Is ‘disinformation’ really one of the biggest challenges facing London? June 3, 2026 All power to the Lady Mayor and her newly assembled team of City leaders who want to shout from the rooftops about the strengths and assets of our great capital city. Dame Susan Langley will tonight launch a new campaign, Team UK, backed by some of the Square Mile’s biggest business and industry groups, with [...]
Mandelson Files add insult to injury, but the patient was already beyond saving June 2, 2026 The deluge of emails, Whatsapp messages and hand-written notes released yesterday cover the full range of political and diplomatic life, from the absurd to the poignant; from rows over a gift for Donald Trump to soul-searching over Keir Starmer’s failures, it’s all there in black and white. What’s clear at a glance is quite how [...]
Tony Blair is the only sensible voice left in Labour May 28, 2026 After reading Tony Blair’s essay on the state of Britain (and the state of the Labour party) I was struck by the realisation that large parts of it sounded as if they’d come straight out of one of my own columns. Regular readers will know that I’ve often used this slot to point out the contradiction [...]
Labour has become the party of welfare, not work May 26, 2026 A generous interpretation of events would be to concede that Labour has avoided any attempt at welfare reform because it’s been waiting for the conclusions of Alan Milburn’s review into the crisis of youth unemployment. Milburn, who served as health secretary under Tony Blair, will publish the first part of his government-commissioned report this week, [...]
Peckham could do with some Del Boy graft May 21, 2026 Peckham’s most famous son, Del Boy, once observed that “He who dares, wins” – adding “He who hesitates, don’t.” It’s a motto on which Southwark Council would do well to reflect, considering there are more than 22,000 people on the borough’s social housing waiting list. Southwark’s Liberal Democrats point out it will take the council [...]
Are we in the calm before the economic storm? May 20, 2026 There is a palpable sense of being in the calm before the storm. Thanks to the backward-looking nature of most economic data releases, we’re being fed glimpses of the gathering gloom. The latest GDP growth data from the ONS covered Q1 and came in at a respectable 0.6 per cent. However, it has been widely [...]
The absolute insanity of the SNP’s plan to cap the price of food May 19, 2026 The political drama (or farce) of Westminster politics will dominate the news agenda for the rest of the summer. The high-stakes Makerfield by-election next month will be followed by a Labour leadership election – or, possibly, a coronation – leading to a change of Prime Minister and an entirely new policy agenda. The consequences of [...]
The King’s Speech was overshadowed by the Westminster clown show May 14, 2026 Put the current political chaos from your mind for a moment and imagine that Keir Starmer wasn’t under threat. Imagine a version of the Prime Minister – still unpopular and still struggling to engineer economic growth – but at least with the full backing of his cabinet and MPs. Under such circumstances, yesterday’s King’s Speech [...]
Why the battle for Labour’s future could prove to be very expensive May 13, 2026 Amid the farce and drama, spare a thought for His Majesty, who will today sit on the throne in the House of Lords and read out details of Keir Starmer’s legislative agenda for the coming parliamentary term. The monarch may be above politics, but not so far above that he won’t see the absurdity of [...]
Changing the leader won’t save Labour – or the country May 12, 2026 The well-intentioned but hapless Labour backbencher, Catherine West, spent the weekend warning that if she didn’t like Keir Starmer’s speech she’d launch a leadership challenge in a bid to flush out more serious candidates. In the end, she backed down, but has called for a transition of power to a leader in September. She has [...]
