The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 15 June 2017

Keep walking George Osborne called Theresa May a ‘dead woman walking’. The expression ‘dead man walking’ was called out by US prison officers to clear the way for a condemned inmate on his way to execution. It fell into disuse in the 1960s but was rekindled in 1993, first by the publication of a book of that title about a death row inmate called Elmo Patrick Sonnier, then by a successful film version starring Sean Penn. Sonnier was convicted in 1978 of the murder of two teenage lovers and executed in 1984. If Theresa May spends that long on political ‘death row’, it will last beyond a five-year parliamentary term. Against the bias Britain’s electoral system used to favour the Conservatives, then Labour, and now it seems to favour the Tories again.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 15 June 2017

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, spent the week confronting the consequences of the general election that she had called to bring ‘stability and certainty for the future’. It had instead surprisingly left the Conservatives with no overall majority. They won 318 seats (a loss of 13) and Labour 262 (a gain of 30). The Scottish National Party won 35 (a loss of 21), with the Conservatives gaining 12 extra seats in Scotland, even capturing Stirling. Labour won an extra five seats in Scotland. Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, lost his seat, as did Alex Salmond. Nick Clegg, the former Lib-Dem leader, lost his seat, but Sir Vince Cable won back Twickenham.

The Spectator

The thin blue line

The lessons to be learned from the Conservatives’ poor showing in the election could fill more pages than the national curriculum. Don’t unleash on the public a manifesto which has not even been tested among senior ministers. Don’t think you can get through a seven-week election campaign by endlessly repeating the same mantra, especially when you are being ridiculed for it. Don’t underestimate how quickly public opinion can change. Sell yourself, your party and its ideas, rather than just attacking your opponent. Yet there is a serious danger that Theresa May and the rest of the Tory party could pick up the wrong message.

Sunday

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Full transcript: John McDonnell says Labour supports leaving single market

Labour's shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has all but confirmed that the party is committed to leaving the single market. Here's the full transcript of his interview with Robert Peston this morning: RP: I’m joined by the shadow chancellor, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest confidants. Very good to see you, John McDonnell. John, first of all, if I could just start with where you go in parliament now. On Friday morning, you were talking in pretty explicit terms about how you thought you could end up in power even without a general election. How would that work? JM: Well, we put forward the proposal which was nothing special.

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Full transcript: Graham Brady says there is ‘no appetite’ for Tory leadership contest

Here's the full transcript from Andrew Neil's interview with Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 committee, on the Sunday Politics show: AN: Graham Brady, you think Mrs May should soldier on, why? GB: Well, there’s no other party that is in a position to form a government. Clearly these aren’t the circumstances that either the Prime Minister or I or any of my colleagues would have wanted to be dealing with at the moment but they are the circumstances the electorate has presented us with and I think it’s our duty to make the best of that. It’s our duty to try to offer a government as resilient as it can be in quite difficult times. AN: But, is she ever going to be more than a caretaker leader now?

Friday

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Theresa May’s Downing Street statement – ‘I will now form a government’

Theresa May has just appeared on the steps of Downing Street to give a statement following her meeting with the Queen. Here is the full text. I have just been to see Her Majesty the Queen, and I will now form a government – a government that can provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country. This Government will guide the country through the crucial Brexit talks that begin in just 10 days and deliver on the will of the British people by taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

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Election barometer: the debacle in figures

How the seats have changed: And how did the pollsters do? There will have been champagne corks popping at Survation last night – and sorrows being drowned at BMG and ICM: Labour recorded their biggest increase in the share of the vote since 1945: Turnout was up, with a widespread belief that young voters turned out en masse. But actually, turnout was the 5th lowest of any general election since 1945: Highest turnouts 1950 83.9% 1951 82.9% February 1974 78.8% 1959 78.7% 1992 77.7% Lowest turnouts 2001 59.4% 2005 61.4% 2010 65.1% 2015 66.1% 2017 68.

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Catastrophe for the Conservatives as Theresa May blows her majority

Tories lose their majority, falling eight seats short. Labour achieve 40 per cent of the vote, up 9.6pc. This is the biggest increase in vote share since Attlee in 1945. Theresa May has been to Buckingham Palace and sought permission to form a new government, working with the DUP... …in spite of personally engineering a cock-up of historic proportions. The main five Cabinet ministers have all retained their positions; no further appointments will be announced until tomorrow. Paul Nuttall has resigned as Ukip leader, stepping down with immediate effect. SNP lose 21 seats, as Scottish Tories take 12 seats, Scottish Labour takes 7 and LibDems 4. Ousted: Nick Clegg, Alex Salmond, Angus Robertson. Ben Gummer (who compiled the Tory manifesto).

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 8 June 2017

Terrorists’ guilt Sir: A small contribution to the psychological war: when the next atrocity happens, could the BBC and other reputable news media please say that the Isis thugs have ‘admitted their guilt’ in respect of the murders rather than ‘claimed responsibility’ for them? The latter makes it sound like they might be expected to win a prize. Words matter. George Everard London SW1 Corbyn’s ‘principles’ Sir: With regard to Chris Mullin’s article (‘Corbyn for PM?’, 3 June), I disagree that Jeremy Corbyn has led a life consistent with his principles. As an avowed Marxist he clearly saw no future in the Communist party, so nailed his colours to Labour’s mast. Thence to the House of Commons.

