Uk politics

Sunday

Steerpike

Former civil servant claims civil service ‘impartial’ on Brexit – says problem is… Brexit

Oh dear. After a week in which senior Brexiteers accused the civil service of trying to frustrate Britain’s exit from the EU, the Sunday papers have seen the first signs of fight back. In the Observer, Andrew Turnbull, who led the civil service under Tony Blair, claims the Brexit bunch are using tactics similar to those of rightwing German nationalists between the two world wars. Now Gus O’Donnell has appeared on Peston on Sunday to dismiss accusations that the civil service is trying to thwart Brexit. Defending the ‘honesty, objectivity integrity and impartiality’ of the civil service, the former Cabinet Secretary said the problem wasn’t with his side but with… Brexit: ‘Now

Douglas Murray

Will the BBC go back to ignoring grooming gangs?

The future of modern Britain looks set to be an unusually complicated affair. Take just one piece of news that came out of the trial of Darren Osborne over recent days. According to relatives of the Finsbury Park attacker, the first trigger towards his radicalisation was watching the BBC drama Three Girls about the Rochdale grooming gangs. Evidence suggests that this drama put him on the path to deciding to hire a van and drive it into a group of Muslims in Finsbury Park a few weeks later, murdering 51-year old Makram Ali. Now of course the BBC’s drama department should not be held responsible for the death of Mr

Charles Moore

Gavin Williamson’s unusual approach is a welcome change

So we have to make do with a little touch of Gavin in the night. The new Defence Secretary has an unusual but rather successful technique. A likeable version of Uriah Heep (if that is imaginable), Mr Williamson is ever so ’umble about his intellectual attainments and deferential to those of others, yet ruthless in stealing a march on colleagues and swift in enlisting the media. Having been a loyal Chief Whip (no other sort is the slightest use), he is now an almost insurrectionist minister. His burst of activity has exposed the oddity that, since the 20th century, the Tories have chosen not to make the running on defence.

Saturday

James Forsyth

The best way to avoid a Tory split? Decisive leadership

At political Cabinet this week, the chief whip warned ministers how difficult it was to hold the Tory party together, I write in The Sun this morning. Julian Smith warned them that noises off from the Cabinet made it even more of a struggle to maintain unity. Smith is right. The Tory party is dangerously divided, a split is a real possibility. He’s also right that ministers sounding off over Brexit heighten these tensions. But what he didn’t mention is the most important thing, the need for leadership. Ministers are putting forward their views on Brexit so publicly because there isn’t a clear government position. They think everything is still

Charles Moore

Darkest Hour is superb Brexit propaganda

After I wrote that I would not be going to see Darkest Hour, so many people told me I should that I did. The Kino cinema in the village of Hawkhurst was packed for the afternoon showing and the youngish man in the seat next to me wept copiously. The scene in which Churchill travels by Tube is as absurd as I had heard. But one can understand the purpose of the device: here is a man who has become prime minister without a popular mandate yet has a stronger intuition of the general will than most of the high-ups who surround him. So he moves among the people —

Friday

Isabel Hardman & Katy Balls

What do Tory MPs really think about Theresa May?

It’s not a good sign when a party finishes the week with MPs making the same complaints as they did at the start. Yet that is where the Conservatives are now, with the malcontents still fretting that there is no sense of vision or authority from the leadership. One thing that has changed is that the Tory party now seems rather more noticeably split over how MPs should be behaving. There is the camp who say, either privately or publicly, that Theresa May should go because things are only going to get worse under her leadership. But then there are others who are furious with anyone agitating for a change

Jonathan Mirsky

Theresa May and the curious case of human rights in China

Did Theresa May raise human rights with China during her visit to Beijing this week or not? The Chinese press has praised her for not mentioning the most neuralgic issue between China and all visiting officials. Downing Street sources, however, stated flatly that Mrs May raised the issue with both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. The Global Times, a voice of the Chinese Communist Party, said the ‘Sino-UK partnership transcends media mudslinging over human rights…May will definitely not make any comment contrary to the goals of her China trip’. It contended, too, ‘while the government is responsible for public well-being, the media tends to whip up sensations while

