Is the media to blame for Britain's churn of seven Prime Ministers in the last ten years?

Does Andy Burnham have the guts to dynamise the UK economy by rethinking the Treasury's model?

Since the resignation of Keir Starmer, the media have been addressing the questions of why he failed and how history will remember him. Some argue that his failure was a lack of effective communication about policy, and that he will be remembered as a decent man who lacked the necessary political skill for the country’s highest office. Others argue that his failure was a lack of moral substance, expressed through weakness on issues such as Palestine, and that he will be remem

Following a fortnight of activity which possessed a more rhetorical than policy-oriented substance, Andy Burnham has now selected an almost unimpeachable cause as the first major test of his Premiership; reform to England’s withering social care system. The system in its current form is, it must be said, fragmented, unfair and ruinously expensive for an increasingly large number of families across the country. Its pressures universally buckle the already struggling local auth

The event that best captures the folly of Keir Starmer was the sacking of three trade envoys and the suspension of “four persistent rebels” in July 2025, after he faced the most serious rebellion to his government yet. He and his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, were attempting to push through a welfare reform bill which, according to its detractors, would have cut vulnerable people off of PIP. They failed, with backbench Labour MPs forcing them to reverse the welfare cuts. Instead

On July 14th 2026, under the scorching Parisian sun, French military troops marched down the historical Champs Elysées. Unusually, this year the military parade was opened by the thirty five countries making up the Coalition of the Willing, flying over and marching down the avenue in front of their respective leaders. What followed was one the biggest parades ever witnessed on Bastille Day, with 6.700 troops, 98 aircrafts, 31 helicopters and 315 vehicles mobilised, simultaneo

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

In the last week Andy Burnham, who stands at the precipice of becoming Britain’s next Prime Minister, seemingly ruled out an early general election. Whilst politicians ruling things out certainly doesn’t mean that they are ruled out, it does mean it is not ruled in. A general election is not part of Burnham’s short-term plan. The question remains however, is it part of Burnham’s plan in the medium-term, and should it be. Whilst the answer to the former is one that only Burnha

In violation of the constitutional conventions that Britain usually holds dear, Britain will endure a long, directionless interval following Keir Starmer's resignation on 22nd June. The election of a new leader, Andy Burnham, who was sworn in as MP also on the 22nd June after winning the Makerfield by-election, is the likely replacement. If Burnham’s leadership bid faces no contest, he is likely to take over in the 17-20th July period, rather than in September, as some have s

It's time to stop thinking about the climate crisis as a problem for the future. If the past week of stifling temperatures in the United Kingdom has shown us anything, it is that global warming is a visceral, present reality. Yet at this very moment, when the effects of climate change are so tangible year on year, political discussion skirts around the issue. Squabbles over North Sea oil have dominated the conversation recently, despite experts having made it clear that arou

The inevitable has happened. On 22nd June, Sir Keir Starmer stepped up to the podium outside No.10 and delivered a speech much of the country had been anticipating for months. Once again, the familiar image of a crestfallen prime minister appeared before the assembled press corps and television cameras. Starmer accepted “with good grace” that Labour MPs no longer wanted him to lead the party into the next general election, continuing Britain's recent revolving door of prime m

Last month, former Prime Minister Tony Blair provoked a media storm by penning a 5,000 word essay titled: “The Labour Party Is Playing With Fire Over Its Future and the Future of the Country”, in which he bemoaned the current government’s lack of understanding of the seismic changes that will shape the UK and the world over the coming years. This set off a wave of essay responses from then potential challengers for the Labour leadership, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting, along

Carnage. I think that is the best way to put it. Massive council wins for Reform and an evisceration of Welsh Labour, epitomised by First Minister, Eluned Morgan, being ejected at break-neck speed from her Senedd seat, has rubbed salt into Labour’s backbench anxiety. The threshold for triggering a leadership challenge against the PM, the elusive and seemingly far-fetched 81 MPs, has been surpassed within the space of 48 hours. The only element that’s missing is a leader of th

On the surface Andy Burnham’s victory in Makerfield is unremarkable, if anything the 20% gap over second-placed Reform is a shining example of how Labour has lost significant swathes of support in the constituencies where historically the Labour vote had to be weighed rather than counted. Makerfield, an ex-mining, working class seat that has voted Labour since 1906 saw 35% of its electorate vote for a right-wing party. The result seemingly represents the phenomenon that has b

The political centre does not have a divine right to govern; it must prove itself worthy of trust again, or face being wiped out. In March, the two main parties of UK politics found themselves trailing in the polls for the first time to insurgent populists on the left and right. There is no denying that parties that thrive on pitting the people against a perceived corrupt elite are rising and winning elections. For some time, the primary explanations of populism surging have

‘The only thing stopping Trump from monetising Greenland is that you can’t put it on a mug. Yet’ Donald Trump has never been a man who does things quietly, or particularly logically. Chaos is the policy. Disruption is the strategy. By the time he had set his sights on Greenland, most of the world had long stopped being surprised by what came out of his mouth; and yet, for the 56,000 people who live there, this particular fixation landed differently. At some point in 2019, Nuu

When four ex-cabinet ministers split from the Labour Party in 1981 to form the SDP, they did so with the intention of ‘breaking the mould’ of British politics. This Gang of Four believed the Labour Party was on an irrecoverable journey down the Hard Left flank of British Politics. Veteran left-winger Michael Foot had just been elected leader, the Trotskyite Militant Tendency had successfully infiltrated the party, and Tony Benn was circling, waiting to steal the Deputy Leader

Tony Blair’s unabashed tendency to offer his unsolicited opinion on the decline of the Labour party has unfortunately become a rather exhausting feature of British politics. Refusing to comply with his fate of exiting stage left and disappearing into irrelevancy, the former Prime Minister and Labour party leader has maintained an irritating desire to be heard. His latest intervention comes in the form of a rambling essay posted to the Tony Blair Institute’s so-called ‘insight

If one thing is a cardinal sin in British politics, perhaps it’s being boring. Plain, unassuming, uninspiring - all words that have been used to describe our current Prime Minister. Keir Starmer is just the latest to suffer from these epithets, which had also been levelled at predecessors such as Theresa May and Gordon Brown. As much as politicians aspire to situate themselves above the masses, relatability and likeability have undeniably become election winners. In attemptin

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