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Uk politics

Thursday

Steerpike

Revealed: NUS omit Judaism from religion survey

Oh dear. Over the past few years, the National Union of Students has found itself in the headlines over the union's relationship with Jewish students. When Malia Bouattia was elected NUS president in 2016, three vice presidents of the NUS accused their president of 'anti-Semitic rhetoric' – with Bouattia referring to Birmingham University as a 'Zionist outpost'. An internal report later ruled that she should not be punished despite making comments found to be anti-Semitic. What's more, a report just last year found that many Jewish students 'do not feel their institution understands their needs'.

Steerpike

Blair and Corbyn’s popularity contest

As expected, Tony Blair's latest Brexit intervention has proved universally unpopular. Brexiteers have hailed his criticism as the best advert for leaving the EU in weeks, while Corbynistas have gone on the offensive over his harsh words concerning the dear leader. Despite all this, Tony Blair can at least still count on one man to back him up: himself. In an interview with ITV, it was put to Blair that Corbyn actually did better than the former Prime Minister in the 2017 snap election than Blair in 2005. The reasoning goes that Corbyn won a higher percentage of the vote, at 40pc to Blair's 35.2pc. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Blair didn't take too kindly to this way of looking at things: 'On that basis Theresa May would be a more successful prime minister than Margaret Thatcher.

Brendan O’Neill

Ann Widdecombe is the feminist hero we need right now

Britain has a new feminist hero. She’s a diminutive, eye-rolling force of nature. A BS-deflecting defender of the right and ability of women to get stuck into public life as well as any man can. A warrior against the neo-Victorian view of the female sex as fragile and unable to deal with the amorous advances of tragic blokes. It’s Ann Widdecombe, former Tory MP, Catholic convert, borderline national treasure, and now contestant on Celebrity Big Brother. But this is no ordinary Celebrity Big Brother. It’s a feminist one, a Suffragette one. Yes, the Channel 5 show has gone political, giving a nod to the hundredth anniversary of women in Britain winning the vote (well, women over 30) by making the CBB house an all-female one. (For now.

Brexit was a vote against Blairism

Tony Blair thinks he has discovered a form of words that could lead to the reversal of the EU referendum result. When the vote was taken voters did not know the exact terms of our departure. When they become clear, people might change their minds. The mistake in this line of spin is that the vote to leave was taken whatever the terms might be. It was said time and again during the campaign that the worst outcome – trading with the EU under the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) - would be just fine. In fact, there were many who saw this outcome as the ideal to aim for. It is, after all, the framework for trade between the vast majority of the world’s nations.

Tom Goodenough

Tony Blair’s shrill Brexit warnings won’t persuade anyone

Tony Blair’s message for voters on Brexit is becoming more and more shrill. His latest stark warning is that: '2018 will be the year when the fate of Brexit and thus of Britain will be decided. 2017 was too early in the negotiation. By 2019, it will be too late.' The point Blair misses is that 2016 was the year 'the fate of Brexit' was decided, and it is difficult not to think that with each pronouncement fewer and fewer people are listening (Blair has an approval rating of –50, according to YouGov).

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson

Angela Rayner on education and white working-class culture

I interview Angela Rayner, the Shadow Education Secretary, for the forthcoming edition of The Spectator. I met her before Christmas and was fascinated by the way she explains her politics in terms of her biography. She tells me how much she owes to a welfare state that was there for her, in a way that it wasn’t for her mum, who left school aged 12. She worked her way up, and says a few Tories ask her why she isn’t a Conservative. Simple, she says: Labour is the party of the helping hand, and the Tories are not very sympathetic to single parents like her. The ones who’ve made it: sure, Tories like them. They like success. But those who still struggle? Who might not be so successful? Only Labour stands for them. I could have ran four pages words of interview with her.

Isabel Hardman

There’s a much bigger crisis in the NHS than the winter pressures

Whose fault is the current NHS crisis? Today Jeremy Hunt apologised to patients whose operations have been cancelled as a result of serious pressures on hospitals. There are ‘major incidents’ at 16 hospital trusts, and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine is warning that patients who do end up in crowded and chaotic emergency departments ‘are much more likely to have a poorer outcome and even die as a result of their experience’. The Health Secretary said the current situation was ‘absolutely not what I want’, while Theresa May argued that ‘the NHS has been better prepared for this winter than ever before’.

