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Martin KettleThe Guardian |
In Chris Bush and Richard Hawley’s musical, Standing at the Sky’s Edge, there’s an exchange that has stuck in my mind. The scene is...
I am under no illusions about this. Compared with Prince Andrew’s latest disgrace or with Keely Hodgkinson’s latest glittering prize, the reform of...
After five months in office, Labour knows where it wants to take the country; but it does not know how to get there. In this, and despite radically...
Sue Gray’s departure matters. But not in the way some may assume. Gray became famous because of three things: her Partygate investigation under...
Even more than his first victory in 2016, Donald Trump’s re-election marks a historic disruption. It is a profound moment of change, not just for...
Rachel Reeves is the third Labour chancellor of the exchequer be an MP in my home city. In earlier times, Hugh Gaitskell and Denis Healey both sat...
Gordon Brown famously brought his moral compass to the prime ministership. Boris Johnson, notoriously, did not. Under Keir Starmer, there is a...
Political speeches seem to fall like autumn leaves at this time of year. Speeches at party conferences. Speeches at leadership hustings and to the...
So the final Tory run-off, whose result will be announced on 2 November, will be between Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick. The one who thinks...
The widening of the Middle East war has a multiplicity of woeful causes and grim consequences. Many have the potential to become even more...
No iron law of politics says a government cannot recover from a bad early stumble. So don’t write Keir Starmer off too quickly because of the long...
Can the Liberal Democrats and Labour see themselves as allies in a common national project? Or are they fated to behave as rivals, always pursuing...
After a succession of victories, the governing party got a drubbing in the general election. This autumn, it must set out on the long, difficult...
On Tuesday, in the Downing Street garden, Keir Starmer delivered a grim, generation-defining warning that “things will get worse” for Britain. On...
“I believe in management’s right to manage – and I also believe in the trade unions’ right to stop them.” This combative adage has always been...
It’s a mandate to do politics differently, Keir Starmer announced after the general election. After the chaos of the Conservative years, those were...
Britain’s 2024 riots are a surprise national crisis. There was no particular buildup, no clearly discernible pressure cooker process. No one...
In the Britain of September 1939, it became known as the phoney war. Hitler had invaded Poland. War had been declared. For months, though, there...
The contest to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader may seem like an argument between corpses in a tomb. The candidates are yesterday’s...
Britain’s new government has just reached the point where things get serious. The king’s speech marks the ceremonial divide between Labour’s pinch-...