Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Friday

Steerpike

SNP conference to vote on provisional parliament

It’s the SNP’s big weekend out as party members and politicians make the painstaking journey to Aberdeen for the nationalists’ annual conference. Just seven months away from next year’s Scottish parliament elections, the Nats will spend the weekend discussing campaign strategy, devolved policy and – you guessed it – independence. It would appear the talks about separatism are about to get even barmier than usual, however, with SNP members set to face a vote on whether a provisional parliament should be set up north of the border to run alongside Holyrood as part of yet another pro-indy push. You can’t make this stuff up… The move comes from the grassroots,

Ross Clark

Why does Trump even want a Nobel Peace Prize?

Did anyone seriously think that Donald Trump was going to emerge this morning as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize? First, there were the mechanics. Nominations for the prize closed on 31 January, at which point Trump was only 11 days into his second term and there was hardly a glint of hope in Gaza. The prize committee will have met for the last time around a week ago, when there was still doubt as to whether Hamas would accept this deal. Of necessity the committee will have had to make its decision a few days before the announcement because certain formalities will have had to be undertaken, such as

Steerpike

Zack Polanski's humiliating breast hypnosis climbdown

To BBC Question Time, where new leader of the Greens Zack Polanski spent much of the evening sparring with Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf. The lefty leader accused the Reform figure of being a ‘far-right, fascist’ that was obsessed with immigration while Yusuf accused Polanski of wanting a ‘communist economic system’ in a Britain where ‘it is legal to sell heroin, but not to rent your flat out’. Shots fired! But while Polanski was pulling no punches with his attacks on Nigel Farage’s insurgent group, the Green leader was a little less tolerant when Yusuf decided to bring up his past, er, antics. Reform’s head of policy hit out at the

Michael Simmons

How Rachel Reeves can escape the doom loop

Rachel Reeves is trapped in an economic ‘doom loop’: high debt, low growth and higher debt again. But, as pessimists’ eyes turn to the Chancellor’s Budget next month, there is a way she can turn that loop into a ‘virtuous circle’. The doom loop theory of Reeves’s economy has so far gone like this: Following a fiscal event, tax receipts come in lower than expected, growth forecasts are downgraded, inflation forecasts rise – and a fiscal ‘black hole’ emerges. To fill in the hole, the Chancellor hikes taxes because her backbenchers won’t let her make cuts. The tax hikes further hamper growth, weighing down employment as companies struggle under the

Sam Goodman

Britain should be wary of BYD, China's EV powerhouse

From Thailand to Brazil, a surge of imports from Chinese electric vehicle (EV) producer BYD has the familiar pattern of being followed by the destruction of domestic automotive jobs. The UK is unlikely to be the exception. This week’s news that Britain has become the number one market for BYD should ring alarm bells. Our domestic automotive producers, that have already announced thousands of job losses this year, are unlikely to emerge unharmed. BYD increased its sales in the UK by 880 per cent in September For two years, analysts and policymakers have warned of the economic risk Chinese EVs pose to the legacy automotive industry through a new wave of deindustrialisation and

Brendan O’Neill

What will the Israel haters do now?

Normal people are cheering the prospect of peace in Gaza. Some might even raise a glass to Donald Trump for his valiant efforts to end this horrible war Hamas started. But there are others who will be feeling forlorn. The anti-Israel mob, to be specific. Won’t you spare a thought for this tragic community that built its entire personality around hating Israel – what are they going to do now? There is an eerie silence in anti-Israel circles There is an eerie silence in anti-Israel circles this morning. The people who spent the past two years hollering ‘Ceasefire now!’ seem strangely downbeat about the prospect of a ceasefire. No doubt

