Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Philip Patrick

What we learned from the Qatar World Cup

It is a measure of the unexpected success of the Qatar World Cup that it could be hailed as the best, by Fifa President Gianni Infantino, and the boast was not entirely laughable. This World Cup had its share of longueurs but had plenty of excitement and ended on such a high note that conspiracists might suspect the final moments were contrived. But the high drama of the final aside, what did we learn from this extraordinary sporting event? First, that we care about the exploited and the marginalised and disapprove of corruption but… not that much. No end of newsprint was devoted to the subject of the unknowable number of migrant workers who died building the glittering jewel-like stadiums in the sand, the bribery allegations, and alleged human rights abuses.

Patrick O’Flynn

The High Court Rwanda ruling is a win for the Tories

Today’s High Court ruling that the government’s plan to send irregular migrants to Rwanda on a one-way ticket is lawful will be greeted with huge relief in ministerial circles. It gives Rishi Sunak a fighting chance of being able to demonstrate progress in tackling the Channel boats issue by the time of the next general election. The terms of the ruling, announced by Lord Justice Lewis, will delight ministers. He declared straightforwardly: 'We have concluded that it is lawful for the government to make arrangements to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda and for their asylum claims to be determined there.' This establishes a principle that ministers believe can be applied to other potential partner countries once the Rwanda scheme is up and running.

Katy Balls

What the High Court ruling means for the Rwanda scheme

The government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful. That’s according to a ruling from the High Court this morning following a legal challenge against the scheme. The Home Office victory comes in response to the application from aid groups and asylum seekers to stop the government enacting its deportation agreement with the African country. These challenges meant that the first deportation flight – scheduled to depart on 14 June – was grounded. Since then, no flight has been allowed to take off – and not one asylum seeker has been sent to Rwanda.

Sam Ashworth-Hayes

The Met Office isn’t to blame for possible blackouts

In the hierarchy of excuses for tipping Britain into a month of blackouts, ‘the Met Office didn’t say winter would be cold’ must surely rank among the most abject possible. And yet this seems to be the story the government is running with; faced with the possibility of having to implement rolling power cuts, Conservatives are briefing that forecasters working from home has led to shoddy predictions, with the wise cabinet ministers accordingly caught out by the arrival of ice and snow. In December. In Britain. To blame any of this on Met Office staff working from home this is beyond ludicrous Britain burned through a fifth of its gas storage in the past week.

Sunday

Steerpike

Watch: Gary Neville’s bizarre Tory-bashing rant

The World Cup is drawing towards its close today and one benefit means we will get to hear less from Gary Neville, the left-wing right-back who has never met a camera he didn't like. You would think perhaps that a man like Neville – a multi-millionaire working for the Qatari state broadcaster – might be wary about entering the political fray, given his public humiliation on Have I Got News For You last month. Not a bit of it. The card-carrying Labour member, who appeared on stage with Keir Starmer at this year's party conference, instead opted to hijack the World Cup final today to muse on the situation here in Britain.

Steerpike

SNP purge their best in Westminster

In recent years, the SNP haven't always covered themselves in glory in Westminster. Whether it's silly stunts in the chamber or the botched complaint against the-then Chief Whip, Scotland's party of government always seems to be at the centre of some various embarrassment. Still, one nat has managed to impress on both sides of the House: Stewart McDonald, the party's longtime spokesman for defence. McDonald held this post for more than five years in the Commons and joined the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) too in March 2020. In the latter role he won plaudits for his tough talk on China and foreign disinformation, earning a reputation as one of the more insightful inquisitors on the panel.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Oliver Dowden urges nurses to call off strikes

Oliver Dowden: public sector pay rises would cost ‘£1,000 per household’ This morning, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden asked the unions representing nurses and ambulance workers to call off their planned strikes in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg. Dowden, whose role sees him in charge of co-ordinating the government’s response to the planned industrial action, told Kuenssberg that the collective amount being asked for by unions would take the government’s total bill to £28 billion. Kuenssberg challenged him on how the government had reached its conclusions: The government is giving out ‘highest pay settlements for 20 years’ Dowden stressed that the government would seek to follow the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body.

Saturday

Steerpike

Tory grassroot rebels make plans for 2023

It's less than a week since the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) launched and already organisers are optimistic about its success. The new group was born out of the Conservative Post's 'Boris ballot' movement in October to restore the former Prime Minister to office via a petition which claimed to boast more than 10,000 Conservative members. Having failed in that effort, supporters David Campbell Bannerman and Lord Cruddas are instead hoping to have more luck with their latest endeavour: a group to give the Tory grassroots more of a say in the running of their party. And early signs are good for the group, which launched last Sunday. Organisers say they have received an impressive 715 applications to serve on the executive of local branches.

Iain Macwhirter

Why we should take the Twitter Files seriously

‘Shadowbanning’, ‘visibility filtering’, ‘de-amplification’ – the Twitter Files released since Elon Musk took over have given us a new and sinister language of digital censorship. I am no fan of Musk’s capricious self-promotion. His vanity appals me and his vindictive attacks on former Twitter employees are gross. However, I credit him with telling us more about the inner workings of social media in two weeks than we learned in the last two decades. As in a palace coup, there is often a moment of transparency before the next dictator takes over. Of course, the Twitter Files have to be taken with a high degree of scepticism. They are partisan to the extent that Elon Musk sees himself as a crusader against what he calls the ‘woke mind virus’.

