Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Steerpike

The New York Times’ strange silence on Rushdie

The New York Times has never been shy about sharing its opinion – especially when it comes to bashing Britain. In recent years, Mr S has greatly enjoyed reading the London dispatches from America's least reliable news source, in which Brexit Britain is re-imagined as an autocratic archipelago where plague-riddled, rain-drenched, swamp-dwelling subjects devour legs of mutton and fascistic propaganda. But now, Steerpike has rare cause to bemoan the 'Gray Lady's' absence. For the NYT, whose staff proudly consider it to be the world's leading liberal newspaper, has been strangely quiet on an area of intense local concern. The stabbing of Sir Salman Rushdie shocked the world last Friday, with expression of condemnation and solidarity being issued across the world.

Mark Galeotti

Ukraine has found Russia’s Achilles’ heel in Crimea

Another day, another Russian arms depot up in smoke. The latest attack, this time on an ammunition storage site near Mayskoye on the Crimean peninsula, highlights three particular aspects of this phase of the war, and the degree to which Kyiv is adapting quicker and more effectively than Moscow. The first is that the long-heralded Ukrainian counter-attack is, so far, less about a melee on the ground and more about a methodical attempt to target Russian supply lines. Until now, this has been through missile and rocket strikes, although Moscow’s claim that the Mayskoye attack was carried out by ‘saboteurs’ would – if true – represent an interesting new approach.

Freddy Gray

Is Chinese espionage a threat to US democracy?

26 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Spectator contributor, Ian Williams, author of Every Breath You Take: China's New Tyranny and Nicholas Eftimiades, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and professor of Homeland Security. On the podcast, they discuss the scale of Chinese espionage infiltrating Western society. Has the problem been ignored for decades? What kind of a threat is it to America's democracy?

Patrick O’Flynn

The Channel migrant crisis will make or break Liz Truss

Liz Truss has been clear about her key selling point throughout her leadership campaign. At its launch she boasted: ‘I can lead, I can make tough decisions and get things done.’ And her whole campaign has amounted to variations upon that theme – ‘I do what I say I will do’, ‘I’m somebody who gets things done’ – in TV debates, hustings with members and personal appearances. So Liz Truss – not the slickest communicator but gets things done: that’s the offer which Conservative members are buying into in droves. Of course, Boris Johnson was once the ‘getting things done’ go-to guy. Or at least the ‘Get Brexit Done’ candidate. And that was the problem.

Steerpike

Sunak and Truss turn their guns on Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon has a target painted on her back. Sadly for her, it’s the size of Ben Nevis. Failing public bodies, collapsing school grades and a census as poorly received as Jerry Sadowitz’s Edinburgh Fringe show means taking aim at the SNP is a popular and easy win. The Tory leadership bandwagon rattles its way into Scotland tonight, for its first and only hustings there. The debate in Perth provides the perfect opportunity for the most dangerous drinking game ever concocted: imbibe every time someone bashes Sturgeon and her barmy army. Paisley-raised Liz Truss, who brands herself as ‘a child of the union’, said she would ‘never let anyone talk down Scotland’s potential’ – but is happy to blast the country’s leader.

Stephen L. Miller

Donald Trump deserves the Hillary Clinton treatment

Should Donald Trump escape any legal consequences for removing and storing classified information at his home in Florida, the fever-swamped, blue-check resistance members of the media will have only James Comey to thank for it. When a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago was executed and then unsealed last Monday, we learned one of the criminal statutes under which it was executed was the Espionage Act (18 US Code § 793), which makes it illegal to gather, transmit or lose defence information. Should a person actually be prosecuted on that charge, he or she could face up to ten years in prison. The political problem Joe Biden’s Justice Department has with such a scenario is, of course, that Trump was his former (and possible future) political opponent in a presidential race.

Aidan Hartley

Could this election be a turning point for Kenya?

