Westminster

Theresa May’s Westminster correspondents’ dinner speech: Cameron, Rudd and Press Commissar Milne

What says ‘Theresa May’ more than a comic speech at a boozy dinner for a room full of journalists? That was the question the Prime Minister found herself asking a room of well hydrated hacks at last night’s Westminster Correspondents Dinner. May took a break from the Irish border to regale journalists with a speech poking fun at her former colleagues, current colleagues, the lobby and … Theresa May. To some surprise, May cracked several – successful jokes. She even found time to praise the Spectator’s James Forsyth. Alas, not everyone was in such a jolly mood – Labour’s Barry Gardiner was overhead muttering warnings to the press about what

The sex scandal is what psychologists call ‘displacement activity’

There are three reasons why Britain’s political and media world finds itself in the present ludicrous uproar over sexual misbehaviour at Westminster, and only one of them has anything to do with sexual misbehaviour. But let us start with that. And, first, a caveat. Can there be an organisation anywhere in discovered space which, subjected to the intense media scrutiny that the House of Commons now attracts, would not generate a comparable stock of report and rumour? Imagine a workplace — indeed imagine a workplace like our own august Spectator offices – peopled by a lively mixture of creatives, eccentrics, wannabes, rascals, saints, absolute bricks, total pricks and drones. Now

Sex, truth and politics

This one goes out to all the male MPs I’ve taken to lunch. I want to apologise to each and every one of you. Some of you know who you are and what went on. Some of you were so tipsy you may not have been fully aware of how shockingly you were being exploited. I estimate there are dozens, if not hundreds, of you whom I’ve taken to lunch, dinner and drinks during my time as a political correspondent. In dark bars and expensive restaurants, or just casually in Commons corridors, I’ve sidled up to you in a designer outfit and pretty much said ‘Howdy, right honourable!’ Look, it

Tory MP Charlie Elphicke has the whip suspended

The Tory MP for Dover, Charlie Elphicke, has had the whip suspended this evening. In a statement the new chief whip Julian Smith says that this follows ‘serious allegations that have been referred to the police’. In response, Elphicke has tweeted that the party tipped off the media that he was having the whip suspended in advance of telling him. He continued, ‘I am not aware of what the allegations are and deny any wrongdoing’. There are allegations against other MPs in the papers tomorrow. Clive Lewis has been accused of groping a woman at Labour conference this year. He strenuously denies the allegation, telling ITV’s Paul Brand that his

The Michael Fallon story distracts from more serious allegations of Westminster sleaze

The Westminster sleaze row shows no signs of dying down with today’s papers filled with more tales of MPs behaving badly. The Telegraph warns that the Parliament sex scandal ‘could be worse than expenses’ – reporting that two female staff stopped working for a minister over claims of inappropriate behaviour. Meanwhile the Sun leads on Michael Fallon’s admission that he once touched a female journalist’s leg. That journalist – Julia Hartley-Brewer – has since come forward to say that she does not count the incident as harassment. At the time, she told the Defence Secretary she would punch him if he touched her leg again, and he duly refrained from doing

Why the Westminster ‘sex pest list’ has existed secretly for so long

Westminster is agog with whispers about who the Tory MPs are on a list of men and women alleged to be guilty of inappropriate sexual behaviour, sexual harassment and worse. Some names have been circulating for years, with many women across the Parliamentary Estate saying they have their own story about this MP or that minister. So why is it only now that there’s a threat to make the list public? The Harvey Weinstein allegations have prompted women – and men – in every industry to realise that they don’t have to just grin and bear bad behaviour as though it’s just an unfortunate side-effect to having your dream job.

