Politics Archives

Tuesday

20 September 2022

Don’t blame the Queen for the British Empire

If a country’s greatness can be measured by its enemies, Britain can set fears of national decline aside: we’re still doing pretty damn well. Now that the Queen’s funeral has taken place, the dignitaries have been despatched, and the corgis are in good hands, it seems like the right time to take stock. Most of the world's leaders, from president Biden to president Putin, have paid their respects to Britain’s late monarch, and sent their sorrow to Britain’s mourning people. The exceptions have been few, and noisily promoted by American media organisations desperate to make every world event somehow a commentary on domestic US politics. The best response to this is simply to ignore it.

Cindy Yu

Why is Liz Truss ruling out a US trade deal?

14 min listen

Liz Truss is in New York today on her first foreign visit as prime minister. On the flight across the Atlantic, Truss said that a trade deal with the United States was unlikely in the 'short to medium term'. Why has the PM, who was so vocal about a free trade agreement with the US in the 2019 election, changed her tune? Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls. Produced by Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery.

Gavin Mortimer

Marine Le Pen wants France to become the next Sweden

While Emmanuel Macron spent Sunday in London honouring the memory of the late Queen Elizabeth, Marine Le Pen marked her return from a summer break with an address to the party faithful in the south of France. Buoyed by the success of the Swedish right in last week’s election, and anticipating a similar result on Sunday when the Italians go to the polls, Le Pen attributed what she called a ‘patriotic wave’ sweeping the continent to the EU’s failure to tackle mass immigration in the last decade. In the opinion of Le Pen no one embodies this failure more than Macron. Last Thursday the president told an assembly of prefects that a new immigration bill would be tabled by his government in early 2023.

David Cohen

Why does this university want to bin Queen Victoria?

Spare a thought for New Zealand’s Victoria university. For years now, this Kiwi institution of higher learning has been pulling out all the stops to rid itself of its monarchial name. The events of recent weeks have made its mission much more difficult. Victoria marks its 125th anniversary this December. Few things are likely to have gladdened the hearts of the university's bigwigs than if this year could have been the last in which it was saddled with her majesty’s imprimatur. The death of Queen Elizabeth — and the tidal wave of warm Antipodean feel it has brought about — can only have thrown yet another spanner in the works. New Zealand has eight publicly funded universities, seven of which seem to quite like their names. Victoria doesn’t.

Steerpike

Will the Channel 4 sale go ahead?

There'll be corks popping in Horseferry Road tonight. Following the Queen's funeral yesterday, normal politics has now resumed with gusto. Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan was duly wheeled out on Sky this morning, where she revealed that the government is now 'reexamining the business case' over the privatisation of Channel 4. It comes after extensive lobbying from the arts industry, with hundreds of producers, directors and stars urging ministers to call off the sale. Donelan's appointment to the post follows the departure of Nadine Dorries, an ardent advocate of flogging off the right-on broadcaster, arguing it will struggle to survive in the era of Netflix. Now it seems that the change of minister has brought with it a change of policy too.

Hardeep Singh

Fake news is fuelling trouble on the streets of Leicester

Leicester is sometimes held up as a success story in multicultural Britain. The city is a melting pot where people of all creeds and colours live side-by-side. However, recent events have tarnished that reputation. Over the weekend, once again there were violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the east of the city. Leicestershire Police announced last night that a total of 47 arrests have been made, for offences ranging from assault to violent disorder. On Saturday, an ‘unplanned protest’ by a group of Hindu young men triggered a counterprotest by members of the Muslim community. Young men can be seen in video footage with their hoods up and faces covered (wearing covid masks and balaclavas), walking the streets in large groups looking menacing.

Katy Balls

What Truss’s US trade deal U-turn is really about

Farewell to the UK/US trade deal. That's the news from Liz Truss's trip to the UN assembly in New York. The Prime Minister has told hacks on the flight over that the UK will not strike an agreement with America for many years. The former international trade secretary suggested that talks were unlikely to even start in the medium term: 'There isn't currently any negotiation taking place with the US and I don't have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.' The comments come ahead of her first proper meeting with Joe Biden since becoming Prime Minister. The former International Trade Secretary suggested that talks were unlikely to even start in the medium term Her comments have caused quite a stir back home.

