Category: Week in UK Politics
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The central political fact of the week is that the Prime Minister now faces not simply criticism, but procedural damage (which is not without irony for the “Process PM”!) Authority that had been trickling away from the PM already is now in full flood. HMS Starmer, which has been sailing around aimlessly for some months,…
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Erosion of authority is rarely dramatic. It is cumulative: decisions that do not settle arguments, dismissals that do not resolve questions, explanations that do not explain. That process now appears to be entering a new phase for the Prime Minister, who surreally promises to lead Labour in to the next election in 2029 (Aletha Adu…
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Many headlines this week were understandably diverted towards Donald Trump’s possible reincarnation as Jesus and troubling suggestions from the renowned Bible scholar Vice-President James “JD” Vance that “it’s very, very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” That exchange alone probably deserves its own encyclical. When not occupied…
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Implosion as “Governance.” Last week ended with Morgan McSweeney gone. This week has been about what that departure did not fix. The McSweeney Non-Solution McSweeney’s resignation was supposed to draw a line under the “judgement” critique that had begun to stalk Keir Starmer. It has not. The problem was never merely personnel. It was pattern.…
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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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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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Screens, Soldiers and Superpowers (in no particular order.) Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s On 10th December 2025, Australia’s Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act came into force, making it illegal for under-16s to hold accounts on major social platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Snapchat, YouTube unless the platforms can prove…
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FREE THE CHRISTMAS FIVE! It is rare for the US Department of State to amuse the rest of the world for Christmas, but in 2025 they unveiled the funniest Doublespeak announcement ever. It currently leads the all-time entries for the “No Thought Involved Here” prize by announcing the cancellation of visas for five Europeans who…
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“IT’S IMMIGRATION, STUPID!” Shabana Mahmood unveiled major reforms of the UK’s asylum policy (through media appearances rather than a statement in the House, no doubt to the Speaker’s exasperation.) The Home Office described the narrative of the weekend’s television clips as the “most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times.” Key changes, drawn…