Category: UK Defence
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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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Committee Room 14. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine visited London today and addressed MPs and Lords in the relatively workmanlike surroundings of Committee Room 14. This visit seemed far more important that Mr Trump’s latest tantrum across the ocean. In an enthusiastic address, Zelenskyy explained what Ukraine’s experience in successfully resisting Russian aggression and…
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Puts to sea 16:10 Tuesday 10th March. Enough said. Check us out on insta @theworldofukpolitics
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SITCOM WITHOUT LAUGH REEL Another week in British politics, another episode of a long-running tragicomedy known as “Government.” The show that nobody asked for, with the scripts that just keep getting worse, and yet, like all truly wretched TV soaps, we just don’t seem to be able to switch off or choose something more enlightening…
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REFORM SHENANIGANS Zia Yusuf stepped down as Chairman of Reform on Thursday evening and then seems to have had a bit of a moment and announced on Saturday that he would instead take up a new role heading the DOGE-lite team that is going to nip around Reform-controlled County Councils to suggest ways of reducing…
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O CANADA! King Charles popped over to one of his other gaffs for a whirlwind 48-hour tour. He met First Nation representatives and heard some impressive drums, inspected various groups of Mounties, went to a community festival, laid a wreath at a war memorial, dropped a hockey puck, chatted in the sunshine. So far, so…