In Kenya’s latest general elections, ‘The Hustler’ William Ruto has been declared our new President after a narrow victory against ‘Baba’ Raila Odinga. Last night as the announcement was made, politicians threw chairs at each other, allegations of rigging flew and a returning officer turned up dead. Dancing broke out in some streets, while in others rioters burned tyres and threw rocks. Raila’s camp is likely to contest the result in court, meaning nail-biting weeks of petitions, posturing and more entropy for our battered East African economy. Nobody wants a return to the aftermath of our 2007 polls, when hundreds died in ethnic bloodletting after an earlier loss for Baba and, on that occasion, his running mate Ruto. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Steerpike

SNP council appoint man as ‘period dignity officer’

Satire was declared officially dead this week after the SNP's latest right-on wheeze. In their desperation to declare that 'Scotland is leading the world', SNP-run Dundee City Council has named its new period poverty rights expert. Unfortunately the appointment has caused something of an immediate backlash - from women. It came after the city commissars opted to choose a, er, man as the Tay region's 'Period Dignity Regional Lead Officer.' Jason Grant told the Dundee Courier of his appointment: I’m absolutely buzzing about it. It’s definitely pioneering as Scotland is the first to do this. It’s about making people aware of the availability of period products for anyone of any gender, whenever they need it. 'Any gender' eh?

Steerpike

The article that made Boris ‘hang my head in shame’

Boris Johnson has written more than his fair share of controversial stuff over the years. Whether it's jibes at Islam, the Commonwealth or Barack Obama, general statements about blue collar men, working women and single mothers or, er, advice on handling female Spectator employees – 'just pat her on the bottom and send her on her way' – there's always been something to annoy the left. He, for his part, is largely unapologetic, claiming in the 2019 election debates that: 'If you go through all my articles with a fine-tooth comb and pick out individual phrases, there’s no doubt that you can take out things that can be made to seem offensive.' But even Boris has some regrets – as he revealed in an Independent article in 2002.

Stephen Daisley

Will the new PM recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital?

The race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and Prime Minister has been marked by acrimony. Rishi Sunak has established himself as the candidate of the centre and his rival Liz Truss the figurehead of the right. On one issue, however, they are on the same platform. Last night, Sunak spoke to Conservative Friends of Israel, a campaign group within the Conservative party that is popular with both MPs and grassroots activists. During the Q&A session, the former Chancellor was asked his position on moving the British embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, an issue that has sprung from relative obscurity in British politics to become a mainstream proposition.

Monday

Brendan O’Neill

Iran can’t shirk the blame for the attack on Salman Rushdie

So according to Iran it is Salman Rushdie's own fault that he got stabbed. It had nothing to do with the vile death warrant issued by Iran’s own ayatollah in 1989. It’s unrelated to the fact that the fatwa was reaffirmed in 2005. It’s not because Iran’s Revolutionary Guards once said ‘the day will come when (Muslims) will punish the apostate Rushdie for his scandalous acts and insults against the Koran’. No, it’s all Salman’s fault for – you guessed it – ‘insulting the sacred matters of Islam’. He brought that terrible knife attack upon himself. It is hard to think of a more despicable response to the alleged attempted murder of Rushdie than this.

Josef Bouska

Is the West’s Ukraine response about to fracture?

Wars aren't always decided on the battlefield. As bravely as Ukrainian soldiers defend their homeland from Russian invasion, their heroics won't suffice without continuous military and financial support from the West. American and European leaders have so far stood firmly behind Ukraine. Public opinion, however, is starting to dwindle. The most important fight for Ukraine could ultimately take place in the homes, streets, and squares across Europe. The Ukrainian administration has displayed a masterclass in public relations. President Volodymyr Zelensky became a media sensation, changing overnight from deeply unpopular politician into a model wartime leader for our times. His government uses every trick in the book to keep the world interested.

Isabel Hardman

Would Starmer’s energy plan work?

15 min listen

Keir Starmer has unveiled a £29 billion plan to freeze energy bills for six months. Under his proposals, the Labour leader said Brits would not face the enormous price hikes anticipated in October and January.But is his idea a serious one? Where would the money come from? And how have the Tories responded? Isabel Hardman speaks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.Produced by Max Jeffery.

