Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Thomas Lorman

Why Hungary’s opposition failed

Viktor Orbán has now spent a total of 16 years as Hungary’s Prime Minister but he has not lost his hunger for power. Energetically campaigning across the country, exploiting every advantage of incumbency, and excoriating the incompetent opposition, on Sunday he notched up his fourth landslide victory in a row. Crucially, he maintains the two-thirds majority in parliament that he has held since 2010, allowing him him to amend the constitution whenever he chooses. Predictably, the opposition challenged the legitimacy of the election process even before the votes had been counted. They note that the lion’s share of the media supports Orbán. But this is an excuse, not an explanation.

Matthew Lynn

Can Elon Musk save Twitter?

Teslas will be permanently trending. So perhaps will space rockets. Petrol cars will be quietly forgotten about. And if you get enough likes and followers perhaps you might win a place on the planned space colony on Mars. With the news that Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, and one of the richest men in the world, has today taken a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter there will be lots of jokes about how he might change the social media site. But by far the most significant one is this. He could shift it to the libertarian right. That really would be significant. Twitter shares soared by 25 per cent in early trading on Wall Street today as news broke that Musk had bought a huge slice of the company’s shares. So far, he insists that the stake is merely ‘passive’.

Freddy Gray

Will Donald Trump be back in the White House in 2025?

34 min listen

A recent poll showed that if a general election was to be held today between Trump and Biden, the 45th President would be successful in winning back the White House. But what is it, in just over a year, that has led to such a flip? Freddy talks with Trump spokesman Liz Harrington on Trump's popularity, the possibility of him running in 2024 and the lingering anger felt by many Americans over the 2020 election.

Cindy Yu

Could Boris ditch net zero?

13 min listen

The government will publish its long-awaited energy security strategy this Thursday. The plan, which has been repurposed since Putin's invasion of Ukraine, is expected to include commitments to reduce the 6 per cent of energy Britain currently gets from Russia, and pledges to increase the use of nuclear energy. But could net zero, a priority for the Prime Minister when he went into No. 10, also be quietly shelved? Cindy Yu speaks to Fraser Nelson, Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman.To get a weekly summary of The Spectator's podcasts, subscribe to our Podcast Highlights email – https://spectator.

Katy Balls

No. 10 prepares decades-long energy plan

The government's delayed energy strategy is finally due to be released this week. The Prime Minister is due to unveil his plans on Thursday, which will supposedly ensure that the UK is self-reliant on energy supply after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Not that the proposals will lead to much change overnight. Instead, they are focussed on ensuring self-reliance in the long term – with many of the plans likely to take decades to come to fruition.  So, what's on the agenda? Part of the reason the energy strategy has been delayed several times is a difference of opinion between the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, No. 10 and the Treasury.

Steerpike

Six Biden-Harris howlers on Ukraine

It's 15 months since President Biden swept into the White House, where, judging by his current poll ratings, his tenure might not be a long one. Of course, many in his party never thought the 79 year-old would run again in 2024: the problem for Democrats is that his deputy Kamala Harris is even more unpopular. Still, while the pair's record in office is mixed since taking over, America has clearly had a 'better war' in Ukraine than they did in Afghanistan, eight months ago. Nevertheless, the two have both made a number of gaffes which, had they been made by Biden's predecessor, would almost certainly have had far greater publicity and condemnation. Below are six howlers from the dynamic duo at the top of American policymaking... 1.

Steerpike

BBC political editor race descends into farce

It's the best comedy the BBC has made in years. The twists and turns of the race to be the corporation's next political editor have kept all of Westminster agog for months. Now, after a three month recruitment process whittled down the candidates to two outsiders, BBC bosses have decided that, er, that their preferred candidate may be in W1A after all. For Yorkshireman Chris Mason has re-emerged in recent days as the frontrunner to replace Laura Kuenssberg. The presenter of Radio 4’s Any Questions? ruled himself out of the running in January, but has been persuaded to put himself forward amid rumours that bosses do not wish to appoint either of the final two candidates.