The Spectator

Theresa May’s 2018 resolution should be to look beyond Brexit

The last full year before Britain leaves the EU has been foretold by some as a time of increasingly desperate negotiation. According to this view the government is drifting towards an economically painful Brexit, so consumed by the whole sorry business that it is unable to address any of the country’s other problems. Yet there is no reason why 2018 should turn out this way, and every reason to hope that it will prove to be the year when the Conservatives finally emerge from the tumult of the referendum to achieve other things. While the deal struck between the government and the EU in December -- and the prospect of Britain paying a ‘leaving bill’ of around £40 billion -- has offended some Brexiteers, it has transformed the political landscape.

Steerpike

Paul Mason turns on the ‘Stalinist left’ over Iran

With the death toll in Iran thought to sit at 21 following a series of clashes between protesters and security forces at nationwide demonstrations, many politicians have been quick to express concern over the regime. However, Jeremy Corbyn has intriguingly gone quiet on Iran. Happily, some on the left have proved more willing to comment. The Guardian's Owen Jones has expressed 'solidarity with any Iranian protestors who are fighting for democracy and freedom, both from a vicious regime and from US domination'.

Kate Andrews

It’s time to stop burying hard truths about the NHS

The philosophy of the National Health Service, as stated on its website, is that 'good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth'. This is why, in theory, Britain’s health service 'covers everything'. Not this month. Last night, NHS hospitals were made to cancel all non-emergency surgeries until February in order to divert resources to this year’s flu epidemic, which is causing mass overcrowding. As a result, outpatient clinics will be shut down for weeks, and 50,000 appointments have been cut from the schedule. 50,000. Even in today’s world, where statistics are everywhere that number cannot pass by fleetingly.

Steerpike

Grauniad reviews organised crime drama: ‘shades of Brexit’

Although we're only three days into 2018, the Guardian has put in an early contender for the coveted title of most Grauniad article of the year. Proving that Brexit misery can be found in pretty much anything so long as you look hard enough, the paper has published an intriguing review of McMafia, the BBC's new glossy mini-series on organised crime The series tells the story of Alex Godman – a man who has spent his life trying to stay clear of his family's criminal past, but when tragedy strikes, he becomes embroiled in the world of international crime – including money laundering and shootings. The drama has so far received good reviews – with the Telegraph describing it as 'irresistibly charming'.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Chris Grayling comes out of hiding

It's safe to say that Chris Grayling's trip to Qatar hasn't exactly gone to plan. The Transport Secretary has been accused of 'going into hiding' in the Middle East following his decision to be out of the country on the day train fares are revealed to have their biggest rise in five years. That announcement has gone down like a cup of cold sick with many commuters, with protests already underway. After some prodding from hacks, the Department for Transport has – slowly – managed to release details about the trip: 'a pre-planned visit to promote the UK overseas, support British jobs and strengthen the important relationship between the two countries'. However, in a sign that the pressure is getting to Grayling, the Cabinet minister has finally surfaced.

Alex Massie

Rail fare rises are unpopular but that doesn’t make them wrong

As is traditional, the new year begins with harrumphing. Railway users appear appalled by the suggestion they pay a greater share of the cost of their journey. The current formula for determining railway fares, introduced by the last Labour government a decade ago, was designed to offer a better deal to the majority of citizens while asking those who benefit from trains – the wealthy, on the whole – to pay a little more.  So you can see why this is unpopular and the kind of thing designed to provoke a run on torches and pitchforks all across suburban England. The wealthy always dislike being asked to pay more; their ability to cause a fuss about this is one of the reasons they are wealthy.

Stephen Daisley

In defence of Toby Young

Turmoil in the Middle East, a reshuffle rumoured at Westminster, and Toby Young is offending the liberal establishment. So far, 2018 doesn’t seem all that different from 2017. The occasion for the latest sputtering is the Speccie columnist’s appointment to the board of the Office for Students. The OfS is the new regulator of Britain’s universities and, according to the Department for Education website, will ‘promote students interests’. (The possessive apostrophe will presumably have to look out for itself.)  Paul Mason describes Young as a 'Tory eugenicist and educational apartheid guru'. Danny Blanchflower declares him 'totally unfit [and] unqualified' and calls for his removal from a post he has only held for 24 hours.

