Politics

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

Sunday

Jason Morgan

A Chinese invasion of Taiwan is coming

This month, at the 20th National Party Congress of the Chinese Communist party, Xi Jinping was elected to a third term as chairman. ‘The New Mao’ – so has rung the common refrain. It’s an entirely accurate assessment. The very existence of the two-term-limit precedent that Xi has now broken was set by Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, in 1982. The reasoning behind the term limit was to prevent the cult-of-personality chaos that Mao and his sycophants had whipped up during his untrammelled, ruler-for-life tenure at the helm of the Chinese state. Deng wanted to make China rich enough so its citizens wouldn’t care that they were not free. To do that, he needed law and

Matthew Taylor

Sunday roundup: Gove backs Braverman

Michael Gove – Suella Braverman ‘is the right person’ to be Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s return to the government benches has become a lightning rod for criticism of Rishi Sunak’s new administration. She had been sacked only a few days prior to her reappointment, thanks to her sending an email containing sensitive information to the wrong person. Michael Gove, who has himself made a comeback as the Levelling Up Secretary, defended Braverman when challenged by Laura Kuenssberg, who was keen to share an inconvenient follow-up email: Braverman ‘did not ignore legal advice’ Sophy Ridge was also keen to raise the issue of immigration, especially relating to the Manston Processing Centre

Andrew McQuillan

Another set of Northern Irish elections won’t solve anything

Northern Ireland is set for another election. The failure to reboot the province’s power-sharing Executive by the deadline last Friday means Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is compelled to call another poll. The current absence of an Executive stems from the Democratic Unionist party’s refusal to join in until substantive progress is made on the Northern Ireland Protocol. What will an election solve? The frank answer is nothing. Sinn Féin, currently the largest party following an election in May, will be able to present this to nationalists and republicans as yet another chance to give those democracy-denying unionists another mighty kicking on the road to a united Ireland. The DUP

Daniel DePetris

Is Biden finally finished with Mohammed bin Salman?

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister had some cheeky words for the Biden administration this week: don’t blame us for manipulating the oil markets, and start acting like grown-ups. Standing on stage at the Saudi-organised Future Investment Initiative, known as ‘Davos in the Desert’, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman laid into American officials. Not only was Washington responsible for where oil prices are today, but they were also selfishly expecting Saudi Arabia to sacrifice its own economic interests for the sake of the West’s foreign policy. ‘We keep hearing you “are with us or against us”, is there any room for “we are with the people of Saudi Arabia?”’ the kingdom’s top oil

Sergey Radchenko

Putin’s war has exacted a terrible toll on Ukraine

Putin badly miscalculated. The Russian army terribly underperformed. Kyiv has shown unexpected resilience in the face of what experts thought was far superior Russian firepower. This, we’re told, is the story of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and all of it is true. Vladimir Putin’s talk of a ‘dirty bomb’ is evidence of how badly the war is going for him. Russia has been taught a bitter lesson, one that other trigger-happy, self-proclaimed great powers would be wise to heed. But one part has been missed. For all of Russia’s difficulties, it is in a far better shape than Ukraine. Fighting has left Ukraine in ruin. Consider these eye-watering statistics: at

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

Rishi raids ITV (again)

The revolving door in No/ 10 seems to turn even faster these days, given the news that Downing Street will shortly be greeting its fourth director of communications in eight months. Amber de Botton will be next to sip from what has become widely regarded as a poisoned chalice, following the departure of Adam Jones, Guto Harri and Jack Doyle since February. Let’s hope she gets more time in the role. She at least comes with plenty of experience. De Botton is well-regarded among the lobby – judging from the Twitter reaction to her appointment – and will bring senior broadcast knowledge to the team, working closely with long standing

John Ferry John Ferry

Nicola Sturgeon’s euro muddle

The First Minister could not have been clearer. Asked about the possibility of Scotland joining the euro, she said Scotland ‘would not qualify’. ‘I don’t think it is the right option for Scotland,’ she added. The question was put to her earlier this month at a press conference where she presented her new paper on the economic case for Scotland exiting the UK. It was a significant statement, because new entrants to the European Union must commit to adopting the euro. ‘All EU member states, except Denmark, are required to adopt the euro and join the euro area,’ says the European Commission.  Unsurprisingly, senior officials in Brussels were not impressed.

