Uk politics

Thursday

Dominic Cummings

Theresa May’s Brexit ‘strategy’ is a shambles

From our UK edition

Dear Tory MPs and donors, I’ve avoided writing about the substance of Brexit and the negotiations since the anniversary last year but a few of you have been in touch recently asking ‘what do you think?’ so… Vote Leave said during the referendum that: 1) promising to use the Article 50 process would be stupid and the UK should maintain the possibility of making real preparations to leave while NOT triggering Article 50 2) triggering Article 50 quickly without discussions with our EU friends and without a plan ‘would be like putting a gun in your mouth and pulling the trigger’.

Stephen Daisley

12 times Labour failed to give Red Ken the boot

From our UK edition

There are few sights more pitiful than Labour 'moderates' – I prefer to call them what they are: Corbyn-enablers – plating up meagre scraps as a feast of optimism for the party's future. Last week, it was the routing of Momentum – and Unite-backed candidates for the Lewisham East by-election. That didn't last long. Now, it's Ken Livingstone, allowed to resign rather than risk possible expulsion. In its 'all out war' on anti-Semitism, Labour sued for peace on the enemy's terms without firing a single shot.  Expelling Livingstone would not have undone the bias and abuse the party has inflicted on British Jews.

Wednesday

Karen Yossman

The zeal of a pro-Corbyn Jewish convert

From our UK edition

When Jeremy Corbyn attended a Passover dinner hosted by Jewdas, it was the first that many Jews had even heard of this fringe outfit. But the meeting proved to some of Corbyn's supporters that concerns about anti-Semitism within the Labour party were overblown. After all, Jews at the event were happily speaking up for Jeremy Corbyn, so what was all the fuss about? One of those who attended the dinner and was keen to defend Corbyn was Charlotte Nichols, a 27-year-old Young Labour committee member.

Steerpike

Corbyn’s birthday plea

From our UK edition

Over the past few weeks, company emails have been flooding into inboxes asking the recipient to give consent to remain on mailing lists. Given the repetitious nature of the message, the emails have begun to all fade into one. So, today's GDPR email from the Labour party stuck out thanks to its originality. In a plea to Labour supporters, party staffers asked recipients to click the 'keep me updated' button on the basis that it's Jeremy Corbyn's birthday this weekend and 'the last thing he wants as a gift is to see our movement lose strength!': Who ever said Corbyn's Labour was a personality cult...

James Forsyth

Tory MPs brace themselves for EU Withdrawal Bill showdown

From our UK edition

The Chief Whip has just told Tory MPs that the EU Withdrawal Bill will be coming back to the Commons in early to mid-June. He told a meeting of the 1922 Committee that all leave was cancelled, and that there would be no slipping as the Government tried to overturn the Lords amendments. He was, I am informed, clear that the Government isn’t changing its mind on either the EEA or a customs union. There had been speculation that the Government would try and hold the withdrawal bill back until the autumn. But I understand that this option was never really a goer because of the number of statutory instruments associated with it.

Lloyd Evans

Labour’s obesity crisis

From our UK edition

PMQs began with a question about obesity from Labour’s Kerry McCarthy. The crisis has reached breaking-point, she said. Our chubby 11-year-olds are now even chubbier than America’s chubby 11-year-olds. ‘The voluntary approach simply won’t work,’ she said. Her colleagues, crushed and squeezed together, bore out the truth of this statement. ‘The voluntary approach,’ (or ‘turning down that extra Hobnob at teatime’), has certainly failed to stop Labour’s fat-cats from cramming their faces with yummie treats galore. The opposition party is obesity’s A-team. The over-achievers of over-eating. A casual glance across their heaving benches reveals prop-forward after prop-forward, and bouncy-castle after bouncy-castle.

Karen Yossman

Oxford’s problem? The sorry state of British state schools

From our UK edition

Never does the disdain for state education become more apparent than when the conversation turns to Oxford and Cambridge admissions. Not from the distinguished universities themselves, mind you, who, despite what the media might have you believe, welcome all applicants regardless of their background. But from our political classes, particularly those on the left, who seem to believe state school pupils are so universally hopeless they can’t get in without demanding the universities lower the bar.