Rhys Laverty

Corbyn's Your Party is no joke

Over the past few weeks, many of us have watched with evident schadenfreude as Your Party, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s embryonic progressive-socialist cum Islamo-populist outfit, fell into disarray. The wheels came off quicker than an expensive bike chained to a lamppost in Hackney. The jokes wrote themselves, part Armando Iannucci (‘Stalin would be loving this!’), part Monty Python (‘We’re the People’s Front of Judea!’). But an Ipsos poll suggested that one in five British adults would consider voting for Your Party, rising to one in three among younger and Labour voters. New parties often do well, of course. But, as the steady rise of the Greens also shows, there

Kristina Murkett

State school kids will pay for Labour's International Baccalaureate crackdown

It appears that Labour is determined to ensure that choice in education is only for those who can afford it. The government has just announced that it is slashing funding for the International Baccalaureate (IB) in state schools, meaning the qualification may now only be offered in the private sector. What choice do parents of these children now really have? Just like the mid-year cancelling of the Latin Excellence Programme, this is yet another example of Labour’s utilitarian fear of excellence and difference. The IB Diploma differs from A-levels in that it is a much broader course: rather than studying three subjects post-16, pupils study six. English, Maths and a modern language are compulsory,

Damian Thompson

Jewish fear, 'the elimination of motherhood' & remembering Jilly Cooper

25 min listen

The Spectator’s cover story this week looks at ‘the fear’ gripping Jewish people amidst rising antisemitism. Reflecting on last week’s attack in Manchester, Douglas Murray says that ‘no-one in the Jewish community was surprised’ – a damning inditement on Britain today. How do we tackle religious intolerance? And is there room for nuance in the debate about Israel and Palestine?  Host Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator’s US editor Freddy Gray, associate editor – and host of our religious affairs podcast Holy Smoke – Damian Thompson and commissioning editor Mary Wakefield. As well as the cover, they discuss: how biological innovations are threatening motherhood; the views of the new – and first

Thursday

Steerpike

Starmer: 'no ministers' involved in China case collapse

To India, where Keir Starmer has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the UK-India trade deal and learn more about the country’s digital ID scheme. But of course the curious matter of the China spy case collapse came up at today’s press conference as questions remain about why the charges against Chris Cash and Christopher Berry were dropped. Quizzed about whether national security adviser Jonathan Powell or any other minister were involved in the decision to drop the case, Starmer was clear: I can be absolutely clear, no ministers were involved in any of the decisions since this government’s been in, in relation to the evidence that’s been

James Heale

Revealed: the Lib Dems' plan for Tory defectors

Reform UK’s momentum is influencing other parties too. The Greens voted overwhelmingly to elect Zack Polanski last month, partly on the basis that he would replicate Nigel Farage’s media success. Labour are basing much of their current strategy on a cordon sanitaire approach, hyping up the threat of any Farage-led government. The Liberal Democrats are now trying to copy a model that Reform has exploited to great effect: luring Tory defectors to their side. In April, Jamie Greene, a West Scotland MSP since 2016, crossed the floor at Holyrood. Sir Ed Davey sought to build on this in his recent conference address, issuing an explicit appeal for ‘One Nation Conservatives’

Tim Shipman

Whisper it quietly, peace in the Middle East?

15 min listen

Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of his Gaza peace plan. During an extraordinary round table on the Antifa organisation last night, the US President was interrupted by Marco Rubio and given a hand-written message. He told those assembled at the White House: ‘I was just given a note by the Secretary of State saying that we’re very close to a deal in the Middle East, and they’ll need me pretty quickly.’ Details of the deal, including the finalised list of prisoners Hamas wants freed as part of an exchange, remain unclear. But the first part of the deal could be set in motion

Steerpike

Yousaf: it is 'difficult' to accept Trump as peacemaker

After two years of war, both Hamas and the Israeli government have agreed to a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. The pact will see the remaining hostages released by Hamas and the bombing of Gaza to stop. British politicians of all stripes have lauded the deal, while Trump has been praised for his part in the negotiations. But one former first minister has been more than a little begrudging in his praise for the President’s coup. Ex-SNP first minister Humza Yousaf, whose wife had family living in Gaza, was quizzed today on BBC Radio Scotland about whether he accepted that Trump was helping bring about peace. In