Sasha Lensky

The two faces of Vladimir Putin

‘Putin’s Philosopher’ Aleksandr Dugin, self-styled deep thinker and ideological architect of current Russian expansionism, has claimed there are two distinct version of the president. There is a ‘Lunar Putin’ – practical, cautious, a supporter of the capitalist economy and free trade, alert to international opinion. And a ‘Solar Putin’, a messiah, fully embracing his mission to restore the great Eurasian Empire and confront the collective West.  This split-personality may well be at the heart of recent inconsistencies in Russian policy.

Ross Clark

Who’s going to save businesses from soaring energy costs?

Who doesn’t want lower electricity bills, and sympathise with households who will be unable to keep themselves warm this winter? But there is something rather missing from the Dutch auction between Keir Starmer and the two Tory leadership candidates over promises to help with household energy bills. What about businesses, whose gas and electricity bills are uncapped, and which face being forced into bankruptcy by surging prices? Households may have seen their bills rise by 50 per cent since the beginning of the year, and face seeing them double by the end of the coming winter. But they do at least benefit from having politicians falling over each other to help them.

Steerpike

The shine comes off Saint Jacinda’s halo

Cast your mind back to 2020. Back then, in the dark days of Covid, a ray of light was apparently offered in the form of New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern. Here, we were told, was the shining beacon of hope, the solution to all our ails. A ‘zero Covid’ approach and a total national lockdown; closed borders and open hearts. Across the country Guardianistas gushed praise and oozed platitudes: here, at last, was the ideal model of a sensible, liberal, centrist leader. Fast forward two years and all that has now changed. First Ardern managed to irritate both right and left with her clampdown on immigration and complacency on China.

Steerpike

Tugendhat takes another pop at Boris

It’s a curious mix that are backing Liz Truss. Most of the Boris diehards like Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg backed her early on in their quest to deny Rishi Sunak the premiership. But since she became the frontrunner, a number of new-found friends have declared their support too: including those who found little favour under Boris Johnson. Chief among them is Tom ‘Talleyrand’ Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, in which capacity he’s repeatedly criticised his own government’s strategy.And today Tugendhat is at it again, taking to Times Red Box - the preferred pulpit of the frustrated backbencher - to make the case for Truss and, by extension, damn her presumptive predecessor.

Katy Balls

Keir Starmer unveils his energy plan

Keir Starmer is today attempting to get back on the front foot over the cost-of-living crisis. Over the past fortnight, the Labour leader has been keeping a low profile (including a holiday abroad) which has given space to former prime minister Gordon Brown and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey to fill the vacuum in his absence. The policy Starmer has unveiled this morning isn't so different to what both Brown and Davey talked about when it comes to helping consumers with rising energy bills: freezing the energy price cap. Starmer is proposing a £29 billion plan ahead of the scheduled energy price cap rise in October, which is currently forecast to hit £3,582 a year.

Sam Leith

Salman Rushdie and the incitement of violence

When I met Salman Rushdie in New York a couple of years ago, he told me that the days in which he feared physical attack were long behind him. ‘It only affects my life when I talk to journalists,’ he said, a little pertly. ‘It is 20 years since I required any form of protection. I go everywhere I want.’ That was true, and not true. It was obvious to me – and, Sir Salman being no fool, will have been even more obvious to him – that thirtysomething years after the philistine clerisy of Iran sentenced him to death, there was nothing to prevent a lone nutter making an attempt on his life. And it looks like that is exactly what has now happened. The reason he denied something so obvious is that he didn’t want it to define him.

Sunday

Steerpike

Oxfordshire County Council’s climate crusade

Something funny is in the water in Oxfordshire. In recent months councillors there have embarked on a spree of unorthodox eco-measures, no doubt encouraged by the Green party’s gains in local elections. Back in March, TV star Jeremy Clarkson led a protest of farmers, enraged by the County Council’s decision to only provide ‘plant-based’ food at council meetings, even though it cost taxpayers more. And now, Mr S has discovered the latest taxpayer-funded wheeze: a new website called ‘Climate Action Oxfordshire’ with some intriguing advice for the local subjects who funded it.