Conservatives
The Tories are stuck in the middle with May. Here’s what they should do next
The Tories have a debate on their hands about what direction they should go in. Do they return to the…
Backing Mrs Thatcher
From ‘Be brave’, 28 April 1979: We can think of a number of reasons why voters might feel reluctant to…
The Brexit impasse proves we need political reform
Any hopes that the parliamentary recess would help resolve the great Brexit impasse have been dashed. MPs have returned from…
Rory Stewart: Why I’d make a good prime minister
Almost nobody in Westminster admits to wanting to be prime minister. Rory Stewart is a cheerful exception. Most leadership hopefuls…
Who is the busiest Tory leadership candidate of them all?
Tory MPs agree that Theresa May’s days in Downing Street are numbered, but when it comes to picking her replacement…
Liz Truss: the Tories can win over the Boohoo generation
‘Get some boomerangs,’ Liz Truss says to her aides. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury isn’t looking for something to…
iPlod: Sajid Javid’s new internet rules will have a chilling effect on free speech
Monday wasn’t the best day for the government to launch Online Harms, its white paper on internet regulation. As Sajid…
In what possible way was Nick Boles ever a Conservative?
Who is your favourite brave Remainer Conservative MP? Anna Soubry has to be near the top of the list, for…
How I know the Conservative party is doomed
Gosh, it’s depressing watching the natural party of government committing slow-motion suicide. It’s depressing even if you’re not, as I…
Welcome to the hard centre – and the future of British politics
The Conservative party has to move beyond Brexit and leaders: what is it going to be about? I suggest it…
When will the Tories learn: murdering animals isn’t a vote-winner
Buoyed by its huge popularity in the opinion polls and the fact that it is managing Brexit so well, the…
We need to stop buying into this ‘divided Britain’ narrative
Amid all the argument in Westminster, everyone can agree on one thing: the country is bitterly divided. The 52:48 divisions…
The Tories are risking their reputation as the party of law and order
Theresa May’s Home Office record is normally off limits at cabinet. But when ministers discussed the government’s strategy for reducing…
Letters: why is the C of E still messing around with the Carlile report?
The Carlile report Sir: The Bishop of Bath and Wells tells us (Letters, 2 December) that nobody is holding up…
The Tories’ fate is in their own hands
How will the Tory party remember 2017? Will it be the year it lost its majority, alienated key sections of…
Boris, the conviction politician
I’m writing this from the Conservative party conference where I can report that Boris Johnson, who has just wowed the…
Diary
The best reason for visiting party conferences is to sniff the air. It’s fragments of conversation drifting through a bar,…
If only the Tories understood economics
‘I don’t think I’m quite as Austrian as you are,’ a Tory minister said to me the other day. And…
Theresa May’s phoney war
Next month, Theresa May is expected to launch her long-awaited audit into racial disparities in public services. We are being…
Forgive and forget
To begin with, Theresa May was not planning to take a three-week holiday — but she was subtly advised that,…
Dear Leavebugs, it’s time to admit your mistake
‘Brexit,’ says my friend David Aaronovitch, ‘is dying.’ We Remainer irreconcilables certainly hope so. But there’s a slim chance the…
Let’s keep up the Moggmentum
‘We need to talk about why the internet is falling in love with Jacob Rees-Mogg, because it’s not OK,’ warns…
Labour’s middle-class problem
Be fair. Theresa May’s plan actually half-worked. No, there was a plan. I know the consensus now seems to be…
How Cameron and Osborne lost so much of their party
Why have David Cameron and George Osborne overreached? Why are so many in their own party no longer disposed to…
It’s not the Corbynites who are in denial – it’s the Labour moderates
It has become commonplace to remark that there exists in Britain a mainstream political grouping that seems to be dwelling…
