Uk politics

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson’s bridge over troubled waters

From our UK edition

This post first appeared in the Spectator's Evening Blend email, a free round-up and analysis of each day's politics. Sign up for free here. Why is Boris Johnson quite so keen on improbable-sounding bridges? The Foreign Secretary became obsessed with the idea of a ‘garden bridge’ across the river Thames when he was Mayor, a project that was cancelled by his successor Sadiq Khan after it became clear that public money would be needed to build the structure, which would then not always be open to the public. Unabashed, Boris is now suggesting something much bigger and more eye-catching: a bridge across the Channel to France. Johnson was talking about major infrastructure projects when he suggested the bridge, which is apparently technically possible.

Katy Balls

Nick Boles has said what a lot of Tory MPs are thinking

From our UK edition

It's the end of the week and it's hard to say what the government has actually achieved. Whether it's deciding not to launch a judicial inquiry in the John Worboys case or not to tackle the growing pressures on the NHS, the government appears to be in a state of drift. Unfortunately for Theresa May this has caught the attention of one of her more amiable MPs. Step forward Nick Boles. The former minister has taken to social media on a Friday night to criticise his party leader. Boles says 'there is a timidity and lack of ambition about Mrs May's Government which means it constantly disappoints'. He concludes that she must 'raise her game'. https://twitter.com/NickBoles/status/954409789152514049 This unprecedented intervention will worry No 10 is that Boles is no typical rebel.

Steerpike

Diane Abbott’s Brexit confusion – part II

From our UK edition

Here we go again. For some time now Labour's Brexit confusion can be described as 'complicated' at best. Matters aren't helped by the fact that Labour shadow cabinet members often go on the airwaves and contradict each others – sometimes even themselves. This was evidenced last month took to the Andrew Marr show to claim that Labour had never supported a second referendum – despite writing to a constituent to say she would argue for the 'right of the electorate to vote on any deal that is finally agreed'. Now it seems Labour's ever-changing Brexit position is getting too much even for Abbott.

Steerpike

Caption contest: Putin in cold water

From our UK edition

Next week at Davos, world leaders – including President Trump and Emmanuel Macron – will gather at the elite meet-up to flex their diplomatic muscles and prove how big a player they are on the global stage. Happily, Vladimir Putin has offered them an early lesson in how to show you're a hard man. The Russian president joined millions of Orthodox believers in plunging bare-chested into icy water – with the temperature below -5C – in a Russian tradition marking the Epiphany. Captions in the comments please.

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: In praise of Macron’s charm offensive

From our UK edition

Emmanuel Macron capped off his trip to Britain by taking a selfie with the Prime Minister last night. His charm offensive has paid off, says the Daily Telegraph, which suggests the visit shows what a post-Brexit relationship with Britain’s neighbours could look like. The progress in co-operation during the visit – on the migration problem in Calais and on defence, for example – is evidence, for the Telegraph, that the EU ‘is not the be-all and end-all of European co-operation’. After all, Britain’s close ties with France are matched ‘in the east’ by Poland, and ‘in the west’ by Ireland. It’s true that Macron remains opposed to Brexit and has said a decision to backtrack would be looked on ‘with kindness’.

Thursday

Ian Makgill

Carillion’s collapse is the worst of all worlds for the government

From our UK edition

Having spent the best part of 15 years looking at public procurement data, this is my take on collapse of Carillion. It has caused chaos for a simple reason: the organisation's tentacles reached into all parts of government, with more than 200 public bodies signing some form of contract with Carillion in the last five years. The sums spent by the government on Carillion were huge: in 2016, this amounted to nearly £1bn. As a result, it goes without saying that many government departments have been badly affected by the firm's demise this week. The worst hit is likely to be Carillion's biggest customer: the Ministry of Defence. In the last five years, the MoD has forked out over £2.2bn – and this is just the stuff we know about.

James Forsyth

Macron charms, but won’t give ground on the City

From our UK edition

Emmanuel Macron is revelling in his new status as the preeminent politician in Europe. In his joint press conference with Theresa May, he turned in a charming performance highlighting the ties between Britain and France and urging the two countries to ‘make a new tapestry together’. However, there was a sting in the tail. When Macron was asked about financial services and the single market, he emphasised that Britain’s choice was between Norway—full involvement in the single market but paying into the budget, accepting ECJ jurisdiction and free movement—and Canada, a much more limited free trade deal. Interestingly, though, he said he didn’t want to exclude any sector from the EU’s free trade deal with the UK.

