Politics Archives

Sunday

9 Jul 2023

The troubling question of Ukrainian cluster bombs

When the war in Ukraine was only a few months old, Amnesty International published a report condemning what it had found to be the extensive use of cluster munitions in Kharkiv – by Russia. It noted that the weapons were banned by more than 100 countries and said that in Kharkiv they had claimed hundreds of civilian victims. Cue accusations of war crimes and western outrage against Russia’s uncivilised way of war. Now, a few days before the Nato summit convenes in Vilnius, President Biden has announced that the US will deliver similar weapons to Ukraine. Recognising that this was going to be a controversial decision, he cited conditions and

Hannah Tomes

Could the Tories still scrape through in the Selby by-election?

‘Absent’ seems to be the word that most often springs to mind for voters in Selby and Ainsty when asked about their former MP, Nigel Adams. Back in my home constituency, one of the most common complaints is that he was a Westminster politician who didn’t care about the area; a Boris Johnson loyalist who hitched his wagon to the former PM – and came undone by association. Adams resigned on 10 June – a day after Johnson – in a row over his removal from the peerages list by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. Selby is one of three by-elections Rishi Sunak will face on 20 July. Two

Lawrence Goldman

The trouble with Tate Britain

Tate Britain has had a facelift. The gallery describes its ‘rehang’, unveiled in May, as a chance for visitors to ‘discover over 800 works by over 350 artists spanning six centuries’. Unfortunately, Tate Britain’s painful historical sensitivity – and its selective amnesia – make it difficult to enjoy the artwork. The gallery’s Room 6, ‘Revolution and Reform 1776-1833’, provides one of the most egregious examples. A frieze around the walls is accompanied by a chronology of the period that ends: ‘1833. Slavery is abolished in Britain’. I kept looking up, imagining my eyes were deceiving me. In 1833, there had been no slaves in Britain for years. In 1772 and 1778,

Max Jeffery

How landmines scar a country

Afternoon is boom time in Quang Tri, Vietnam. Fifty years since the war here ended, and they’re still getting rid of America’s mess. Frags, flechettes, Bouncing Bettys and cluster bombs are scattered unexploded across the country, ready for a farmer to run them over or a child to pick them up. ‘Deminers’ work with metal detectors to scan bits of land in the morning, and after lunch they destroy whatever munitions they find. I’ve come to Vietnam to see how Ukraine will clear its landmines – a third of the country is already contaminated with the explosives and the Foreign Office has just issued a six-million-pound contract for British deminers to help. Demining

Saturday

8 Jul 2023

Senay Boztas

Has the time come for the Dutch farmers’ party?

There are 17.9 million residents in the Netherlands, and this year the country expects 45,000 requests for asylum. Barges, tents and sports halls are full of people waiting for their claim to be processed, while the country is suffering a housing crisis largely due to historic under-building. Last year the country made headlines around the world when people were forced to sleep rough outside an asylum registration centre in Ter Apel, a baby died in a crowded sports hall in the town, and the country’s own Médecins Sans Frontières stepped in to offer aid. Whoever pulled the pin, some in the Netherlands are delighted at the prospect of a general election Asylum is the

Andrew Liddle

Is the SNP serious about decriminalising drugs?

It is hard to criticise the SNP government’s recent legislative record in Scotland, if only because there isn’t one. Almost every single flagship measure the party has brought forward since the 2021 Scottish parliament election has either been altered, scrapped, blocked, or faces a lengthy legal challenge. More often than not, it has been one or more of these things. Plans to restrict alcohol advertising have gone ‘back to the drawing board’ following an industry outcry. The Deposit Return Scheme – a recycling scheme for glass and plastic bottles – has been delayed for at least two years, and the company that had been set up to administer it has

Gavin Haynes

Threads, Twitter and the misery of addiction

Could Threads kill Twitter? Tens of millions have signed up to Meta’s rival app since it was launched this week. Its early success has led to renewed predictions of Twitter’s imminent doom. When Elon Musk sacked half Twitter’s staff and pronounced himself Chief Twit back in November, the scoffing was endless – and has continued ever since. ‘It’s been an unmitigated disaster,’ wrote Farhad Manjoo in the New York Times, back in April. ‘The speed and totality with which he’s (Musk) ruined the site have been almost impressive,’ before falling back on mystical definitions: ‘Cultural relevance is difficult to quantify, but you know it when you feel it. And now… Twitter rarely feels like the place where everyone is gathering to watch.’

Iain Macwhirter

Humza Yousaf’s first 100 days

20 min listen

James Heale speaks to John Ferry and Iain Macwhirter about Humza Yousaf’s first 100 days in Holyrood. Plagued by Sturgeon’s arrest, does the Scottish First Minister’s future look bright?

John Lloyd

The dark history of the SNP

The Scottish National party, under new and inferior management, continues to struggle out from under English oppression – colonialist oppression, as seems to be the view of the outward bound Mhairi Black, who wants Scotland to be the sixty-third country to escape from England. Yet, running through the SNP’s history has been a thin line of tenderness for authoritarian rule and rulers that contradicts its own struggle for freedom. Despotic ideologies attracted thousands of followers in the 20s and 30s. Communism, inspired by the Bolshevik takeover in Russia, carried the promise of freedom and power for the working class, while fascism gained a hold in the 20s after the success of Benito

Mark Hollingsworth

Russian sanctions are hurting Putin’s enemies

‘Ukrainians fight for their homeland, Russians fight for Putin’s ambitions’, declared the TV presenter on his YouTube channel earlier this year. This was not a Ukrainian propagandist. In fact, the commentator was Russian and talking on ‘TV Rain’, the most popular and effective opposition channel broadcasting into Russia. In TV Rain’s final programme from Moscow before the station was forced to shut down and move abroad, the founder declared: ‘No to war. Putin cannot win the war’. In exile, the channel remained robust. ‘The war has no justification and has to be stopped’, says the editor Tikhon Dzyadko. ‘Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine’. The most effective vehicle of

Kate Andrews

Kate Andrews, Igor Toronyi-Lalic and Ivo Dawnay

17 min listen

This week: Kate Andrews on the NHS and the celebrations that marked its 75th birthday (01:05), Igor Toronyi-Lalic is in Marseille watching with interest as the riots happen around him (06:57) and Ivo Dawnay describes how being related to Boris is cramping his style oversees (11:13). Produced and presented by Linden Kemkaran.

