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Andy Beckett

Andy Beckett

The Guardian

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Have those who say Starmer is failing forgotten the madness of the Tory years already?

16.12.2024 40

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Bullies can sense weakness – which is why Labour must not shy away from taking on the global far right

09.12.2024 30

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Meet the groups trying to create a new leftwing party – and channel the energy missing from Starmer’s Labour

Ever since Keir Starmer began shoving Labour rightwards in 2020, a space has been opening up in British politics. The limited enthusiasm for Labour at...

15.11.2024 30

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

If I were a cautious, centre-left prime minister, Trump’s victory would have me worried

Whatever determinedly positive things centre-left leaders around the world have said about Donald Trump’s victory in public, in private they must...

07.11.2024 50

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Battered but bizarrely upbeat: why even utter defeat hasn’t shaken the Tory party’s confidence

Why exactly are the Conservatives so upbeat, barely three months after their worst-ever election defeat? At their party conference, in their...

22.10.2024 20

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Starmer’s opening moves as PM have been as unpopular as Thatcher’s were. Can he recover like she did?

“When we asked for your vote,” said the prime minister, “we didn’t promise you instant sunshine. We pointed out … that a nation can’t...

11.10.2024 8

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Fish! Do they have feelings? Now everyone wants to know about the emotional lives of fish!

20.09.2024 10

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Warning to Keir Starmer – you are a Labour prime minister, not a ‘red wall’ one. Remember that

With every difficult day Keir Starmer’s government has to navigate, the ease of its election victory only two months ago feels more and more...

20.09.2024 10

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Is Keir Starmer’s plan to help workers the start of a new era – or no big deal?

For 45 years, ever since Margaret Thatcher was first elected, Britons have had to get used to the idea that trade unions and workers’ rights are...

13.09.2024 10

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Is effective centre-left government possible? Starmer has yet to prove that – but prove it he must

All governments disappoint us in the end. Some policies fail, divisions open up, ideological dead-ends are reached and national problems are left...

23.08.2024 40

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Tough on elites, tough on the causes of elites: that’s how Starmer can defeat the allure of populism

There are times when centrism seems shrewd politics. Progressive enough for some lefties, permissive enough for liberals, cautious enough for...

19.07.2024 20

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Do you think things are generally getting better or worse? Are you a Pollyanna or a Misery Kevin?

19.07.2024 20

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Starmer won by shifting to the right. But the Labour left doesn’t need to spend these years in the wilderness

When Labour wins a general election by centrist means, some on the left of the party always have mixed feelings. They welcome the crushing of the...

06.07.2024 30

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

The Tories are terrified of a Labour ‘supermajority’ – but there are reasons for Labour supporters to be wary too

Can a political party win too much power? In many ways, it’s a strange fear to raise about Labour, yet the Conservatives have been doing it for...

27.06.2024 8

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

What does Starmer’s ‘changed’ Labour party look like on the ground? In Brighton, I found out

In many ways, Keir Starmer’s makeover of the Labour party has been a deeply conventional project. Since the 1950s, a decade his buttoned-up style...

22.06.2024 60

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Starmer has mastered the speeches about Tory ‘chaos’ and ‘decline’, but Britain needs hope – where is it?

To win power, opposition parties need to say something compelling about the status quo. This isn’t necessarily as easy as just advocating...

04.06.2024 10

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Diane Abbott might now be allowed to stand as a Labour MP, but the damage is done – and it’s deep

It’s not every day that you see Keir Starmer’s increasingly ruthless electoral machine in a state of confusion and disarray. But its chaotic...

01.06.2024 50

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

It’s Corbyn’s last stand. But can he beat Labour’s Starmerite machine?

For supposedly one of the biggest losers in Labour’s history, Jeremy Corbyn has certainly won a lot of elections. Two leadership contests by huge...

24.05.2024 60

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

How a Labour MP became a rightwing figurehead – and enabled the clampdown on protest

During the final, beleaguered stages of the last Labour government, one of the stern young party functionaries who used to cluster protectively around...

22.05.2024 30

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

After this week’s squalid experiment, see voter ID for what it is: a Tory scam to steal elections

Unlike Boris Johnson, did you remember to take ID when you went to vote yesterday? Did you remember to take the right kind? Or, like one in seven...

03.05.2024 90

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

The cost of living crisis has made the UK a poorer, more anxious nation – and worse is yet to come

Under capitalism, prices are supposed to be the centre of everything. They are the key agreement between buyer and seller. They are the one clear and...

26.04.2024 9

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Margaret Thatcher set Britain’s decline in motion – so why can’t politics exorcise her ghost?

An old spectre is haunting Britain yet again – the spectre of Thatcherism. Although she became Tory leader almost half a century ago and was sacked...

12.04.2024 100

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Where’s the usual excitement about an imminent change of UK government?

Why are so many voters so unsatisfied with Britain’s main parties? In the opinion polls, despite Labour’s strong lead, their combined support is...

31.03.2024 10

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

The left is smeared as the angry mob again and again. In reality, it is the target of political violence

In Britain and other supposedly calm democracies, the ascent of leftwing politicians can arouse unusual fears of violence. Many conservatives and...

20.03.2024 50

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

MPs, understand this: protests are inevitable when you fail to represent the people

Where should politics happen? For most MPs, accustomed to the Palace of Westminster’s inward-looking spaces and rituals, the answer is obvious. In...

10.03.2024 40

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Anderson and Braverman shout loudest, but one man has led the toxification of the Tories: Michael Gove

On the ever more common journey from the centre right to the far right, there are two contrasting routes conservative parties can follow. One is to...

02.03.2024 100

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

The frightening thing is not that Tories are paraded as more fiscally competent. It’s that even Labour believes it

In our punitive politics, the Labour party is almost always on probation. You can see it in Keir Starmer’s sometimes jumpy public manner, in the...

09.02.2024 8

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Thatcher was right: Tory moderates have no power over the party’s ruthless rightwing extremists

For Tory moderates – assuming some still exist – these ought to be quietly promising times. Their party’s extremists have made a huge mess of...

02.02.2024 50

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

After 14 years of Tory misrule, voters will crave a fresh start. That may be a blessing for Starmer – or a curse

The often messy end of a party’s long hold on power is one of the key rituals of British politics. Voters who made that party’s ascendancy...

11.01.2024 20

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

A lesson from Harold Wilson for Keir Starmer: don’t let the right undermine Labour’s achievements

Labour leaders looking to cite successful predecessors, at least in the most obvious electoral sense, don’t have many to choose from. Ramsay...

05.01.2024 40

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

Britain’s rich are living in a golden era. Labour should not be scared to end it

For millions of Britons, this feels more and more like a poor country. Essentials such as heating and regular meals are increasingly unaffordable....

08.12.2023 6

The Guardian

Andy Beckett

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