Gareth Roberts

Why ordinary people cannot enter the arts world

Recent sad events have seen everybody behaving exactly as you would expect. There’s nothing wrong about that. A certain continuity of conduct is reassuring, a truism that the late Queen herself exemplified better than anyone. Her job was to be regal. Similarly, it’s the job of chippy academics to spill their thoughts, of the New York Times to froth at length, and, of course, of mad actors to be mad. It might be argued that the job of an actor is to act, but such an objection belongs to a vanished world and certainly does not apply to the actors who have moved beyond simply saying other people’s words for a living. We were blessed by two fine examples this week.

The Spectator

America’s touching tributes to the Queen (1901)

The United States hasn’t always reacted rather snidely to the death of the British monarch. Below is The Spectator’s lead piece following the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901, available on our fully-digitised archive. Nothing has been more striking, nothing more moving to the British as a nation, than the way in which the Queen has been mourned and her memory reverenced in the United States. The English-speaking people of America almost with one voice have joined the English-speaking people of the British Empire in their expressions of affection for the Queen.

Monday

19 September 2022

Patrick O’Flynn

The Queen’s funeral was a fitting send off for Elizabeth the Great

In the Christian tradition, which allows for a protracted gap between death and burial, there is often time for initial feelings of shock and grief to give way to other emotions – fond recall, gratitude for the contribution of the departed. But a funeral always returns us to sorrow. And deep sorrow was the abiding emotion today at the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The applause that rang out along parts of the route when her body was conveyed back to Buckingham Palace – or the friendships that sprang up in the queue to see her lying in state in Westminster Hall – were rightly seen as flowing from the Queen’s genius at holding and bringing people together.

Fraser Nelson

How will Queen Elizabeth II be remembered?

12 min listen

Today was the state funeral of Britain's longest reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II. From Westminster, we evaluate the day's proceedings.Also on the podcast, as the period of mourning ends and politics resumes, can Liz Truss hit the ground running? Will we get some clarity on how much her energy plan will cost?Katy Balls speaks with Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Steerpike

Watch: Aussie broadcasters fail to recognise Liz Truss

Poor Liz Truss. While Boris Johnson is recognised the world over thanks to his famous ruffled hair, Britain's new Prime Minister isn't quite as well known overseas. As the great and the good arrived at Westminster Abbey for Her Majesty the Queen's funeral service earlier today, Truss was shown with her husband entering the church. Unfortunately, two Aussie commentators, broadcasting on the country's Channel Nine, had no idea who Truss was. 'Who's this? Maybe minor royals,' said presenter Peter Overton. 'We can't spot everyone unfortunately', said his colleague Tracy Grimshaw. 'They look like they could be local dignitaries,' she added. https://twitter.com/Shahryar_Sultan/status/1571811768946642946?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Oh dear.

Stephen Daisley

In praise of France’s tributes to the Queen

The death of Elizabeth II has reacquainted Britain with all the cherished irrationalities that make us who we are. Hereditary monarchy. Unfathomable pageantry. Democratic grief. The joy taken in queuing. There’s no understanding these customs; tradition exists to be followed, not deduced. To love the British, you have to love, or at least accept, their curious foibles. There is one irrationality that is not exactly cherished but endures nonetheless and the Queen’s death has underlined just how irrational it is and how difficult to love. The British aversion to the French seems all the more perverse given la république’s extraordinary reaction to the passing of Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

Freddy Gray

Joe Biden’s Taiwan muddle has become untenable

Under Joe Biden, the longstanding American policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ vis-à-vis Taiwan has taken on a curious post-modern quality. The official US position on arguably the biggest international question of the moment is now so ambiguous that even the president of the United States doesn’t appear to know what it is. In a long interview with CBS 60 minutes this weekend, president Biden was asked if US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘If in fact there was an unprecedented attack.’ The White House promptly clarified that, in fact, the US position has not changed, suggesting that America still might not commit to defending Taiwan with its own troops. The same thing happened in May.

