Society

Thursday

Lucy Vickery

Dear Santa | 12 December 2019

In Competition No. 3128 you were invited to submit letters to Santa written in the style of the author of your choice.   I failed to track down examples of real letters from well-known writers to Old Nick (although both Mark Twain and Tolkien penned letters to their children from Father Christmas). But this was more than compensated for by the terrific standard of entries: step forward, David Silverman, channelling Dan Brown: ‘Dear Santa, I know who you are, buddy! And I can prove it! You’re an anagram of SATAN!…’; John Samson as Irvine Welsh: ‘Dear San’a, Gonny gi’e us back ma literary credentials…’; and Adrian Fry’s Harold Pinter: ‘I’ll

Wednesday

Daniel DePetris

Trump’s impeachment can only go one way – in his favour

After 17 witnesses, weeks of closed-door depositions and public hearings and a lot of heated back-and-forth between the parties, it has all come down to this: the unveiling of the formal articles of impeachment. Early on Tuesday morning, the six Democratic chairs who have been investigating President Trump on everything from obstruction of justice to violations of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause strode up to the podium and delivered a single unifying message—the President of the United States threatens the country’s democracy every day he remains in office. As House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler told the assembled reporters, ‘President Trump violated his oath to the American people. He placed his own private interests

Niall Ferguson, Nick Kumleben & Manny Rincon-Cruz

Like, actually: Labour’s social media lead should terrify the Tories

As Brits head to the polls for the fourth general election this decade—a frequency of voting matched only in the 1920s and 1970s—there is a tendency amongst some commentators to underestimate how radically the democratic process has changed in the space of a century. Between Bonar Law and Boris Johnson, however, the public sphere has been revolutionised. In the 1920s, newspapers still dominated. In the 1970s, it was television. In the 2010s, it has been the Internet and, most recently, the network platforms we call “social media.” Most British political pundits act as if this latest change has not happened. They pore over opinion polls and scrutinise television interviews much

Michelle Dewberry

Why the Brexit Party won’t stand down in Hull West and Hessle

‘If I had £1 for every lie someone told about me/us, I could have retired 10 mins into this campaign.’ I wrote this on 2 December after yet another – how shall I put this – ‘falsity’ was said about me and the Brexit party, who I am standing for in Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle. Nonsense being spread about me during this election campaign was something I’d expected. Abuse, too (standing in the 2017 election as an independent had been an education – this time around, I brought my hard hat). It didn’t even surprise me when, after installing one of my first promotional boards, (very proud I was of

Joolz Gale

Why Germans are warming to Boris Johnson

There is a strange dual narrative on Brexit here in Berlin. On the surface, nothing has changed. Donald Tusk’s comments last week, that Brexit has been ‘one of the most spectacular mistakes’ in EU history, speak for many Germans who have looked upon the UK with ridicule and pity since 2016. Germans have relished in the farce that is Brexit, delighting in ‘the demise of a once great nation’, while hoping that its difficulties will make Britain think again. Indeed, with each delay and possible victory for Jeremy Corbyn comes more and more hope in Germany that the revocation of Article 50 – or at least a second referendum – becomes

Gus Carter Gus Carter

15 viral videos that could win (or lose) this election

Election campaigning has changed in recent years. While the Saturday morning door knock is here to stay, the battle for hearts and minds is increasingly fought on social media. As Katy Balls recently wrote in The Spectator, there’s a whole other conversation happening online: one that consumers of traditional media just don’t see. Here’s a rundown of the 15 biggest viral videos from this year’s election campaign: 15. The misleading Jess Phillips video 240,000 views The Conservatives made a bit of a stink earlier on in the campaign when they shared a misleading video of backbench Labour rebel Jess Phillips. Phillips appeared to be admitting that Labour would not fulfil all

Stephen Tall

Is there life for the Lib Dems after their ‘Stop Brexit’ campaign?

Everyone knows the Lib Dems want to stop Brexit, but that’s not always been true of its voters. Some 750,000 of them backed Leave in the 2016 referendum; one-third of all those who’d voted for the party in the previous year’s general election. One thing’s for sure: Jo Swinson’s ‘Stop Brexit’ campaign is not designed to win these voters back. A recent YouGov poll suggested just four per cent of Leave voters will support the Lib Dems at this election. Instead, the party has banked its fortunes on being the ‘Remainiest’ party contesting this election, as part of its effort to build a ‘core vote’ based on a coherent set

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Two big blunders that will be remembered from this election

The two stand-out moments of the campaign? 1) Jeremy Corbyn refusing to say sorry to the Jewish community, in Andrew Neil’s BBC interview, for the hurt and anxiety he caused by failing for years to eliminate anti-Semitism from the Labour party. 2) Boris Johnson’s refusal to look at a picture of a four-year-old with suspected pneumonia lying on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary, which ITV News’ Joe Pike tried to show him on his phone, and then Johnson’s pocketing of Pike’s phone. Each leader showed a wilful refusal to take personal responsibility for the consequences of their respective party’s actions. Both looked, to many, self-righteous and untrustworthy. Good luck

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Given the stakes, it’s no surprise this election has gone down to the wire

Polling stations open in 15 hours time and this is an election where no one is certain what the result will be. The YouGov MRP shows a tightening race with the Tories currently on course for a majority in the twenties but with Labour closing strongly. On the YouGov MRP, if the Tory lead fell by one per cent Boris Johnson’s majority would go into the teens. If it dropped by two points, there would still be a Tory majority but it would be in single digits. The reports from the ground are mixed. In some places, Tories are surprisingly bullish, believing that the Corbyn factor will help them get

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The Brexit Party might still deny Boris his majority