James Forsyth

The Tories must hold their nerve on tuition fees

From our UK edition

One upshot of last week’s reshuffle is that Number 10 will get its review of higher education. But a lengthy look at tuition fees would be a mistake in both policy and political terms, I argue in the magazine this week. Tuition fees have all but killed the Liberal Democrats. The breach of their manifesto pledge to abolish the charges, compounded by them voting for a fees increase, broke the party. Even the Tories can’t compete, nor should they want to, with Labour’s pledge to abolish tuition fees. So any plan to reduce fees isn’t going to work politically. All it would do is help Labour by pushing the issue up the agenda. Policy-wise, fees are the least worst option.

Steerpike

New Tory vice-chair culls ‘white public schoolboy’ Remainer from candidate list

From our UK edition

With the new Tory vice-chairman for youth, Ben Bradley, currently making headlines for ill-judged blog posts from 2012, it's safe to say that Theresa May's plan to revamp CCHQ by appointing 13 MPs as vice-chairs, hasn't gone entirely to plan. However, one vice chairman is determined to make a success of her brief – no matter the cost. Step forward Kemi Badenoch. The MP for Saffron Walden has been put in charge of selecting Conservative candidates for the 2022 general election. However, in this week’s edition of The House magazine, Badenoch reveals that her first task consisted of knocking a white public schoolboy off the list.

Steerpike

Karen Bradley gets on the wrong side of the DUP

From our UK edition

Oh dear. Although Karen Bradley has only been in her new job as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for just over a week, she has already managed to ruffle a few feathers. Unfortunately for her, those feathers belong to the all-powerful DUP. It's been reported that in a sit down with written press this morning, Bradley indicated that 'release of the £1 billion from DUP/Tory confidence & supply deal at Westminster is contingent on ministers being in place at Stormont'. However, this is news to Nigel Dodds – the DUP's Westminster leader. He has taken to social media to voice his concern that this is 'not correct': Hasn't anyone told Bradley the first rule of good governance? Never mess with the DUP.

Steerpike

Labour embrace Jared O’Mara

From our UK edition

It's been a difficult week for Ben Bradley, the new Tory vice chair for youth. In unearthed blog posts dating back to 2012, Bradley suggested that benefit claimants should have vasectomies rather than claim multiple child benefits, accused public sector workers of being 'lost in their own fantasy land' and said that in the case of the London riots that: 'For once I think police brutality should be encouraged.' Bradley has been quick to apologise for his comments – claiming he has matured since then. But this isn't good enough for Labour. The party has been quick to go on the attack and hail this as evidence that the 'nasty party' lives on. However, Mr S suspects they would be well-advised to tread with caution.

Gavin Mortimer

Emmanuel Macron’s charm offensive is paying off

From our UK edition

Summit? What summit? Coverage of today's Anglo-French tête-à-tête at Sandhurst can best be described as low-key on the French side of the Channel. And that's being kind. To say the French don't care may be a slight exaggeration, so let's settle for Gallic indifference. None of the newspapers cover the summit on their front pages and it was the seventh item on France's equivalent of Radio 4's Today programme this morning, sandwiched between a report on the Woody Allen allegations and the latest news from the Australian tennis Open. No analysis, little interest, just a brief mention that the president of the Republic will be in England for talks with the British Prime Minister. Whose name is Theresa May, just in case listeners didn't know, and many don't.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Whips try to soothe post-reshuffle wounds

From our UK edition

If you thought the main fallout from Theresa May’s reshuffle was last week, think again: over the past few days the Conservatives have been appointing their parliamentary private secretaries, which means the reshuffle has only just about ground to a halt. These PPS jobs are unpaid but count as government payroll, meaning the MP in question must be loyal to the government as well as carrying a minister’s bag around. The problem is that not every ambitious MP can be made a PPS. Worse, not every PPS can be made a minister, which means that there are a fair few Tory backbenchers and PPSs swirling around who are feeling a little sore.

Isabel Hardman

The government must end the curious indifference to survivors of domestic abuse

From our UK edition

What happens to a woman who leaves domestic violence? A layman’s impression might be that she gets on with her life and tries to forget what happened to her. But a question today in the House of Commons showed that this is just not the case. The SNP’s Lisa Cameron asked Theresa May about a constituent of hers who had left her violent partner: ‘A constituent of mine has informed me that she was repeatedly raped and beaten by her ex-partner, requiring an injunction. Much to her horror, her bank would not close their joint account unless she attended with the perpetrator. When banks are left to their own discretion, women’s lives are put at risk. Will the Prime Minister ensure policy to protect survivors is included in the pending domestic violence Bill?

