They called it a contract with the people to signify that promises made before the 2024 general election would be kept to their voters. Last Monday they finally put what was left of it in the shredder. With budget speculation having been at fever pitch in Westminster for well over a month, and expected to boil on at such heat for at least another three weeks (opting for a far later date than usual will do just that), Reform’s silence on economics had become one of the larger

“Turn the volume up!” was the emphatic cry from Zohran Mamdani to (a likely enraged) Donald Trump as he celebrated his victory in New York City’s 2025 mayoral election. Mamdani, who rode a wave of grounded progressivism rooted in affordability all the way to City Hall, could not have chosen a more apt phrase to mark the moment. As he left the stage to the Bollywood classic Dhoom Machale,   it became strikingly clear that it is indeed time to turn the volume up on the potentia

In the heat of Summer 2023, as tourists swarmed Crete’s postcard-perfect beaches, Greek police raided a fertility clinic  in the port town of Chania. What they uncovered was a sophisticated operation involving illegal surrogacy and human trafficking.  I first heard about the case through the Greek community in Melbourne. Some of the commissioning parents involved were known within those circles and word of the investigation in Crete circulated quickly. At first, the details w

I would describe myself as a cautious monarchist. It is not that I agree with the monarchy as an institution but rather that I fear a President Farage or someone of similar bilious intent. In an alternative world, I would see them consigned to a council estate in Wolverhampton, à la Sue Townsend, but we have to work with the circumstances we have, not the ones we want. The Andrew farce though has really caused me to question my views on monarchy altogether. While Andrew Mount

Europe is sabotaging its own climate goals by prioritising the protection of its car industry over allowing affordable Chinese electric vehicles in. This turns the green transition into a trade dispute with China, whilst risking the green transformation both sides urgently need. Europe doesn’t need a trade war, it needs a strategy. Instead of raising tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles , the EU should establish a Green Trade Truce based on transparency, cooperation and fair