Starmer faces a difficult summer
Like Covid data, polling data has a built-in time lag of several days. Those sifting the evidence on coronavirus typically…
Labour is picking the wrong fight with Priti Patel
The position of Home Secretary Priti Patel is clearly untenable. Presumably this means she must resign. Who says so? Why,…
The arrogance of Boris and Rishi's failed isolation dodge
It’s hard to break into the global top ten of insufferably arrogant political acts. You need to do something really memorable…
Keir Starmer's fundamental problem
Half a century ago, Willie Whitelaw accused Harold Wilson of ‘going around the country stirring up apathy’. I can think…
In defence of levelling up
Modern pragmatist political leaders are generally keen to reassure us that there is a unifying philosophy to be found running…
Boris's cunning has allowed him to share in England's Euro 2020 glory
You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. That was the formula of legendary New York governor Mario Cuomo and…
Stop politicising football
Before the England football team plays in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday we need to get one thing straight: who…
How Keir Starmer can rescue his leadership
In January 1990 things looked truly bleak for Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager. He had not won a trophy…
What does Starmer actually stand for?
The biggest reason Keir Starmer has proved a flop is not that he leads an unelectable rabble, or that Labour’s…
It's time for Rishi Sunak to stand up to Boris Johnson
Finally the pandemic fog is lifting and the outlines of post-Covid politics are starting to take shape. While the Government…
Brexit, lockdown and the fracturing of British politics
Is our society becoming less tolerant and more viscerally tribal? Or is our politics provoking people into committing more angry…
Priti Patel is running out of excuses for the Channel migrant crisis
When immigration minister Chris Philp announced last summer that he was in the process of agreeing a ‘new operational plan’ with…
Labour is the culture war's greatest victim
How damaging is the ‘culture war’ to the Labour party’s hopes of one day regaining power? On the left there…
'There is no alternative': Why Boris will keep winning
Those of us who generally wish this Government well and consider Boris Johnson a preferable holder of the office of…
An electoral pact would be disastrous for Labour
How do you tell a politician who has just been punched in the face by the electorate that something is…
Boris’s Tory enemies don’t know how lucky they are
It is often said that most Conservative MPs have a highly ‘transactional’ relationship with Boris Johnson. The inference is that…
Andy Burnham is Labour's king over the water
There are few things so perilous for an under-performing opposition leader as the emergence of a ‘king over the water’.…
Labour are deluding themselves about Boris's 'vaccine bounce'
That vast battalion of pinko pundits who confidently expected Boris Johnson to get a drubbing in last week’s elections has…
Starmer is Labour's Iain Duncan Smith
After a gruelling election campaign the most important thing to do is to have a rest and have a think. Everyone…
The London mayoralty needs to be reformed
Who does a capital city belong to? In the case of London tonight, one answer could be ‘Labour’, now that…
Labour is doomed whether Starmer stays or goes
So the Conservatives have won the ‘pools, as we used to say of jackpot winners before the advent of the National…
Hartlepool and the theft of the Labour party
When the unthinkable happened in 1882 and England lost a test match on home soil to Australia there followed a…
How Boris eclipsed Cameron
Remember the days when David Cameron was the sleek young prime minister who had brought to an end 13 years…
Sadiq Khan's victory could be bad news for Labour
Let’s take a look into a political crystal ball: it is Friday 7 May and a beaming Sadiq Khan is…
Diane Abbott has exposed Keir Starmer's Red Wall dilemma
Were Keir Starmer more like Gordon Brown in temperament then by now he’d be throwing his mobile phone at a…