The Spectator

Barometer | 8 June 2017

X offenders The artist Banksy had to withdraw an offer of a free print to people voting against the Conservatives in Bristol after the police warned that it would be illegal. Some other electoral offences: — Offering food, drink or any other gift specifically to persuade people to vote in a certain way or to refrain from voting. — To go out canvassing if you are a serving police officer. — The Electoral Commission is not sure about the legality of taking a ballot-box selfie, but in 2014 it advised returning officers to display notices prohibiting photography inside all polling stations. Grey power Is politics now an old person’s game? At 128, the Conservative and Labour leaders had the oldest combined age since Eden and Attlee’s (129) in 1955.

The Spectator

May needs her party

As if we needed reminding, this past week has shown that the Islamist threat is a truly global problem. In the space of a few days, Isis claimed responsibility for attacks on London Bridge and Borough Market; and elsewhere, for the attack on the Iranian Parliament and the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran. It would be hard to think of more diverse targets than drinkers at London pubs on a Saturday night and the tomb of the theocratic Shia cleric who inspired the 1979 Iranian revolution. Yet for Isis there is logic. All are enemies: infidels, heretics, apostates. The Tehran atrocity shows again that what we are witnessing is a civil war within Islam. To the Sunni militant, the enemy could be a girl at a music concert or a worshipper at a Shia mosque.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 8 June 2017

Home Eight people were killed and 48 taken to hospital when three men, in a hire van travelling south shortly after 10 p.m. on Saturday, ran into pedestrians on London Bridge, then jumped out with knives and attacked people in pubs and restaurants around Borough Market. A policeman tackled one of the knifemen with a truncheon and was wounded. At 10.16 p.m., police firing 46 shots killed the men, who were wearing fake explosive vests with visible canisters. A bystander was wounded in the head by a police bullet. Police led people to safety and cleared a wide area. The Islamic State said it was behind the attack.

The Spectator

Election Barometer

Turnout was up, with a widespread belief that young people voted en masse. But actually, turnout was the 5th lowest of any general election since 1945   Highest turnouts 1950 83.9% 1951 82.9% February 1974 78.8 % 1959 78.7 % 1992 77.7 % Lowest turnouts 2001 59.4 % 2005 61.4 % 2010 65.1 % 2015 66.1 % 2017 68.7 % In spite of failing to secure a majority, Theresa May won a higher share of the vote than any party since 1997 – and the biggest Conservative share since Mrs Thatcher’s landslide victory in 1983.   Con vote share 2017 42.4% 2015 36.9% 2005 32.4% 2001 31.7% 1997 30.7% 1992 41.9% 1987 42.2% 1983 42.4% Labour vote share 2017 40.0% 2015 30.4% 2005 35.2% 2001 40.7% 1997 43.2% 1992 34.4% 1987 30.

The Spectator

The PM took voters for fools

During the election campaign — or what passed for it — Theresa May would sometimes declare that Britain was facing its most important choice for a generation. If she lost just six seats, she said at one point, then Jeremy Corbyn would be heading to Brussels to negotiate Brexit. But if the risk was so great, why call an election in the first place? She was closer to the mark outside No.10 early this afternoon, when she declared this was a ‘critical time for our country’. All the more critical as a result of her calamitous handling of the election.   This was a needless election, intended to tighten Theresa May’s grip over her own government.

The Spectator

The potato’s finest hour

From ‘Our friends the vegetables’, 9 June 1917. The food shortage, and the consequent necessity of planting every available space with vegetables, have multiplied the amateur gardener many times over… If the spirit that inspires them is utilitarian, it is not surprising, for the kitchen garden is regarded by most people as above all things prosaic. Can one grow enthusiastic over a potato-patch or ecstatic about rows of turnips? True, the potato at the moment is having a devotion bestowed upon it that it can never have experienced before, but it is an attention founded on the most matter-of-fact motives.

Monday

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Theresa May’s ‘strong leadership’ speech, full transcript

In three days, the British people will choose who they want to lead this country through the next five years. Five years that will define the future of our country for generations to come. I called this election because, as we face the start of the crucial Brexit negotiations in just a few short days, I believed it would be essential for the British Government to be in the strongest possible position going into those talks. That remains the most critical issue in this campaign. But of course, when this campaign started, we could never have predicted the tragic turn that events would take. We could never have imagined the appalling depravity that led a cowardly and callous killer to target innocent men, women and children in the way that we saw in Manchester two weeks ago.

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 1 June 2017

Afrodisiac Diane Abbott likened her rejection of earlier pro-terror sympathies to losing her afro hairstyle. To African-Americans in the 1960s, the afro was a rejection of black attempts to ape white styles. Yet 100 years earlier it was seen as an epitome of white beauty. In 1864, a P. T. Barnum show in New York, featured a ‘Circassian beauty’, said to be from the Northern Caucasus. A German physiologist had cited these Black Sea people as the ‘purest example’ of the white race. The woman had a huge ball of moss-like hair. Some say the style came from Circassian women captured as sex slaves for Turkish harems — their hair was shampooed in beer to appear African. Lucky dip The Conservative poll lead fell to just 5 per cent.

The Spectator

Letters | 1 June 2017

Ignoring the hadith Sir: Douglas Murray and Jenny McCartney (‘The known wolf’ and ‘A war on joy’, 27 May) are correct to cite hatred of women and young girls and fear of their independence as a trigger for terrorist violence — witness Malala Yousafzai. But it is of course not the only trigger since, denial notwithstanding, it is against the generic and non-gender-specific ‘infidel’ that the Koran fulminates. The prohibition said to exist against killing women and children in war is not found in the Koran (of divine infallibility) but in the hadith (of debatable provenance on a case-by-case basis).