Terrorism teaches a lesson that some still refuse to learn

Another knife-attack was thwarted yesterday in Westminster. Overnight there were anti-terror raids in Kent and London. These were unconnected, but police say that they have foiled an ‘active terror plot.’ All this will blend into the background soon, as much as last month’s attack in Westminster already has. Not because we don’t remember anything, but because we never learn anything. After last month’s attack in Westminster there seemed to be an even more concerted effort than usual to say that the perpetrator – a Muslim convert called Khalid Masood – probably suffered from some mental illness, was a mere madman, criminal or drug addict. Various Muslims who knew Masood promised in the media that

Man arrested in Whitehall on suspicion of terrorism offences

A man in his late twenties has been arrested on Whitehall today and is being detained under the terrorism act. The BBC are reporting that the man was known to the police. Photos from the scene appear to show a knife on the ground. The police are saying that following this arrest there is no immediate known threat. There doesn’t seem to be any particular concern inside the Palace of Westminster; everything here seems pretty calm right now. But, obviously, following the appalling murder of PC Palmer and four others just over a month ago there is a heightened sense of the risk of a low-tech terrorist attack. It is

There is something grubby about Theresa May’s snap election

Since I suggested last July that Theresa May, newly anointed as leader of the Conservative and Unionist party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, should call an election to both establish her own legitimacy and allow the country an argument over the kind of Brexit it preferred, it would be unseemly to now deplore her belated decision to go to the country.  Happily, there remain many other things that may be deplored. Far from the least of these is the manner in which the Prime Minister has made her case for an election. It’s not her fault, you see, that she has (correctly, in

When our armed police open fire have we got their backs?

I walked past Parliament, five days after Khalid Masood’s fatal attack. I looked at all the armed policemen on all the gates visible to the public. All were talking to one another rather than surveying the scene in front of them. As I write, the only person, so far as we know, being actively investigated by the authorities for his part in the events of last week is Sir Michael Fallon’s close protection officer, who shot Masood dead. Under our rules, it is automatic that the Independent Police Complaints Commission investigates any officer who shoots anyone. It is hard to know whether to admire this as a mark of civilisation

Our dangerous impulse to make sense of murder

‘On Friday noon, July the 20th, 1714,’ begins the small, perfect 20th-century novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, ‘the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travellers into the gulf below.’ In the coincidence of crossing the bridge at the same time, explains the writer, Thornton Wilder, these five seemed to have been assembled by pure chance. Or had they? He entitles this first chapter ‘Perhaps An Accident’. He spends the rest of his book tracing the lives of each until the moment when, in a twang of rope, fate hurled all together into the abyss. Thus is the reader’s interest engaged for the human histories that

The response to the Westminster attack has been predictably farcical

Since last week’s attack in Westminster, various readers have asked whether my list of ‘standard responses to terrorism’ has held true in the aftermath of this attack as in the aftermath of so many attacks before. And since it appears that good news must now immediately be seized from any tragedy – even within minutes of that tragedy occurring – in keeping with the times, I am happy to report that my list does indeed hold true. I had already noted last week that we were swiftly into the realm of hashtaggery with ‘Pray for London’ trending. I must say that I’m never sure how many of the people urging

Steerpike

Watch: John Bercow slaps down SNP MP for ‘unseemly’ behaviour

Ever since the (fast depleting) SNP 56 descended on Parliament in 2015, they have been frequently criticised for failing to grasp Westminster etiquette. There have been a number of incidents — from Angus MacNeil chewing gum in the Chamber to the SNP clapping en masse. Today was no exception. During PMQs, the Speaker had to intervene after Joanna Cherry, the MP for Edinburgh South West, heckled the Prime Minister a bit too vigorously: ‘Miss Cherry. This is very unseemly heckling. You are a distinguished QC, you wouldn’t behave like that in the Scottish courts — you’d be chucked out!’ With Phil Boswell going on to receive a ticking off for heckling, it seems the SNP

