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 …
For the Tories, things can only get worse
There is surely only one explanation for Rishi Sunak’s sudden rush to the polls. In stark contrast with the D:Ream anthem that nearly drowned out the Prime Minister’s announcement: things can only get worse.
Regardless of Sunak’s message that the …
Nicola Sturgeon’s delusional second act
Over the weekend, Nicola Sturgeon was due at a literary festival in my neck of the woods, as part of what seems to be an ongoing PR operation to restore her reputation after a bruising year. The former Scottish First …
John Betjeman had the last laugh
“Any fool can make money these days”, says Colonel Cargill in Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, “and most of them do. But what about people with talent and brains? Name, for example, one poet who makes money.” “T. S. Eliot”, ex-P.F.C. …
Britain’s forgotten Battle of the Beaches
The headlines were gratifyingly sensational: “Beach Terror”; “Battle of the Beaches”; “Charge of the Mods at Margate”. It was the Whitsun weekend, May 1964, and the national press was thrilled to discover the existence of hitherto unknown tribes of youth, …
Sex education is TMI
“In matters of sexuality we are at present, every one of us, ill or well, nothing but hypocrites”, said Freud — a sentiment that came to mind as I watched reactions to the government’s announcement about sex education on Wednesday. …
The battle for Thamesmead
Maybe the best-known fact about Thamesmead is that, in 1971, it provided the setting for one of the most memorable scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s film, A Clockwork Orange. Alex DeLarge (played by Malcolm McDowell) is shown walking along Binsey Walk …
Why Gen Z has killed the Pill
Young women pack out Vauxhall’s pubs on a sunny summer evening. They chat over Diet Cokes, pilsners and passion-fruit-flavoured vapes. Many smoke rollies, some do ket and cocaine. Eyes rarely widen at the mention of such things; bring up the …
How Habitat made Britain’s middle class
An elegantly dressed woman is polishing her nails, looking into the camera with a kind of feline arrogance. Before her on the dressing table lies a beautiful pair of hairbrushes, while in the background a young man is making the …
Can the Left reclaim free trade?
For the past half century, the Right has been the self-appointed guardian of the free market. In one of her first acts as Conservative leader in 1975, Margaret Thatcher strode into a meeting and banged a copy of Friedrich Hayek’s …
Westminster is devolving itself out of existence
In 1707, union with Scotland was the project of the Whigs, and Humza Yousaf’s unlikely fall from power last month is a vindication of their pet theory of history. Whig history: the idea that events are running irresistibly in one …
John Smith’s warning for Keir Starmer
It was May 1994, and the long period of Conservative rule finally appeared to be coming towards an end. After pulling off one of the most significant electoral shocks of all time in 1992 — confounding the pollsters, commentators and …
The McSweeney Project
Walk into Labour’s strangely anonymous new office block home down a side street in Southwark, and you can’t help but notice who sits where. Keir Starmer’s office is to the right, along with his closest aides: chief of staff, Sue …
