Politics

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

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

The NYT’s royal blunder

Trebles all round at the New York Times after another dose of anti-British bile. Mr S last week noted that the Gray Lady’s news reporting of Covid in the UK mixed misrepresentation with outdated figures. This week the newspaper has followed this up with the inevitable crowing comment piece to follow Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview. Titled ‘Down with the British Monarchy’ it mocks the Queen as ‘some utterly random rich wastrel’ and claims her own ‘claim to legitimacy’ is being ‘the child of the child of the child of someone who was, centuries ago, the nation’s biggest gangster.’   Leaving aside the question of whether Sophia of Hanover qualifies for such a title and indeed

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The SNP cares more about power than principles

Defeats in politics sometimes appear to be victories at first, and victories to be defeats. The SNP has survived a vote of no confidence (VONC) at Holyrood, as it was always going to. The Nationalists were home and dry before the debate was even called thanks to the backing of the Greens. The Conservatives tabled the motion against John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy, after he ignored two votes in parliament requesting that he hand over the Scottish government’s legal advice to the Alex Salmond inquiry. Only when the possibility of a VONC was raised did he hastily release some of the documents. Obstruction has been a hallmark of the SNP

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Are Switzerland and France really ‘Islamophobic’?

Is Switzerland ‘Islamophobic’? Critics of the country’s decision to outlaw face coverings think so. The ‘Burqa ban’, which passed into law this week as a result of a narrow vote in a referendum, applies to any form of face covering in a public gathering, unless worn for health reasons, at religious congregations, or carnivals. The legislation is not, at least directly, aimed at Muslims. And, what’s more, very few Swiss Muslims wear a burqa or niqab: almost no-one in Switzerland wears a burka and only around 30 women wear the niqab, according to research by the University of Lucerne. But the condemnation has nonetheless been swift. It was ‘a dark day’ for Muslims, the Central Council of

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Revealed: Labour councillor’s role in party NHS film

Oh dear. Following up this afternoon’s PMQs at which Keir Starmer led on the issue of nurses’ pay, the Labour Party have tonight tweeted a new attack ad featuring a nurse in her branded lanyard. Calling the proposed one per cent pay rise ‘a complete slap in the face’ she says ‘we feel completely betrayed’ adding ‘We’ve cared for this country along with millions of other key workers and we deserve better than this. We deserve to be looked after ourselves.’ https://twitter.com/UKLabour/s… It turns out the nurse in question is Sarah Barber, an elected Ipswich Labour councillor – a fact which is not made clear in her party’s tweet that simply claims ‘Here’s

James Kirkup James Kirkup

The case of Sarah Everard should make us all stop and think

At the time of writing, we don’t know what happened to Sarah Everard. However this story ends, it should be an important national moment of reflection, because the way it has made a lot of people feel deserves serious attention. When I say ‘people’, I largely mean ‘women’. And that reflection should come from men. Men need to learn some lessons about the way this case makes women feel. Perhaps there is something jarring about me, a man, writing a column about women’s feelings and thoughts. Should I even be trying to describe and report the experience of a group to which I do not belong? There’s a lot of

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Will David Frost’s robust approach to the EU work?

Boris Johnson took the opportunity at PMQs to admonish the EU’s claim that the UK had brought in a vaccine export ban. The Prime Minister said of European Council president Charles Michel’s claim that ‘we have not blocked the export of a single Covid-19 vaccine, or vaccine components’. It comes after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab wrote to Michel to ‘set the record straight’ over the remarks. The comments have been welcomed by Tory MPs, and are viewed as part of a wider shift in the UK government’s approach to the EU. This means a more robust take on relations with Brussels. The biggest aspect of this is David Frost’s appointment to the Cabinet as the minister

