of Poles, Hungarians, Bulgarians and other peoples of eastern and central Europe who were occupied and then communised. They had to pay a price for this absolution. The country was compelled to adopt neutral status during the decades of confrontation between the Warsaw Pact and Nato.

Theo Davies-Lewis

We don’t need Westminster: An interview with Wales’s ‘radical’ Archbishop

Andrew John is a ‘radical’, not a politician – or so he claims. The Archbishop of Wales stated his mission when he was elected to the post barely two years ago after a swift and overwhelming majority among the Church in Wales’s electoral college. John is low-key, humble and mild mannered in person, but is also unafraid to speak his mind: he has aired uncompromising views on migration, integrity in public life and nationalism. His most outspoken opinions are on the issue of Welsh independence. Earlier this year, John went further than any of his predecessors in expressing his personal thoughts on the subject: he said the 'situation we have received from Westminster is not sufficient' – and that he is 'in favour of independence' to help 'solve' the country's problems.

Michael Biggs

Why does the census say there are more trans people in Newham than Brighton?

Did you realise that one in every 67 Muslims is transgender? That adults with no educational qualifications are almost twice as likely to identify as transgender as university graduates? That the London boroughs of Brent and Newham are home to higher proportions of transgender people than Brighton and Oxford? These are some of the astonishing results from the 2021 census of England and Wales, which was the first in the world to ask about gender identity. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released detailed census data for England and Wales on Tuesday. These data deepen the problems raised by Alice Sullivan, professor of sociology at University College London, and myself after initial results were released in January.

Saturday

Ian Leslie

Keir Starmer is ruthless. But is that wise?

In 2019 Labour lost its fourth election in a row and suffered its worst defeat since 1935. The party was crushed, not just electorally but emotionally. In 2015, it had parted ways with Ed Miliband and fallen for Jeremy Corbyn, like a wounded lover rushing from one dysfunctional relationship into an even worse one. For four years it tore itself apart in a series of unseemly internecine rows over a leader despised by most of its own MPs, pilloried in the press, and held in contempt by voters, including traditionally Labour voters. Ideologues held sway in the party’s institutions and at its grassroots. The electoral map had been reshaped to the Tories’ advantage, perhaps permanently, by Brexit. Labour now needed a staggering 123 additional seats to win a majority.

Lucy Dunn

The party’s top figures are losing faith in the SNP

More keeps pouring out about the Scottish National party’s culture of secrecy. As revealed by the Times today, deputy leader Keith Brown suggested in 2021, four months after the police investigation into party finances - Operation Branchform - had commenced, that the SNP should produce a monthly summary of income and expenditure. Two key figures, Douglas Chapman and Joanna Cherry, had already resigned from their posts over concerns about party transparency, while several members of the finance committee had also quit. Yet Peter Murrell, chief executive of the SNP, shut down Brown’s plans. Brown compiled a 40-page transparency report for the party which concluded: ‘It is imperative that the workings and decisions of the party are transparent and accessible.

John Keiger

Macron’s France is at a turning point

France is confronted by a serious social crisis, morphing into a grave political crisis, which could become a regime crisis.   To be fair, political instability did not begin with Emmanuel Macron. It has been growing since 2000 when the presidential mandate was cut from seven to five years, rendering it coterminous with parliamentary elections and reducing the President of the Republic to little more than a super prime minister. But Macron has made things worse.   Now at only the beginning of his second term he survives with a hung parliament, obliged to get his flagship pension legislation by executive order for fear of defeat.  Where will this lead France in the next four years?

Theo Hobson

Does the Church of England need evangelicals?

The Church of England is in for an explosive summer. In February, Synod decided to allow the blessing of gay couples, and hinted that it will lift the ban on actively gay clergy. Conservative evangelicals have warned the bishops that if they really go ahead with this they will create a split that dwarfs the division over the ordination of women. The bishops have accepted that this is on the cards: a ‘settlement of differentiation’ is likely to be needed, they have said, meaning new structures for the conservatives. Now there’s an awkward wait before the bishops’ next announcement, expected by July.  On one level, what’s new? The evangelicals have been semi-separate for decades.

Steerpike

Lee Anderson savages Tom Watson over Labour attack ad

Day three of the row over Labour's backfiring 'law and order' advert. The Keirleaders in party HQ have clearly decided that attack is the best form of attack and have been busy creating another graphic, switching their focus from 'dangerous child abusers' to 'dangerous gunmen.' Labour's latest post cites figures which show that since 2010 some 937 adults have been convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to harm but have served no prison time. It prompted Tom Watson, Jeremy Corbyn's onetime deputy, to take an ill-advised pop at the Tory party deputy chairman, writing on Twitter that 'I'd love to know what @LeeAndersonMP_ thinks of 937 criminals holding firearms with intent to harm not getting banged up. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

Stephen Daisley

Independence is no longer the SNP’s chief concern

Humza Yousaf’s government will be defined by two legacies, Nicola Sturgeon’s and his own as health secretary. The Sturgeon legacy can only be understood by looking at the distance between the previous first minister’s rhetoric and her record. Sturgeon was always heavy on mission statements but light on delivery. During the leadership election, Yousaf initially embraced his designation as the ‘continuity candidate’ then pivoted to reject the label. That ambivalence reflects not only the shifting tactics of a troubled campaign but the political realities that the victor would inherit.

