Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Thursday

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

The Boris-bashers should be ashamed

Throughout this fractious summer, one thing has united all the warring pundits and politicians. Left, right; Leave, Remain, everyone at least agrees that it was crazy to leave the country in Boris’s hands. He’s not serious, they say, looking, as they make this pronouncement, jolly pleased with their own relative gravitas. They should instead be ashamed. The endless jeering at Boris isn’t justified — he was a decent mayor of London — and it is not in good faith. What purports to be considered criticism is almost always just sour grapes. Why the bitterness? More often than not, Boris-bashers — in Parliament or press — are his contemporaries. A lot

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Mr Brexit meets… Mr Brexit

Last week Donald Trump managed to leave hacks and commentariats confused when he took to Twitter to declare that he would soon be referred to as ‘MR BREXIT!’. While many interpreted this to mean that he would win an election against the odds — just as the Leave vote did in the referendum — Mr S was curious to learn that Trump is set to share a platform with the UK’s very own Mr Brexit. Nigel Farage has told Sky News that he will be appear on stage with Donald Trump in Mississippi tonight to discuss ‘The Brexit Story’. Given that Trump has regulary praised Britain’s decision to leave the EU, no doubt Farage

The Spectator

An independent Scotland would now be bankrupt

This time two years ago, the United Kingdom stood on the brink of dissolution. The referendum on Scottish independence hung in the balance and momentum was with the nationalists. The optimism and energy of Alex Salmond’s campaign stood in admirable contrast to the shrill hysteria of Project Fear, the name given to a unionist campaign that churned out ever-less-credible warnings about what would happen after separation. The union was saved, but 45 per cent of Scots had voted to leave it. So the referendum had not closed the question, but left it wide open. At the time, the North Sea oil sector was still in fairly good health. In the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Where has all the money gone, Nicola Sturgeon?

Just three years ago, the Scottish government enjoyed claiming that an independent Scotland would be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Perhaps even the sixth wealthiest, as measured by GDP per capita. Sometimes the claims made were a little more modest. Scotland might be only the 14th richest country on earth. But, however the figures were calculated and wherever Scotland was presumed to rank, one thing remained consistent: Scotland would be richer than the United Kingdom it would be leaving behind. Well, you can’t make that case any longer. In truth, it wasn’t a case sensible people bought in the first place. It was too good to be true,

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why Corbyn could still come out on top from ‘traingate’

This morning Jeremy Corbyn has woken up to find his face plastered across the front pages of the Daily Mail and the Times following ‘traingate‘. After Corbyn appeared in a video calling for the railways to be re-nationalised while sitting on the floor of a ‘ram-packed’ Virgin train, the company hit back. On Tuesday, Richard Branson’s team released a press release and CCTV footage which appears to show that Corbyn did have a seat after all. As the media feasted on the footage yesterday, Corbyn’s team first dismissed the claims as a ‘lie’ before offering an alternative account several hours later. Now with the spin machine firmly back in action, the Labour leader’s campaign manager appeared on Today for an

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Owen Smith makes a foolish pledge to block Brexit

Jeremy Corbyn’s embarrassing train row is a gilt-edged opportunity for his rival to try and make up ground in the party’s leadership contest. Instead, Owen Smith is more intent on alienating Labour voters by setting out how he wants to block Brexit. It’s a foolish move on Smith’s part. So why has he done it? It seems Smith’s only motivation is to try and snatch away a core group of Corbyn supporters who want Britain to stay in the EU (after all, Corbyn said hours after the referendum that Article 50 should be triggered straight away). But the dim possibility of attempting to gain traction amongst sulking Remainers means Smith

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Why you shouldn’t vote for Jeremy Corbyn

What follows is an appeal to Jeremy Corbyn supporters to think again. It’s from Chris, a Labour party member, who does not want to give his full name for fear of abuse. He has compiled a vast, but by no means exhaustive list of the moral and political failings of the Labour leader. He told me: I’ve noticed that a few of my very clever, thoughtful, moderately left-wing friends were pro-Corbyn, which amazed me. What I discovered was that they knew almost no facts about him or his fellow travellers. I then noticed that any given critical article about Corbyn only listed one or two facts about him. Normal, good

Steerpike Steerpike

It’s been a year, Nicola Sturgeon. Where are your refugees?