Juliet Nicolson

Why I queued to see the Queen

I went there with Rachel my best friend from childhood. We both wore black. Even our trainers were black. We took the train together from our homes in Sussex and joined the queue in London at 7 p.m., when day light was still strong, in the knowledge we might be part of this slow-moving mass of humanity for twelve hours or much more. Our backpacks were filled with sweaters, extra socks, bananas, energy bars, phone chargers and handkerchiefs. The journey, or what increasingly felt like a pilgrimage, was buzzing with chat, with introductions that followed a very Queen-like sort of conversation. ‘Have you come far?’ ‘What do you do?

Svitlana Morenets

Ukrainian nuclear power plant shelled by Russia

If Putin is losing the ground war in Ukraine and running out of troops, what other options does he have? The obvious fear is that he’d use nuclear weapons or attack Ukraine’s nuclear power stations. Last night, the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in Mykolaiv oblast, 300 km (200 miles) south from Kyiv, was struck, with more than 100 windows destroyed by the blast. Such plants are designed to withstand explosions although not missile attacks. The reactor was not hit and there (as yet) are no reports of any radioactive leakage. For nuclear plants to be shelled at all shows a dangerous turn of events.

The Spectator

The complete guide to the Queen’s funeral

Today, the world says farewell to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. World leaders, including US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron, and royals from across the globe have gathered in London for the country's first state funeral in decades. Here is how the day will unfold: 10.35 a.m. The coffin bearers from the Queen’s Company, the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, will lift the coffin from the catafalque in Westminster Hall. 10.44 a.m. The Queen's coffin will be taken via Parliament Square to Westminster Abbey. The coffin will be carried on the state gun carriage, drawn by 142 Royal Navy sailors.

Nigel Jones

What the Queen’s funeral tells us about Britain

State funerals say a lot about the country in which they take place – and one of the things in which Britain still indisputably leads the world are the magnificent final farewells that we arrange for our leaders. How very different are some of the send offs seen in less fortunate lands. When Stalin died in 1953, hundreds, possibly thousands, were added to the toll of his victims when they were fatally crushed queuing in Moscow to view the dead Soviet dictator. In 1989, after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in revolutionary Iran, the chaotic funeral culminated in the dead Supreme Leader’s body actually falling out of its coffin, while Revolutionary Guards fired into the crowd of more than a million mourners, killing at least eight.

Sam Leith

The midlife crisis spread: why are the affluent so depressed?

‘You are here’, as those signs in windswept carparks unhelpfully point out. Yup. No mistaking it, you will tend to think glumly as you look at them. I had the same feeling when I looked at a new report from no less an institution than America’s National Bureau of Economic Research. The report is called The Midlife Crisis. It tells us that in the western world, one’s forties and early fifties are associated with problems with sleep, clinical depression and suicidal thoughts, disabling headaches and dependence on alcohol, alongside a decline in basic measures of life satisfaction. Well, fancy. I don’t know about clinical depression and suicidal thoughts, I should say. Not so melodramatic, me.

Sunday

18 September 2022

John Connolly

Why is violence breaking out in Leicester?

Just what is going on in Leicester? Last night violence broke out in the city after hundreds of young men in Covid masks and balaclavas took to the streets as part of an ‘unplanned protest’. The police attempted to contain the protestors but soon lost control of the situation. Videos posted online show officers struggling to contain the crowds while bottles fly and smash on the pavement around them. In another unverified video a group of men flip a car. According to the police, two arrests have been made and they are investigating several other incidents of violence and disorder. For the past few weeks Leicester has become a kind of mini-Kashmir in the middle of England, with clashes, protests and disorder breaking out in the city between young Muslim and Hindu men.