The Home Office is central in all things, lording over some of the most hotly-discussed issues in everyday life – migration, borders, drugs, policing, and terrorism. Its vast armoury of laws and high-powered forces of order “keep citizens safe and the country secure”, in their own words. Despite that armoury, when Shabana Mahmood arrived as Home Secretary in 2025, she was compelled to state that her ministry was “not fit for purpose”. Chronic issues raised included distrust

Whether taking in the news, one’s social media feed, using a software or just holding a conversation, artificial intelligence is now nigh on inescapable. At a social event I recently attended, someone even casually offered me use of their Meta Glasses, its integrated AI feature able to translate the foreign language being spoken at the event. Like most people in the UK, I am suspicious of the promises of AI, particularly of the large US firms driving the so-called AI bubble

The UK awoke this week to news stories of demonstrations and agitation in the capital alongside a review of the overrunning and overspending on the HS2 rail project. These seemingly disparate stories tell another story, however, when linked together. In part, the reason we have creaking sclerotic bureaucracy capable of blowing £100bn on – well, it is hard to say what exactly is being delivered in return – is the same reason extremist groups are able to galvanise large number

This month’s reset speech from the “boring” “managerial” “supine” “genocidaire” who hates irregular migrants and refugees while “bending over backwards for them” should have been cathartic. Here was our chance to make the maniacally boring Starmer beg for mercy. I just felt uncomfortable. Starmer looked like a man at his wit’s end. He seems ordinary, likeable, and emotionally stable. He says kind things like we should be nicer to Jewish folk, or that we needed to watch Adoles