James Kirkup

Why won’t the jokes about Rachel Reeves’s CV go away?

5 December 2024 3:54 am

Why do jokes about Rachel Reeves’s CV persist? One explanation is simple: it’s funny. The Chancellor’s public persona is strait-laced and…

There was more to John Prescott than his working class roots

21 November 2024 9:46 pm

John Prescott has died, leading to a flood of tributes and comments about the working class hero of the New…

The humiliating emptiness of David Cameron’s legacy

13 November 2024 10:29 pm

The humiliating post-premiership of David Cameron is the gift that keeps on giving. He might have been gone from No.…

Should GPs make a profit?

5 November 2024 3:46 am

The Budget has started a fight between the government and GPs. As is often the case with doctors, that fight…

Jeremy Hunt’s fantasy Budget

21 October 2024 1:03 am

As Rachel Reeves prepares what is potentially the most difficult Budget in a generation, a question occurs: what if the…

The state pension system is unfair. Reeves is right to change it

10 September 2024 10:57 pm

Rachel Reeves is cutting £1.4 billion of pensioner welfare payments with her winter fuel payment means-test. It sounds like a…

Is this Westminster’s coolest MP?

12 July 2024 9:33 pm

Parliamentary oath-taking rarely causes excitement. MPs swearing the oath of allegiance to the Crown after an election is an archaic…

David Cameron has quit. Is anyone surprised?

9 July 2024 8:53 pm

The Conservative party is in disarray. What the party does next matters for the whole of Britain and maybe even for…

Starmer’s ruthless efficiency has risks

5 July 2024 9:55 pm

A couple of years ago, an anecdote about Keir Starmer did the rounds at Westminster. The story was that when…

J.K. Rowling’s glorious refusal to be kind

24 June 2024 4:43 pm

‘Spread happiness, peace and calm.’ That’s the slogan on a T-shirt you can buy at M&S. It’s pink, has frilly…

A Danish lesson for Labour in how to revive Britain’s economy

20 June 2024 4:13 pm

The coincidence of the 2024 general election and the Euro 2024 football tournament is a great lesson in the myopia…

Labour MPs need to grow up

9 May 2024 8:44 pm

Westminster is full of clever people who spend a lot of time stupidly making simple things complicated. The story of…

What Rishi Sunak can learn from Gordon Brown’s golden mistake

7 May 2024 4:13 pm

Gordon Brown is a historian by education, so he might just appreciate the fickleness of posterity. Over a decade at…

Why are police officers slow to respond to domestic abuse call-outs?

30 April 2024 9:02 pm

Popping out to buy milk the other night, I saw how women die. My nearest local shop in south-west London, the…

How to defuse the pension timebomb

24 April 2024 9:56 pm

Another day, another smart report arguing for higher payments into our pensions. Standard Life and WPI Economics have published a…

A pension crisis is brewing

19 March 2024 5:00 pm

Ten years ago, George Osborne blew up the British private pension system. Because pensions are boring and complicated and move…

Britain is too sick

7 March 2024 5:38 am

Britain is running out of workers. The UK population may be growing, but the share of that population that is…

Does Labour want an anti-CV revolution?

2 March 2024 2:39 am

Alison McGovern, Labour’s shadow employment minister is one of those politicians  who are always worth watching. She combines the ability…

The pension bomb facing Generation X

15 February 2024 7:08 pm

Happy birthday to me. Today I turn 48. I’m celebrating in an age-appropriate way: a trip to the physio for…

The surprising truth about ‘Nanny State’ Britain

31 January 2024 3:03 am

This week, a Conservative Prime Minister announced he was banning something – disposable vapes. The reaction to that ban –…

I voted Remain, but there should be more pro-Brexit lords

30 December 2023 11:00 am

Liz Truss has sent Matthew Elliott to the House of Lords in her resignation honours list. There are some obvious…

Alistair Darling was a great man

1 December 2023 1:04 am

The death of Alistair Darling is a grievous loss. British politics has lost a man of decency, character, integrity and…

In defence of David Cameron’s comeback

14 November 2023 12:15 am

David Cameron is back. This will make some people unhappy, because they dislike the man. Common reasons for disliking Dave include…

Are we diluting the meaning of ‘mental health’?

6 November 2023 5:25 pm

What does ‘mental health’ mean? Is the answer to that question undergoing a generational change, as younger people become more…

How Brits turned soft on crime

7 October 2023 5:00 pm

It is almost exactly 30 years since a young Labour politician told his party’s annual conference in Brighton that as…