There can be no doubt that the Prime Minister is a very able man. Nor can there be any doubt that he is a very competent man. The Prime Minister conquered the legal profession to its highest attainable rank outside of politics. The Prime Minister entered politics for the right reasons. The Prime Minister climbed the ranks of his party to become its leader just five years after entering Parliament, a record in the Labour Party. Why then, given his glittering resume and clear a

The recent mainstreaming of wealth taxes as a political tendency in the UK has demonstrated an appetite for solutions to inequality. Although there have been successful debates, won with logic as much as rhetoric, a tangible wealth tax policy is still in its infancy.  The Green Party, the main policy vehicle for the Wealth Tax, is seeking between 1% and 2%  of tax on assets held over £10 million per annum. Yet who exactly pays, and how they pay, remain unanswered questions. W

The Iran war has reached the European Union’s back yard, with European warships crowding Cyprus’ shores and drone attacks striking RAF Akrotiri last month. While Europe insists this is not a war, the security of this small island member state is the security of the Union. A few hundred kilometres from the Levant, Europe is quietly building a defensive perimeter around Cyprus – whether it admits it or not.  The UK has cleared its bases  to facilitate US “defensive strikes” on

If you follow mainstream Irish and Northern Irish press, you may have noticed an uptick this past year in articles referencing “Irish reunification” or “border poll”. There is a push by aligned Irish nationalist parties , academics , and VCS groups  for a border poll as soon as possible.  Some supporting arguments have been opportunistic – members of the SDLP argued during last year’s “Reform-o-mania” that Northern Ireland needed to exit the UK to escape the prospect of a Far

Politics have become quite boring today. This is not to say that the news is uneventful  – five minutes of doomscrolling will quickly put paid to that idea. And the humanitarian cost of it all is mounting rapidly in a crescendo that should alarm us all. But for the most part the politics  in the West today continues to conform to a number of routines and rituals that contain little new within them; they are ripples from stones already dropped into the pond. We can see this in

There is a pervasive sense of societal fracture these days. Politics has become defined by dramatic narratives of battle  between the Greens and Reform UK based on story rather than rooted in reality. Culture seems increasingly guided by a furious rejection of tradition, establishment, and imperialist pasts, or a righteous confabulated nostalgia for them. Compare Kneecap with a far-right AI generated rapper , or indeed the culture of the Oscars with the culture of “Looksmaxxi

Recent weeks have seen alarming headlines  suggest that the UK risks serious strife due to limited  food production capacity, thereby touching on something that makes the public feel vulnerable at a visceral level – literally something we will feel in our gut: the chance we might not have food tomorrow.  But this is not a recent risk, nor the result of a particular policy programme. It is a core piece of the UK’s strategic security puzzle, composed of challenges that cannot b

As this article goes to press, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has reportedly  been killed in a joint U.S.–Israeli airstrike. His death marks the most dramatic escalation in U.S.–Iran tensions since the 1979 revolution and introduces a new variable: succession instability at the apex of the Islamic Republic. Yet even this unprecedented development does not make a war with Tehran comparable to Iraq in 2003 or Afghanistan in 2001, both of which share borders with Iran.  Ge

One can only hope that the recent revival of 2016’s fashion trends and mood is ironic.  Throughout the 2010s, British fashion was largely casual, often erring on the side of slouchy. From all corners of the nation grandparents feigned concern for the chilly knees of their grandchildren and teens sported hoodies in heatwaves: ripped jeans and logo heavy sportswear dominated the period.  Vogue noticed, and they gave it a name. The 'casualification' of British fashion . The rise

If we were to ask whether the UK Wealth Tax Movement was successful last year, an instructive litmus test might be the frequency with which the topic appeared in BBC headlines. This is undoubtedly a major feat, but only half the battle.  Commentators everywhere, like coiled springs , raised their concerns about how effective and feasible the tax would be, rattling off the list of unintended consequences. The media asserted – the Wealth Tax cannot be introduced until all conce

Britain has a literacy crisis, and it needs to end. In the 2024-2025 academic year, one in four children did not meet the required standard of reading at the end of primary school.  That is a quarter of an entire cohort ending Key Stage 2 behind where they should be. Moving down the year groups doesn’t help the picture much, with 20% of students not reaching the expected standard in their year one phonics screening, a figure which rises to 33% for disadvantaged children.   No

From the federal United States to the hyper-centralised UK, and even in the tightly state-directed system of China, local government is increasingly constrained and hollowed out. The slow-building emergency in government debt is not only on a national level but on a local level too. Across advanced and emerging economics, local governments have taken on growing responsibilities without the fiscal tools to fund them, undermining service provision and political trust without tr

The BBC has increasingly found itself under fire over the last few years, with right-wing media and politicians alike finding every possible opportunity to lambast the public-service broadcaster for perceived left-wing bias. Until his departure in the summer , Gary Lineker often drew much of the media’s ire for his outspoken political views, culminating in his earlier-than-planned exit from the UK’s national public service broadcaster. Now, remarkably, the U.S. President is a

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

On December 9 th  an inconspicuous press release  by Huntington Ingalls Industries   (HII) and Babcock International quietly announced a huge shift in US defence procurement. For the first time the US nuclear submarine program will manufacture significant components outside the states. The announcement confirmed that complex hull assemblies for the new US navy’s (USN) Virginia block VI nuclear submarines  will be produced in Babcock’s Rosyth dock in Scotland.  For defence obs

As the Prime Minister looks to inaugurate a “new era” in his country’s relationship with Europe , his task is not only to repair pre-existing bonds, but also to open new avenues that support his ambitions for greater British influence abroad and economic growth at home. In this context, the South Caucasus – comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia – deserves far more attention than it has traditionally received in Westminster.   While famously chequered, the UK’s relationsh

Until September, Angela Rayner was a key figure in the British government, serving as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, and Deputy Prime Minister. This was until Rayner resigned  after she was found to be underpaying a property tax on her second home. By American standards, the scandal is relatively minor. In fact, Rayner is one of several British politicians to have stepped down over matters that would barely

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 shadows, Putin’s intelligence services have been leaving civilian casualties, sabotaged infrastructure, burnt out buildings and downed planes in their wake for over three years. A ravaged Europe lies almost completely unresponsive. For sixty heartstopping minutes, a full-to-capacity Falcon 900LX jet circles above Bulgaria in a state of panic. The pilots and security detail are frantically scrambling over paper maps and charts, desperate to plot a safe route to the grou

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