Mark Hollingsworth

What Putin could learn from Stalin

On 29 August 1942, as German tanks reached the Volga river near Stalingrad, Josef Stalin consulted his most senior General, Georgy Zhukov about his strategy. Despite his impoverished background, Zhukov was intelligent, demanding and strong-willed. The general persuaded Stalin to delay counter-attacking the Nazis for a week to allow time for supplies and artillery to reach the Red Army. Five days later Stalin discovered the Nazis had almost reached the Stalingrad suburbs. Incensed, the Soviet dictator ordered General Zhukov to attack immediately. The Soviets did counter attack but Zhukov later objected and argued this tactic was not feasible. Despite his despotic instincts, Stalin accepted the general’s advice and ordered him to produce a new plan.

Friday

Steerpike

Now the SNP’s auditors quit too

The SNP’s week goes from bad to worse. The party’s long-term auditing firm has resigned, according to reports today. Accountants Johnston Carmichael, which has worked with the party for over a decade, said that the decision followed a review of its client portfolio. The firm is understood to have resigned before the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell on Wednesday, according to the BBC. The SNP must now present their accounts to the Electoral Commission by early July or else face possible sanctions under political funding laws. The nationalists are currently looking for a replacement firm as political parties with an income or expenditure of more than £250,000 are required by law to independently audit their accounts and include this in their submission.

Ian Williams

Macron has made a fool of himself in China

At least there was no six metre-long table in Beijing separating Emmanuel Macron from Xi Jinping. But their meeting was about as fruitless as the French president’s socially distanced chat with Xi’s ‘best friend’ Vladimir Putin in Moscow last year, shortly before the Russian leader sent his tanks into Ukraine. Macron’s visit to China was a performance, aimed to bolster his credentials as an international statesman at a time of troubles at home There was something very retro about the Macron’s visit to China. It led to a scene almost from centuries ago when foreign plenipotentiaries would trail to the Middle Kingdom bearing gifts and seeking favours from the emperor.

Andrew McQuillan

The intellectual hollowness of Scottish Labour

The implosion of the Scottish National Party has led Scottish Labour to dream again of one day returning to what it assumes is its birth right: the berth at the top of Scottish politics. Many of the banalities and buzzwords in Labour’s most recent manifesto make Humza Yousaf’s blandishments about a ‘wellbeing economy’ sound deep and serious. Humza Yousaf’s increasingly pyrrhic looking triumph in the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon was met with much merriment in Labour ranks; one source quoted in the Times during the leadership contest bluntly said, ‘I hope Humza wins because he is fucking s****.’ Polling since Yousaf’s win has found that the SNP’s lead over Labour in Westminster seats has been slashed to five points.

Patrick O’Flynn

The problem with Rishi Sunak’s migrant housing plan

All politics is local, as the old saying goes. It is, of course, an exaggeration. But it contains easily enough truth to merit keeping in mind if you are, say, a government approaching the last year of its mandate and anxiously seeking a path to a new one. One lesson contained within the phrase is that a policy can lumber you with a net loss of votes or seats even if it is found to be nationally popular: it may just be that where it bestows a broad benefit the policy is of low-salience, while where it impacts negatively it becomes the overwhelmingly dominant issue. This might well prove to be true of the government’s new approach to accommodating Channel migrants.

Ann Coulter

Democrats are playing Republicans like a fiddle

A few years ago, I posted this riddle on Twitter: What’s easier to roll than an Easter egg? Answer: Donald Trump. Now, I can add: What’s easier to roll than Donald Trump? Answer: Republican voters. Democrats are playing Republicans like a fiddle. The left’s sole objective is to make Trump the Republicans’ 2024 presidential nominee. He’s already lost three election cycles for the GOP — why not make it four? A month ago, things were looking bad for the Democrats. Immediately after Trump announced for president last November, he may as well have gone into the witness protection program. Even Fox News cut away from his announcement speech.

Steerpike

Labour’s ‘law and order’ attack ad backfires

Oh dear. It seems that Labour have been caught trying to be too clever by half with their latest anti-Tory attack ad. The Starmer army proudly put out a hard-hitting graphic last night, which read: 'Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? Rishi Sunak doesn't' alongside a smiling photo of the Prime Minister. The party says that its basis for this tweet is figures from the Ministry of Justice which show that 4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children since 2010 have served no prison time. Such a claim is dubious, to say the least.

Mark Galeotti

Kyiv wants to make it untenable for Russia to hold Crimea

Crimea matters to Russians – whether they adore or abhor Vladimir Putin – in a way none of the other claimed or occupied Ukrainian territories do, and as such the peninsula’s fate will probably be central to any eventual resolution of the current war. That some Ukrainian sources are now talking about a military reconquest in the summer campaign season and others of diplomatic solutions suggests the possibility of movement. Whatever the official line, there are also many in Kyiv who are uncertain if they really want Crimea To be sure, there is no fundamental shift in Kyiv’s official position, that Crimea – like all the occupied territories – must be returned to its control, and that this could be by military force if necessary, negotiation if possible.