Sunday

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Russian troops’ actions ‘look like war crimes’

Sergey Nikiforov – Russian troops’ actions ‘look exactly like war crimes’ The pressure on Kyiv has been easing recently, with Russian soldiers apparently withdrawing from the area around the capital. President Zelenskyy has said that he believes it is part of a tactical retreat so that the Russian army can refocus their efforts on the south of Ukraine instead. Ukrainian forces now claim to have retaken at least 29 northern towns and cities, and found utter devastation awaiting them on their return. A spokesman for Zelensky, Sergey Nikiforov, appeared on Sunday Morning with Clive Myrie, and described the carnage in detail: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1510538088589713410?

Steerpike

Warburton’s toast as Lindsay declares war on drink

Sunday: a day of rest, church and more headlines about Tory MPs misbehaving. Today's unfortunate backbencher is David Warburton, who faces the unholy trinity of allegations about sex, drugs and undeclared Russian loans. The Somerset MP has now had the party whip withdrawn, following claims he took cocaine and was sexually inappropriate towards three women. He denies any wrongdoing. The excesses of the parliamentary Conservative party are by no means the only booze-related story in today's newspapers. It appears that Lindsay Hoyle isn't a fan of Mr S's dispatches about sloshed parliamentary staffers snoozing off their hangovers overnight in their offices.

Sean Thomas

Rebuild our cities

For an ancient city with an illustrious industrial history, Derby doesn’t get much attention. But it does boast at least one famous, possibly apocryphal story, known to scholars of urbanism. Sometime in the 80s or 90s (accounts differ), a party of visiting German VIPs was given a tour of the city’s sights: the humdrum housing schemes; the corners of concrete bleakness; the sad disjointed malls and random multi-storey car parks. Struck near-dumb by the ugliness, the Germans apologised profusely for the damage clearly wrought on poor Derby by the Luftwaffe: wiping away a venerable city centre, leaving behind such tragic hideousness.

Steerpike

Salmond trial rocked by perjury claims

There's a spectre haunting the Scottish Government: the spectre of Alex Salmond. Like Banquo at the feast, the former First Minister has returned once more to unsettle his successor and onetime protege, Nicola Sturgeon. For the Sunday Mail has today revealed that lawyers are probing claims that perjury was committed in the former First Minister's trial for sexual assault. The Crown Office and Procurator fiscal service has appointed an independent QC to investigate claims from Salmond's lawyers about a series of criminal allegations. He was cleared in 2020 of sexually assaulting nine women while he was First Minister.  A jury found the former SNP leader not guilty on 12 of the sexual assault charges facing him, while another was found not proven.

Gavin Mortimer

Macron is the Messiah for French millennials

Emmanuel Macron welcomed the faithful to Paris on Saturday at a rally in the west of the capital. I know the venue well; it is the home of the Racing 92 rugby club and many a time I’ve sat in the indoor arena, roaring my approval at a bone-crunching tackle. The hollering on Saturday was for the president as he held his first and only significant campaign event before next Sunday’s election. It wasn’t quite a full house, with a few untaken seats in the 30,000 capacity arena, but the fervour reverberated around the arena as Macron made his grand entrance. It was like a boxer approaching the ring in a title fight. A warm-up act had whipped the crowd into a frenzy and as Macron emerged from his dressing room, music blasted and fireworks exploded.

Saturday

Stephen Daisley

It’s time to bring the Falklands into the United Kingdom

Today marks 40 years since Operation Rosario, when Leopoldo Galtieri’s commandos landed on the Falkland Islands and began an invasion that prompted the Falklands War. The Guardian has commemorated the occasion with an unapologetic op-ed by the Argentinian government swearing itself to reasserting control over the islands. Foreign minister Santiago Cafiero, author of the op-ed, declares that ‘the recovery of sovereignty is an inalienable objective of the Argentine people’ and says ‘no Argentine government will cease in its pursuit of our sovereign claim’.  Cafiero’s op-ed is full of self-pity but utterly lacking in self-reflection.

