Politics

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

Monday

Fredrik Erixon

Greece has chosen to inflict heavy economic damage on itself

The Greek referendum will change nothing. Greek voters already expressed their great dissatisfaction with the bailout packages when they elected Syriza to power in January. The proposition they were asked to vote about now does not exist – and the referendum was just a sham. The bailout agreement that Greece and its creditors battled over for the past half-year is a dead parrot; it has ceased to exist. And yet the referendum result may change everything. It has made it close to impossible for euro governments to aid Greece with more money. While other leaders can backpedal their statements in the past week that the Greek referendum was really about its

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis resigns

If Greece had voted ‘Yes’ to the austerity package proposed by its creditors, then there would have been a round of resignations at the top of Syriza. But this morning, even though the party is celebrating a ‘No’ vote, its finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has resigned. Writing on his blog, he explains that in order for the country to get a good deal that it can accept, he needs to let someone else take over: ‘Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted ‘partners’, for my… ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the Prime Minister

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Greece says No, will Germany now try and kick it out of the Euro?

Greece has voted No in the referendum and resoundingly so. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, No is leading 61% to 39%. The result is a massive humiliation for Eurozone leaders who have spent the last few days telling the Greeks to vote Yes and warning them that this was really a referendum on whether the country should stay in the single currency or not. Tonight, Syriza have been making clear that the Greek government intends to remain within the Euro. However, the German government is making clear that it is not interested in further negotiations with Athens or a new bailout deal. Sigmar Gabriel, the deputy

David Patrikarakos David Patrikarakos

Alexis Tsipras asked if people were happy. The answer was always going to be ‘no’

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has just done something unthinkable. He has won the Greek referendum. And make no mistake, it was him that won it. It was his decision to call a referendum just over a week ago and send the EU into a panic. The last Prime Minister to try that was George Papandreou in 2011 before he was forced to backtrack rapidly. He resigned shortly after. But winning the referendum isn’t what is so astounding – opinion polls were neck and neck throughout last week and once voting closed at 7pm Greek time it became almost immediately apparent that the No side would win. What makes his feat so

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Greek voters say Oxi, what will the Eurozone do now?

With half the votes counted, the No side in the Greek referendum is leading by 61% to 39%. With this lead for No at this stage in the count, it seems certain that it has won. The question now is how the Eurozone will react to this result. Before the vote, the Eurozone powers made clear that they wanted Greece to vote Yes. The Germans, French and Italians all repeatedly warned the Greeks that this was effectively a vote on whether to stay in the Euro or Not. Jean-Claude Juncker even hinted that this was a referendum on whether Greece should stay in the EU or not. So, what will

Ed West Ed West

Globalists v localists: the new reality of 21st century politics

Tonight it looks like the Oxi’s have it, and Greece’s fraught relationship with the Franks has reached a new phase, with possible Grexit coming; that’s assuming the exit polls are correct and that this whole torturous episode doesn’t continue. Whether Grexit takes place or not, though, the whole episode has fundamentally damaged the European Union by undermining the very idea it was built on – solidarity. If you ever get Irish people on the subject of the Great Famine, the essential point they always make is that had the potato blight hit Yorkshire, no one would have starved because London would have come to its aid. Yorkshire is the example

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Polls suggest narrow ‘No’ vote in Greek referendum

If the final result in the Greek referendum is as close as the polls (not exit polls, so treat with caution) below suggest, then as well as the trauma and drama of Grexit, the country will have to cope with deep divisions. The same would be the case if there is a narrow win for ‘Yes’. In either case, that just over half of the country voted one way, and just a few fewer people went the other way naturally means there will be a lot of voters who are bitterly disappointed. Whatever the result, the future for Greece is going to be difficult and many people will suffer a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘No’ side confident as polls close in Greek referendum

The polls have just closed in the Greek referendum, and the ‘No’ side seems, currently, to be rather more confident of a victory. The Guardian reports a briefing from the EU Commission that those in favour of rejecting the anti-austerity deal from Greece’s creditors could be 8-10 points ahead, while others claim ‘No’ had a late surge. Syriza members have also been talking about what would happen in the event of a ‘No’ vote, with Yanis Varoufakis saying Greece could do a deal with its lenders in 24 hours. If the country has voted ‘No’, then Grexit is expected, unless the country stays suspended in negotiations for longer. Not only

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

When will George Osborne commission a war memorial for soldiers?

We learn today that George Osborne will say in his Budget that he’s using the fines he’s collected from bankers to build a memorial to terror victims. I find this juxtaposition rather odd: why link terrorism to banking? Why not just be honest: that any memorial will be funded from the the same tax pool as everything else? But moreover, I do wonder where this memorial will go.  We’re told that the Chancellor will consult with the relatives of the victims before agreeing a location. These memorials do serve a purpose: they become part of the world our ministers operate in; part of their daily lives. Most politicians will know

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The IMF doesn’t need to be run by a European

How much longer should the IMF be run by a European? The job of the fund is to assist any member country which is in trouble, not to advance the dream of European integration. So far, since it all began after the war, the IMF’s managing directors have been Europeans, most commonly French. The current one, Christine Lagarde, is a French former politician, as was her predecessor, the socialist sex-maniac Dominique Strauss-Kahn. In her opinion, the needs of the EU trump everything, but that is a political view, not a financial one. It must be annoying for the scores of poorer, non-European IMF members — e.g. the Philippines, Mexico, Jamaica — to

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Which way will Greece vote?