Steerpike

Paul Mason’s elite panic

From our UK edition

Oh dear. After three Momentum candidates – including key Corbyn ally Jon Lansman – were elected to Labour’s national executive committee on Monday, the NEC swiftly moved to oust Ann Black as chair of the Disputes Panel in favour of Christine Shawcroft. Given that Shawcroft was previously suspended by the party in 2015, the move has raised alarm bells in the Labour party. However, should you be concerned that Shawcroft is now responsible for deciding whether to investigate sexist, racist, homophobic and anti-semitic abuse, you're probably just a member of the elite. Or at least that's what Paul Mason thinks.

Lloyd Evans

Hopeless Jeremy Corbyn manages to out-feeble Theresa May yet again

From our UK edition

Carillion. It doesn’t help that the name resembles a kiddie’s word, like gazillion, suggesting an astronomical sum of cash. The sudden death of this lumbering giant gave Mr Corbyn an easy route to victory at PMQs. He didn’t take it. Corbyn outlined Carillion’s recent woes: the collapsing share-price, the short positions taken by hedge-funds, the profit warnings.   This seemed to amuse Philip Hammond. ‘Profit warnings?’ he muttered audibly, ‘companies issue profit warnings all the time.’ An odd boast for a chancellor to make. Mr Corbyn’s performance lacked bite and precision. He simply rambled his way through a long description of the government’s conduct.

James Forsyth

Corbyn is missing an opportunity each week at PMQs

From our UK edition

Neither Theresa May nor Jeremy Corbyn are great Commons’ performers. PMQs is, more often than not these days, a no score draw. Today’s exchanges were slightly better than usual. The collapse of Carillion is right in Jeremy Corbyn’s wheel-house. But, once again, his failure to be forensic let him down. At the end of the session, we didn’t know any more than we did at the beginning.  Corbyn failed to come back on the question of whether the government was awarding contracts to Carillion because of, not despite, its profit warnings. His blanket opposition to private sector involvement in the provision of public services also meant that he didn’t hammer home how the Tories have failed to break up the outsourcing oligopoly.

James Kirkup

In praise of Michael Gove and his reusable cup

From our UK edition

I’m drinking coffee as a write this. That’s not unusual. I drink a lot of coffee, much of it bought from the Pret a Manger that is almost dangerously close to my office in Westminster. (I judge my days by how many meals I eat from that Pret: often two and sometimes three. My life is awesome.) What is unusual is that the coffee isn’t in a paper cup. It’s in a mug, an ordinary ceramic mug, which I put in my pocket and took to Pret. I handed it over to be filled up and instead of paying the 99p Pret normally asks for a filter coffee (tip for fans of what a dear colleague used to call 'ghetto latte': ask for hot milk) I was charged 49p. Then I walked back to my office with my mug. Why am I bothering you with the mundane details of think-tank life?

Alex Massie

Nicola Sturgeon is running out of popularity – and time

From our UK edition

Time is beginning to run out for Nicola Sturgeon. That, at any rate, is one conclusion to be drawn from today’s YouGov poll for the Times. As many Scots now disapprove of Ms Sturgeon as approve of her and the SNP’s poll ratings continue to show no signs of benefitting from the Brexit bounce the party expected.  That bounce continues to elude the nationalist movement. And if this has surprised the SNP, it has also surprised every other party leader in Scotland just as, to be frank, it has surprised most of us in the commentary game too. It turns out there is limited enthusiasm for responding to one constitutional clusterfuck with another.  Even so, it is important to note that support for independence – at 43 per cent – has only barely diminished.

Katy Balls

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new Brexit role will worry No 10

From our UK edition

Although Jacob Rees-Mogg missed out on a promotion in last week's reshuffle, the Moggster has at least got a new string to add to his bow. The Conservative backbencher has been appointed chairman of the all-powerful 'European Research Group' – replacing Suella Fernandes. The group has been described by the Times as the 'most powerful opposition force in British politics' but in effect is a place for the Conservative party's most dedicated Brexiteers to congregate, liaise and come up with a counter to any position (government or not) that looks a bit too Remain for their liking. In that vein, they have a special Tory WhatsApp group – separate to the main Conservative MP one – to meet their aims.