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May shouldn’t overpromise on a reshuffle

Will Theresa May really go for a wide-ranging reshuffle in the next few weeks? Westminster wisdom has long been that it is dangerous to move your top team around, as sacked ministers make troublesome backbenchers. This does ignore the inconvenient truth that most of the trouble that May has faced over the past few months has come from within her Cabinet - albeit with an extra helping of Brexit rebels on the Conservative backbenches too. She is understood to be deliberating over whether to appoint a direct replacement for Damian Green as First Secretary of State, though even if she scraps that role, there is still a hole to fill at the Cabinet Office and on the various powerful committees delivering policy from Brexit to social care.

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn goes quiet on Iran

With nine more people reported to have died overnight in Iran following clashes between protesters and security forces, the death toll is thought to sit at 21 following a series of nationwide demonstrations. Several politicians – including Boris Johnson – have been quick to express concern over the situation. However, despite an active Twitter feed, Jeremy Corbyn is yet to comment on the unfolding situation. This is rather curious given that the Labour leader – who says 'to stay neutral in times of injustice is to side with the oppressor' – has a tendency to wax lyrical about Iran, whether it's appearing on Iranian state television or discussing 'the inclusivity, the tolerance' in the country that 'most people in the West simply do not understand'.

Steerpike

Revealed: Blair’s euroscepticism

When he isn’t jetting around the world making huge sums of money, Tony Blair now dedicates himself to the cause of blocking Brexit. The former Prime Minister has warned that leaving the European Union will do ‘profound damage’ to Britain, and last month, Blair confirmed he is working to stop the UK leaving the EU. But Blair hasn’t always been so keen on the EU. Back in 1983 when he was first running as the Labour candidate in Sedgefield, a leaflet surfacing on Twitter reveals that Blair told voters: ‘We will negotiate withdrawal from the EEC which has drained our natural resources and destroyed our jobs.’ What's more, this wasn’t the only time Blair has rallied against Brussels.

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Who is to blame for the rail fare rise?

Rail fares are up again, with the latest rise – of an average of 3.4 per cent – the biggest in five years. Labour are clear about who is to blame: it’s the government’s fault, according to the shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald. But whether that’s right or not, it’s inevitable that anger at this latest rise will be directed at the Conservatives – and Labour is likely to make political capital as a result of this commuter anger. A fare rise is now an ‘inevitable ingredient of every new year’, says the Times, which points out that an annual pass to travel between Birmingham and London will now cost £10,567 – a rise of a third in the last eight years.

Monday

Quentin Letts

New Year, new world order

  Old establishment New establishment Order of the Garter BBC Sports Personality of the Year Parliament’s Woolsack The Supreme Court The Borgias Sir Nicholas Serota and friends William Rees-Mogg Owen Jones Jacob Bronowski Simon Cowell Ciggy soak and TV cook Fanny Cradock Clean-living (Deliciously) Ella Mills Shirley Williams Lily Allen MCC committee members BBC trustees Sid James Lord Sugar Oxbridge high-table dinners Institute for Government lunchtime talks Toad in the hole Sushi Richard Ingrams Guido Fawkes website Bishop of Sodor and Man Emma Thompson Young Conservatives Tinder The Astors The Kardashians The Dimblebys The Dimblebys Athenaeum Babington House BBC Facebook Morecambe and Wise Philip Hammond and John McDonnell Roast.

Sunday

Stephen Daisley

In defence of 2017: 17 great things that happened this year

It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times. As 2017 draws to a close, one could be forgiven for remembering the past 12 months as an unrelenting parade of grimness. There was the inauguration of Donald Trump, the governance of Donald Trump, the tweets of Donald Trump...and that's before one considers the terrorists attacks in Manchester and London, the disintegration of Venezuela's economy and democracy, and the Las Vegas spree shooting. There's no sugaring it: 2017 was sent to test us. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. Here are 17 positives to come out of 2017. 1.