Politics

Robert Hayward は Reform が Labour と Conservatives の双方から議席を奪い、大きな勝者になると予測しています。 おはようございます。Scottish parliament、Welsh Senedd、および English local elections の選挙運動は現在、最終週に入っています。Keir Starmer は本日、大規模な演説を予定していましたが、彼や他の政治指導者たちは今日、Golders Green での刺傷事件への対応と、イギリスの Jewish community が直面している antisemitism の脅威（政府のテロ立法に関する独立審査官 Jonathan Hall KC によって「national security emergency」と表現されています）に焦点を当てています。こちらが一晩明けての overnight story です。そして、こちらが Taz Ali による live blog です。Taz がそのニュースに対する政治的反応の大部分をカバーするため、私がここでそれを取り上げることはありません。（また、刑事手続きが進行中であるため、残念ながらこの攻撃に関するコメントは許可されません。）Continue reading...

• 米大統領は、英君主がテヘランに核兵器を保有させるべきではないという意見に同意したと述べた。 • チャールズ国王は火曜日、オスカー・ワイルド、ヘンリー・キシンジャー、チャールズ・ディケンズ、エイブラハム・リンカーン、セオドア・ルーズベルトといった著名な歴史的人物を引用し、ユーモアと潜在的な政治的意図を交えた巧みな演説を行い、ドナルド・トランプ氏を飛び越えて米国議会に直接アピールする「チャーム・オフェンシブ（魅力攻勢）」を展開した。終演後の歓声と1分間に及ぶ拍手から判断して、このソフトパワーの誇示は見事に功を奏し、「特別な関係」は維持されたと言える。 • トランプ大統領は、「我々は現在、中東での取り組みを進めており、非常にうまくいっている。特定の敵を軍事的に打ち負かしたし、その敵に核兵器を持たせることは決してない。チャールズ国王は私以上にこのことに同意している」と述べた。

首相は、2024-26年議会会期の最後となるPMQs（首相質疑）で、Kemi Badenoch氏をはじめとする国会議員らと対峙します。

Neither political party is immune to conspiracies in a time of intense distrust in government and media, experts say After an armed man attempted to breach the ballroom where Donald Trump was set to speak to White House journalists on Saturday, conspiracies immediately spread about whether the event was staged.The rhetoric has become a common refrain from both sides of the aisle in an era of deeply fractured politics and intense distrust in political institutions and media, and in the president himself. Continue reading...

State visit of UK royals continues as monarch to tell US lawmakers that ‘our countries have always found ways to come together’Sign up for the Breaking News US email Hello and welcome to our coverage of US news as the Trumps continue hosting King Charles and Queen Camilla during their state visit.As expected, the British royals have a packed itinerary of events this morning including been greeted by Donald and Melania Trump at the White House, signing the guest book and exchanging gifts. Continue reading...

Morgan McSweeney among those giving evidence to foreign affairs committee ahead of Commons vote Good morning. The former US president Lyndon Johnson is credited with saying the most important skill in politics is knowing how to count, meaning that ultimately what matters is being able to win a vote. But sometimes in politics what matters just as much, or even more, is the ability to win the argument. Today Keir Starmer will be tested on both these measures.Winning the vote should be easy. Here is our overnight preview story by Pippa Crerar on the events setting up today’s vote on a motion tabled by Kemi Badenoch, as well as MPs from five other opposition parties (the Lib Dems, the SNP, the DUP, Restore Britain, TUV) and a string of independents, referring Starmer to the privileges committee. Continue reading...

Alan Johnson and David Blunkett say Tory proposal for a privileges committee inquiry is a ‘nakedly political stunt’Good morning. Kemi Badenoch is trying to get Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, to give MPs a vote on a proposal to get the Commons privileges committee to investigate allegations that Keir Starmer lied to MPs in statements he made to them about the vetting of Peter Mandelson. Other opposition parties may be backing her, but we don’t know for sure because the process is relatively secret; MPs have to write a private letter to the speaker, who then decides whether this is a serious request that should be decided by the Commons as a whole, or a frivolous complaint that should be ignored. (We do know that Karl Turner has written to the speaker about this too, but only because he was daft enough to post his letter on social media last week.) Today we are likely to find out whether or not Hoyle is agreeing to a Commons vote.Boris Johnson was referred to the privileges committee over allegations that he lied to MPs about Partygate (allegations the committee concluded were justified). Badenoch wants to make the case that Starmer is just as dishonest as Johnson. He isn’t, by any stretch, and the claims that Starmer lied to MPs about Mandelson are spurious; they relate to contest intepretations of political language of the kind that are commonplace in parliamentary debate. But the fact that this has even become a live consideration for the speaker is a big win for the Tories.The fact that Kemi Badenoch has changed the accusations she is levelling against the PM on an almost daily basis as her claims have failed to stand up to scrutiny shows what this is really about. This is a nakedly political stunt with no substance ahead of the May elections.Any comparison with Boris Johnson is absurd. When parliament referred that matter to the privileges committee, a police investigation had directly disproved his categoric statements that he knew nothing about the breach of lockdown rules.I suppose our constituents might ask [if a privileges committee goes ahead], have we got the balance right between holding the government to account and seemingly squabbling amongst ourselves when there is so much else going on that perhaps parliament ought to be focusing on as well.I have to say, a really truthful position is, why the rush at the moment? Has it got anything to do with local elections? Continue reading...