The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet reshuffle in full

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn has begun a shadow cabinet reshuffle. Follow the details here. IN: Nick Brown has been appointed as Winterton's successor. A former Gordon Brown loyalist, the MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East will be responsible for instilling discipline in the increasingly divided party. On accepting the role, Brown said he hoped to 'play a constructive role in providing the strongest possible opposition to this Tory government'. Shami Chakrabarti has been appointed to the post of shadow attorney general. The newly appointed peer says 'it is an enormous privilege to take up the post of Shadow Attorney General in Jeremy Corbyn’s new team. I hope to follow in a great tradition of law officers on both sides of the aisle who have defended rights, freedoms and the Rule of Law'.

The Spectator

Conscription in Ireland

From our UK edition

From ‘More men’, The Spectator, 7 October 1916: Are we or are we not to apply compulsory service to Ireland? The difficulties, we admit, are very great. Personally, we dislike the idea of seeing the privilege — for such it is — of defending the Empire accorded to men who have disgraced themselves as did the Sinn Feiners and the disloyal population of Ireland in the recent revolt. At the same time, it does seem a gross injustice that the Irish people should not bear their share of the common burden.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Full text: Theresa May’s conference speech

From our UK edition

When we came to Birmingham this week, some big questions were hanging in the air. Do we have a plan for Brexit? We do. Are we ready for the effort it will take to see it through? We are. Can Boris Johnson stay on message for a full four days? Just about. But I know there’s another big question people want me to answer. What’s my vision for Britain? My philosophy? My approach? Today I want to answer that question very directly. I want to set out my vision for Britain after Brexit. I want to lay out my approach – the things I believe. I want to explain what a country that works for everyone means.

The Spectator

Full text: Ruth Davidson’s Conservative party conference speech

From our UK edition

Friends, five years ago I came to this conference, seeking to win the leadership of our party in Scotland. We’d just had our worst ever Scottish election result on the back of two decades of decline. As career moves went, the omens didn’t look exactly ideal. We were being kicked around by our opponents. And the media was calling us a corpse that wouldn’t twitch. And that was on a good day. But conference, you always kept the faith. When I argued we could win again as Conservatives, you granted me the privilege of allowing me to lead. We weren’t being credited with much in the way of prospects but we had our values, we had heart and we had belief.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Full text: Education secretary Justine Greening’s conference speech

From our UK edition

As a Conservative, when I look at where we’ve had the biggest impact in government, there's one area that really stands out. And that’s education. Through a lot of hard work, not least from teachers... ....we have come a very, very long way. Thanks to the reforms carried out by Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan... ... we've seen standards raised and 1.4m more children in good or outstanding schools. In higher education, the global rankings now show our universities right at the very top... ....with record numbers of our young people applying. Crucially, over the last six and a half years we've also seen a renaissance in apprenticeships.... ... well over two and a half million of them (since 2010). We've much to be proud of.

The Spectator

Full text: Jeremy Hunt’s Tory party conference speech

From our UK edition

Conference, I believe totally and utterly in our NHS. I want it to offer the safest, highest quality care of any country in the world for you and your family. When I took on this role four years ago I said it was the biggest privilege of my life. Some say it’s the hardest job in government. Others say it’s the safest – because there's not a long line of other ministers who want it. But for me it's the chance to serve our country by guiding our most precious public service through difficult times. And that's why I’m proud to be back in front of you wearing my NHS badge. And why today I want to talk to you frankly about the state of our National Health Service: its successes, its challenges and our plans for the future.

The Spectator

Full text: Amber Rudd’s conference speech

From our UK edition

I succeed one of the most successful Home Secretaries of modern times. You may define success as holding the post for longer than any prior Conservative incumbent since World War Two. You may judge it by introducing the Modern Slavery Act … Which has delivered tough new penalties to put slave masters behind bars. Or, you may judge it by the eventual, hard-won deportation of Abu Qatada – and the message that sent. Well, Theresa May is now Prime Minister, and I am honoured to be Home Secretary in her Conservative-only Government. It’s no secret that earlier this year I campaigned on behalf of the Remain side in the EU Referendum. I travelled the country setting out my views and reasons.

The Spectator

Full text: Michael Fallon’s Tory party conference speech

From our UK edition

This week our party is putting forward a vision of a country that works for everyone. Where you can go as far as your talents take you. Ultimately the opportunity to get on depends on the security provided by our Armed Forces. Today British forces are fighting terrorism, countering aggression, and training troops in democracies as far apart as Iraq and Ukraine, Nigeria and Afghanistan. Here at home, they are patrolling our skies and seas. Serving around the world, around the clock - to keep our country safe. Each one of them deserves our thanks. In Theresa May we have a leader who puts security first. Her first act as Prime Minister was to win an overwhelming majority in Parliament to build the new nuclear submarines that will deter the most extreme threats through to the 2060s.

Monday

The Spectator

Full text: Liam Fox’s conference speech

From our UK edition

There was a time when the terms 'Britain' and 'trade' would have been almost synonymous. For over two centuries we were the trading nation. From the intellectual pioneers such as Adam Smith, whose book 'the Wealth of Nations' made the case for free trade, to the Royal Navy’s patrol of the world’s trade routes to the might and resilience of the British Merchant Navy, this country was at the forefront of a free and open trading world. And this party also played its part. When Sir Robert Peel fought against the vested interests of the day to repeal the corn laws and prevent the exploitation of the poor, he set the tone for a Conservative party that was to become the most successful that the democratic world had ever seen.