James Kirkup

The Catch 22 of Labour’s gender policy

From our UK edition

Earlier this week, I wrote about David Lewis, a Labour member who was allowed to stand for election as a constituency women’s officer on the basis that he identifies as a woman under some circumstances. That report seems to have drawn some attention, not least from Labour HQ. David Lewis was told on Tuesday night that he has been suspended from the party and cannot therefore stand for election as Basingstoke CLP women’s officer. I’ll try to unravel the implications of that in a moment, but first I want to say something about David Lewis and the general debate around this case. As is usual with debates around gender, a lot of people have strong feelings about this case, and have expressed them bluntly.

Steerpike

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s snap election warning

From our UK edition

Jacob Rees'Mogg's appearance on the new Conservative Home Moggcast has caused a stir in Westminster. In the broadcast, the arch-eurosceptic – and chair of the European Research Group - questions Theresa May's commitment to Brexit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1339&v=Px_F-i3Hd88 'I fear we’re getting to the point where you wonder whether the Government really wants to leave at all.' Although the comments are unlikely to go down well in Downing Street, there is one aspect of the Moggster's comments that will ease concern in No 10. On the recurring topic of an early election, Rees-Mogg says such talk is dangerous – and something that should be avoided: 'The national polling level is very encouraging.

Tuesday

Katy Balls

Caroline Nokes puts her foot in it, again

From our UK edition

Theresa May's government is supposed to decide within the next two months what type of migration policy Britain should adopt after Brexit. So it didn't go unnoticed that both Michael Gove and Ruth Davidson used the launch of a new Conservative think tank – Onward – on Monday night to argue for a more relaxed and open system. But despite them speaking out, the person causing No 10 the biggest headache on immigration today is the immigration minister. After Caroline Nokes caused confusion during the Windrush crisis by suggesting in an interview that some migrants may have been accidentally deported, she is back in the line of fire once again.

William Shawcross

The genius of constitutional monarchy

From our UK edition

George Orwell famously wrote that an English intellectual would rather be caught stealing from the poorbox than be seen standing to attention for God Save the King. Such intellectuals must have had a terrible time last weekend when much of the nation's gaze was fixed on the wedding of two young people who are part of an institution we think of as quintessentially British. The newlyweds have shown early commitment to those qualities we celebrate as particularly British: duty, charity and the service of others. Whether it is the two tours in Afghanistan served by Prince Harry, or the charity work that the couple has embraced, the hallmarks of the monarchy reflect the nation at its best.

Ned Donovan

The Tories need to get over Thatcher

From our UK edition

A lot of attention has been given to the new think tank, Onward, that claims it will win back Britain for the Conservative Party by targeting disaffected Blairites and young people. There is, however, one part of society conspicuously missing from its remit: the poorest. The group's founder, Neil O’Brien MP, claims that Corbyn is 'crackers' and his policies, including nationalisation of infrastructure 'need deleting'. At no point does Onward – or any of the other right-wing think tanks that have launched – seem to question why Corbyn's policies are so popular throughout the country. Nor do they wonder whether any Conservative government has made them work before.

The Spectator

Ruth Davidson: Tories are too dour and joyless

From our UK edition

This is an edited transcript of Ruth Davidson's speech at last night's launch of Onward, a new liberal Conservative think tank: Sometimes the Tories just look a bit dour. You know, we look a bit joyless. Fair? A bit authoritarian sometimes. We don't get to win if we start hectoring the people that we need to vote for us. We don't get to just say 'Please stand on the right' like every tube message out there. We've got to learn to be a bit more joyful and that's something that I think that we have tried to learn in Scotland. Trust me, when I started out in the Tory party in Scotland in Glasgow in 2009, if you weren't a blind optimist, the Scottish Conservatives really weren't for you!

Monday

Steerpike

Michael Gove and Ruth Davidson, the new ‘Ike and Tina Turner’

From our UK edition

To the launch of Onward, the new liberal Conservative think tank. A who's who of the Tory party, including Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly, gathered in Parliament's Churchill room to raise a glass to the new venture – headed by Theresa May's former policy wonk Will Tanner. Launching the event were the new dream team: Ruth Davidson and Michael Gove. Neither were shy in coming forward. The Scottish Conservatives leader began her speech by joking that the reason she had been invited was to prove the Tory party is diverse: 'In future when think tanks ask please, can we get a pregnant lesbian, the answer for all those of us who are modernisers in the Conservative Party should be ‘which of the many pregnant lesbians?

