Uk politics

Friday

Fraser Nelson

Why Danny Dyer has a point about David Cameron

From our UK edition

As an admirer of David Cameron, I was appalled when he broke his word and resigned on the morning of the Brexit vote two years ago. Not for the first time, I was thrown because I had taken him at his word and believed him when he said that he’d stay no matter what the result. His decision to ban Whitehall from preparing for a ‘no’ result denied crucial preparation time with consequences still being felt today. So I had a certain sympathy with Danny Dyer who had a few things to say about Cameron on ITV’s Good Evening Britain last night.  https://twitter.com/cjsnowdon/status/1012439971188310017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw As I say in my Telegraph column today, the UK government still has no Brexit strategy with just nine months to go.

Thursday

James Forsyth

Jeremy Hunt tells Tories that a ‘low taxes at all costs’ party would lose the next election

From our UK edition

In conversation with Andrew Neil at a Spectator event this evening, Jeremy Hunt defended the principle of increasing taxes to pay for more spending on the NHS. He warned Tories unhappy with the idea that if in an election you offer voters a choice between a low taxes at all costs party and decent public services, they’ll vote for decent public services. He said that this extra money for the NHS was needed to deal with a ‘once in a generation change in demography’ and that it was important that the Tories show the public they are on the right side of this argument. In language reminiscent of David Cameron, Hunt declared that ‘as a Conservative I want to say it is not a choice between lower taxes and decent public services: you can have both’.

Steerpike

Breaking: FT backs Brussels

From our UK edition

In a way, tonight's England vs Belgium football match ought to be win-win. If England beats Belgium there will be mass celebrations – but even if they lose they're still though and a bad performance could take them into an easier route to the final. Yet Mr S suspects that this isn't the reason a number of non-Belgiums will be cheering on the other team. Jeremy Corbyn’s man in Brussels Richard Corbett and Leo Varadkar have said they will be cheering on Belgium. Now the Financial Times's Peter Spiegel has been revealed to be cheering the other side – he even has the scarf to prove it: https://twitter.com/lionelbarber/status/1012352911987404810 Well, at least you can't call the American a citizen of nowhere...

Steerpike

Matt Hancock’s World Cup struggle

From our UK edition

Ahead of England’s crunch World Cup game against Belgium tonight, you might expect that support for the Three Lions is reaching fever pitch in the cabinet. Not so, Mr S is sad to report. Theresa May is more of a cricket fan, while Boris has been busy talking down England’s chances. It seems that culture secretary, Matt Hancock, is also failing to get excited about the football. At a party organised by the department for culture, media and sport for England’s opening game against Tunisia, Hancock seemed more interested in fiddling with a virtual reality set than paying attention to the game, Steerpike hears. “He’s more of a cricket man” a source close to Hancock said, when asked about his ambivalence towards the beautiful game.

James Forsyth

Nato’s Trump trouble is music to Putin’s ears

From our UK edition

Is the Nato summit going to precipitate the greatest crisis for the Western alliance since 1966? Senior figures in the British government fear it will, as I reveal in the magazine this week. Trans-Atlantic relations are already at their lowest ebb in decades, as the US and the EU fight over trade. This­ summit will, as Fraser pointed out recently, give Trump the chance to open another front in this war. He’ll be able to berate — with some justification — Germany, and all but three of Nato’s EU members, for not spending the alliance minimum of two per cent of GDP on defence last year.

Steerpike

Brexit football chant competition: ‘He’s here, he’s there! He’s a citizen of nowhere: Barnier, Barnier!’

From our UK edition

Congratulations to Radio 4’s Today programme for the amusing item on Brexit football chants. Very good. Radio 4 being Radio 4, however, there was a slight Remain bias to their chants. Also they lacked something of the sweet nihilism that all the best football chants have. So here, in the interests of balance and free speech, are a few we came up with in The Spectator office yesterday. We just about resisted the natural urge to rhyme with Jean-Claude Juncker, and now we dare to dream that one of them will be sung at the Kaliningrad stadium tonight for England’s match against Belgium. Please send your own chants (preferably with audio file) to editor@spectator.co.uk and put Brexit Football Chant Competition in the subject field.

Matthew Lynn

Businesses should try and shape Brexit – not fight it

From our UK edition

Airbus will abandon the UK. The car factories will all be closed down. Trade will grind to a halt, we will run out of food and medicines, and Harry Kane will be sold to Real Madrid and made captain of Spain instead of England. Okay, I made that last one up, but all the others are among the dire warnings that big business have issued over Brexit in the last few weeks. Project Fear III, or IV, or possibly XXVII by now, keeps coming back. Right now, it seems to have as many sequels as Jurassic World, and with plot-lines that are about as original. That, however, is a mistake, and potentially a serious one. Sure, industry has plenty of legitimate concerns about our departure from the EU. But it should be trying to shape Brexit, not just re-run a failed referendum strategy.