Christopher Snowdon

It’s time to stop turning the clocks back

British households could save £400 a year if we left the clocks alone this weekend instead of putting them back an hour, according to Professor Aoife Foley, an energy expert at Queen’s University Belfast. The logic is simple. We use a lot more electricity in the evening than in the morning. That is why daylight savings time was introduced in Europe and North America during the First World War. Some countries later abandoned it only to bring it back during the Second World War and during the energy crisis of the 1970s. Every time the reason was the same: it saves precious energy. As Britain and Europe grapple with an

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

What’s wrong with being an apocalypse denier?

This week, on BBC radio, I made a confession: I am a denier. Not a climate-change denier – an apocalypse denier. I thought it was a clever point – to distinguish between my acceptance that climate change is happening and my scepticism that it will imminently bring about the fiery destruction of Earth. Apparently not. You should have heard the intakes of breath. Apparently even apocalypse denialism is unacceptable in polite society now. It was on Nicky Campbell’s show on 5 Live. I was up against a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil and the question was whether that movement’s art-splattering and road-blocking antics are justifiable. I made my point –

Robin Ashenden

Putin’s war is tearing Russian families apart

Renata is a young paediatrician from St Petersburg who, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, keeps crying at work. Her colleagues are baffled: why is she sobbing over Ukrainian deaths when she doesn’t have relatives there? She’s surrounded, she says, by ‘complete incomprehension’ from her fellow-doctors, ‘and I’m quietly going insane.’ Her mother Vinera, a school headteacher, advocates the war, believes the West has its eye on Russia’s ‘inexhaustible wealth’ and that it envies Russia’s people for their ‘spiritual’ values. Renata no longer goes home to visit Vinera: ‘I find her disgusting, she’s a hypocrite, I’m disgusted by her views.’ Galya is a violinist from Samara, locked in a failing marriage

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Can Rishi really rescue the Tories?

There is a sweet spot for party leaders in which two key conditions are fulfilled. First, the leader’s party is ahead in the polls. Secondly, the leader is more popular than the party. At the end of his first week in office, Rishi Sunak can at least be content that the latter of these conditions has been met. Ultimately though it will be the former that determines the result of the next general election. On this score there is a huge amount of lost ground still to claw back, with the Conservatives trailing Labour by an average of more than 20 points. Polling shows that the public already regard Sunak as

Friday

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Sunak should acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

When Liz Truss’s premiership came to an abrupt end, it appeared to spell doom for a historic policy shift raised in her leadership campaign. In a break from a widely held but diplomatically fruitless consensus, Truss stood on a platform of reviewing the location of the British embassy in Israel.  That legation is still based in Tel Aviv despite Israel proclaiming Jerusalem its capital in December 1949 and placing its parliament, government and Supreme Court there. Successive UK governments have deemed Jerusalem a ‘corpus separatum’ and withheld recognition, noting only Israel’s ‘de facto’ authority over the western portions. This is despite Israel exercising all the functions of a sovereign in

Sam Ashworth-Hayes Sam Ashworth-Hayes

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover isn’t so bad

It’s finally happened. After months of legal wrangling, Twitter has fallen. All hail King Elon; the ‘bird is freed’. The executives running the show have been defenestrated, including CEO Parag Agrawal and head of safety Vijaya Gadda. Around the virtual watering hole, skittish packs of activists watch nervously as the ground shakes; Donald Trump, the biggest of the Twitter big beasts is set to make his return. And isn’t the wailing glorious? Well yes, but. Basing your politics around things your opponents dislike is a trap that it’s easy to fall into. Conservatism is not a negative image of progressivism, but an alternative philosophical perspective with its own positive vision

