Category: Week in UK Politics
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NEWS VS POLITICS Harold Macmillan was a wise old bird. His reply to a question about what he feared most: “Events, dear boy, events” neatly encapsulates how easy it is for politics to be knocked off course by news. Some days you set out to explain proposed NHS structural changes, you can instead get sandbagged…
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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 AND IRAN GO TO WAR Israel launched Operation Rising Lion in an attempt to prevent Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, bombing nuclear facilities, missile and drone launch capabilities…
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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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Younger UK voters aged 18-24 report their five biggest political issues as: – Economy – Crime – Housing – Environment – Education according to the YouGov weekly tracker survey that has been running since 2011. Although younger UK citizens share the general population’s identification of the economy as the most significant political issue facing the…
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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 normal,…
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Post-Brexit “Reset” On 19th May Keir Starmer hosted Ursula von der Leyen and European Council and Antonio Costa (he’s the EU Council President) for a “Reset Summit” at Lancaster House in London. Negotiations were reported to have gone down to the wire, but they announced a post-Brexit agreement encompassing defence and security cooperation, fisheries, agrifood…
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Immigration, Assisted Dying and Benefit Cuts with sides of the Chagos and Universities It’s been one of those weeks in UK politics where the leakers and the sneakers conspire together to “warm the pot” on some issues that will boil over in the coming weeks before the House rises and Westminster moves to the South…
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A “game-changing” US-UK trade deal and a “significant” UK immigration reset, or an enormous confection of nothingness? US-UK Trade: worse than it was, better than it might have been. On 8th May Donald Trump and Keir Starmer announced a hoooooge trade deal in a cringe-making joint press conference from the Oval Office and 10 Downing…
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Reform Rises, Rivals Fall Reform UK Shocks the System If you thought UK politics was just Labour vs. the Tories forever think again. Reform UK, led by the ever-controversial Nigel Farage, pulled off a political upset this week that’s got everyone talking. In the local elections, they bagged a massive 677 council seats and took control…
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Big Shifts, Bad Vibes Britons feel like crap. This may result in some electoral desperation at the local and mayoral elections next week. Reform UK are capitalising on the sense of despair at “Broken Britain” and the apparent inability of mainstream politicians of all stripes to “grasp the nettle” and set out some possible solutions.…
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Welcome to this week’s Easter round up of UK politics. Climate change, gender identity, industrial policy and local government finances are leavened by one of the most ridiculous political corruption scandals of recent years. Climate Policy Clash: Miliband v Farage UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband criticised Reform UK’s Nigel Farage and the Conservative Party for…
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Welcome to the first of my weekly political roundups! Every week I will try to break down the biggest UK political stories in a simple and easy to understand way. NHS Waiting Times Still a Major Concern New data this week showed that NHS waiting lists are still very high, with over 7 million people…