Wednesday

Lucy Harris

How I was called a racist for having a pro-Brexit bag

From our UK edition

My commute to work yesterday was just like any other, until I was interrupted from my thoughts by a fellow passenger: “I don’t like your bag,” he said. Looking down, I remembered that I was carrying a tote bag emblazoned with the words: “The EU is not my bag”. I thought for a moment it was the colour – a vivid magenta – that had offended him. Then it dawned on me: the EU was, in fact, his bag. “That’s OK, you don’t have to,” I replied. My response seemed to infuriate him further.  “I don’t know whether you’re racist or stupid – or even both,” he said.

Roger Scully

What does Andrew RT Davies’ resignation mean for Welsh Tories?

From our UK edition

Politicians in Wales sometimes complain, at least in private, about the lack of media and public attention they receive. But Andrew RT Davies' resignation as leader of the Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly, means that Welsh politics is back in the spotlight. With the prospect of simultaneous leadership elections running over the summer for all four Assembly parties, this looks set to continue. The announcement in April that First Minister Carwyn Jones would stand down as Welsh Labour leader by the end of the year was followed last week by Ukip in Wales declaring that they would ballot their membership over who should lead their fractious National Assembly group.

Steerpike

Love Island fever sweeps the Labour backbenches

From our UK edition

Recess is fast approaching and many MPs are looking for a hobby to occupy them over the long summer break. Happily, a group of Labour MPs have hit upon the perfect thing to keep them busy: Love Island. Mr S hears that Lucy Powell, Jess Phillips and Stella Creasy have even set up a WhatsApp group to discuss the ITV2 show. A Labour source said: "It’s well known that Lucy, Jess and Stella have a Love Island WhatsApp group to debrief on each episode and to coordinate voting, with Lucy usually whipping. Their overwhelmingly favourite couple this year is Jack and Dani, and they are in total agreement that Adam is a rat.” It seems the trio aren’t the only ones on the Labour benches with a fondness for Love Island.

Lloyd Evans

John Bercow is outstaying his own welcome

From our UK edition

Some of Britain’s top Berc-ologists met recently to discuss a letter sent by John Bercow to MPs nearly a decade ago. He was advertising his suitability as a successor to Speaker Martin and he promised to serve ‘no more than nine years in total,’ if he were to win the election on June 22 2009. ‘Any Speaker should be able to make a mark in that time,’ he added, setting himself an idiosyncratic goal. To make a mark. As if parliament were a concrete bridge and the Speaker were a hoodie with a spray-can. Today, nine years and a bit later, is the first PMQs since Bercow outstayed his own welcome. His presence is therefore an affront to the house. He has defied the Chair. He has ignored the Speaker’s ruling.

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn and Jacob Rees-Mogg clash at PMQs

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t short of material to work with at PMQs. But it ended up not being as bad for Theresa May as one would have predicted. In purely parliamentary terms, Corbyn’s mistake was to try and blend policy into his criticisms of the divisions in government. This enabled Theresa May to mock Corbyn’s attempt to present himself as the person listening to businesses’ concerns. He would have been better off playing the whole thing for laughs. Perhaps the most interesting part of PMQs came straight after the session. Jacob Rees-Mogg got up to object to what Corbyn had said about him. Rees-Mogg complained that, contrary to what Corbyn had claimed, he hadn’t moved a hedge fund to Dublin.

Alex Massie

Sturgeon’s cabinet reshuffle marks the beginning of the end

From our UK edition

Greater love, as wags responded to Harold Macmillan’s “night of the long knives” reshuffle, hath no man than that he lay down his friends for his political life. Well, Nicola Sturgeon’s political life is not threatened just yet but, even so, there was a whiff of this as she reshuffled her cabinet this week. If it wasn’t quite a night of long knives, it was certainly an afternoon of wee dirks.  The headline was the departure of Shona Robison, the health secretary, and one of the first minister’s closest political friends. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have repeatedly called for Robison’s resignation; yesterday they were given their prize.

