Should Labour apologise for courting Russell Brand?
Should Labour have courted Russell Brand more than a decade ago? And should the party apologise now that he has…
Andy Burnham had nothing to say at PMQs
Andy Burnham put in a poor performance at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions. He had a slightly plodding delivery, which didn’t…
Andy Burnham is learning how difficult doctors can be
Andy Burnham has today completed another rite of passage for modern prime ministers: trying to persuade doctors not to go…
Parliament needs HR
Is Tony Vaughan a bully or not? If you’d listened to the Labour MP for Folkestone and Hythe’s personal statement…
Louise Haigh shuns detail in first PMQs outing
Louise Haigh’s first outing as Andy Burnham’s stand-in at Prime Minister’s Questions today was assured and pretty successful. She looked…
How was Q Manivannan able to be elected on a student visa?
Members of the Scottish Parliament seemed genuinely surprised when this year’s Holyrood elections returned a new MSP who, it turned…
The Tories are still being tripped up by their own legacy
The Conservatives should be landing some pretty painful hits on Labour at the moment, given the Budget has gone down…
Kemi Badenoch had an annoyingly good PMQs
Kemi Badenoch had an annoyingly good Prime Minister’s Questions today: annoying for her, because no one will remember it. The…
Do MPs still care about the Commons?
Do MPs really care about parliament? Last week, the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle erupted in fury over Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh’s…
When police officers become desensitised to death
Paul Hardcastle’s son, Paul Jr, was dead when three police officers arrived on the scene of his fatal crash in…
Will Burnham’s war on small irritations pay off?
Is Andy Burnham’s obsession with the small things that annoy voters really going to pay off? Sure, cracking down on…
Badenoch and Burnham seemed to enjoy sparring at PMQs
Andy Burnham had a reasonably easy Prime Minister’s Questions today. He didn’t produce any embarrassingly quotable slogans about national security…
Why are ministers ignoring the Covid inquiry?
The latest Covid inquiry report barely caused a ripple in Westminster yesterday. It’s not just that this is the sixth…
Are Andy Burnham’s loose lips becoming a problem?
Andy Burnham was already notorious before he became Prime Minister for flip-flopping, but what was less obvious until recently was…
Burnham isn’t as tedious as Starmer. But he’s getting there
Both Kemi Badenoch and Andy Burnham had their tails up at Prime Minister’s Questions today. The two main party leaders…
On mental health treatment, the middle ground is right
British healthcare moves in pendulum swings between one extreme and another, often without much material improvement for patients. Just look…
Why Labour doesn’t want to talk about NHS waiting lists
Remember NHS waiting lists? They used to be a political priority for the Labour government, which would claim it was…
Why won’t Burnham release the Neets report?
Why has Andy Burnham delayed the publication of Alan Milburn’s review into Neets until after the Budget? The review is…
The Tory party has a long way to go before it’s election-ready
This year’s Conservative party conference contains a number of examples of a party having some genuinely original thoughts, rather than…
The urgent questions Burnham still needs to answer
Andy Burnham gave Labour activists fire in their bellies at the Labour party conference this week, showing them emotion and…
Burnham’s tears alone won’t push through social care reform
Normally when politicians really cry, it’s because they’re on their way out of a big job, rather than just getting…
The problem with Burnham’s specialist rape courts pledge
The meltdown in the criminal justice system has been particularly egregious for victims of rape and sexual violence. They have…
Rebranding net zero is daft
Would renaming the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero really make it easier for the government to persuade the…
Why the Lucy Letby Inquiry won’t change the NHS
It’s unlikely the families of the babies Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering at the Countess of Chester Hospital will…
Welfare reform will not save Andy Burnham
Andy Burnham repeatedly claims that he can fund defence using savings from the welfare budget – just not the ‘crude…
