All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Keir Starmer’s decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn shows a courage so many lacked when the far left ran the party from 2015 until 2019. Do not underestimate the risks he is running. Starmer might have let Corbyn’s characteristically conspiratorial remark that anti-Semitism in the Labour party had been ‘dramatically overstated for political reasons’ pass. He
It’s not as though Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t put on warning. Well he would have been put on warning, if he had bothered to wait even five minutes before putting out his own statement in response to the EHRC verdict that Labour on his watch had made ‘serious’ failures in tackling anti-Semitism. Because his successor Sir
After the last few years of political turmoil, Westminster can’t break the habit of waiting for the latest poll to come out. But the polls at the moment are in stasis. As I say in the magazine this week, there is neither the rally round the flag effect seen during the first wave but nor
There it is, in black and white. For almost five years, Jews warned, nudged, reported, complained, pleaded and protested that there was a culture of anti-Semitism in the Labour party. For the most part, the party ignored them, although others assailed them, denounced them as fifth columnists, accused them of orchestrating a ‘smear’ campaign, of
Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of Labour, has been suspended from his own party and had the whip removed. The move to oust him was taken by the party after Corbyn commented on a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, published today, into anti-Semitism in the Labour party. Earlier today Corbyn released a statement in response to the report, claiming
Over a year after the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched its investigation into anti-Semitism in the Labour party, the findings have been published. In what Sir Keir Starmer has described as a ‘day of shame for the Labour Party’, the report comes after years of allegations of anti-Semitism that dominated Jeremy Corbyn’s time as Labour leader. In the build
The Equality and Human Rights Commission released its report today on antisemitism in the Labour party – and it did not make pretty reading. The report claims that the Labour party was responsible for three breaches of the law in its handling of anti-Semitism complaints after alleged ‘political interference’ in the process. It also found
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission has found Labour responsible for unlawful acts of discrimination and harassment. In a long-awaited report, the body identified three breaches of the Equality Act 2010: Political interference in anti-Semitism complaints; A failure to provide proper training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints, and; Harassment. You can read the full report
As France and Germany lock down again – and as Britain considers whether to follow suit – many people will be wondering: can’t we think of a better way to handle this pandemic? No one is in any doubt about the threat posed by the Coronavirus. But nor should there be any doubt about the
In the UK’s pandemic response system, an independent committee of scientists – SAGE –draws up a ‘Reasonable Worst-Case’ planning scenario. This isn’t a prediction, but what it thinks could reasonably happen. Importantly, government then plans along these lines. But it has no obligation to tell the Cabinet, let alone the rest of the country, what
In pandemics, UK governments plan their response based on an unpublished ‘worst-case scenario’. Below, we are publishing Sage’s classified report for the winter of 2020. It’s intended not as a prediction, but an example of how bad things might get and what HM Government should prepare for. It was published in July 30 and envisaged
One of the leading figures in setting up parliament’s independent complaints process has told Coffee House she is worried it will ‘fall into disrepute’ and that key measures designed to crack down on harassment and bullying are not being implemented. Andrea Leadsom was Leader of the House of Commons when the ‘Pestminster’ scandal broke in
The virus is now circulating at a speed that even the most pessimistic predictions had not anticipated. The number of contaminations has doubled in less than two weeks. Unlike the first wave, all regions are now at the alert threshold. In many places, we have started to postpone heart or cancer operations, sometimes already postponed
21 min listen
Freddy Gray is in America for the final week of the election campaign. The polls show Joe Biden is set to win the race by a clear margin, but his supporters are nowhere to be seen. Freddy asks Roger Kimball, editor and publisher of the New Criterion, why Trump voters are more enthusiastic.
