The Spectator

Tuesday

The Spectator

What’s on today at Labour conference: The Spectator guide | 24 September 2019

From our UK edition

There is no love lost between Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson, so the Labour leader will have to grin and bear it as his deputy takes to the stage this afternoon. Here is the pick of today's events in Brighton: Labour events:  8:30: Policy Seminar 9:45: Morning Plenary Session: Tackling The Climate Emergency 12:35: Votes 12:45: Break 14:00: Afternoon Plenary Session: Tackling The Climate Emergency Tom Watson MP Speech 16:45: Policy Seminars 17:20: Votes   Fringe events:  10:30: Students Against Climate Change: What Can We Do? Ambassador, Hilton Brighton Metropole 12:00: Diversity in the Law – Room for Improvement?

Monday

Sunday

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: parliament has a responsibility to stop Brexit

From our UK edition

Parliament’s responsibility Sir: I always enjoy reading the intelligent and outspoken Lionel Shriver. But her latest article (14 September) puts forward an invalid argument. As Ms Shriver points out, no one in the USA seriously argued that the disaster of Trump’s election, and the damage it could cause the country, meant the result should be contested. She compares this with the fact that many in the UK want to overturn the EU referendum result; and concludes from this that our political system is ‘broken’. But had an election been fought here, with one party promising Leave and the other Remain, few would be seriously arguing for the overturn of the outcome — whatever it was. Elections are, rightly I believe, taken more seriously than referendums.

The Spectator

How many Britons now vape?

From our UK edition

Talking Turkey David Cameron again accused the Leave campaign of ‘lying’ about the prospect of Turkey joining the EU. A reminder of what he himself has said on the subject: — ‘I’m here to make the case for Turkey’s membership. And to fight for it… I will remain your strongest possible advocate for EU membership and for greater influence at the top table of European diplomacy.’ (Speech to Turkish parliament, 2010) — ‘In terms of Turkish membership of the EU, I very much support that. That’s a longstanding position of British foreign policy which I support. We discussed that again in our talks today.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: EU negotiations, genderless babies and Brexit in court

From our UK edition

Home ‘I will uphold the constitution, I will obey the law, but we will come out on 31 October,’ Boris Johnson told the BBC, adding that the EU ‘have had a bellyful of all this stuff’. After a lunch of chicken and pollock at the Bouquet Garni in Luxembourg with Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, he found noise from British protesters made it impossible for him to join Xavier Bettel, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, in an open-air press conference, so Mr Bettel continued on his own, gesturing angrily to an empty podium and saying what a ‘nightmare’ of uncertainty Britain had left Europe in.

The Spectator

Why would Britain want to be a member of a club like the EU?

From our UK edition

The past three years of agonising non-progress on Brexit have damaged Britain in many ways. Our political institutions have looked ridiculous and, through endless uncertainty, unnerved markets. But we have also learned much about the EU. Its behaviour, and that of its officials, has served to reassure those who were uncertain about their Brexit vote that the UK could never be happy as part of this club. Better to be the EU’s greatest ally than its most reluctant and disruptive member. But post-Brexit relations will be shaped, in no small part, by the process of leaving. The Prime Minister’s trip this week to Luxembourg was a good example of what can go wrong.

Thursday

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Does the outcome of the Ashes dictate who wins a general election?

From our UK edition

Party speak Should the next Speaker of the House of Commons be a Labour MP on the basis that John Bercow was a Conservative before taking the chair? There has been a tradition in recent decades that the two main parties alternate in filling the role. But it doesn’t go back far — Michael Martin, Labour MP for Glasgow Springburn, succeeded Betty Boothroyd, also Labour, in 2000, not least because the Conservatives had only 165 MPs at the time and didn’t want to lose one. Between 1928 and 1965 a succession of four Speakers had been Conservative MPs. Between 1835 and 1905, by contrast, the Commons had two Whigs followed by four Liberals. Prior to that, four Conservatives were elevated to the Speaker’s chair between 1789 and 1835.

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Portrait of the week: The Speaker resigns, BA pilots strike and Mugabe dies

From our UK edition

Home A bill sponsored by Hilary Benn and supported by Alistair Burt and other dissident Tories was passed — becoming the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019. It commanded the Prime Minister to send by 19 October a letter of stipulated wording to the President of the European Council requesting that the deadline for Britain leaving the EU under Article 50 be extended until 31 January. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he’d ‘rather be dead in a ditch’ than ask for an extension. The government was twice defeated on a motion for a general election to be held on 15 October. A tearful John Bercow told the Commons he would resign as Speaker on 31 October. Welsh MPs sang at 2 a.m.