The Spectator

Full text: Philip Hammond’s conference speech

From our UK edition

It’s great to be back in Birmingham – and a privilege to address this conference as Chancellor of the Exchequer. I don’t think I am giving away any state secrets in admitting that I just might have hoped to have been a Treasury Minister a little bit earlier in my political career! In fact, having been Shadow Chief Secretary for the three years up to the 2010 General Election, I rather think that Liam Byrne’s infamous note to his successor – remember it? - “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money”– I rather think it was intended for me. But it went to David Laws. Who published it! And so it became, perhaps, the shortest political suicide note in history!

Sunday

The Spectator

Full text: Boris Johnson’s conference speech

From our UK edition

I was at the UN general assembly in NY the other day and talking to the foreign minister of another country. I won’t say which one, since I must preserve my reputation for diplomacy, but let’s just say they have an economy about the size of Australia (though getting smaller, alas). Plenty of snow, nuclear missiles, balalaikas, oligarchs, leader who strips to the waist you get the picture. After a few tense exchanges my counterpart gave a theatrical sigh and said that any difficulties we had in our relationship were all Britain’s fault: “It was you guys who imposed democracy on us in 1990”.

The Spectator

Full text: David Davis’s conference speech

From our UK edition

Ladies and gentlemen, on the 23rd of June the British people voted for change. And this is going to be the biggest change for a generation: we are going to leave the European Union. It was we, the Conservative Party, who promised the British people a referendum. It was David Cameron, a Conservative Prime Minister, who honoured that promise. And now it will be this government, a Conservative government that will lead the United Kingdom out of the European Union and into a brighter and better future. This must be a team effort. And I am proud to count myself part of Theresa May’s team. I don't know what it is about our great women leaders, but aren’t we lucky that they’re there when we need them?

The Spectator

Full speech: Theresa May on ‘Britain after Brexit’

From our UK edition

81 days ago, I stood in front of Ten Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister, and I made a promise to the country. I said that the Government I lead will be driven not by the interests of a privileged few, but by the interests of ordinary, working-class families. People who have a job, but don’t always have job security. People who own their own home, but worry about paying the mortgage. People who can just about manage, but worry about the cost of living and getting their kids into a good school. And this week, we’re going to show the country that we mean business. But first, today, we’re going to talk about Global Britain, our ambitious vision for Britain after Brexit. Because 100 days ago, that is what the country voted for.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 29 September 2016

From our UK edition

Ground zero Sir: James Forsyth looks for hope for moderates within the Labour party and finds none (‘The party’s over’, 24 September). That is because the most promising source of hope for them is not a change of position by Labour, but one by the Conservatives. The history of British politics since 1990 has been a prolonged fight for the centre ground. This isn’t because that’s where either party naturally wants to be, but because that’s where the votes are. With Corbyn’s renewed mandate, Labour have unilaterally ceded that ground. The Conservatives could, as Forsyth suggests, use the opportunity to dig themselves in there so firmly that Labour will never recover it.

The Spectator

Barometer | 29 September 2016

From our UK edition

Lynch lore John McDonnell refused to apologise for a 2014 interview in which he called for former employment minister Esther McVey to be ‘lynched’. — Several Lynches have been credited for giving the term to the language. One was Charles Lynch (1736-96), a farmer, community leader and, remarkably, a Quaker from Lynchburg, Virginia (a town named after his brother John). Suspects were supposed to be sent 200 miles to Williamsburg for trial, but during the war of independence the journey became very difficult. Instead, Lynch and his neighbours dispensed justice themselves — although they did try to do it according to the law.

The Spectator

Deadly silence

From our UK edition

There was a time when the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo would have featured strongly in political debate in Britain. Just two weeks after a negotiated ceasefire appeared to have provided some respite, a war of attrition in Syria’s second largest city is escalating into a vast human tragedy. Last Saturday, a bomb dropped by Syrian government forces knocked out a pumping station which had been supplying water to two million people, 250,000 of whom are besieged in the rebel-held east of the city. On the same day, at least 45 people, many of them children, were killed by barrel bombs dropped indiscriminately on civilians — a now common occurrence. Food supplies had already been running low, supply lines to rebel areas having been severed in early September.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 29 September 2016

From our UK edition

Home Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said that Britain would oppose attempts to create an EU army, as it would ‘undermine’ Nato. Forecasts for British economic growth in 2016 collated by the Treasury were revised from 1.5 to 1.8 per cent, the level expected in June, before the EU referendum. Mathias Döpfner, the chief executive of Axel Springer, said that leaving the European Union would make Britain ‘better off than continental Europe’ within five years. Scotland began importing shale gas from the United States. Fourteen candidates are to stand in the by-election at Witney on October 20 to replace David Cameron as MP, including one from the Bus-Pass Elvis Party.

The Spectator

Serpent of mud

From our UK edition

From ‘The fall of Combles and Thiepval’, The Spectator, 30 September 1916: The trench — ugly, dirty, dull, untidy serpent of mud and sandbags — will always have the advantage of the most artful fortress. In the last resort, the reason for this seeming miracle is the fact that the trench has something of mobility in it, and mobility is the vital essence of war. You can prolong a trench line to infinity, or to the sea or a neutral frontier, which is even better than infinity. A fortress has a finality about it which is fatal. The moment mobility is abandoned, as in an invested fortress, putrefaction, physical and spiritual, seems to set in.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Full speech: Jeremy Corbyn at Labour party conference

From our UK edition

Thank you for that introduction. And how brilliant it is to see the hall here in Liverpool, absolutely packed for the Labour conference, well I say it’s packed but Virgin Trains assure me there are 800 empty seats. Either way Conference, it’s a huge pleasure to be holding our party’s annual gathering here in this fantastic city that has shaped our country, our economy, our culture and our music. Liverpool and its people have always been central to the Labour party and our movement. And I know some people say campaigns and protests don’t change things. But the Hillsborough families have shown just how wrong that is.