The Spectator

Full text: Liz Truss’s LSE lecture – ‘I want to take a zero-tolerance approach to wasteful spend’

From our UK edition

As an economics geek, and a committed free marketer, I’ve always admired the London School of Economics. Despite its left-wing reputation, it was the academic home of Hayek. But even more than that, it produced my husband, Hugh O’Leary. It means that whenever I want a late night discussion about supply side reform or econometrics, there’s always someone on hand. And why do I love this stuff? Because I care about freedom. I’ve never liked being told what to do. And I don’t like to see other people being told what to do. Britain is a country that is raucous and rowdy. We have a younger generation of self-starters growing up, who are desperate shape their own futures.

Steerpike

Liz Truss and the last straw

From our UK edition

Oh dear. Although free-thinking Cabinet members are not hard to come by nowadays, Liz Truss still managed to cause a stir with her speech to the London School of Economics. Only it was notable not just for her defence of free markets and fiscal restraint but for what she didn't say. In the pre-released speech on the government website, Truss took a swipe at her Cabinet colleague Michael Gove over his plan to save turtles and ban plastic straws: Only – despite the speech being pre-published – Truss appears to have decided it was a straw too far and taken the line out at the last minute. Happily, she was still okay criticising Gove's department as a whole: 'There’s enough hot air and smoke at the Environment Department already.

Katy Balls

The latest Cabinet misbehaviour is a symptom, not a cause

From our UK edition

Collective responsibility is dead. Long live cabinet irresponsibility. This seems to be the message from Theresa May’s government this week. After Gavin Williamson kicked off the week with a supposed threat to bring down the Prime Minister unless she gave him £10bn ASAP, Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond have kept busy with a proxy battle over business Brexit warnings. The bad behaviour appears to be contagious. In a speech last night to the London School of Economics, Liz Truss – the Chief Secretary to the Treasury – took aim at Michael Gove’s eco-warrior status and the Defence Secretary's ‘macho’ calls for cash.

Nick Cohen

Brexit exposes the truth about the Corbyn personality cult

From our UK edition

The far left’s argument in favour of Brexit is a mess of invented histories, smears, crocodile tears and paranoia. Worse, it’s a party line that is repeated by propagandists out of deference to the leadership. If the leadership should stand on its head and announce it supported Britain staying in the EU or remaining a member of the single market, Corbyn's supporters would stand on their heads too. The radicals who are now chanting “where’s Jeremy Corbyn?” may not study the intricacies of Labour Party politics – why should they waste their time when we are facing a national crisis? – but they cannot miss the overpowering odour of insincerity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUFvNJwiEA0 Labour’s bad faith is built on two dishonesties.

Tuesday

Steerpike

David Miliband takes in the refugee crisis… from Aspen

From our UK edition

Oh David Miliband – never change. Labour's prince across the water continues to surprise. Although friends of Ed Miliband's brother have reported that David is 'still attracted' to Britain, as of yet the former Labour politician has not been tempted enough by Blighty to quit his £425,000 a year job as the chair of the refugee charity International Rescue. It looks like that isn't about to change any time soon. Today Miliband has shared his working day – and it's a 'beautiful day to discuss refugees and political crisis of our times'. And where is the perfect spot to do this? Aspen, natch – the millionaires' playground. It seems £425,000 a year can't buy you tact...

Matthew Lynn

Businesses should try and shape Brexit – not fight it | 26 June 2018

From our UK edition

Airbus will abandon the UK. The car factories will all be closed down. Trade will grind to a halt, we will run out of food and medicines, and Harry Kane will be sold to Real Madrid and made captain of Spain instead of England. Okay, I made that last one up, but all the others are among the dire warnings that big business have issued over Brexit in the last few weeks. Project Fear III, or IV, or possibly XXVII by now, keeps coming back. Right now, it seems to have as many sequels as Jurassic World, and with plot-lines that are about as original. That, however, is a mistake, and potentially a serious one. Sure, industry has plenty of legitimate concerns about our departure from the EU. But it should be trying to shape Brexit, not just re-run a failed referendum strategy.

Steerpike

John McDonnell fails to put on a united front

From our UK edition

Is Len McCluskey a signed up member of a 'corporate cartel'? That's what his close ally John McDonnell appeared to suggest in the Chamber as Tory MPs voted en masse to back plans for a third runway at Heathrow. With the shadow chancellor representing a constituency in the flight path of the proposed runway, McDonnell was quick to attack all those behind it and the 'corporate cartels' pushing for it: 'Does this House stand up for people and communities, especially working class communities or does it stand up for the interests of a corporate cartel that's ripped us off for decades?' Only McDonnell seems to have forgotten who his friends are. Labour's key union financier Unite is pro-Heathrow and seen to be the motivating factor in Jeremy Corbyn allowing his MPs a free vote on the issue.