Stephen Daisley

Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Prize for his Hamas-Israel deal

In confirming the Israel-Hamas peace deal on Truth Social last night, Donald Trump referenced the seventh Beatitude from the Gospel of Matthew: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.’ Trump has been called a lot of things, many of them words you won’t find in the Bible, but could his next monicker be Nobel laureate? Even some of Trump’s critics, among whom I count myself, see a case for awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize The Gaza war did not begin on his watch and it was not the backdrop to his second term that he wished for. Trump II has been much more

Nick Cohen

JK Rowling, Mia Khalifa and the delusion of the pro-Palestine mob

When an Islamist attack on a synagogue in my home city of Manchester left two dead, I responded by writing about the failure of some parts of the pro-Palestine movement to distance themselves from Jew hate. I switched on my phone and found that my X feed had gone haywire It was a leftish argument, I thought. I condemned racist murders – in this case the racist murders of Jews. (And the left – indeed any sane person – is against that, aren’t they?). I pointed out that the anti-Israel demonstrators, who have filled the streets for two years did not cancel their protests as a mark of respect for the dead

Douglas Murray

The increasing fear felt by Britain’s Jews

If you walked down the Strand in London on Tuesday this week you would have been greeted by hundreds of people outside King’s College London. The gathering was organised by students from KCL, the London School of Economics and University College London. They chanted ‘Intifada, intifada’ and ‘Long live the intifada’. They had chosen the day well – Tuesday was the second anniversary of the 7 October massacre, in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and hundreds more taken hostage. Tuesday’s hate-fest was not, of course, an unusual event. The first demonstrations in support of the 7 October massacre of Jews took place in west London on the day of

Rod Liddle

Robert Jenrick is right

I’ve just got back from doing a spot of shopping in my local town – and do you know what struck me? How white it was. Absolutely heaving with ghostfaces. In fact, in the hour or so that I spent there I don’t think I saw a single non-white person, apart from some young ladies leaving the local tanning salon who were the colour of a glass of Tango and that doesn’t really count. It is OK to say this, incidentally, if you then use it as a basis to attack the town’s lack of diversity and demand the government ship a few ethnics in, regardless of whether or not

Tim Shipman

The real war is to come for the Tories

British politics often resembles a golden-age murder mystery, with multiple parties sitting anxiously on the sofas/green benches waiting for the detective/electorate to crack the case. The Reform, Labour and Tory conferences provided a plethora of clues. But just as Sherlock Holmes solved ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’ by diving into the significance of the dog that didn’t bark, just as much can be learned from what didn’t happen over the past few weeks. First, there was no serious leadership challenge from the pretenders in Labour or the Conservatives. Andy Burnham turned up in Liverpool with a knife between his teeth, only to discover he neither had a seat nor the

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Synagogue attack, pro-Palestine protests and a new Archbishop of Canterbury

Home Two men at a synagogue at Heaton Park in Manchester were killed on Yom Kippur when Jihad al-Shamie, 35, drove a car at bystanders and went on the attack with a knife. He was a British citizen of Syrian descent, on bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape. He was bravely prevented by those present from breaking into the main building. Police shot him dead; they also accidentally shot a worshipper who died, and wounded another. Six people were arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, appealed for a pause in pro-Palestinian protests but police arrested 488 people around Trafalgar Square demonstrating on Saturday

David Shipley

The civil service is killing restorative justice

Failing institutions don’t like challenge, let alone being shown up. Few institutions are failing more tragically than our prisons – and the situation is getting worse. This is because the officials who preside over this debacle are purging the few people who have actually been making a positive difference. The latest organisation to be banned from prisons is Sycamore Tree, a Christian charity which arranges meetings between prisoners and people who have been the victims of similar crimes to those they committed. It charged prisons nothing and had operated successfully for more than 25 years, running courses for more than 40,000 prisoners. The story of its banning was broken by