Sam Holmes

Christopher Howse, Richard Florida and Olivia Potts

28 min listen

On this week's episode, we'll hear from Christopher Howse on the destruction of Ukrainian churches. (00:50)Next, Richard Florida on how Covid has changed London for the better. (13:52)And finally, Olivia Potts on her love of the crisp sandwich. (23:56)Produced and presented by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher.

Cindy Yu

What does victory for Ukraine look like?

24 min listen

This week it looks like the war in Ukraine is turning. The Ukrainian resistance has moved from the defensive to the offensive against their invaders and American intelligence has reported that the Russian forces are struggling by almost every metric. Though for the Western world this is a very encouraging sign what does a true victory look like and what should our attitude to Russia be if this conflict ends in a fully free Ukraine?Cindy Yu is joined by Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Paul Mason to discuss.

Friday

Paul Wood

Can the west end the Ukraine war?

45 min listen

The Spectator's contributing editor Paul Wood interviews Dr Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution, who also served as a director within President Trump's national security council, where her brief focused on Europe and Russia. This conversation was a joint production with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Founded in 1991, IWPR is a non-profit organization that works with independent media and civil society to promote positive change in 30 countries around the world. IWPR has been working with media and civil society in Ukraine since 2016 and has local staff in Kyiv, Lviv, and Bila Tserkva, as well as contacts at more than 50 local media and civil society organizations.

James Forsyth

Boris Johnson’s party management problem

The U-turns on conversion therapy last night reveals a problem for Downing Street. After its partygate troubles, No. 10 is very keen to avoid issues that cause tensions with Tory MPs. I understand that desire, in part, lay behind the decision to drop legislation to ban LGBT conversion therapy.  But the problem is that there are a host of issues on which Tory MPs don’t agree. So as soon as news of the U-turn broke last night, taking several of the ministers you would have expected to have been involved by surprise, there came pressure from another set of Tory MPs for a U-turn on the U-turn. The result: No. 10 U-turned again and there will now be a ban on gay conversion therapy, but not conversion therapy for trans people.

Cindy Yu

Does national security need to be redefined?

11 min listen

The cost of living crisis became a reality as millions today face a £700 per year price hike to their energy bills. What can the government do to support those that fall into fuel poverty?Also on the podcast, the government has quietly approved the takeover of Newport Wafer Fab by a Chinese owned technology company, Wingtech. As the largest microchip firm in the country, what could this mean for China's dominance in the semiconductor market?'China wants to create a market-dominant position which could create vulnerabilities for the UK' -James Forsyth.All to be discussed as Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth.

Ross Clark

Did P&O use an EU loophole?

Brexit, as Boris reminded us many times during the referendum campaign, would give Britain the power to make its own laws, unencumbered by constant directives from the European Commission. But it will take a long while to disentangle UK laws from the influence of the EU, as the government may be about to discover in its attempt to punish P&O ferries for sacking 800 workers and replacing them with agency staff. It will take a long while to disentangle UK laws from the influence of the EU At last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Johnson declared that P&O had contravened section 194 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992, which required employers to give the government 45 days’ notice of any intention to make more than 100 workers redundant.

Kate Andrews

Normal people are paying the price for NHS failures

Most people don’t need reminding about the cost-of-living crunch: food, petrol, bills and transport all provide a daily reminder that prices are going up. But today’s energy price cap rise – lifting by almost £700 – provides a headline example of the increasing costs of essential goods.. Alongside it, the National Insurance hike (a 2.5 percentage point rise split between employers and employees) and an average council tax rise of 3.5 per cent both kick in too. But what about the essential services that are supposedly ‘free’? It seems these are getting expensive too.