The inescapable logic of Labour’s choices

Starmer and Reeves should lean in to what the Budget reveals about this tax-and-spend government

07.11.2025 3

Robert Shrimsley

Carelessness costs political lives

Hypocrisy is a killer so don’t pass rules you can’t obey

01.11.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

Why Starmer can’t rely on a ‘stop Farage’ campaign

For all Labour’s belated muscularity on race and migration, it is not the winning card

31.10.2025 5

Robert Shrimsley

A defining crisis for Britain’s royals

The King should lean in to this moment as a chance for reform — and a wise prime minister would be advising him to do so

24.10.2025 40

Robert Shrimsley

The battle to dismantle Blair’s Britain

Conservatives’ biggest mistake was the adoption of the liberal agenda, the new right believes

09.10.2025 3

Robert Shrimsley

The high cost of breaking Labour’s promises

Sweeping tax commitments are foolish in an unpredictable world but abandoning them would be corrosive to democracy

03.10.2025 20

Robert Shrimsley

Starmer can’t afford to wait for reckless Reform to implode

Farage’s path to power is strewn with landmines planted by his own side

25.09.2025 2

Robert Shrimsley

When free speech evangelists lose the plot

Charlie Kirk’s deplorable murder has sent Republican hypocrisy on the subject rocketing

18.09.2025 20

Robert Shrimsley

Starmer is still captive to Labour’s contradictions

His challenges spring from unresolved tensions within his party and leadership

12.09.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

The curious incident of the Conservatives in the night

The case for Badenoch as leader was that she was charismatic and combative enough to win her party a hearing

05.09.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

Farage is winning the new battle of Brexit

Like it or not, the belief that mass immigration has gone too far is now mainstream

29.08.2025 20

Robert Shrimsley

Why the left can’t compete at populism

MPs Starmer exiled from Labour see the chance to ape Reform’s surge but the two sides are not symmetrical

08.08.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

The best case for Starmer’s ill-starred Palestine gambit

The diplomatic objectives of recognising a Palestinian state are even less likely to succeed than the domestic political ones

01.08.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

Starmer, Farage and the fight to own fairness

The right is proving better at connecting what it depicts as disconnected liberal attitudes to the unfairness of society

24.07.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

Politics faces its own AI reckoning

A new class of imperilled white-collar workers could radically reshape British democracy

18.07.2025 9

Robert Shrimsley

Britain is living beyond its means

No party looks truly ready to confront tax-resistant voters with some hard questions

10.07.2025 40

Robert Shrimsley

Crying for a lost Labour government

If the double act is no longer working, the core problem may not be Reeves

03.07.2025 6

Robert Shrimsley

A defeat Keir Starmer cannot afford

Retreat on welfare cuts would be an irrecoverable blow to the UK prime minister’s authority

26.06.2025 8

Robert Shrimsley

White British — the two words toxifying politics

Serious social issues, perceived and real, will not be fixed by supercharging racial grievance

20.06.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

Labour has made its big play. Are you not convinced?

We may look back ruefully on this government as one which did essential things but was unable to bank the political credit

12.06.2025 9

Robert Shrimsley

Reeves can no longer outrun Labour’s early choices

This government inherited a mess but it also hobbled itself with tax pledges and a plan dependent on higher growth

05.06.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

Nigel Farage and the perils of peaking too soon

With just five MPs, Reform UK is terrorising Westminster but holding a poll lead for four years isn’t easy

29.05.2025 6

Robert Shrimsley

Keir Starmer’s unreliable boyfriend problem

By opting for stealth radicalism and couching change in the rhetoric of the repairman, he sows confusion about his beliefs

22.05.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

Democracy’s downward spiral leaves Starmer no leeway on immigration

Broken promises played midwife to Brexit and are capable of powering Reform — or a Conservative facsimile — into office

15.05.2025 6

Robert Shrimsley

The foreign landscape of British politics

There may no longer be space for two major parties of the traditional middle after Reform’s disruption

08.05.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

The Conservative party is losing a fight to the death

Britain does not have a populist problem. It has an unpopularist problem

02.05.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

Reform surge shows Britain will keep voting for change till it sees it

Nigel Farage’s party is bolstered by disillusionment in the country rather than its policies

01.05.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

The right must fight before it can unite

An alliance between Reform UK and the Tories may be the final outcome but they must try to smash each other first

24.04.2025 5

Robert Shrimsley

So much for the Trump Brexit dividend

The US president’s tariffs on UK cars and other exports reveal the hollow promise of global Britain

10.04.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

The rule of law is democracy’s last defence

It’s no accident that populists from France to Wisconsin seek to undermine faith in the judiciary

03.04.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

The Trump backlash offers Starmer a mainstream moment

Prospect of reaching peak populism is an opportunity

13.03.2025 8

Robert Shrimsley

British politics has yet to catch up with Trump’s new order

In a world without US security guarantees, all other priorities must give way to defence

06.03.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

Can Starmer rise to meet his Bismarck moment?