This time last year, as images of refugees fleeing Syria dominated the news, a host of charitable figures offered to do their bit and take refugees into their home. Exasperated that David Cameron was not allowing enough refugees into Britain, Sir Bob Geldof, Yvette Cooper and Nicola Sturgeon were among those who publicly vowed to lead by example. Since then, things appear to have hit a few stumbling blocks. For one, Yvette Cooper claimed — in an interview with Nick Ferrari — that we should listen to the Tory government as they have said that ‘they don’t want people to take them into their home’. Happily times may now be a’changing. The Local Government Association, which represents more than 370

Tuesday

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Jeremy Corbyn’s CCTV concerns are put to bed

As the internet goes into meltdown over the news that Jeremy Corbyn may have had a seat after all when he filmed a video claiming he did not, it appears that the Labour leader hasn’t done much to help his cause. While his campaign team claim that Virgin Train’s CCTV footage is a ‘lie’, Corbyn can at least take heart that the cameras appear to have been working. Back in 2012, he complained in Parliament about ‘inoperative’ CCTV cameras on the rail network, during a debate on funding for Transport for London: ‘We also do it from the point of view of station safety, because, in the days when not enough staff were at

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Virgin accuses Corbyn of telling porkies in train video

Last week, a video of Jeremy Corbyn sitting in the hallway of a crowded train on the his way to a leadership debate went viral. The footage appeared to show the Labour leader sat on the floor for an entire three-hour train journey after he valiantly declared that it would be unfair for him to upgrade his ticket to first class — where there were seats — when others ‘might not be able to afford such a luxury’. He went on to conclude that ‘this is a problem that many passengers face every day, commuters and long-distance travellers’. However, not all passengers appear to face the problem every day —

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Nicola Sturgeon resurrects Project Fear by claiming Brexit will cost Scotland billions

If you thought the Brexit vote marked the end of ‘Project Fear’, you’ll be saddened to know it’s back. This time it takes the form of a warning from Nicola Sturgeon about what leaving the EU might cost Scotland. The Scottish Government report into the ‘economic risk’ to the country of Brexit, on which Sturgeon’s prediction is based, doesn’t appear to be worth the paper its written on however. It puts the bill as between £1.7bn and £11.2bn – a range so huge as to render it virtually meaningless. The report also suggests a similar, although thankfully, slightly smaller chasm in possible tax revenue, this time between £1.7bn and £3.7bn down after Brexit. It’s

Steerpike Steerpike

David Cameron’s larynx comes to his defence on childhood obesity

Theresa May was once seen as the continuity candidate to succeed David Cameron. However, since becoming Prime Minister she has gone on to sideline or backtrack many of Cameron and George Osborne’s pet projects. As well as delaying Hinkley Point and leaving the Northern Powerhouse’s future up in the air, she has provoked anger this week over the Government’s childhood obesity strategy. While Cameron made clear that childhood obesity would be a flagship issue for his government — with Jeremy Hunt even promising to take draconian measures — May appears to take a different approach. In the report — pushed out in recess — May has scrapped plans to curb junk food

James MacMillan

The SNP has played Scotland’s Catholic Church for a fool

In England and other places there can still be surprise when discussion of football in Scotland segues too smoothly into the discussion of religion. And vice versa. It can also get entangled with toxic politics too. The sectarian divide between Celtic and Rangers doesn’t need to be rehearsed, but the tribal hinterlands behind this ancient sporting rivalry point to the sad opposition between Loyalist and Republican, Royalist and Nationalist, Britain and Ireland, Catholic and Protestant. Some say it’s fading away, some say it isn’t, but there was a manifestation last week that it may be evolving – into something worse. Celtic played the Israeli team Hapoel Beer Sheva in Glasgow

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Brexit won’t finish the EU, insist Merkel, Hollande and Renzi