This time tomorrow, we’ll have had the first projections from the Greek referendum. We will have an idea as to whether the country has said Oxi or Nai. At the moment, the polls make the referendum too close to call. Whatever the result, there’ll be no quick deal between Greece and its creditors. But if the Greeks vote Oxi, then the country could be forced out of the Euro by the ECB cutting off assistance to its banks. If that were to happen, then the Eurozone would have to move to integrate very quickly to prevent Portugal, Italy, Spain and even France being pushed towards the Euro exit the next

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Does the EU want the Greeks to vote for Golden Dawn?

If Greece does vote Yes, and Mr Tsipras has to go, who is left to run the country? The voters have tried all the main parties, only to find them broken by the demands of the eurozone. The only category left is the extreme right, so there would be a sort of desperate logic in electing the repulsive Golden Dawn party. Otherwise, there really doesn’t seem any point in having any more votes at all. Greek citizens — or rather subjects — might as well invite the satraps of the troika formally to take up the reins of power, sit back, and see how they manage. If they do not like

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

In pictures: The Spectator’s readers’ tea party

‘They are just as you hope they’d be,’ said my colleague Damian Thompson midway through our readers’ tea party today. I knew what he meant: we were actually getting to meet the people we work for, the people we imagine when we’re commissioning or writing stories. You build up a fairly clear idea what they’re like – and what they’re not like. There’s no typical age: today we welcomed readers from 25 to 85. They come from a wide range of backgrounds; architects, students, lawyers, priests, financiers. And from all over the country: I met subscribers who drove down from Oldham and even Glasgow to join us today. Taki was there, as

Steerpike Steerpike

Lib Dems claw back power from the Tories

When Vince Cable lost his seat to the Tories in the general election, it was a a victory that brought much entertainment to the Conservatives, with David Cameron’s former head of strategy Steve Hilton making light of it at his book launch. Now, the Liberal Democrats finally have reason for cheer, and while it might not be the election they had hoped to win, they have finally beaten the Tories in one battle. After Tania Mathias, who won the Twickenham seat for the Tories in the election, gave up her council seat in Hampton Wick, a by-election took place yesterday. Despite the ward being a traditional Tory stronghold, the party failed to retain

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is Cameron ready for his European opportunity?

Could Greek voters back austerity measures to keep their country in the eurozone this weekend? Today’s papers cover a poll by GPO which put ‘Yes’ on 47.1 per cent and No on 43.2 per cent. This result would see resignations at the top of Syriza, but effectively no Grexit. If Alexis Tsipras’ gamble of saying he’ll resign if the country does indeed vote ‘Yes’ to the cuts demanded by Greece’s creditors pays off, and voters plump for Syriza’s preferred option of ‘No’, then David Cameron will find himself with what James describes in this week’s Spectator as a ‘glorious opportunity to craft a looser form of EU membership’ because the

Thursday

Peter Jones

Solon vs Jean-Claude Juncker

The combination of terror and outrage with which Brussels has greeted Greek Prime Minister Tsipras’s referendum tells us everything we ever needed to know about the EU, i.e. stuff the people — what have they to do with us? The farmer-hero Dikaiopolis in Aristophanes’ comedy Acharnians (425 BC) felt much as modern Greeks must do when the Athenian Assembly refused to do anything about the war against Sparta. All the executives cared about was getting the best seats, he complains: ‘For peace, they don’t give a toss. Oh Athens, Athens, what are you coming to?… I’m longing for peace. All I want is to get back to my little village — ah,

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Isil stands for Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Does David Cameron not realise this?

It is very easy to make David Cameron and the Scottish National Party look ridiculous. But as every soldier and journalist knows, just because a target is easy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hit it. The attempt by supposedly respectable politicians to use trickery and outright lies to rebrand Islamic State as a state that has nothing to with Islam is too good to miss. David Cameron kicked off this week when he shouted at the BBC for calling Islamic State ‘Islamic State’. Yesterday at Prime Minister’s Questions he was at it again. Islamic State should not be called ‘Islamic State’ but ‘Isil’. Meanwhile the SNP rounded up Boris Johnson, Caroline

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why are politicians trying to boss the BBC around?

One of the most striking things about the debate in the Commons this afternoon on Britain and International Security was that rather than debate the complexities of intervening in Syria, a lot of MPs were very keen to talk about the name of the terror group the government might take action against. MP after MP from all sides of the House rose to complain about the BBC’s decision not to call the group ‘Daesh’, and started to hatch a powerful plan to gang up on the broadcaster and use ‘Daesh’ anyway, until the corporation relents. Alex Salmond even went so far as to say that ‘we could actually achieve something

Steerpike Steerpike

Harriet Harman blasts George Osborne for distasteful PMQs joke

When George Osborne covered for David Cameron at PMQs last month, it was seen as his chance to prove to his critics that he was prime ministerial material. Alas, his attempt at a joke about Labour’s Bennites in answer to a question from Hilary Benn about suicide bombers has hit a particularly sour note with Labour. When Mr S caught up with Harriet Harman at The Spectator‘s summer party, the departing deputy leader was quick to criticise Osborne for joking about Benn’s late father Tony Benn, the former Cabinet minster: ‘I mean that thing he did with Hilary Benn where he said something about Tony Benn having died and I thought that’s generous and nice

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour sets out conditions for supporting intervention against Isis in Syria

Michael Fallon was very careful indeed to push the issue of military action against Isis in Syria in as gentle a fashion as possible when he came to the Chamber this afternoon. The Defence Secretary told MPs the government knew that Isis is running its operations from North Syria, and he again made the argument about the illogicality of sticking to borders that the terror group doesn’t recognise. His attempts not to further agitate those Tory MPs sitting behind him were interesting, but what was more interesting was the Labour response to the statement, in which Vernon Coaker made it clear that his party would be regarding potential action in