The last YouGov constituency-level poll showed a significant closing of the gap between Labour and the Conservatives, with the projected Tory majority falling from 68 seats two weeks ago to 28 seats now – and with a margin of error which could take us well into hung parliament territory. The interpretation being put on this is that while the Conservatives have hit a ceiling, Labour continues to draw tactical voters away from the Lib Dems. But it is worse than that for the Tories. In spite of appeals to Brexit voters to vote tactically, in some places votes are beginning to drain away in the other direction, from the Conservatives

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Steve Coogan labels Labour the ‘nasty party’

The actor Steve Coogan has started his traditional round of election broadcasts, supposedly in an attempt to whip up support for Labour. Unfortunately for Steve, he had a bit of an Alan Partridge moment earlier today when he told Sky News that Labour is ‘encouraging prejudice’. Mr S would sadly have to agree. You can watch the clip here:

Sam Leith Sam Leith

The Book Club podcast: the magic of children’s books

In this week’s Book Club podcast, my guest is the children’s writer Piers Torday, author of the Last Wild trilogy and, most recently, The Frozen Sea. Why is winter such a powerful thing in children’s writing? How come children’s books are such a booming publishing sector when so many people thought that screens would all but kill them off? Why do so many children’s writers have catastrophic personal lives? And how do the stories of today repurpose and live in the stories of the past?

John Connolly John Connolly

Ten bellwether seats to watch on election night

It’s easy to imagine prime ministers on election night, either nervously grinning or groaning in despair when the results for Dartford are announced. In every election since 1964, the London constituency has voted for the party which went on to win nationwide. It, along with nine other constituencies (such as Watford, Reading West and Worcester) are the true bellwether seats, which have predicted the national mood since the 1980s. This election though, it’s harder to know if these seats will accurately reflect the final election result. Boris Johnson’s Tories are hoping to flip the electoral map, abandoning their old heartlands and affluent Remainers in favour of Northern and Midland Labour

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Why I’m voting for None Of The Above

To choose is to endorse. But this is an election in which, for myriad reasons, all the options are deplorable. To choose one of them, even on a least-bad basis, feels like a kind of capitulation. So I will vote tomorrow but I shall, for the first time, spoil my ballot. None of the Above has my vote. I want no part of this election and desire no share, however tiny, of the responsibility that comes with endorsing any of the candidates representing the major parties. To choose is to sanction and, in this election, that’s intolerable and impossible. So last night’s YouGov MRP number-crunching was oddly cheering. For it

Matthew Lynn

Five places to flee to if Jeremy Corbyn becomes PM

It is still too close to call. And the odds are still on a Tory victory. Even so, with the polls narrowing, with lots of constituencies likely to change hands and with plenty of voters still to make up their minds, there is still a real chance that by Friday morning Jeremy Corbyn could be moving into Number 10. For anyone with money and worst of all anyone who owns a company, a reign of terror will be about to begin. The Labour party has come up with so many different ways to harass and intimidate business it is hard for even the nerviest plutocrat to keep track of them

Robert Peston Robert Peston

Four key questions that will decide who wins this election

In the end it probably comes down to four things, most of them momentous, about the power of the people, and the very structure of the country. First, this is your only chance to decide whether the UK leaves the EU at the end of January or whether you want a referendum next year that could reverse the result of the previous Brexit referendum. Second, if you are north of the border, this is an opportunity to signal whether you want another referendum on whether Scotland remains part of the UK. Third, if you believe that the power of the private sector has increased excessively since the 1980s, this is your chance

Douglas Murray

Labour’s anti-Semitism shame must never be forgiven

Sometime around the start of this decade, before anti-Semitism was as cool as it has become, I was standing on a stage in London with a couple of rabbis and a Muslim. And if that sounds like the start of a joke then what followed wasn’t. We were there at the request of a new Jewish group to speak out against the anti-Semitism that we already saw on the rise in the UK. I’m not much given to protests myself as long-time readers will know. But the day showed some solidarity with British Jews and we all went home at least partly feeling like some good had been done. But

Tuesday

Roger Awan-Scully

There is a quiet Tory revolution underway in Wales

Wales has been dominated by the Labour party for, quite literally, longer than anyone can remember. But the key message from the final Welsh poll of the campaign is that we could be on the verge of a genuinely historic general election outcome. The Welsh Political Barometer poll was conducted over the final weekend of the campaign and asked respondents how they would vote in the general election – with the question adjusted to take into account of the fact that not all parties are standing in all seats. The poll produced the following voting intention figures (with changes from the previous Barometer poll, conducted in late November, in brackets):

Michael Moszynski

Labour’s dire general election campaign

Despite its well-drilled Momentum supporters and union backing, Labour’s fabled election machine seems to be misfiring this election. On Friday, I personally conducted two informal focus groups of millennial swing voters in London and was surprised, in what should be Labour’s strongest redoubt, that not one participant could recall a single Labour advertisement, or even what Labour’s core message was. In Blair’s day, the Labour party enlisted the famed creative skills of advertising executive Trevor Beattie (of fcuk fame) to help get their message out. Today, judging by these focus groups, the party seems to have prioritised social media over the quality and creativity of its messaging. Whilst the Conservatives ‘Get Brexit

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Tory lead more than halved in final YouGov MRP poll

When the first YouGov MRP poll of the election campaign was published last month, it was a cause of anxiety in Conservative Campaign Headquarters. The projection of a Tory majority of 68 was seen as overly optimistic – and there were concerns that it could lead to complacency in the polling booth. The second – and final – YouGov MRP poll of the election campaign does not carry the same baggage. With two days to go until polling day, it now suggests the Tories are on course for a small majority of 28. Were the election held tomorrow, YouGov forecasts that the Conservatives would win 339 seats with Labour on