It’s no surprise that Italy’s prime minister Matteo Renzi chose to host a press conference with Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande on an aircraft carrier; this was a piece of theatre designed to show the EU is fighting back. ‘Many thought the EU was finished after Brexit,’ said Renzi. Not so, he claimed. Instead, Britain’s decision to leave the EU was the chance to ‘write a future chapter’ and ‘relaunch the powerful ideas of unity and peace, freedom and dreams’, the Italian PM insisted. All very well, you might think, but what does that mean? Defending the continent against the threat of Islamic terrorism was a key topic. Angela Merkel

Monday

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Jeremy Clarkson’s half-hearted apology to Gordon Brown

Although Jeremy Clarkson had to leave the Beeb last year following a ‘fracas’ with a producer over a cold meat platter, in his time there he had already developed a reputation for getting himself into tight scrapes. In one such incident, the former Top Gear presenter caused a furore after he called the then prime minister Gordon Brown a ‘one-eyed Scottish idiot’ — among other things — at a press conference in Australia. Recalling the fallout at the time, Mark Thompson, then BBC director-general, says he received a call from Clarkson before he even heard about the row. ‘Jeremy Clarkson phoned up out of the blue when I was on a day off,’ the

Steerpike Steerpike

Sorry, what? European Parliament claims the EU topped Olympic medal table

After Britain ended the Rio Olympics in an impressive second place in the olympic medal table, many Brexiteers claimed the result was a good omen for the country as it prepares to branch out alone. However, not everyone appears to have got the memo. Today the European Parliament Twitter account has released a graphic showing that it was actually the European Union that was the top medal winner! This meant that the United States came a distant second, and China in third. Happily by Tokyo 2020 they should be unable to try and lay claim to any British medals in their subsequent EU propaganda.

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Liz Truss confirms there will be a British bill of rights. But we still don’t know when

It’s been over a month since Theresa May stood on the steps of Downing Street. And yet the process of finding out what will define her government is moving slowly. We’ve had snippets of the direction in which it won’t be heading: her decision to put the brakes on Hinkley Point, at least for the time being, shows she won’t be pursuing the Osborne agenda. This has, too, been backed up by reports today that she won’t press ahead with plans for regional mayors with the same fervour as the former chancellor. Yet we’ve had only limited glimpses of what May will be aiming to implement. The catchphrase ‘Brexit means

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Listen: Liam Fox boasts of Foreign Office land grab

For weeks there have been reports of simmering tensions between Theresa May’s three Brexiteers. After the Prime Minister appointed David Davis as the Brexit Secretary, Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary and Liam Fox as the International Trade Secretary, the group have developed a rivalry over who does what. In particular, Fox is thought to be butting heads with Johnson. After he sent a letter to Johnson demanding that the Foreign Office be broken up and hand certain responsibilities to his department he was accused of attempting a ‘land grab’. While that bid failed, another land grab appears to have found greater success. In an interview with a US radio show last month, Fox

Steerpike Steerpike

Sadiq Khan booed by Corbynistas at rally

After Sadiq Khan declared that he would not get involved in the Labour leadership contest, the Mayor of London had a change of heart over the weekend and penned a piece for the Observer endorsing Owen Smith. Corbyn’s supporters have not taken this well — even re-circulating Mr S’s story about Khan attending Rupert Murdoch’s summer drinks party to suggest that he is a wrong’un. Meanwhile at a pro-Corbyn rally in London last night, thousands of supporters took things up a gear as they let their new-found feelings on the Muslim son of a bus driver be known. Despite Khan’s recent election as mayor, attendees started booing at the very mention of his name: Sadiq Khan –

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Kezia Dugdale backs Owen Smith. Here’s why it won’t help him beat Corbyn

It won’t come as much as a surprise to many that Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, has backed Owen Smith in the party’s leadership contest. In July, Dugdale said that with Jeremy Corbyn in charge Labour faced being wiped out at the ballot box. As if that wasn’t a clear enough indicator of who she would back, today she’s confirmed it. Dugdale had this to say: ‘Owen Smith gets my vote. I believe Owen can unite our party, and move us on from the divisions that exist under the current UK leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.’ The sentiment is clear and Dugdale is one of the highest-profile elected female figures