Boris Johnson
Boris's crime crackdown will be harder than he thinks
Can crime be beaten with a beaten down police force? The government certainly hopes so. Today, the Prime Minister launched…
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…
Is Boris Johnson allowed to pick the next Archbishop of Canterbury?
A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was shirty with me when I asked him whether he was now…
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,…
Party time: the price of freedom
Party time depends on following the party line
What Dominic Cummings gets wrong
Anyone who thinks Boris Johnson lacks statecraft should pay attention to Dominic Cummings’s attacks on him. They often to seem…
Portrait of the week: Covid in cabinet, pingdemic pandemonium and Ben & Jerry’s boycott
Home On the eve of the day that most coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted, the Prime Minister and Chancellor…
Now what? The government’s Covid optimism is fading fast
The government’s Covid optimism is fading fast
Boris is in danger of becoming the Prime Minister he once warned against
Back when Boris Johnson was on a mission to stop identity cards being used in Britain, he made a very…
How do the Tories stop the rise of an ever-bigger state?
When Gordon Brown raised National Insurance in 2002 to put more money into the health service, it was seen as…
What the NHS pay rise says about Boris Johnson's priorities
Well, that didn’t take long. Two days ago, a leaked report revealed that the government was considering using a national insurance…
When will Boris get serious about balancing the budget?
Should we be pleased that net government borrowing for June came in below expectations, at £22.8 billion – £5.5 billion…
Boris's Brexit deal isn’t worth sacrificing Northern Ireland for
There will be chaos at the borders. Food will run out at the supermarkets. Travellers will face long queues, and…
Boris Johnson's sombre 'freedom day' press conference
On the day that nearly all legal Covid restrictions go, one could be forgiven for presuming ministers would be in the…
Has Boris got cold feet over ‘freedom day’?
A very strange ‘freedom day’ greets us on Monday. Legally, almost all restrictions will be lifted. But practically, ministers are…
Can Boris crack the unwhippables?
‘Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won,’ wrote the Duke of Wellington after…
Nanny Boris: the PM’s alarming flight from liberalism
Has Covid killed the PM’s liberalism?
Is London being ‘levelled down’ already?
In his ‘levelling up’ speech in Coventry this week, the Prime Minister insisted time and again that this was no…
The EU's Brexit bill doesn't add up
A dozen hospitals. A hundred million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and a lot more of the Oxford one. Or…
Whitty's lockdown warning will trouble Boris
In a Science Museum webinar yesterday, Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, warned about the increasing number of people in…
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…
The rise of the unwhippable Tories
When the government announced a Commons vote on its decision to cut the foreign aid budget from 0.7 per cent…
Are ministers prepared for ‘freedom day’?
Is the government having a wobble over ‘Freedom Day’ on 19 July? Well, for one thing you won’t hear ministers…
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…
The long list of problems waiting for the Tories after 19 July
The long-awaited easing of restrictions will not be the triumphant moment that many expected back in May. The Delta variant…