Rupert Darwall

The toxic politics of ‘soft Brexit’

The management principle that in static organisations, people are promoted to their level of incompetence reveals the government’s two most inept politicians to be the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Appearing at Davos last week, Philip Hammond pitched the government into its current – conceivably terminal – Brexit crisis. Thanks to his intervention, the Chancellor’s game plan is now obvious: the softest possible Brexit. Getting away with it involves a softly, softly approach. The politics of being outside the EU but ruled by the EU as a de facto Brussels protectorate require copious doses of political Temazepam. This, one would have thought, would have come naturally to

Steerpike

Michael Portillo: Jacob Rees-Mogg offers what the public is crying out for

With doubts about Theresa May’s leadership rising, talk has turned – once again – to who might replace her. Jacob Rees-Mogg has topped this month’s ConservativeHome leadership poll of members. So, is Moggmentum what the public needs? That’s the suggestion made by Michael Portillo. Speaking on This Week, the Tory stalwart conceded that Rees-Mogg could have some of the answers: AN: Jacob Rees-Mogg is now the bookies’ favourite and indeed in some internal Tory party polling is the favourite to succeed, what do you make of that? MP: I make of it that he is now one of about five or six Tories that the public can name, and that

Ross Clark

Tories should imitate – not attack – Jeremy Corbyn’s land policy

Ever since Labour published its manifesto for the snap election it became clear to me that tackling Jeremy Corbyn is going to require a bit more than simply calling him a bearded Trot. This is because some of his prominent policies, while notionally quite left wing, are actually rather popular with many natural Conservative voters. Renationalising the railways and utilities, ending the automatic contracting-out of public services – you will find plenty of support from people on the right who, while generally sceptical of state intervention, feel that the current arrangements are not a free, open market which offers consumers a genuine choice. Rather they come across as a racket

Tom Goodenough

Theresa May must stop presenting Britain as the supplicant in Brexit talks

Theresa May is on her way back from China, but those hoping the Prime Minister has turned over a new leaf on her trip will be disappointed. Formal talks will soon begin on the implementation – or transition period, yet all the signs are that the Government is continuing to prevaricate on spelling out what it really wants from Brexit. Instead of setting out any kind of grand vision, the PM opts instead to take baby steps on the long road towards Britain’s departure from the EU. During her interview on the Today programme just now, May kept up this approach and again refused to spell out much in the

Gavin Mortimer

France’s Jewish population has good reason to feel afraid

In January 2016, Nicolas Sarkozy was honoured by British Jews at a ceremony in London. The former French president was thanked by Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldsmith for his support during a decade that had seen an upsurge in anti-Semitism across France. ‘France right now is the main battleground between hope and fear for the future of Europe, especially for the Jewish community’, said Goldsmith. Two years on, and Britain has also become a battleground for Jews. Anti-Semitic attacks are now at record levels in the UK, according to a report released this week, with 2017 witnessing a 34 per cent rise in violent assaults against Jewish people. Holland and Belgium have also

Stephen Daisley

Jeremy Corbyn and his followers are in denial about his past

There are three people in every conversation about Jeremy Corbyn’s grim past. I have noticed this before but renewed interest in his paid work for Iran’s Press TV confirmed it for me. First, there’s the anti-Corbynista, who points out one outrage or another. This might be Corbyn’s ‘friends’ in Hamas and Hezbollah, his inviting a hate preacher to tea on the Commons terrace, or the time he was arrested at a ‘solidarity’ demo for the Brighton bomber. These are well-documented facts and the anti-Corbynista believes, despite melancholy experience, that reason and evidence still have some purchase in current political debate.  He is quickly disabused, again, when the Corbynista interjects. He may deny the facts (‘MSM smear!’)