Steerpike

Burns hits back at his Tory foes

To the Carlton Club, where Mr S found himself on Thursday evening at the seventh Margaret Thatcher Centre lecture. A smorgasbord of stars turned out in black tie to honour the late Prime Minister, with Lord Frost delivering the keynote address to the enthusiastic applause of the dozens of assembled Tories including Priti Patel. But it was the opening remarks by Conor Burns – a close friend of Lady Thatcher – which impressed many in attendance. The Bournemouth West MP recounted the tale of his recent suspension from the parliamentary party, after being accused of misconduct at the annual Tory conference in October.

Freddy Gray

2022: The year in review

30 min listen

Freddy Gray and Jacob Heilbrunn reflect on an eventful year, looking back at the response to the invasion of Ukraine, the American economy and the makeup of the new Congress. Plus, will Joe Biden or Donald Trump be making a return to the White House? And will Jacob be buying a Trump NFT..?

Katy Balls

2022: The year in review

25 min listen

Katy Balls, Isabel Hardman and James Heale review the political maelstrom that was 2022, a year with more Prime Ministers than some decades have managed.

Owen Matthews

Owen Matthews, Christopher Howse and Olivia Potts

23 min listen

On this episode, Owen Matthews examines the original sin of Russia’s exiled media (00:44), Christopher Howse says Handel’s Messiah is as much a Christmas tradition as a pantomime (09:08), and Olivia Potts gives her recipe for boiled fruit cake (18:01). Get the full recipe to Olivia’s boiled fruit cake here: https://spectator.

Nigel Jones

Why are political failures like David Cameron so richly rewarded?

The news – reported in the FT Weekend – that former Prime Minister David Cameron is to teach a three-week course in politics next month at the New York Abu Dhabi University is quite something. For Cameron’s political career ended in spectacular failure – and he has hardly covered himself in glory since. A review of the former PM’s six years in Downing Street would have to include the way that it ended – which negated any achievements that his previous coalition with Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems may have chalked up – with Dave’s disastrous decision to call and lose the 2016 referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. No one forced Cameron to take the plunge that ended his time in power so swiftly and finally.

Ross Clark

Mick Lynch leads a middle-class union

Mick Lynch told Mishal Husain this week that it is about time she started showing partiality to Britain’s working people. Leave aside the assertion that the BBC should break its impartiality guidelines to please Mick Lynch, is he really representing the working classes? Unless you count as ‘working class’ everyone who does any paid work, the answer is somewhat questionable. The fact is that members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are significantly better off than Britain’s working population as a whole. Forget Lynch’s flat cap image: judged by income alone, the RMT’s rail members are thoroughly middle class.

Friday

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The Republicans must dump Trump and opt for Ron DeSantis

When I arrived in Washington, DC in 2006 to learn about US politics, someone told me that in America, there are two main parties: the party of power and the party of stupid. The latter denoted, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Republican party. And so it continues to prove. The failure of the much-hyped red wave to materialise in the 2022 midterms shows that the GOP has not lost its knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Consider: a day before the election, Biden’s approval rating was 39 per cent. This was a reflection of his poor performance (inflation, gas prices and immigration are just a few of the issues on which his administration has shown stunning incompetence).

Iain Macwhirter

The SNP’s tax hikes won’t work 

Two self delusions have sustained the SNP through the past couple of decades of devolution. The first is the perennial grievance that deteriorating public services are the result of Westminster austerity. The second is that Scotland’s social problems can be solved through redistribution – by taxing the rich. Both have now collapsed in the face of harsh reality. Low-growth Scotland generates less wealth each year, there are precious free rich left to tax and the public sector remains utterly dependent on financial life-support from the UK exchequer. This is an economy of almost colonial dependency, far removed from the image of independence propaganda. Deputy first minister John Swinney’s latest Scottish Budget remains very firmly in the land of delusion.

James Heale

What’s Jake Berry up to?

9 min listen

The nurses' strike is well underway and there seems to be no sign of an agreement over pay any time soon. The government seems to be receiving fiercer criticism from within the Conservative party than from across the aisle, as former Conservative party chairman (and Truss and Johnson ally) Jake Berry turns into the rebel-in-chief. What's he up to? James Heale talks to Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Cindy Yu.

Lisa Haseldine

Is Putin hiding away?

December is usually a busy month for Vladimir Putin, but not this year. In the run-up to Christmas, Russia’s president typically holds his annual press conference. But this time the event has been cancelled. Putin’s annual presidential address to the Russian federal assembly – that was pushed back from the summer – has also been canned. And Putin will also be absent from the traditional New Year’s Eve ice hockey game on Red Square. Putin’s yearly telethon, where ordinary Russians can phone in and have a chat with the president (indefinitely postponed from earlier in the year), too has been axed. Such events in the Kremlin calendar are annual touchstones for Putin to ‘connect’ with the Russian people.

Steerpike

Watch: Anneliese Dodds squirms on nurses’ pay

Oh dear. Labour have had a pretty good run of late, castigating the Tory government at every turn. But given the chance to set out her alternative vision on Sky News this morning, Labour chair Anneliese Dodds could only squirm when pressed as to how her party would be handling the strikes. Under repeated questioning from Anna Jones, Dodds – a former Shadow Chancellor to boot – desperately claimed that she was not 'going to on live television pluck a figure out of the air.' Presumably she thought Sky had asked her on to discuss political ephemera? Her answer was simply the bland insistence that 'we would negotiate' but not, er, actually explain Labour's red lines going in to such a negotiation. By Steerpike's count, Dodds ducked the question no less than four times.