Category: Broken Britain
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The House has already moved on – reflecting the mood in the country quite accurately. Sir Keir is done, the Member for Makerfield is most notable by his absence and his avoidance of questions. The House thunders on, but now, at a time where there are real and significant problems, the Commons feels that is…
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TWOP was ready with a battery of analysts to cost spending commitments, accountants ready to estimate tax effects and a “scoop” of commentators. No need. We might as well have watched the cricket. The speech can be summarised surprisingly succinctly. A Burnham Government would: Those who really do like the detail may like to check…
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To say that there has been a sea-change in the environment in the Chamber is something of an understatement. The Labour benches are taken up with self-positioning for preferment under the Member for Makerfield’s likely new Ministry, while the Tories are obviously saving their most explosive ammunition for the time when the King of the…
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Well, we look to be running about 30minutes ahead of TWOP’s predicted schedule.Another prediction: the PM will announce some sort of election process rather than a simple handover to the King of the North. There always has to be “a process.” No decisions, just processes and that has been Sir Keir’s most significant political problem.…
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“Everything is Just Fine” said absolutely no-one Despite the imminent arrival of the King of the North, the tendency for politicians of all stripes to insist on their easily disproved “successes” simply increases the palpable sense of disgust with the entire political class the world over. One imagines precipitately dropping approval ratings for King Andy…
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With the PM off on holiday at G7 in Évian-les-Bains, DPMQs featured a new Conservative challenger, Claire Coutinho (East Surrey,Conservative) Shadow EngNZSec, taking on the deeply unenthusiastic David Lammy (Tottenham, Labour) DepPM. Wednesday 17th June Resignations to right of them, resignations to left of them… (with apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.) Mrs Coutinho, perhaps predictably…
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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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Succession is not a strategy! Starmer does not seem to have even tried to stabilise the No. 10 operation, he merely changed the cast list. The resignation cycle that began with Morgan McSweeney continues to read less like renewal and more like a government discovering, in public, in real time, that it does not have…
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The End is Nigh. Peter Mandelson’s Washington appointment was always a high wire act. It was sold as hard nosed realpolitik: a seasoned operator, a serious network, a Labour government signalling competence to the White House and Wall Street. However, the appointment contained a basic miscalculation of the post-2020 political climate: voters tolerate many things,…
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Overseas: Movement Without Leverage The Prime Minister’s trip to China and Japan was notable less for what it achieved than for what it avoided. Keir Starmer returned with modest diplomatic housekeeping: limited visa facilitation and the reopening of channels with previously frozen parliamentarians. (Rowena Mason, Guardian, 29th January 2026, What agreements have been made during…
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REVOLUTIONS, INVASIONS AND POTHOLES It is a salutary experience to sit down to write a review of UK politics at the end of a week in which Donald Trump threatened to intervene in Iran’s brutal protest crackdown, the United States faced domestic outrage over a fatal shooting by an ICE agent and the former President…
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PEERS, NHS FLU PRESSURE AND A FLICKER OF YOUTH MOBILITY SCHEME HOPE. A Joke at the House of Lords’ expense. On Wednesday HMG announced 34 new Lords, including 25 Labour peers, five LibDems and three Tories. The list includes a slug of second rank (aka “failed”) Labour advisers, including Matthew Doyle, Katie Martin and Carol…
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REEVES CLINGS ON SHAKILY, Lammy shatters ancient constitutional protections casually, Badenoch shows signs of life superficially – the political climate feels very fragile. Rachel Reeves remains in post, although with less authority than Downing Street would like to project. The aftershocks from the Office for Budget Responsibility leak continue, alongside accusations that she oversold the…
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BRITAIN: BROKEN AND BORED.The coincidence of quite so many indicators of the Island Nation, the Seat of Empire, the Mother of Parliaments, keeling over and capsizing beneath the waves o’er which we used to rule, is “a little troubling.” Balls Up at the Beeb OK. So the DG and News CEO both resign and I…