From a distance it is hard to see why Vladimir Putin did not accept December’s peace plan for the Ukraine war, to prevent it entering its fourth year. The deal would have forced Ukraine to secede far more territory to Russia than the actual inroads made. Ukraine would have to hold elections, be forbidden from joining NATO, and reduce the size of its army. These were all crucial war aims for Russia before the beginning of the ‘special military operation,’ so it is mystifying

Economic woes, largely originating in our productivity problem , underscore much British political discourse today. The productivity problem boils down to the notion that the amount of additional value generated per average UK work hour underwhelms compared to our economic peers and superiors, like France, Germany, the USA , and perhaps soon Poland . The UK has recently seen record work absence due to sickness , is consistently low on comparative worker engagement scores

Ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliamentary elections, Frederick Graham examines eighteen years of Scottish Nationalist rule and the state of Scottish politics. In Westminster and Europe, recent election cycles have revealed an increasingly consistent pattern: governing parties have become exposed to sharp electoral punishment. This trend has cut across ideologies. After four years the centre-left “traffic-light” German coalition was decisively punished at the ballot box. Acros

In his Debt: The First 5000 Years , anthropologist David Graeber provides a series of insights that, when properly understood, challenge the central tenets of conventional economic thought. Most significantly, Graeber’s claim that all money is debt, and by extension a social relation, fundamentally undermines decades of economic orthodoxy which claims that the government must balance its books and, more generally, that ‘one must pay one’s debts’ . Indeed, if all money is debt

To Have or To Be? turns fifty in a few days. Written by Erich Fromm, a German social psychologist, it analysed the corrosivity of ‘late capitalism’, an epoch most obviously characterised by consumerism. Consumerism comes with constituent attitudes. It encourages us, for instance, to value assets based on their saleability. Entrenched in our consciousness, via the unconscious, Fromm argued that many of these attitudes altered our understanding of ourselves, our contemporaries

Like Barbie, Trump has a great day every day. And who wouldn’t?! Waking up in his golden Dreamhouse (ballrooms sold separately), Trump gets to decide his truth, the truth, on any given matter at any given time! In Trump Land anything can happen! The latest from Trump Land is that the American economy has never ever been better! Kicking off the battle for the 2026 midterm elections at a rally in north-east Pennsylvania – his first in five months – Trump united the crowd behin

Since Labour reclaimed power last summer, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has borne the brunt of much of the criticism directed towards the government. The decisions to scrap winter fuel payments and inheritance tax exemptions on farms struck deep; this was an electorate unprepared for such change and a media that underestimated the UK’s first female occupant of the role being so combative right from the onset. This front-footedness prompted a swift response. Hacks bayed

Season's greetings, Karl (and to you, my esteemed reader). There’s just something about self-verifying utopianism that doesn’t quite hit the spot the rest of the year , but it’s Christmas, so let’s cut Marx some seasonal slack. This isn’t solely an assault on the long-since-dead ideologue, but rather a repository of festive feedback, reflecting not only on Marx’s conceptualisation of surplus value and capitalism, but our conceptualisation of Christmas, too. Though undoubtedly

Ah, the annual budget - that glorious spectacle of political theatre through which pompous chancellors attempt to justify their political survival. Tax cuts, spending commitments for public services, and the odd solemn promise to lift the burden off working people have all been used to extend the life of a chancellor's political career, or if a budget goes well enough, propel them next door into Number 10. Yet, this time seems to be different. Instead of championing taxpayers

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

The public murder of Charlie Kirk rattled the American political establishment , and was met with a variety of responses from its pundits, journalists, and elected officials. For many in the Republican Party and on the right of American politics more broadly, Kirk’s death was the pretence required to pursue an official clampdown on freedom of speech, as opposed to the less systematic, yet no less brazen , attacks the White House had been carrying out up to that point. Citize

A few months ago, I published part one of this article , when Spain’s housing reforms were still nascent. I am glad now to see that, fulfilling previous promises, the Spanish PM has honoured his word and taken substantial steps towards implementing public housing policies. From making the purchase of houses for non-residents more difficult, to facilitating young people’s renting and buying of residences, and unifying countrywide and regional initiatives, much has been done re

Some time ago, on the Ides of March, an article of mine was published on historical thresholds. In it I observed that there are interregnums which, once crossed, see us like Dorothy in Oz - standing in a different world. Following Angela Rayner’s resignation, the Labour Party have reached a new threshold. A Cabinet and Ministerial re-shuffle, and the election of a new Deputy Leader, could each amount to more than a historical footnote. Some hope is proffered by these chang

China’s infamous fishing fleet ranks among the gravest emerging threats to global security: a flagrant assault on the environment, a...

As heightened tensions and security competition come to define international politics, there has been something of an increase in...

In light of Donald Trump’s recent firing of Fed Governor Lisa Cook , it pays to recall that Trump’s Fed fixation actually began earlier...

The shift in international perception of the United Arab Emirates that has occurred in the last two decades is a result of perhaps one of...

‘Make America healthy again’ is Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s mantra as Donald Trump’s secretary of health. And just as well, given that America...

The persistence of the West’s continuing gluttony for Russian hydrocarbons doesn’t just counteract our aid but is utterly shameful. Why...

By now, you may have heard the phrase "Iron Chancellor" used to describe Rachel Reeves. It has been whispered – sometimes with...