Category: Ukraine-Russia War
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Because, frankly, it is beyond embarrassing. After a week in which the American administration has once again managed to complicate the defence of Ukraine, the manoeuvrings of Westminster seem almost inconsequential. Almost. At home Andy Burnham has discovered Europe, the Chancellor has discovered another fiscal difficulty and the Conservatives have discovered that an improvement in…
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Badenoch fails to land serious blows The Commons got back to work after its four week “Conference Season” recess. This seems incomprehensible to most voters who think it would be much more productive if all the conferences were held (in different places) in the same week. This (short) week’s conclusion from the Commons is that…
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…or appear to be done for a little while at least. Conference season is over. Various promises have been made, some more credibly than others. For the party of government the awkward necessity of making ambitions square with reality comes in to immediate focus with the Budget now just 16 days away on 28th October.…
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Welfare Reform Proposals. Kemi Badenoch delivered a fairly surgical question at PMQs on Wednesday, questioning the new Chancellor’s own declared reasons for resigning as Defence Secretary just 13 weeks ago: “Is the Prime Minister unable, or is he just unwilling,to get that money by 2030?” The PM offered the classic deflective response, revealing far more…
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Welcome to Governmenting. Parliament returned this week, which was inconvenient for almost everybody. For Andy Burnham, it meant the end of the forgiving period in which a new Prime Minister can talk principally about what his government intends to become (for the length of which he has surely earned some sort of UK and All-comers…
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Burnham goes off the boil After a month of frenetic activity, this was the week when Andy Burnham’s new government began to encounter something rather less exciting than political momentum: governing. Reform UK returned to the polling lead with the YouGov voting intention poll based on 16th-17th August data, which placed Reform UK on 24%,…
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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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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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A heatwave, a war in the Gulf driven by bluff and braggadocio and a war in Ukraine seeing the slip of the Russian mask. A local TWOP correspondent visiting Kew Gardens reported temperatures of 35C (95F.) The country was awash in a public conversation about climate change. Welcome to our future. This week was also…