Tag: Nigel Farage
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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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Is that light at the end of the tunnel? Kemi Badenoch has been having quite a good year. The Conservative Party has not. Twelve months ago, Badenoch was still struggling to establish herself with voters and faced periodic speculation about whether her leadership would survive. She arrived in Birmingham in a much stronger parliamentary position.…
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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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Nigel Farage’s much delayed conference speech was polished, combative and politically effective. It also exposed Reform’s central problem: the leader increasingly looks ready for an election, while the circle around him still does not look even close to being ready for government. Farage warned his supporters that he expects an election next year. That remains…
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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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In Office, but is Anyone in Power? Andy Burnham has been Prime Minister for four weeks. He is already discovering the difference between authority and control. “Governing” ate the Listening Tour? Four weeks ago, Andy Burnham arrived at No 10 promising energy, visibility and reconnection. Two weeks of announcements followed. Some of them involved pork…
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The Politics of the Quick Fix. After two weeks of frantic Prime Ministering the Announcement Machine finally fell silent as Andy Burnham went on holiday. Thankfully this also put a temporary stop to the pubs-and-footie tik-toks. So there’s that. (Kate Devlin & Millie Cooke, The Independent, 7th August 2026 “Minister forced to deny Andy Burnham…
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One word kept recurring this week: capability. Andy Burnham promised a Government with a worked-through plan. Nigel Farage attempted an extraordinary tactical reset through a by-election. Donald Trump alternated between negotiations and military escalation in the Gulf. Different countries, different politicians, but all confronted the same question: Can they actually do what they say they…
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Having got British History 1930-’97 under the belt, TWOP can turn back to the House of Commons after it returned from its Whitsun break on Monday. PMQs was strangely undramatic in the first week back because of the structural effect of Henry Nowak’s murder and the “two-tier policing” issue which the PM, LotO and even…
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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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Commons Weekly… is going to be a new concise political briefing that breaks down the most important developments in the House of Commons each week. We hope that it will provide readers with an accessible overview of parliamentary debates, party tensions, leadership dynamics and key policy discussions. Each edition will highlight the stories shaping Westminster,…
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UK Politics 2025, but for Young People (apparently.) Child benefit cap removal, VAT on private schools, voting at 16 and rejoining Erasmus+ suggest that Westminster might have noticed that the votes of a currently unenfranchised generation will vote in 2029 could be up for grabs for very little effort, or money. Christmas is not usually…