Boris Johnson
The Tories, Islam, and the importance of pluralism
The Conservatives will be relieved that an independent investigation has not found the party to be institutionally racist, though relief…
What will Cummings say?
As the government puts the final touches to its social distancing review and Foreign Office ministers ponder the best response…
Boris’s Tory enemies don’t know how lucky they are
It is often said that most Conservative MPs have a highly ‘transactional’ relationship with Boris Johnson. The inference is that…
Promises, promises
Charles Péguy’s adage that everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics is sharply illustrated by the development of the…
Will the 21 June easing go ahead?
The roadmap out of lockdown is the signature document of Boris Johnson’s new team in No. 10. It’s intended to…
Level
‘I must level with you, level with the British public, many more families are going to lose loved ones.’ That…
Sir Keir was defeated by his own strategy at PMQs
The great thing about being trashed in the polls is that the tiniest improvement looks like a triumphant comeback. At…
Boris’s levelling up risks leaving behind London
Boris Johnson’s plan to ‘level up’ Britain sounds long overdue. It implies the creation of a less geographically unequal United…
Can Boris keep his roadmap on track?
Boris Johnson’s favourite phrase since he released his roadmap out of lockdown has been ‘cautious but irreversible’. These are the…
Why the Tories mustn’t give in to the Nimbys
A 15-point YouGov poll lead and last week’s election performance suggests that things look good for the Tories in England.…
The problem with ‘Devo-max’
A common failing of pro-Union politicians down the years has been the stubborn belief that there exists somewhere a tidy…
Boris faces a painful choice over social care
If social care reform were any deeper in the long grass of political priorities, it’d probably get mistaken for a…
Sadiq Khan’s victory is good news for the Tories
Sadiq Khan is here to stay. London’s mayor has suggested he wants to stay on until 2040. But is this really good…
Starmer is Labour’s Iain Duncan Smith
After a gruelling election campaign the most important thing to do is to have a rest and have a think. Everyone…
The ‘mandate wars’ won’t be resolved anytime soon
So what does it all mean? The first thing to bear in mind is that more than one thing may…
Can the UK government navigate the SNP’s calls for a second referendum?
The Unionist tactical voting in Scotland makes it tempting to see the country as split down the middle between pro-independence…
Who regulates the regulators?
This isn’t about David Cameron and Greensillgate; it isn’t about Boris Johnson and wallpapergate or Jennifer-Arcurigate. It isn’t about Westferrygate…
Parent trap
Welcome to the cripplingly expensive world of childcare, Boris
Diary
By the time you read this you may know if the Tories triumphed in the Hartlepool by-election — or if,…
Data, not dates
A slogan can come back to haunt you. For Boris Johnson, the words ‘data not dates’ sounded powerful at a…
Boris shouldn’t take the red wall vote for granted
There are two popular reactions to the Hartlepool by-election, which one you favour depending largely on your political tribe. The…
My truth
I heard them rowing again this morning, look you. I had just completed my first dump of the day in…
Diary
I spent much of the 1980s and 1990s reporting on company chief executives who didn’t understand the distinction between mine…
Designer’s notebook
Zut alors! The court of King Boris gets more like Versailles each day. With some talcum powder on that ramshackle…
Welcome to the Office of the First Girlfriend
One of the least attractive aspects of American politics is epitomised in the ‘Office of the First Lady’. The office…