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Britain’s jobs miracle proves there is no reason to fear technology

From our UK edition

Another week, another set of economic figures that suggest the country is showing remarkable resilience while politics implodes. Rather than fall into recession, as so many predicted, the economy leapt forward in July. We now have the lowest unemployment for 45 years, an extraordinary figure. Income inequality is near a 30-year low. The confidence crisis that politicians are experiencing is not reflected outside of Westminster. There is little evidence to suggest that machines are taking people’s jobs. Instead, they are being used to do low-end tasks, freeing up humans to work in more complex, better-paid roles. We now have machines taking restaurant orders, checking people in at airports and fulfilling other functions inside various businesses.

The Spectator

Letters: There is more to village life than shutters, benches and paint

From our UK edition

Shambles at sea Sir: On 19 July Iranian Republican Guard forces captured the UK flagged tanker Stena Impero, as described by former defence secretary Penny Mordaunt in her Spectator Diary (3 August). It was a national humiliation and it needn’t have happened. As was made clear at the House of Commons Defence Committee hearing on 9 September, warnings were being given about possible Iranian actions as early as mid-June. The UK naval presence in the area comprised only one frigate, HMS Montrose, and more ships were needed to protect UK shipping. The HCDC was surprised to discover from Mordaunt that she had been trying to stimulate a response, but had her requests for a Cobra meeting refused on at least five occasions.

The Spectator

to 2422: 40 furlongs

From our UK edition

The unclued Across lights are words abbreviated by F which includes ‘40’ and the unclued Down lights are abbreviated by f which includes ‘furlongs’.

Monday

The Spectator

Full list: Theresa May’s resignation honours

From our UK edition

Resignation Honours 2019   CH   The Rt Hon Sir Patrick MCLOUGHLIN MP Member of Parliament for Derbyshire Dales and former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative & Unionist Party. For political and public service.   KCMG    George HOLLINGBERY MP Member of Parliament for Meon Valley and former Minister of State for Trade Policy and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. For political and public service.   Oliver ROBBINS CB Lately the Prime Minister’s Europe Adviser and Chief Negotiator for Exiting the European Union. For public service.   KCB   The Rt Hon David LIDINGTON CBE MP Member of Parliament for Aylesbury and former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Thursday

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Letters: History has not done justice to Neville Chamberlain

From our UK edition

Helping the homeless Sir: The number of rough sleepers in one of the richest countries on the planet is surely a finger of accusation pointed at our generation (‘Wake-up call’, 31 August). Adam Holloway is correct when he says that giving cash directly to those living on the streets often compounds rather than alleviates the problem. Smarter ways should be found to direct compassion effectively, and a new charity, Nextmeal, is attempting to do just this. It uses GPS mapping technology to locate the nearest centre helping the homeless. The database currently details almost 400 such centres across the country, most of which are charities that can dovetail with state services. Thousands of cards have been printed with a link to the website, www.nextmeal.co.uk.

The Spectator

The next election will be a referendum – on Corbynism

From our UK edition

The next general election will have been precipitated by, and will inevitably be fought over, Brexit. Yet it will also be the fiercest battle of ideas for more than a generation. Britain must choose between economic liberalism and a command economy, between a smallish state and a domineering one. This would be a crucial choice at any time, but the implications of Brexit make it more so. Jeremy Corbyn supported leaving the EU in 1975 for the same reason he can’t quite denounce Brexit now: a parliament that takes back control can be far more radical. And his Labour party has plenty of radicalism in mind. Even though Labour occupies a lowly position in the polls, Corbyn remains overwhelmingly the main challenger to Boris Johnson and his warring Conservatives.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Brexit gets complicated

From our UK edition

Home The government was defeated by 328 to 301 on a motion to take over the business of the House, under a cabal including the former chancellor Philip Hammond, in order to introduce a Bill sponsored by Sir Oliver Letwin and Hilary Benn specifying that unless a deal is reached with the EU or parliament approves a no-deal Brexit by 19 October, the government must write to the EU seeking an extension to the Article 50 period until 31 January 2020. In response, the government removed the whip from 21 Tory members who had voted against the government, including Kenneth Clarke, Hammond and Sir Nicholas Soames. Moreover, plans were afoot to field a candidate against the Speaker, John Bercow in the next election.

The Spectator

How often has a general election been held on a Monday?

From our UK edition

A Monday poll? The government was considering a general election on 14 October — a Monday. This raised eyebrows because general elections have been held on Thursdays since 1935. There are various theories about why — that it gives an incoming PM a weekend to form a new government, that it was market day in many towns, that fewer voters would be drunk than at the weekend, that by Thursday churchgoers would have forgotten the previous Sunday’s sermon at parish communion. But there is no single reason — each PM has been free to decide. — Until 1918, general elections were held over a period of four weeks. Elections were then held on Saturday (1918), Tuesday (1931), Wednesday (1922 and 1924), and Thursday (1923 and 1929).