Steerpike Steerpike

Farage gets his fortune (and freedom)

He’s had his money worries in the past, but life seems to be pretty sweet for Nigel Farage right now. Less than eighteen months after announcing his retirement from frontline politics – claiming there was ‘no money’ in it – Farage’s fortunes seem to be on the up. Newly published accounts for his company, Thorn In The Side Ltd, show he increased his total net assets by almost half a million pounds in a year, rising by more than £480,000 from just over £666,000 up until May 2021 to more than £1.1 million until May 2022. Now installed as the face of GB News, the former Ukip leader has developed

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Sunak is right to stay away from COP27

Rishi Sunak deserves one of those ‘climate champion’ badges they hand out at primary schools. Why? Because he is not going to fly to the COP27 summit in Egypt – thereby saving 1.65 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to the World Land Trust’s carbon calculator. So what if Ed Miliband thinks it is a failure of leadership? There is no point in any UK Prime Minister travelling to any more of these summits when the world’s largest carbon emitters have made it perfectly plain that they have no intention of copying Britain’s example. They will not be putting themselves under legal commitment to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050 or any

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Putin’s house of mirrors

If there is one thing we have learnt since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February, it is that very little he says bears any relation to the truth. For nearly a year, the Russian President has been constructing his own house of mirrors: his rhetoric gives no indication of what is fact or fiction, bluff or candour, hard truth or hot air. Each speech he gives further distorts the reality he presents. Yesterday, Putin spoke at an event held by the Moscow-based think tank Valdai Discussion Club. The theme of his speech was ‘A post-hegemonic world: Justice and security for everyone’. Whose hegemony does this refer to? That of the

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Are Sunak and Hunt planning a windfall tax grab?

When Rishi Sunak entered No. 10 on Tuesday, he paid lip service to the aims of his predecessor. Liz Truss ‘was not wrong to want to improve growth in this country’, he said outside Downing Street. But ‘mistakes were made’ which is why he was installed as Prime Minister: to fix the economic fiasco that has overwhelmed Britain over these past few weeks. This morning’s news about looming growth forecasts brings both statements to the fore. Just over a week ago, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt thought he had to find upwards of £30 billion worth of spending cuts and tax hikes to fill the black hole in the public finances. But

Yuri Felshtinsky

Will Putin use Belarus to attack Ukraine?

For the past month, Russian soldiers have been gathering in Belarus. Thousands of conscripts are assembling. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russia’s war effort goes from bad to worse: Kyiv’s forces are continuing to advance in Kherson. Does Putin think the build-up of forces in Belarus can help him turn the tide in his war? So far, Belarus’s involvement has been largely passive. The country’s dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko is allowing Russia to pelt Ukraine with missiles from behind its borders. Minsk also provided crucial safe passage to troops attacking the country from the north in February. But, for the most part, it has done its best to try and stay out of the war while

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Alicia Kearns Edition

35 min listen

Alicia Kearns is the Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton, and the first female chair of the foreign affairs select committee. Alicia built a reputation as a foreign policy powerhouse working in communications and counter-terrorism for the civil service. After leaving, some time was spent in the private sector before Alicia decided to become an MP. In 2019 she was elected in the Conservative safe seat, Rutland and Melton where she now lives with her family.  On the podcast, Alicia talks about why she left the civil service and the time she ‘came out’ as a Conservative. She also shares her love for her Rutland and Melton, describing her constituents

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Why shouldn’t Macron meet Meloni?

One in four Italians who voted at last month’s election backed Giorgia Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy party – that is 7,302,517 men and women. Second in the general election was the centre-left Democratic party with 5,356,180 votes with 19 per cent. In other words, Meloni’s victory was resounding. Coming as it did after the brief premiership of the unelected Mario Draghi one might even call it a victory for democracy. Yet the western reaction to Italy electing its first female prime minister was overwhelmingly cold and aloof. The Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, for example, promised to keep a close eye on Meloni to ensure she respected Italy’s human rights