Whenever I return to Britain from the United States, I am always struck by the compactness of the landscape. The tidy square fields, the orderly rows of homes with little gardens, the narrow ribbons of road curving between hedgerows, small …
Will anyone miss Rishi Sunak?
Rishi Sunak is creeping out of the Tory leadership like a mouse walking past a sleeping cat. This is a shame because his departure is significant, marking the end of a political era that began in the Eighties. Sunak’s hero …
Rishi Sunak, defeated millennial
Rishi Sunak is a borderline millennial and the salient characteristic of Britain’s millennials has been defeat. Few generations have been so ceaselessly battered by events; by 2020, their time on the stage of history had ended in total rout: financial, …
How Starmer slaughtered the Tories
This was an election campaign like no other. Less a battle of personalities and visions than of competing strategies to attain power, commanded not by the uninspiring monarchs under whose banners the battle was fought but the generals quietly ordering …
In Starmerland, the ladies are not for turning
Turn right out of the station, head down past the village green and the yoga studio and the osteopaths, and you will eventually arrive at the pebbledash semi that made Keir Starmer. Once upon a time, Hurst Green may have …
Politics is killing the talk show
“I’m not allowed to give any party-political views,” says Julia Hartley-Brewer, on Talk Radio, “but I’m certainly allowed to give my views.” And she goes on to do so. Because this is not the BBC, where presenters are (theoretically, at …
Westminster’s gambling addiction
When, in the autumn of 1963, Harold Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister, there was no formal mechanism in place for deciding who his replacement would be. Back then, the Conservative Party still prided itself in a self-selecting process — what …
Why none of these charlatans gets my vote
“We won’t change anything, but we’ll be less corrupt, look after your money better and not rip you off so much — at least in our first term.”
This, essentially, is Labour’s message going into the election, and what passes …
The end of the Conservatives
Protestors brandish Nazi symbols in central London. “A group of people” riots in Sheffield. Rapists cannot be deported because “human rights”. The economy is flatlining. A third of young people would rather swap liberal democracy for a military rule or …
After the election, everything is unknown
Though I am old enough to have voted in general elections since 1983, I cannot recall any time when the result of an election seemed so uncertain. I do not, of course, mean that there is much doubt who is …
What Starmer can learn from George Smiley
For so long Labour had been preparing. “Everything has to be brilliant,” was the motto. There could be no mistakes, no risks, no complacency. The Tories could not be underestimated. And then the Prime Minister walked out of No. 10 …
What Starmer can learn from George Smiley
For so long Labour had been preparing. “Everything has to be brilliant,” was the motto. There could be no mistakes, no risks, no complacency. The Tories could not be underestimated. And then the Prime Minister walked out of No. 10 …
A Euros election is a gift to Starmer
As the Sixties entered its twilight period, Britain was more than ready for change. Beleaguered by inflation, stagnant industrial output and worsening trade-union relations, the Labour Party was on course for a major defeat. By the start of 1970, The …
Welcome to Britain’s most miserable election
As Westminster’s rumour mill thrummed to the possibility of a snap election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak walked into yesterday’s PMQs with a spring in his blue-suited step. High on the falling rate of inflation, it seemed the long overdue summer …
Labour’s lead isn’t what it seems
Within minutes of an election being called yesterday, the question on every broadcaster’s lips wasn’t whether the Conservative Party would lose in July — but how damaging the margin will be.
Labour’s current lead has a very wide range among …