Politics

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

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Will the Channel 4 sale go ahead?

There’ll be corks popping in Horseferry Road tonight. Following the Queen’s funeral yesterday, normal politics has now resumed with gusto. Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan was duly wheeled out on Sky this morning, where she revealed that the government is now ‘reexamining the business case’ over the privatisation of Channel 4. It comes after extensive lobbying from the arts industry, with hundreds of producers, directors and stars urging ministers to call off the sale. Donelan’s appointment to the post follows the departure of Nadine Dorries, an ardent advocate of flogging off the right-on broadcaster, arguing it will struggle to survive in the era of Netflix. Now it seems that the change

Hardeep Singh

Fake news is fuelling trouble on the streets of Leicester

Leicester is sometimes held up as a success story in multicultural Britain. The city is a melting pot where people of all creeds and colours live side-by-side. However, recent events have tarnished that reputation. Over the weekend, once again there were violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the east of the city. Leicestershire Police announced last night that a total of 47 arrests have been made, for offences ranging from assault to violent disorder. On Saturday, an ‘unplanned protest’ by a group of Hindu young men triggered a counterprotest by members of the Muslim community. Young men can be seen in video footage with their hoods up and faces covered (wearing covid masks

Katy Balls Katy Balls

What Truss’s US trade deal U-turn is really about

Farewell to the UK/US trade deal. That’s the news from Liz Truss’s trip to the UN assembly in New York. The Prime Minister has told hacks on the flight over that the UK will not strike an agreement with America for many years. The former international trade secretary suggested that talks were unlikely to even start in the medium term: ‘There isn’t currently any negotiation taking place with the US and I don’t have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term.’ The comments come ahead of her first proper meeting with Joe Biden since becoming Prime Minister. The former International Trade Secretary suggested

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

Why ordinary people cannot enter the arts world

Recent sad events have seen everybody behaving exactly as you would expect. There’s nothing wrong about that. A certain continuity of conduct is reassuring, a truism that the late Queen herself exemplified better than anyone. Her job was to be regal. Similarly, it’s the job of chippy academics to spill their thoughts, of the New York Times to froth at length, and, of course, of mad actors to be mad. It might be argued that the job of an actor is to act, but such an objection belongs to a vanished world and certainly does not apply to the actors who have moved beyond simply saying other people’s words for

The Spectator

America’s touching tributes to the Queen (1901)

The United States hasn’t always reacted rather snidely to the death of the British monarch. Below is The Spectator’s lead piece following the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901, available on our fully-digitised archive. Nothing has been more striking, nothing more moving to the British as a nation, than the way in which the Queen has been mourned and her memory reverenced in the United States. The English-speaking people of America almost with one voice have joined the English-speaking people of the British Empire in their expressions of affection for the Queen. The outside world has wondered at the spectacle, and has asked how it comes about that a people

Monday

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

The Queen’s funeral was a fitting send off for Elizabeth the Great

In the Christian tradition, which allows for a protracted gap between death and burial, there is often time for initial feelings of shock and grief to give way to other emotions – fond recall, gratitude for the contribution of the departed. But a funeral always returns us to sorrow. And deep sorrow was the abiding emotion today at the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The applause that rang out along parts of the route when her body was conveyed back to Buckingham Palace – or the friendships that sprang up in the queue to see her lying in state in Westminster Hall – were rightly seen as

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

How will Queen Elizabeth II be remembered?

12 min listen

Today was the state funeral of Britain’s longest reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II. From Westminster, we evaluate the day’s proceedings. Also on the podcast, as the period of mourning ends and politics resumes, can Liz Truss hit the ground running? Will we get some clarity on how much her energy plan will cost? Katy Balls speaks with Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Aussie broadcasters fail to recognise Liz Truss

Poor Liz Truss. While Boris Johnson is recognised the world over thanks to his famous ruffled hair, Britain’s new Prime Minister isn’t quite as well known overseas. As the great and the good arrived at Westminster Abbey for Her Majesty the Queen’s funeral service earlier today, Truss was shown with her husband entering the church. Unfortunately, two Aussie commentators, broadcasting on the country’s Channel Nine, had no idea who Truss was. ‘Who’s this? Maybe minor royals,’ said presenter Peter Overton. ‘We can’t spot everyone unfortunately’, said his colleague Tracy Grimshaw. ‘They look like they could be local dignitaries,’ she added.  Oh dear. After some panicked whispers off air, Overton eventually told Aussie viewers: ‘I’m

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

In praise of France’s tributes to the Queen

The death of Elizabeth II has reacquainted Britain with all the cherished irrationalities that make us who we are. Hereditary monarchy. Unfathomable pageantry. Democratic grief. The joy taken in queuing. There’s no understanding these customs; tradition exists to be followed, not deduced. To love the British, you have to love, or at least accept, their curious foibles. There is one irrationality that is not exactly cherished but endures nonetheless and the Queen’s death has underlined just how irrational it is and how difficult to love. The British aversion to the French seems all the more perverse given la république’s extraordinary reaction to the passing of Britain’s longest-serving monarch.  France may

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Joe Biden’s Taiwan muddle has become untenable

Under Joe Biden, the longstanding American policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ vis-à-vis Taiwan has taken on a curious post-modern quality. The official US position on arguably the biggest international question of the moment is now so ambiguous that even the president of the United States doesn’t appear to know what it is. In a long interview with CBS 60 minutes this weekend, president Biden was asked if US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘If in fact there was an unprecedented attack.’ The White House promptly clarified that, in fact, the US position has not changed, suggesting that America still might not commit