Katy Balls

Bercow admits calling Andrea Leadsom ‘stupid’

From our UK edition

John Bercow has finally spoken out over reports alleging that he called Andrea Leadsom a 'stupid woman' in the Chamber on Wednesday. In a statement to the House, the Speaker admitted using the word 'stupid' but refrained from saying whether he had also used the accompanying words 'woman' or 'f------ useless'. Bercow insisted that he had used the word 'stupid' only in relation to the government’s management of business – rather than towards Leadsom personally. 'Last Wednesday the government chose to schedule a major transport statement on an opposition day, thereby substantially reducing the time available for opposition business. I thought then, as I think now, that this was very badly handled.

Douglas Murray

Meghan Markle and the myth of ‘racist’ Britain

From our UK edition

In recent years the British public have been bombarded with allegations about our alleged bigotry. When we failed to follow the advice of the ‘Remain’ campaign in the EU referendum this ramped up several gears. Since then there has been a seemingly endless parade of pseudo-scientific claims that ‘hate crime has soared’ and the like. This has encouraged politicians and pundits to spend the last two years insisting that while the UK had long been a cauldron, it is now one whose lid is off and where racists are allowed to roam the land, attacking foreigners at will. Some of us – certainly a majority – knew all this to be nonsense.

Steerpike

Andy Burnham’s BBC jibe backfires

From our UK edition

Andy Burnham is now making a career out of being an aggrieved northerner, fed up with London dominating the agenda. Never mind that the Mayor of Greater Manchester made his name down south, Burnham takes a pop at the Westminster ‘bubble’ whenever the opportunity presents itself. But Mr S wonders whether he really thought through his latest dig. Following a morning of chaos on Britain’s railways, Burnham chose to direct his ire, not at the railways companies, but at the BBC for its coverage of the story: [caption id="attachment_10090812" align="aligncenter" width="265"] Andy Burnham's tweet[/caption] The only problem?

Steerpike

Fact check: Corbynista support for Maduro

From our UK edition

Once upon a time, Labour politicians were lining up to praise the socialist achievements of the government in Venezuela. These days it's a much harder sell thanks to the fact that 82pc of households live in poverty. Happily, John McDonnell has found a workaround. Speaking on the Sunday Politics, the shadow chancellor rejected the idea that Venezuela was an example of  the failed socialist economic model. Instead the issue is apparently that when Nicolás Maduro took over from veteran socialist leader Hugo Chávez it ‘took a wrong turn’ and now ceases to be ‘a socialist country’. Only Mr S isn't so sure this defence holds up. For one, someone forgot to tell McDonnell's comrades: 1.

Steerpike

Young Labour official’s tribute to Maduro

From our UK edition

This weekend, John McDonnell set the cat among the pigeons with an interview on  the Sunday Politics. With Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro winning re-election amid claims of vote-rigging, the shadow chancellor was asked whether Venezuela was an example of a failed socialist economic model. McDonnell's reply? The country isn't socialist enough. He said it 'took a wrong turn' when Nicolás Maduro took over from veteran socialist leader Hugo Cháveznder and it is now no longer 'a socialist country'. Alas, it seems not all of McDonnell's comrades are on the same page. Putting aside what Venezuela's chief UK cheerleader Chris Williamson thinks, Mr S was curious to learn of the stance being adopted by a Young Labour official.

Sunday

James Noble

Some tips for recovering from Brexit ‘madness’

From our UK edition

The following letter appears in this week's Spectator I was touched by the sad article by Matthew Parris, in which he just cannot get over his horror at Brexit (‘Brexit has driven me mad, but I can’t let it go’, 12 May). Can I suggest a few things that might help him recover? First, he might get some perspective. He will still be able to drink his favourite rosé wine. He will still be able to go to Europe. The sun will still shine and the sky will not cave in. Secondly, it would help him tremendously to realise that the EU is not a wholly good force.