Month: June 2026
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One of the defining characteristics of governments in difficulty is not that they make mistakes. All governments make mistakes. The defining characteristic is panic. Difficult decisions are postponed. Problems accumulate. Then events force action and politicians rush to demonstrate decisiveness. Whether the resulting policies are effective becomes secondary to the need to appear active. This…
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John Healey’s resignation is a seismic moment in the collapse of Keir Starmer’s government. HM Treasury’s “victory” of reducing financial commitment to upgrading the nation’s defence is at the expense of the Prime Minister’s continuing “leadership”, such as it was. Healey’s resignation is terminal for Starmer and must be the most serious ministerial resignation since…
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The Commons has a strange “end of term” feel about it. Strange because not even a month has passed since the King’s Speech marked the shiny new legislative ambitions of a new Parliamentary session and just 23 months in to a Government that was elected with a landslide 174-seat majority. But it definitely feels “over”,…
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This last week has provided several reminders that trust, once lost, is difficult to recover. While President Zelensky launched audacious drone attacks on St Petersburg, HMS Prince of Wales returned to port in Norway for more repairs (Navy Lookout, 30th May 2026.) While the Government insisted that all relevant documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment…
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Having got British History 1930-’97 under the belt, TWOP can turn back to the House of Commons after it returned from its Whitsun break on Monday. PMQs was strangely undramatic in the first week back because of the structural effect of Henry Nowak’s murder and the “two-tier policing” issue which the PM, LotO and even…