Steerpike Steerpike

Coming soon: No. 10’s vaccine home movie

‘Extraordinary. Unexpected. Fantastic’ is the tagline for the latest drama out of No. 10 Downing Street. Only this time the stars are not Carrie and the Vote Leave crew but Patrick Vallance, Chris Whitty, Kate Bingham, Jonathan Van-Tam and the other civil servants behind the UK’s vaccine programme. A brief 51 second clip was released this afternoon on the official Downing Street Twitter account and has already gone viral. Billed as ‘A Beacon of Hope: The UK Vaccine Story’, details of the homemade docu-drama have so far been scant.  The initial trailer features interviews with the protagonists interspersed with dramatic clips from throughout the pandemic and a suitably melodramatic score. Steerpike understands the idea

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Keir Starmer’s failed attempt at PMQs comedy

A glimpse of normality returned to PMQs today. For once the pandemic didn’t dominate. And Sir Keir tried a new tactic. He hammered Boris on a single issue. Nurse’s pay. Finally he’s realised that he should look for a nasty bruise and punch it again and again. Boris had memorised a counter-attack which bristled with impressive statistics. Starting salaries for nurses have increased by 12.8 per cent in the last three years. Students can avail of two types of bursaries worth either £3k or £5k. An extra 10,600 nurses are already on the wards. ‘And in one year alone there are another 49,000 people working in our NHS.’ Sir Keir

Tom Slater Tom Slater

The troubling treatment of Piers Morgan

It is the duty of journalists and broadcasters to be sceptical, particularly to claims made by the rich and powerful. Before yesterday that wasn’t a controversial point. But the pushing out of Piers Morgan from Good Morning Britain, purely because he says he doesn’t believe a word that comes out of Meghan Markle’s mouth, suggests we are in a brave new world. When certain claims are made, even by the most privileged, it is apparently now our duty to swallow them or to shut up. In the wake of that explosive Oprah interview, in which the Sussexes said they were hounded out of the royal family by racism and Markle

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Starmer made life difficult for Boris at PMQs

Keir Starmer had his most effective parliamentary outing in some time today. The Labour leader not only picked the right topic, nurses pay, but asked short, pithy questions which made it harder for Boris Johnson to change the subject.  Starmer landed a few blows with some cheap but effective comparisons of what nurses were getting compared to other bits of government spending. With elections coming in two months’ time, Labour will be happy to run with this issue. The only protection that the Tories have on it is to say that the independent pay review body will, ultimately, make a recommendation. Starmer’s performance could, though, have been even more effective.

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Boris hits back over Brussels vaccine jabs

Britain has sunk into a vicious bout of ‘vaccine nationalism’ — that is, at least, according to European Council president Charles Michel who made the bizarre claims last night.  Those in Westminster have been less than impressed by the Eurocrat’s bold claims that the UK is undermining the bloc’s vaccine plans, with Dominic Raab ordering EU officials to explain themselves to the Foreign Office. Responding to Michel earlier today, Boris Johnson told PMQs: ‘Let me be clear we have not blocked the export of a single Covid-19 vaccine, or vaccine components.’ Strong words by a clearly irritated PM. He told the Commons that he ‘opposes vaccine nationalism in all its forms’ — Mr S

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Revealed: the secret trans-rights lobbying operation in parliament

This is a story about politics and influence and openness. It’s also about the drive for trans rights and some of the people involved in that push, but in a way, that’s secondary. Because the issues involved here and the questions raised are bigger even than sex, gender and the rest. This is, in the end, about how rules and laws and policies are made, and who gets a say on that. A lot of this story is about something called an All Party Parliamentary Group. APPGs are, as the name says, groups of MPs and peers who work together to investigate, report and campaign on a particular issue. They

Steerpike Steerpike

Tories mask up in battle to save the Union

First there was the Union Unit, then there was the Internal Market Act. Now Mr Steerpike can reveal the latest weapon of Tory MPs to fight the Scottish Nationalists: Union Jack face masks. A number of the new 2019 intake have been seen proudly sporting the emblems in the chamber to counter SNP members wearing the St Andrews’ cross opposite. West Dorset MP Chris Loder is the man responsible, purchasing them from a shop near Waterloo station. He told Mr S: ‘I was looking across the benches sometimes and seeing these pretty ghastly masks from the opposition benches especially the SNP which are all about the politics of division. The one

