Starmer’s premiership is over. As commentators scramble to instruct his replacement, ‘King of the North’ Burnham, on how he ought to govern, we shall withdraw from these largely Armageddonist prophets. I want to answer a different question: how is Starmer set to be remembered? It is so easy, and in a way, natural, to focus on the newcomer entering Downing Street, with the person going out the backdoor waved off without much of a thought. The executive wheels keep turning, aft

Over ten years later, Brexit remains era-defining, indirectly toppling yet another prime minister. Starmer has resigned. A resignation catalysed by the local elections that saw Labour lose almost five times as many voters to the Greens and Liberal Democrats as to Reform UK. Pressure from the pro-EU progressives and centrists was key to the end of the Starmer project, a fact that is at the front of Andy Burnham’s mind as he plans an ascent to Downing Street and has to take o

The biggest item of note in Andy Burnham’s recent devolution speech was his commitment to ‘the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period’. It is estimated such construction will cost the taxpayer up to £13bn a year. This is merely the tip of the iceberg, however. Research released by the Centre for Policy Studies shows the state is already implicitly subsidising social housing rent to the tune of £43bn every year and paying out £36bn in housing benefi

Russia’s Central Bank raised its key interest rate to a two-decade high of 21% in late 2024 after a surge in inflation. Since then, it has pursued a policy of monetary easing, with the cut from 14.5% to 14.25% on 19th June marking the ninth consecutive cut. This has surprised some analysts, who were expecting a 50-basis-point cut. More broadly, it reflects the cautious approach that Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, has taken toward the economy, with

On Friday morning, news broke that one of Britain’s most recognisable political figures, Ann Widdecombe, had died. By mid-day social media was awash with tributes for a woman whose four decades in public life had taken her from Westminster to Brussels, and, most recently, to Reform UK as the party’s spokeswoman on Immigration and Justice. By mid-afternoon, national newspapers had published obituaries, some admiring and others searing in their criticism of a politician who pos