Politics

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

Sunday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

How Turkey and Ukraine called Putin’s grain deal bluff

Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin declared an end to the deal allowing Ukraine to export its grain to the world. This threatened to send prices surging, with a potentially devastating impact on world hunger. But his bluff was called. Turkey, Ukraine and the UN held talks and continued a deal without Russia – and three days later, Putin returned to the agreement. Why? And what does this tell us about Russian vulnerabilities? The trigger for Putin pulling out was a drone strike on Russian ships near Sevastopol last Saturday. This was devastating for Moscow: until recently, Ukraine simply didn’t have such military capabilities. Now, suddenly, it does. Volodymyr Zelensky did not claim

John Oxley

We need to talk about boomer radicalisation

Andrew Leak, the man named as the perpetrator of the petrol bomb attack on Dover migrant centre was, on the surface, an unlikely terrorist. Aged 66 and living in High Wycombe, reports paint him as a somewhat odd but largely harmless character. His internet history told a different story. Though he does not appear to have been led on to his attack by anyone else, there is a clear pattern of self-radicalisation. Analysis from Hope Not Hate, the anti-far-right campaign group, shows that his online presence was riddled with racism. He seemed to support Tommy Robinson and engaged with several other personalities who post inflammatory coverage of issues around migration.

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Matt Hancock is perfect for ‘I’m A Celebrity…’

How can a man have such good and bad judgement? Matt Hancock’s wife is an absolute babe, but his career – and marriage – came to an abrupt end when he chose to snog his (admittedly gorgeous) aide during the strict social distancing of a pandemic lockdown. What a clown. Now Hancock is jungle-bound. By taking part in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! he’s following in the footsteps of political titans like Edwina Currie and Lembit Opik. It’s been said politics is show business for ugly people, and though the reality TV choices of politicos can range from the sublime (Michael Portillo, sassy and classy on various train

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Zero-Covid is the new one-child policy

It has been a remarkable few days for China’s increasingly absurd and at times chilling zero-Covid campaign. There was outrage on social media after the death of a three-year-old boy from carbon monoxide poisoning, which his father blamed on delays obtaining treatment because of a lockdown. Angry residents who took to the streets were confronted by riot police. While videos from the world’s largest iPhone factory in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, where 350,000 are employed, showed workers scaling barricades in what amounted to a mass break-out following attempts to lock them in their dormitories after a Covid outbreak. A surge in cases across the country has seen restrictions

Saturday

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Mark Galeotti, Katja Hoyer and Tanya Gold

19 min listen

This week: Mark Galeotti tells us why Ukraine has become a weapons testing ground (00:53), Katja Hoyer discusses Germany’s extreme monarchists (09:12), and Tanya Gold reads her Notes on … espressos (15:24).  Produced and presented by Oscar Edmondson. 

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Gary Neville called out over his work for Qatar

Former Manchester United player Gary Neville has been enjoying something of the political limelight in recent months. At the beginning of the year the footballer became a card carrying Labour member and in September joined Keir Starmer on stage for a pally conversation at the party’s conference. In interviews last year, Neville said that he would tear Boris Johnson to ‘shreds’ on ‘basic principles of behaviour’. Could it be though that Neville is far better at giving it out than taking it? That seems to be the case after the ex-footballer appeared as the host of Have I Got News For You last night. After the panellists began to rib

Matthew Goodwin

Britain needs to take back control of its borders

Britain has lost control of its borders. Over the last four years, the number of asylum-seekers and illegal migrants who have arrived unlawfully in Britain in small boats, after passing through safe countries, has rocketed from just 299 to nearly 40,000.  This year, so far, the number of people crossing the Channel each month has surged from 1,000 back in January to more than 7,000 in September. Last week, nearly 1,000 people in 24 boats crossed the Channel in a single day.  Make no mistake. Many of the people who are making this perilous journey are genuine refugees fleeing war and persecution — including conflicts that were started by hapless western leaders. The data show that

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Is Russia preparing to surrender Kherson?

Will they stay or will they go? The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has become the current focus of the toughest fighting in the war, and what was once seen as Moscow’s potential gateway to Odessa and the rest of the Black Sea coast is now looking like Kyiv’s access towards occupied Crimea. However, it is unclear whether the Russians are finally preparing to withdraw from the city. On the one hand, Russia’s generals have reportedly been petitioning the Kremlin for weeks to be allowed to fall back. As it stands, Kherson is almost impossible for them to defend. It is on the western bank of the Dnipro River, and

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Why are excess deaths higher now than during Covid?

More people are dying every week than during Covid’s peak years. Last month there were 1,482 more deaths than average each week – known as excess deaths – compared with just 315 two years ago and 1,322 last year. In the week to 21 October (the most recent week of data) ONS figures reveal there were some 1,646 excess deaths alone. As has been reported before, excess deaths are most stark at home: with deaths in private homes nearly a third above average. Meanwhile in hospitals and care homes they’re just 15 and 10 per cent above average. The shift to dying at home, and the health service ceasing to function,

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

How the Albanian mafia corrupted Europe

In May 2000 a French newspaper published an article which declared that ‘The Albanian mafia is corrupting Europe’. Le Parisien reported on an official Interpol document that described a ‘perfectly organised’ criminal network emanating from Albania, with its tentacles spreading west. Drugs, prostitution, gun-running and illegal immigration were the pillars of this syndicate, which had strong links with the Italian and Turkish mafias.  The Interpol report noted that 40 per cent of the heroin dealers arrested in Austria the previous year were Albanian, and Le Parisien reminded its readers that recently prostitution networks in the cities of Nice, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Metz and Nancy had been run by the Albanian mafia.  A month after the newspaper report a

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Is now the time to make peace in Ukraine?