In Britain this week we have had scientists at Imperial College warning that levels of antibodies in the population are dropping away fast, with only 4.4 per cent of the population showing them in September – far short of the 60 to 70 per cent government scientists believe is required for the epidemic to die
Scottish nationalists have never been keen on Orwell. For decades, his ‘Notes on Nationalism’ has been quoted at them, with its description of their tendency as ‘power-hunger tempered by self-deception’ and the observation that ‘all nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts’. Not to mention, at risk of getting
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned the government that the second wave of Covid-19 could be more deadly than the first, but may be spread over a greater period. Downing Street is now reportedly working on the assumption that deaths will peak at a lower level than in the spring (when they
12 min listen
SAGE warned that the second wave of Covid-19 could be worse than the first, and that the whole of England could be in Tier-3 by Christmas, reports today claim. With Emmanuel Macron also expected to announce another national lockdown in France tonight, can Boris Johnson continue to resist doing the same? Cindy Yu speaks to
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the British state has exercised coercive powers over its citizens on a scale never previously attempted. It has taken effective legal control, enforced by the police, over the personal lives of the entire population: where they could go, whom they could meet, what they could do even within their own homes.
One of my favourite moments of viewing in this strange and dark year was the outgoing director-general of the BBC, Tony Hall, explaining why the Corporation had decided to drop the singing of Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory from the Last Night of the Proms. The BBC had already, needlessly, dug itself a
Prince Harry has seen the light. His awokening is complete. Yesterday, in a video chat hosted by GQ magazine, he confessed to the sin of ‘unconscious bias’ and instructed the rest of us — the unwoke throng — to ‘educate yourself’. And there you have it: this duke, sixth in line to the British throne,
10 min listen
More than 50 Tory MPs have signed a letter organised by Jake Berry’s Northern Research Group, urging the government to not forget its pledge to level up the North. But does Boris Johnson need to recalibrate his ambitions in the age of Covid? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and John Connolly. Tell us your
My childhood in 1980s West Yorkshire wasn’t a clichéd mash-up of a Hovis commercial and Kes. For most of my youth we had an indoor toilet, for instance, and though we lived in a cramped terraced house it wasn’t a back-to-back – which meant we could hang our washing in the back alley rather than
The Tories may have taken self-identification of legal gender off the table, but the transgender thought police have certainly not gone away. Their latest victim is Kevin Price who, until last Thursday, was a Labour member of Cambridge City council, in a seat he had held for ten years. While residents were probably more concerned
Imperial College’s latest React study — an attempt to measure the spread of Covid by testing the general population — suggesting that the number of people in Britain carrying antibodies for the SARS-CoV-2 virus has dropped sharply over the past three months. This led a few headline-writers to run somewhat ahead of the facts. ‘Covid immunity only lasts
Boris Johnson must have been hoping that his troubles in the north were over, after his scrap with Andy Burnham was resolved last week and Greater Manchester moved into Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions. It appears though that it’s not only the metro mayors in the north that have the capacity to cause the Prime Minister
This is a story about a man called Kevin Price, who was until last week a councillor and who is, for now at least, employed as a porter at a Cambridge college. The story illustrates two points. First, political conflict over trans rights and women’s rights is far from over, especially in the Labour Party.
What is the Conservative case for facing down Marcus Rashford on free school meals during the holidays? Ask a handful of Tory MPs, including the Prime Minister, and they’ll throw out a contradictory mess of answers. Many of those who are most uneasy with the way the government has refused to U-turn on the matter
13 min listen
Boris Johnson said the government would ‘do everything in our power’ to ensure children wouldn’t go hungry over Christmas, after backlash over their refusal to extend free school meals over the holiday. Tory MPs have criticised the position following a campaign by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, with Sir Bernard Jenkin saying the government had
How easy it has been for the government’s opponents to leap on the bandwagon of Marcus Rashford’s campaign to extend free school meals through the holidays. Nothing is more guaranteed to stir up emotion than the Dickensian charge that the government is out to ‘starve’ children – while MPs guzzle down subsidised booze in the
Throughout this year, the biggest worry for healthcare planners has been what happens if a second wave of Covid-19 coincides with a winter flu epidemic. We are now in what looks like a second wave of Covid-19 – and October is the month when flu cases tend to start rising. So are we on the
Is Labour finished in Scotland? There has been an assumption by many, particularly those in England, that the SNP behemoth will start to roll back at some stage; being in government in Holyrood will inevitably cause political gravity to take hold. Yet the SNP’s political humbling seems more remote than ever before, with a large gain
Crises often lead to new paradigms. The politicians of the day try to repair the damage, learn lessons and prevent recurrence. Frequently, they start by strengthening international institutions, or creating new ones. That has not happened over Covid. The international body which should have been most closely involved, the World Health Organisation, has been feeble.