Patrick O’Flynn

Have the Tories given up?

When confronted with a list of problems and setbacks afflicting the Government, a minister recently told me: ‘The darkest hour is just before the dawn.’ I doubt she really believed it, which is just as well because, in a scientific sense at least, it turns out not to be true. But Tory ministers – aware of the party’s looming fate at the next election – are seeking such crumbs of comfort. In recent weeks, there has been a tsunami of announcements from backbenchers and former ministers that they won’t be standing again. Unhelpful by-elections look set to confirm what many suspect: the Tories are heading for defeat, come the next

Nigel Jones

Dutch government collapses following migration row

The growing continent-wide crisis caused by mass immigration into Europe has claimed another country with the collapse of the Dutch coalition government led by veteran centrist politician Mark Rutte. The Dutch prime minister announced that he will hand in his government’s resignation to King Willem-Alexander today because of ‘profound differences’ among the four coalition parties over how to handle immigration. Applications for asylum from migrants into the densely populated Netherlands have been running at almost 50,000 a year and likely to hit 70,000 by the year’s end. Rutte proposed to limit the numbers by drastically capping the rights of foreign family members to join migrants already in the country. Mass

Graham Watts

‘We don’t have time to waste’: An interview with Ukraine’s Azov brigade commander

The acting commander of the Azov brigade, Major Bohdan (pronounced Bogdan) Krotevych, is a hero in Ukraine. In last year’s Siege of Mariupol, he and 2,000 men – together with civilians and other units of the Ukrainian armed forces – held out for almost three months as defenders of the Azovstal Iron and Steel works. That huge network of tunnels and bunkers provided shelter to withstand daily bombardments from far more numerous Russian forces. Ironically, it was the Soviet Union that built this enormous infrastructure to withstand such aerial bombardment. Major Krotevych – his call sign is ‘Tavr’, meaning a native of Crimea – spoke to me from the Azov

Friday

7 Jul 2023

Lucy Dunn

Will Scottish junior doctors accept Humza’s record pay deal?

As of this afternoon, the junior doctor strikes in Scotland have been called off. Today, the Scottish government and the BMA Scotland’s Junior Doctor Committee announced a brand new, three-pronged deal in a bid to end the pay dispute. Junior doctors in Scotland will receive a single pay rise of 12.4 per cent for this year, and over the following three years, the government has guaranteed a minimum pay rise in line with the rate of inflation for each financial year. Not only that, contract negotiations with the aim of improving both working conditions and training will begin this autumn, to be implemented by April 2026. First Minister Humza Yousaf

James Heale

SNP calls for drugs to be decriminalised

It’s Humza Yousaf’s 100th day in office today. So what better way to mark this milestone than with a fresh clash with Westminster? A policy paper put out by the Scottish government this morning calls for the decriminalisation of all drugs for personal use. Drugs are a reserved matter but Holyrood ministers want that changed to allow people found in possession to be ‘treated and supported rather than criminalised and excluded’. Scotland would only be able to implement this approach if the UK government granted a section 30 order: an opt-out from the reserved power laws in the Scotland Act. Other proposals that the SNP want include law changes to

Ross Clark

The housing crash we’re heading for might not be the one you think

Are house prices falling? The Halifax house price index, published today, is finally showing a significant year on year fall: average prices are 2.6 per cent down in the 12 months to June. This is the biggest annual fall shown by the index in 12 years. But it is still hard to depict what is happening in the housing market as a bloodbath. The finer print shows that prices are actually up over the last quarter, by 0.3 per cent – with the 12 monthly figure pulled down by what happened by last autumn. As has happens so often in the housing market, predictions of deep gloom (or deep joy, if you

Katy Balls

What if Boris Johnson was still prime minister?

It’s one year today since Boris Johnson resigned as prime minister, following mass resignations in the ministerial ranks. At the time Johnson hinted he would return, but 12 months later he is no longer an MP. Meanwhile the Tories have fallen further back in the polls. The last YouGov poll taken before Johnson resigned had Labour on an 11-point lead. The latest YouGov poll finds that this has extended to a 25-point lead, with Rishi Sunak struggling to reverse the party’s fortunes. So, where did it all go wrong? As expected, those who back Johnson look at those poll differences and argue it is evidence that the Tory party collectively

James Heale

Was booting Boris a mistake?

15 min listen

It is one year since Boris Johnson announced his resignation as prime minister. That day, Labour held an 11 point lead in the polls but new YouGov polling today indicates that gap has widened to 25 points. Is there any hope the Tories can turn it around? What if Boris had stayed? James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson.

Joanna Williams

Spare us from Keir Starmer’s vacuous education pledges

Keir Starmer clearly does not abide by the principle ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. On the contrary, with this week’s announcement of Labour’s plans to overhaul England’s education sector, Starmer has proven that even in the rare instance of something working well, Labour can be relied upon to make it worse. Come the next election, Conservative activists looking to tally up the party’s successes will almost certainly land on education. Sure, they will have to close their eyes to the devastating impact of lockdown school closures and continued disruption by striking teachers. And they might have to cross their fingers and hope no one quizzes them on the

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