Category: Israel and Iran
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Following Tuesday evening’s Edward Heath Lecture in Salisbury by very fed up Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, it was not astonishing that Kemi Badenoch (North West Essex, Conservative) LoTO focused all six of her questions on Defence Spending. LoTO rose at 12:03:05 and asked: Mr Speaker intervened in apparent embarrassment to cut off Sir Keir’s…
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It has been James Vance Week, or for fans of Édith Piaf, “Semaine Je Regrette Tout.” With Westminster largely silent while Parliament was in Easter recess, British politics spent the week reacting to events elsewhere. The most consequential development was the quiet collapse of the Chagos deal, but this seemed like small beer compared to…
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Another week in which British politics found itself waiting on events elsewhere. Iran continued to set the strategic tempo, Washington oscillated between negotiation and escalation by the hour and Westminster responded largely by adjusting language rather than making decisions. Several domestic signals were worth noting: a stalled youth mobility reset with the EU, an unexpectedly…
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Waiting for imaginary negotiations abroad, preparing for inflation at home and governing in the shadow of events with no clear purpose. Welcome to Britain 2026. The Israel–US confrontation with Iran continues to set the UK political tempo. Domestic policy development not stop, but it does now feel provisional, as though HMG is waiting to see…
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It was with the greatest difficulty that I persuaded the Editorial Board (in this massive global organisation of 1) not to make the pic of the PM with his head in his hands at PMQs the photo lead today. It’s an Open Goal Keir! Open Goal. No-one cares. Starmer II: the Caretaker Years has opened…
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Wait for it! Another week dominated by Iran, but not entirely determined by it. Westminster continues to move in its familiar pattern: modest domestic announcements, internal Labour positioning and foreign policy events imposing themselves faster than ministers can respond. British politics appears to be holding its breath. Diego Garcia and the geography of risk The…
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The Prime Minister almost succeeded in breaking PMQs on 18th March. Backbencher Andrew Snowden (Fylde, Conservative) summed up the problem: “Every week the Prime Minister comes here and reads out this pre-scripted nonsense that bears no resemblance to the questions he is actually asked. The Leader of the Opposition asked him about Peter Mandelson and…
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Papers & Processes. The week began with the next episode of the already boring Mandelson affair. After the drama of the Humble Address, the release of the files related to his errant Lordship’s appointment proved simultaneously more mundane and yet more revealing than expected. Meanwhile, the Iran war/ “special military operation” dominates the international agenda,…
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PMQs really have become a farce. In other news, we have decided to present The Commons Weekly in reverse date order starting with the most recent news from that cockpit of brilliance. At PMQs the Speaker briefly awoke from his slumbers to rebuke the PM for trying to reconfigure the weekly event as Questions for…
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Puts to sea 16:10 Tuesday 10th March. Enough said. Check us out on insta @theworldofukpolitics
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Preparation, hesitation, correction, reposition. This past week has seen a (leaky) raft of claims about the Government’s preparations for the US-Israeli attack on Iran, hesitation and uncertainty in response, hardly disguised at all by post hoc (and very definitely therefore not ergo propter hoc) announcements claiming that everything is under control. On the home front…
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Special education: In trying to set out the Government’s proposed changes to SEND policy Bridget Phillipson (Houghton & Sunderland South, Labour) Secretary of State for Education, outlined how a “new” £4bn will be spent on Individual Support Plans over the rest of this Parliament. SEND certainly needs radical reform, but these changes seem unlikely to…
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Led, legalistically, from frying pan to fire! The scandal that died, a by-election that roared and a war that outwitted Starmer within 24 hours. The week began where the previous tailed off: Epstein adjacency, Mountbatten-Windsor noise and Mandelson hi-jinx.This filled some columns, produced heat and then was abruptly shoved aside by reality. In politics, nothing…
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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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Children, Screens and State Strategy This week Westminster shifted its attention decisively from abstract debates about the future of technology to a policy question: what role should the state play in regulating children’s use of mobile phones and social media? The government launched a national consultation on children’s relationship with digital technology, signalling that ministers…
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AI scandals, Trump theatrics and social media bans Welcome back after a small essay-related delay this week. British politics served up a curious mix of local embarrassment, international showmanship, and domestic debate that looks suspiciously as though we are collectively losing our minds. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. TWOP is suffering acute symptoms. Here’s the…
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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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DYING HERE, BOMBING THERE Suicide Assistance Enabled On Friday the Commons voted by 314 votes to 291 to pass Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill to legalise medical assistance for suicide for people with fatal illnesses judged likely to have less than six months life remaining. The clumsily named Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill…
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ISRAEL AND IRAN GO TO WAR Israel’s sudden commencement of war against Iran on Thursday night dwarfed the significance of the winter fuel allowance reinstatement and the spending review in the UK. Israel launched Operation Rising Lion in an attempt to prevent Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, bombing nuclear facilities, missile and drone launch capabilities…