Debbie Hayton

Why the census sex question needs to be protected

Since 1801 the decennial census has asked us to state our sex. But never before has such a simple question generated such controversy. Yesterday, it ended up before a high court judge. With the 2021 census less than two weeks away, Mr Justice Swift ruled that the guidance accompanying the question should be changed. The legal action, brought by the campaigning group Fair Play for Women (FPFW), arose after the Office of National Statistics (ONS) backtracked on a promise made by Sir Ian Diamond – the UK’s National Statistician. In January, Diamond was very clear on the Today programme, when he said, ‘The question on sex is very simply your

Steerpike Steerpike

Did Meghan Markle get Piers Morgan sacked?

PA Media are now reporting that the Duchess of Sussex did formally complain to ITV over Piers Morgan’s comments on GMB amid concerns that his comments may affect others attempting to deal with their mental health problems. The Good Morning Britain co-host quit last night, with a spokesman for ITV subsequently refusing to deny that the pregnant royal had submitted a complaint. His decision on Tuesday came after a difficult morning for Morgan who stormed off set after fellow presenter Alex Beresford accused him of ‘absolutely diabolical’ treatment of Meghan Markle (Morgan had said he did not believe the Duchess of Sussex’s claims in Monday’s interview).  In a statement, the broadcaster said: ‘Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided

Ian Acheson Ian Acheson

No, jail staff shouldn’t call prisoners ‘residents’

What do you call someone in prison? An inmate? Prisoner? How about a ‘resident’? That’s how those locked up in Britain’s jails are now described by the Ministry of Justice and the Prison Service. Apart from the cringing absurdity of labelling people whom the state has detained as if they had voluntarily checked into the care home from hell, what does this tell us about the culture of the Prison Service? And why does it matter? The Ministry of Justice has form for assaults on the English language. Recent guidance on offenders, still under a prison sentence but being supervised in the community, has cancelled this apparently dangerously oppressive label

William Nattrass William Nattrass

Vaccines are testing Central Europe’s loyalties to the EU

In a fresh embarrassment for the EU in its vaccine rollout, breakaway member Hungary is now at the top of the bloc’s vaccine league table. The Czech Republic, Hungary’s Visegrád Four ally, languishes near the bottom of the list, having so far stuck with the EU’s centralised procurement programme. Meanwhile neighbouring Slovakia has now opted for the Hungarian approach, having taken delivery of its first shipment of Sputnik V vaccines last week. Problems are certainly piling up for Brussels – and in Central and Eastern Europe, a region with a long history of EU rebellion, the idea of ‘going it alone’ is heightening tensions between pro- and anti-EU factions. The

Tuesday

Peter Hunt

The Royal response to Harry and Meghan is too little, too late

They are 61 words that have taken more than 36 hours to hone. An ancient institution delaying action while a global audience of millions devoured Harry and Meghan’s two hours of television exposure, with Oprah as their host: ‘The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved family members.’ Present, in Buckingham Palace’s response, is a reference to race – the most

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

George Osborne takes a pop at Rishi Sunak’s tax hike

Last week Rishi Sunak presented his second Budget to the House of Commons. Today, three former Chancellors weighed in. Speaking at an online event hosted by the Institute for Government, Norman Lamont, Alistair Darling and George Osborne joined the Institute’s director Bronwen Maddox to discuss the state of the UK economy, and how their past experiences lead them to reflect on recent events. There was a surprising amount of consensus from the panel – not on the best way to handle or manage the economy, but about what is politically possible. Fuel duty came up multiple times as an area of policy that doesn’t gel with the government’s stated commitments