Theocracy should scare us more than terror

In yesterday’s Guardian, David Shariatmadari confronts the claim that Islam is an especially violent religion. The claim, he says, is undermined by the fact that jihadi terrorism is a very recent phenomenon. Yes, there is also the violence of empire-building in its history, but you could say this of Christianity too. ‘Aspects of Islamic teaching do indeed justify some kinds of violence. Islam isn’t a pacifist religion. But again, it has this in common with Christianity, Judaism and other world faiths.’ As I have said quite a few times before, it is simply wrong to say that Islam and Christianity have much the same view of war and peace. Judging from

Stephen Daisley

Forget ‘virtue signalling’ – ‘empathy patrolling’ is the new moral phenomenon

I’ve had just about enough of being told how to feel about what happened last Wednesday.  I feel angry. I still feel shock. I feel a keen ache for the families of those murdered, especially the loved-ones of PC Keith Palmer.  I feel that cold spite that works its way into your heart at times like these, vengeful cruelty passing itself off as hard-headedness. When I remember this, I feel ashamed to have given in to it.  I feel scared of an ideology that crashed into the 21st century in an outrageous spectacle but has now made its choreography more low-key.  I feel contempt for the demagogues who seek to exploit

Of course we’re not cowed by terrorism – what other choice do we have?

Stay safe, London. Stay safe, everyone. It’s nice, isn’t it, as a sentiment, which is just as well because it is the motto du jour of every celebrity who has added his or her mite to what passes as debate on the terrorist attack last Wednesday. And, my goodness, they all piled in: JK Rowling, Katy Perry, James Corden, Neil Gaiman; every man and woman of them, you’ll be pleased to hear, against this sort of thing, and urging us all – especially those not actually resident in London – to ‘stay safe’. The other trope is that ‘nothing will divide us’, that this is what terrorists want – Stella

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Are tech companies doing enough to tackle terror?

Amber Rudd has vowed to ‘call time’ on tech companies who are giving terrorists ‘a place to hide’. The Home Secretary’s comments come after it emerged that Westminster attacker Khalid Masood was sending encrypted message on WhatsApp in the lead-up to the attack; Rudd is ‘right to read them the Riot Act’, says the Sun, which ups the criticism of WhatsApp in its editorial this morning. The paper says that if tech companies don’t start behaving then ‘there will be no alternative’ but for the Government to bring in new legislation to force them to co-operate with the security services. After all, when Rudd says that companies like WhatsApp are giving the terrorists

3 things we should do to help tackle the Islamist terror threat

Those charged with keeping Britain safe from Islamist-inspired terrorism have always been clear that it was a question of when, not if, there would be another attack as I say in The Sun this morning. The one thing that has surprised the security services about this attack is the age of the terrorist. Up to now, their focus had been on angry young people. No one was planning for a 50 something terrorist. Our way of life should not change in response to this terrorist attack. But there are things we can do to combat this threat more intelligently. The security services don’t have the manpower to follow everyone who

What the papers say: How can we prevent a repeat of the Westminster attack?

Theresa May told MPs yesterday that Britain will not waver in the face of terrorism. She is widely praised for her emotional address in the Commons, in which she said simply: ‘We are not afraid’. But still the question lingers: what can we do to prevent a repeat of Wednesday’s attack? Theresa May hit precisely the right note in her address to MPs, says the Daily Telegraph, which compares the Prime Minister’s response to that of Margaret Thatcher’s after the Brighton bombing in 1984. Yet while her message is an important one, there are ‘inevitable questions’. The Telegraph says that already we’re following the ‘gloomy familiar aftermath’ to an attack,

Pray for London, for Antwerp, for Nice: this is Europe’s new normal

The hashtag ‘PrayForLondon’ is trending on social media. But so is ‘Antwerp’. Because no sooner were we invited to pray for London than a man of ‘North African descent’ was narrowly prevented from doing something similar in the Belgian city. This is life as usual in Europe now, of course. But among the endless replays to date – and the endless replays yet to come – there are several things worth noting about Wednesday’s attack in London. The first is that the perpetrator – now identified as one Khalid Masood – was in one sense unusual. A recent comprehensive analysis published by my colleague Hannah Stuart found that among Islamist-related offences