Labour will use the geopolitical crisis to defy its own members about the new priorities for a rearming economy

27.02.2025 7

Robert Shrimsley

The Maga-fied right are missing Britain’s real crisis

It’s not a terminal moral malaise that’s blighting the country, it’s an economic one

20.02.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

Britain will not thrive in a might is right world

Attacks on attorney-general Lord Hermer illuminate a wider battle about how to defend UK interests

13.02.2025 10

Robert Shrimsley

Labour cannot afford to look like the status quo party

Keir Starmer’s style is too decorous to be seen as insurgent but that’s what the political moment calls for

06.02.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

The ‘conservative international’ battle with Britain

This time around, the Trump victory comes as the UK is vulnerable to potent arguments from the right

30.01.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

Murdoch’s money protects him even from princes

The media tycoon is happy to spend to contain a scandal — including in his legal battle with a British royal

23.01.2025 9

Robert Shrimsley

Ask not what your government can do for you

The instinct to over-intervene runs across the political spectrum

16.01.2025 4

Robert Shrimsley

Musk’s grooming onslaught shows politics needs a new playbook

Online distortions obscure the true nature of public outrage — democracies must adapt to the age of X

09.01.2025 20

Robert Shrimsley

Farage and why Badenoch does not have time to ‘watch this space’

Chatter about a Boris Johnson return illuminates the depth of the Conservative party’s funk

02.01.2025 8

Robert Shrimsley

Time for Keir Starmer to remember he is first lord of the Treasury

With growth at the heart of his policy platform, the prime minister is remarkably passive on the economy

19.12.2024 6

Robert Shrimsley

Keir Starmer and the Cummings consensus

The Tories fell short of their rhetoric — if the PM is following their path, he needs to learn why reform has failed in the past

12.12.2024 10

Robert Shrimsley

Donald Trump, the final facilitator of Brexit

Britain must relearn the art of the deal or risks being buffeted by big power politics

14.11.2024 10

Robert Shrimsley

Goodbye to low-tax Britain

One does not need to subscribe to hyperbolic Tory rhetoric to recognise that this Budget heralded a major shift

30.10.2024 4

Robert Shrimsley

Reeves should embrace the freedom of disapproval

The UK chancellor and PM Keir Starmer need to dispense with the excessive caution of opposition

25.10.2024 20

Robert Shrimsley

Why Tory leaders win the diversity challenge

The party’s recent record shows that Badenoch’s ascent to leadership favourite is no accident

17.10.2024 40

Robert Shrimsley

The battle of Labour’s three brains

Tensions between the priorities of working people and progressive supporters are now complicated by the Treasury

10.10.2024 8

Robert Shrimsley

The new Conservative class war

Badenoch’s attack on an overweening state seeks to imitate Thatcher’s case against the overmighty trade unions

03.10.2024 6

Robert Shrimsley

The British state is not fit for Starmer’s purpose

Labour ministers find that their newly active government stands on atrophying limbs

26.09.2024 10

Categories

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Popular

The inescapable logic of Labour’s choices

Robert Shrimsley

Carelessness costs political lives

Robert Shrimsley

Why Starmer can’t rely on a ‘stop Farage’ campaign

Robert Shrimsley

A defining crisis for Britain’s royals

Robert Shrimsley

The battle to dismantle Blair’s Britain

Robert Shrimsley

The high cost of breaking Labour’s promises

Robert Shrimsley

Starmer can’t afford to wait for reckless Reform to implode

Robert Shrimsley

When free speech evangelists lose the plot

Robert Shrimsley

Starmer is still captive to Labour’s contradictions

Robert Shrimsley

The curious incident of the Conservatives in the night

Robert Shrimsley

Farage is winning the new battle of Brexit

Robert Shrimsley

Why the left can’t compete at populism

Robert Shrimsley

The best case for Starmer’s ill-starred Palestine gambit

Robert Shrimsley

Starmer, Farage and the fight to own fairness

Robert Shrimsley

Politics faces its own AI reckoning

Robert Shrimsley

Britain is living beyond its means

Robert Shrimsley

Crying for a lost Labour government

Robert Shrimsley

A defeat Keir Starmer cannot afford

Robert Shrimsley

White British — the two words toxifying politics

Robert Shrimsley

Labour has made its big play. Are you not convinced?

Robert Shrimsley

Reeves can no longer outrun Labour’s early choices

Robert Shrimsley

Nigel Farage and the perils of peaking too soon

Robert Shrimsley

Keir Starmer’s unreliable boyfriend problem

Robert Shrimsley

Democracy’s downward spiral leaves Starmer no leeway on immigration

Robert Shrimsley

The foreign landscape of British politics

Robert Shrimsley

The Conservative party is losing a fight to the death

Robert Shrimsley

Reform surge shows Britain will keep voting for change till it sees it

Robert Shrimsley

The right must fight before it can unite

Robert Shrimsley

So much for the Trump Brexit dividend

Robert Shrimsley

The rule of law is democracy’s last defence

Robert Shrimsley

The Trump backlash offers Starmer a mainstream moment

Robert Shrimsley

British politics has yet to catch up with Trump’s new order

Robert Shrimsley

Can Starmer rise to meet his Bismarck moment?

Robert Shrimsley

The Maga-fied right are missing Britain’s real crisis

Robert Shrimsley

Britain will not thrive in a might is right world

Robert Shrimsley

Labour cannot afford to look like the status quo party

Robert Shrimsley

The ‘conservative international’ battle with Britain

Robert Shrimsley

Murdoch’s money protects him even from princes

Robert Shrimsley

Ask not what your government can do for you