In politics, particularly within the UK, our politicians , and those commentating on them, like to talk about putting ‘country before party’. Keir Starmer is no exception to this rule. In fact, the Prime Minister has become its embodiment. Since becoming leader of the Labour Party he has - when asked about his leadership style - often quipped that his Labour Party is a party focused only on the nation’s interests, that it is one disinterested in internal spats. In fact, this

Following Labour’s November budget, much of the commentariat mourned the supposed death of New Labour. The Times’s Danny Finkelstein, for instance, suggested the fiscal event marked the end of the ‘New Labour dream’ , while The Independent’s John Rentoul suggested the faction laid buried beneath the budget . Much of the country will, however, have, even if quietly, been uttering the following sentiment subsequent to reading of its passing: ‘phew’. Seen as a necessary evil by

The Starmer project was supposed to last a decade, it might not make it to the spring. Despite having one of the largest majorities in parliamentary history, the political project Starmer leads is so brittle it could snap at any moment . How on earth did a man with a majority of 172 seats lead this political project towards near certain disaster in just over a year?  The answer, or at least one of them, lies at the very heart of the Starmer project and how it was constructed.

One of the newest episodes of the revived TV show Spitting Image , a stalwart of 1990s political commentary, made a parody of Home Alone . Instead of Kevin, it was Keir  being left in Downing Street all by himself. The goons were replaced by Nigel Farage trying to break in. To be fair, he might have been coming to take a look at his next gaff.  The episode asked a powerful question. How is it that a Prime Minister, elected with a landslide, is now a mockery, polling as the mo

Macron’s France offers a political mirror which Starmer’s Labour ignores at its peril. After years of cautious positioning, Labour has stumbled through the opening phase of government, seemingly unaware of a public exhausted by decline and impatient for visible change. Macron began his project with similar ambitions – technocratic renewal through post-tribal politics – but it has collapsed under a failure to deliver significant structural reform, fracturing the political land

Bucket hats, low-rise jeans, Oasis on tour, and Tony Blair’s face over our screens. Was it 2025? Or is it 1999? Trick question, of course, for it is both. It has not escaped the notice of many today that a tidal wave of 1990s and 2000s revival has hit us in the West in recent years. On an aesthetic level  alone, a new generation of adolescents have thrown themselves with abandon into the shibboleths of ‘90s/’00s fashion. From Vogue  to Elle  and far beyond, those who experien

As Zohran Mamdani seizes New York City, what does this 34-year-old’s feat say about politicians further afield? On November 4 th , Zohran Kwame Mamdani became the first Muslim to be elected to the New York City mayoralty, and the youngest since 1892. He brings a disconcerting contrast to the front door of his adversaries, which include the President himself, whilst raising the crucial question of how the Democrats will use this new method of politics to restore orthodoxy. Mam

It was meant to be different. When Labour rode to a massive 174 seat majority  in July 2024, despite a palpable lack of excitement about the Keir Starmer project, a feeling that at least the adults were back in the room  prevailed. Even if Starmer’s Labour lacked ideas and energy, they would at least provide a period of stability for a country in desperate need of calm leadership. Ministers such as Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Ed Miliband and Bridget Phillipson had spent signi

“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

It often seems that the next general election is a matter of months away, with seemingly no escape from Nigel Farage’s 24/7 media coverage and gleeful references to Keir Starmer and Labour’s abysmal polling. Elon Musk continues to interfere with UK politics, most recently by appearing via video link at the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march and proclaiming that parliament must be dissolved . Meanwhile, Starmer's government endured a late-summer of internal crises  and the Prime Minist

In the latest move to curb immigration fears in the face of Reform UK’s extraordinary polling performances, the government has announced plans to introduce mandatory digital ID cards. The scheme will be rolled out “by the end of parliament,”  and has done little to improve the government’s reputation for cracking down on civil liberties. The digital cards will be needed to prove a person’s right to live and work in the UK but will not have to be carried all the time. Plans pu

Keir Starmer has always reminded me of one of those schoolteachers – the perfectly decent, dithering kind whom good kids pity, and bad...

Before he became the UK’s most famous metro mayor, Andy Burnham was just a regular politician, an MP. This Andy Burnham was a rather...

It’s been a brutal few weeks for the Labour Party. Starmer’s post-summer “relaunch” lasted all of 48 hours before the wheels fell off....

The Labour government recently announced  that it would lower the voting age in general elections from 18 years old to 16 in what marks...

The Labour Government, with all the grace of a cantankerous aunt rearranging your closet, has turned its gaze to the internet. The...

More than three weeks on from the vote on Keir Starmer’s welfare bill , I still can’t shake the feeling that there was a serious error of...

Some things have remained a constant in the second Trump term: his capricious and avaricious personality, which prioritises loyalty,...

In the build-up to Glastonbury, all eyes were on Kneecap, them having become famous for raising awareness Israel’s genocide in Palestine  at their sets, and with member Mo Chara’s ongoing  terror lawsuit making headlines. Fearing they would pull out all the stops at the world’s biggest music festival, in an unprecedented move, the BBC cut short coverage of the festival’s West Holts stage only for the hour of Kneecap’s set. In a glorious moment of comeuppance, however, the act

It’s Keir Starmer’s one-year anniversary as Prime Minister this week – which is supposed to be Labour’s honeymoon, riding high on a super...