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, British press and public opinion has been firmly behind Volodymyr Zelensky. But is it healthy to look at any subject so uncritically? If a year or more of fighting will achieve nothing, then why prolong the bloodshed? The How To Academy has just held a debate about this delicate subject in London. The motion was ‘Now is the Time To Make Peace in Ukraine’. I went along, with some of the Spectator team. Our colleague Svitlana Morenets, who writes our weekly Ukraine email (sign up here), was speaking against the motion. It was a fascinating debate. Peter Hitchens, opening for the motion, said

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Why have the RMT cancelled the strikes?

14 min listen

Today the planned rail strikes have been cancelled at the 11th hour. Is this an indication that a deal may be soon reached to end the months of disruption?  Also on the podcast, after it was announced that Arts Council England would cut its funding, it looks like the English National Opera will be forced out of London. Is this ‘levelling up’?  Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.  Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Steerpike Steerpike

All change at CCHQ

The winds of change are blowing through the corridors of 4 Matthew Parker Street. Having turfed team Truss out of No. 10, it seems that the Sunak ascendancy has now coincided with a clear out in CCHQ. The past fortnight has seen a number of high-profile departures including chief executive Darren Mott, political director Ross Kempsell and party treasurer Malik Karim. Mott’s departure was announced today after 31 years of service to the party, ‘as jointly agreed with the party chairman and Prime Minister.’ It means that there are now some big jobs currently going at CCHQ. The w4MP website lists vacancies for the director of CRD and head of

Edward Howell

North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are growing faster than ever

While some people start the day with a bowl of cereal, North Korea chose to greet Thursday with the launch of a ballistic missile. The missile, believed to have intercontinental capabilities, failed mid-flight, but it was nonetheless significant. North Korea fired it on the second consecutive day of weapons testing held by the country this week: on those two days it launched more missiles than it had done in the entirety of 2017, with over 23 missiles and over 100 artillery shells on Wednesday alone. North Korea’s missile test caused international havoc. South Korean news broadcasts were interrupted by air raid sirens urging the population to seek shelter; Japan issued

John Pietro

Germany needs to break its dependence on China

Back in February, Olaf Scholz gave one of the most important speeches in his country’s post-Cold War history. In it, the German Chancellor announced that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had produced a zeitenwende, or turning point, and that German policy must adapt. No longer could his nation live on the so-called peace dividend that the West has enjoyed for nearly three decades, and no longer could Germany be dependent on cheap Russian gas. Within three days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion Berlin had U-turned and promised to give Ukraine lethal aid, to spend a one-off $110 billion on the Bundeswehr (the German military), and to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence. The failed

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Brexit isn’t to blame for the economic collapse

We can be grateful for small mercies. 4 November 2022 will go down as the day when a presenter on the Today programme finally challenged a dodgy statistic trying to blame economic collapse on Brexit. The statistic in question was put forward by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney in an interview with the Financial Times last month in which he said: ‘Put it this way, in 2016 the British economy was 90 per cent the size of Germany’s. Now it is less than 70 per cent.’     Was Carney’s ultra-loose monetary policy not part of the cause of today’s inflationary environment? Mishal Husain, to her credit, put this to Carney

Steerpike Steerpike

Poll: voters hope Matt Hancock loses in the jungle

The new series of I’m a Celebrity airs on Sunday and the producers have done a decent job of making sure all of Westminster will be watching. Some contestants bring laughter to the jungle; others have star power. Matt Hancock though will be bringing his humility, judgement and expertise in national humiliation when he appears on the ITV show for a reported £400,000. Nice work if you can get it! Sadly for the womaniser of West Suffolk, while his experience might bring him riches, it’s unlikely to provide redemption. For a new poll for The Spectator shows that the British public strongly disapprove of both Hancock’s decision to partake in

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Why Albanians come to Britain

A friend of mine works in a surgery in London where lots of asylum seekers go for treatment. The caseload is a snapshot of current trends in illegal immigration, and at present that means lots of Albanians.  Yep, that’s the migrant influx across the Channel we’ve been hearing so much about, and which the Albanian PM, Edi Rama, has been blaming on the British government: ‘It’s not about Albanians or aliens or gangsters, but it’s about failed policies on borders and on crime,’ he said this week.  Three cases give an idea of what’s going on. One patient was a nurse from Tirana, Albania’s capital, but had found it impossible

Steerpike Steerpike

Will Diane Abbott lose the whip?

Oh dear. It seems that another hard-of-thinking Corbynista has shown themselves up again. Labour has been enjoying the chance to make political capital out of Suella Braverman’s current woes, with the Home Secretary on the ropes amid an avalanche of questions about her judgement and competence. But never doubt the ability of Sir Keir’s barmy backbench band to pull defeat from the jaws of victory. Cometh the hour and cometh the woman, with Diane Abbott – a socialist who could have been designed in a CCHQ laboratory – riding to the rescue to lower the tone, once again. Having failed in the 2017 election, failed in the 2019 election and