The foundations. The missions. The milestones. The targets. The earnest gestures and the hand-clasped, feigned intensity. In the end, none of it matters. Keir Starmer’s “plan for change” — resetting his government after months of drift — only proves one …
John Prescott’s failed class war
“He’s top class and I’m bottom class,” recalled the late John Prescott of his time serving the drinks to Sir Anthony Eden as a steward on the MV Rangitata. On doctor’s orders, Eden and his wife had embarked on a …
Is Trump a blessing for Starmer?
The conventional wisdom is that Donald Trump’s election victory is a nightmare for Keir Starmer. Trump not only embodies much that Starmer holds in obvious contempt, but his very presence in the White House captures much of Britain’s essential weakness …
Rachel Reeves has no vision
In the Seventies, a Middle Eastern war precipitated a global energy shock and stagflation, and a US president invoked populist pleas to the silent majority against the counterculture. As the gold standard and the post-war Bretton Woods system teetered on …
Keir Starmer is haunted by England
How do you know you’re in a ghost story? It isn’t always obvious. The ghost, after all, usually doesn’t appear until the very end. But there are signs. Perhaps it’s the time of year, or the Ulster rain pawing at …
Starmer can’t keep Britain afloat
It’s hard to know what is more emblematic of Britain’s economic predicament today: the Government pleading for investment from the owners of a ferry company that sacked all its workers; Robert Jenrick cutting a Union Jack cake to celebrate Margaret …
Keir Starmer’s insulting hypocrisy
Keir Starmer’s premiership is well and truly goosed. One policy misstep after another, punctuated by tone-deaf doom-mongering and a freebies scandal that refuses to go away, have exposed Labour as a thoroughly undercooked governmental prospect. Some wrongly chalk this up …
The Miliband files
As acts of political fratricide go, few were as public — or petulant — as Ed Miliband’s defenestration of his elder brother David. After Ed beat David to the Labour Party leadership in 2010, the pair attempted an awkward hug …
Labour needs to kill Britishcore
Greggs sausage rolls, XL bullies, “cheeky” Tesco runs and a holibob to Magaluf: welcome to Keir Starmer’s miserable meal-deal Britain. This summer’s collective swoon over “Britishcore” — a wry celebration of the groaningly mundane aspects of British culture, which reached …
Labour conference can only get better
It wasn’t meant to be like this. This was meant to be a victory lap during a honeymoon period on the banks of Liverpool’s River Mersey. It was meant to be Things Can Only Get Better, but it has the …
Starmer’s relaunch was cursed
It is a rare curse for a government to be forced to relaunch so soon after entering power. Yet with the Labour Party and its leader currently exploring new depths of unpopularity, the explicit aim of Starmer’s speech to conference …
The Left is coming for Starmer
As Labour gather in Liverpool, in an attempt to regain some moral credibility after a dire first few months in power, a storm is gathering on Starmer’s Left. For now it lacks the media spotlight of donor-funded birthday parties and …
Sue Gray’s deadly grip on Starmer
It should not be this bad, this early. Nowhere near. And yet it is — it really is. For the Labour Party, barely two months into government, preparing for conference, it is time to panic.
While there is an understandable …
Inside Starmer’s feuding No. 10
“Who is gripping?” With these three words, the late Jeremy Heywood ruled Whitehall. The demand would stir his aides into action: calls would be made, emails sent, each carrying the imprimatur of the Cabinet Secretary and with it, the person …
Inside Starmer’s feuding No. 10
“Who is gripping?” With these three words, the late Jeremy Heywood ruled Whitehall. The demand would stir his aides into action: calls would be made, emails sent, each carrying the imprimatur of the Cabinet Secretary and with it, the person …