Juliet Nicolson

Why I queued to see the Queen

I went there with Rachel my best friend from childhood. We both wore black. Even our trainers were black. We took the train together from our homes in Sussex and joined the queue in London at 7 p.m., when day light was still strong, in the knowledge we might be part of this slow-moving mass of humanity for twelve hours or much more. Our backpacks were filled with sweaters, extra socks, bananas, energy bars, phone chargers and handkerchiefs. The journey, or what increasingly felt like a pilgrimage, was buzzing with chat, with introductions that followed a very Queen-like sort of conversation.  ‘Have you come far?’ ‘What do you do?’ as

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Ukrainian nuclear power plant shelled by Russia

If Putin is losing the ground war in Ukraine and running out of troops, what other options does he have? The obvious fear is that he’d use nuclear weapons or attack Ukraine’s nuclear power stations. Last night, the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in Mykolaiv oblast, 300 km (200 miles) south from Kyiv, was struck, with more than 100 windows destroyed by the blast. Such plants are designed to withstand explosions although not missile attacks. The reactor was not hit and there (as yet) are no reports of any radioactive leakage.   For nuclear plants to be shelled at all shows a dangerous turn of events. Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company, has

The Spectator

The complete guide to the Queen’s funeral

Today, the world says farewell to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. World leaders, including US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron, and royals from across the globe have gathered in London for the country’s first state funeral in decades. Here is how the day will unfold: 10.35 a.m. The coffin bearers from the Queen’s Company, the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, will lift the coffin from the catafalque in Westminster Hall.  10.44 a.m. The Queen’s coffin will be taken via Parliament Square to Westminster Abbey. The coffin will be carried on the state gun carriage, drawn by 142 Royal Navy sailors. Detachments of the King’s Body Guards of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms,

Nigel Jones

What the Queen’s funeral tells us about Britain

State funerals say a lot about the country in which they take place – and one of the things in which Britain still indisputably leads the world are the magnificent final farewells that we arrange for our leaders. How very different are some of the send offs seen in less fortunate lands. When Stalin died in 1953, hundreds, possibly thousands, were added to the toll of his victims when they were fatally crushed queuing in Moscow to view the dead Soviet dictator. In 1989, after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in revolutionary Iran, the chaotic funeral culminated in the dead Supreme Leader’s body actually falling out of its coffin, while

Sam Leith Sam Leith

The midlife crisis spread: why are the affluent so depressed?

‘You are here’, as those signs in windswept carparks unhelpfully point out. Yup. No mistaking it, you will tend to think glumly as you look at them. I had the same feeling when I looked at a new report from no less an institution than America’s National Bureau of Economic Research. The report is called The Midlife Crisis. It tells us that in the western world, one’s forties and early fifties are associated with problems with sleep, clinical depression and suicidal thoughts, disabling headaches and dependence on alcohol, alongside a decline in basic measures of life satisfaction. Well, fancy. I don’t know about clinical depression and suicidal thoughts, I should

Sunday

John Connolly John Connolly

Why is violence breaking out in Leicester?

Just what is going on in Leicester? Last night violence broke out in the city after hundreds of young men in Covid masks and balaclavas took to the streets as part of an ‘unplanned protest’. The police attempted to contain the protestors but soon lost control of the situation. Videos posted online show officers struggling to contain the crowds while bottles fly and smash on the pavement around them. In another unverified video a group of men flip a car. According to the police, two arrests have been made and they are investigating several other incidents of violence and disorder. For the past few weeks Leicester has become a kind

Winston Marshall

The music industry is out-of-step on trans ideology

If you want a glimpse of progressive authoritarianism, look no further than the music industry. Two musicians, in successive weeks, have spoken out against the excesses of trans ideology. First of all Christian Henson, co-founder of Spitfire Audio, Britain’s leading sound library studio and software audio creator. Henson had the audacity to voice his concerns of what damage the trans ideology is doing to children. He tweeted: ‘As a parent I can no longer keep my mouth shut about this. I’m in full support of [Graham Linehan] and [J.K. Rowling]. Please look into this. If you have young children its in the post if you have autistic children its probably

Steerpike Steerpike

Truss’s chief of staff quizzed by FBI

It’s been an eventful few weeks for Liz Truss. Our new Prime Minister has faced a baptism of fire not seen since by an incoming premier since Churchill and the fall of France in 1940. War, inflation, a-cost-of-living crisis and the death of the Queen: so much for a honeymoon. Still, Her Majesty’s passing has meant a brief hiatus from normal politics, which is expected to resume with gusto on Tuesday. And one issue which we can expect Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to probe with relish is Truss’s newly appointed Chief of Staff, Mark Fullbrook. And we thought Boris’s departure would mean a return to normalcy in politics… For

David Petraeus

Ukraine will win the war

The below is an edited transcript of David Petraeus’s interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto. On the war’s momentum: It has fundamentally shifted, and I’m normally fairly guarded and cautious about this, but the tide clearly has turned because the success of this offensive, as important as it is itself on the ground, is that it reflects a hugely important development: Ukraine has been incomparably better than Russia in recruiting, training, equipping, organising and employing additional forces. Russia has been struggling to do just that, literally running out of soldiers, ammunition tanks, fighting vehicles and so forth. Ukraine is supported superbly by the US and Nato, whereas Russia, even if it