Thursday

Katy Balls

Conservatives dump their dirty laundry on the despatch box

Well, this is going well. The leak of the government’s Brexit economic forecasts this week has led to an almighty row within the Conservative party. With Britain predicted to be worse off in all the off-the-shelf alternatives to EU membership, Remainers have claimed it as evidence that Brexit is a bad idea while Brexiteers are quick to brand it as the latest Project Fear effort. Steve Baker – a Brexit Minister – took the unusual step on Tuesday of rubbishing the government report – and, for that matter, the government’s ability to forecast anything; ‘I am not able to name an accurate forecast and I think they are always wrong and wrong

Steerpike

Chris Williamson’s Carillion confusion

Chris Williamson has been on Russia Today (where else?) lambasting the government for outsourcing to private firms. The Corbynista favourite said that ‘public services are being used as a cash cow to generate private profit’ – and, in the wake of the collapse of Carillion, it was time to ‘remove the private sector from all public services’. He went on to say: ‘The way in which the privateers make their margins is by screwing down the workforce that they employ, cutting back on their terms and conditions and diminishing the quality of service to the general public.’ But Mr S notes that Williamson has not always been so opposed to

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: It’s not too late for May to save her skin

In the wake of a doomed cabinet reshuffle, Theresa May is on the brink. The Spectator’s cover piece this week calls on the Prime Minister to lead or go, and Tory MPs are said to be close to triggering a leadership challenge, amid reports of a rising number of letters of no confidence in the PM. But it is not too late for May to save her skin, argues the Sun. After all, Theresa May has shows an ability to constantly defy her critics. This is demonstrated in her ability this week to finally come around to talking up Brexit as a ‘golden opportunity’ for Britain, says the Sun. ‘At

Steerpike

Jilly Cooper: Presidents Club outcry was ‘absolutely ridiculous’

This is going to end well. The Financial Times’ report on allegations of inappropriate behaviour at a Presidents’ Club charity dinner is the paper’s most-read story of all time. The investigation revealed hostesses at the event were groped, sexually harassed and propositioned. However, one writer has been left wondering what all the fuss is about. Step forward Jilly Cooper. The bonkbuster writer has told Londoner’s Diary that she thought it ‘was absolutely ridiculous’ – ‘it was just men having fun… behaving badly’. ‘The girls knew what they were going in to, didn’t they? The fuss they made about it with everything going on. Also, Great Ormond Street Hospital sending that money back was

Tony Lodge

Gavin Williamson is right: Britain’s energy supply is threatened by Russia

Gavin Williamson’s warning that the Russian Bear is sizing up the UK’s energy infrastructure is important as it brings long overdue attention to a troubling drift in UK energy policy. Britain’s electricity market is increasingly slanted in favour of importing more electricity from Europe and against securing investment in new power plants at home. Billions of pounds of domestic energy plant investment have consequently been put at risk, which will undermine the future security of supply and risk price rises. It is important to appreciate our growing reliance on imported electricity, as well as the fact that current planning will quadruple this dependency with consequences for prices, competition and security

Wednesday

Steerpike

Julian Smith finds Brexit diplomacy a piece of cake

Julian Smith has his work cut out as Chief Whip. As well as trying to stop Tory MPs firing off letters to 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady, Smith must try and keep both Tory Remainers and Tory Brexiteers in line. In a bid to do this, Smith met with the European Research Group – the all-powerful Brexit wing of the Conservative party – this week to try and ease concerns that the government is about to water down the version of Brexit it is seeking. Now Jacob Rees-Mogg is chair of the ERG, the group is seen to have greater potential for trouble. So, what was his strategy? Serving cake.

Lloyd Evans

David Lammy’s shambolic PMQs appearance should worry Corbyn

Theresa May is in China so the Westminster bunfight has been replaced by dull politics. Journalists hate dull politics. But normal people welcome a few days respite from the cocktail of gossip, malice and envy known as ‘democracy’. David Lidington took the PM’s place. Decent chap. Reliable second-eleven all-rounder. Against him was Labour’s Emily Thornberry who tried to trip him up three times. And three times he refused to be tripped. It was fun to watch. Dainty, unpredictable. Quite a change. She recalled their last despatch-box tussle in 2016 when the Tories had an opinion-poll lead of 17 points. Mr Lidington had likened Labour’s infighting to a pirate film written