Labour
Swing time
The age of two-party politics is over: we know that because everyone keeps saying so. We are entering an era…
Miliband vs Millwall
I’ve been trying to think of a good football analogy to describe the battle between the two main parties as…
The election result that everyone expects – and no one wants
To form a coalition, David Cameron had to give up the Prime Ministerial prerogative to determine when the election was…
Why are so many men dieting? I blame feminism
According to Jenni Russell, my colleague at the Times, David Cameron has lost 13lb since Christmas, mainly by giving up…
Salmond’s plan for Miliband
‘Would you like a glass of pink champagne?’ asks Alex Salmond at 3.30 p.m., sounding very much like a man…
Why we lie to ourselves about opinion polls
A strange ritual takes place on Twitter most evenings at around 10.30 p.m. Hundreds of political anoraks start tweeting the…
Why no one’s telling the truth about Scotland
What a load of mendacious balls everybody talks about Scotland. It’s like a disease. It’s like, you know how they…
Healthy ambition
Andy Burnham on the NHS, ‘mainstream Labour’ and his party’s leadership
Healing the NHS
To adapt Aeschylus’s aphorism on war and truth, the first casualty in a general election campaign is objectivity. Over the…
The not-very-general election
There’s normally an easy way to tell which party is losing a general election campaign. Whenever one side starts telling…
Divided we fall
A landslide for the SNP will inevitably lead to the end of the Union
The writing on the wall
It is a common prejudice about modern politics that it is all focus groups and spin, all public relations and…
The myth of the ‘London effect’
I suppose we should be thankful that Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged there’s a problem with Scotland’s public education system, even…
How Labour lost Scotland (and could lose the Union)
Just four months ago Scotland was the scene of great cross-party co-operation — unprecedented in peace-time politics. Gordon Brown was…
The proof is in the league tables, Mr Hunt
For a brief moment earlier this week, I thought education might become an issue in the general election campaign. The…
Let posh people run the arts – if it means they stop running the country
What should we do with James Blunt? This is what I have been asking myself. And I am not looking…
Tony’s toxic legacy
Labour's attitude to wealth is sliding back into the 1970s - and Tony Blair's new career is one reason why
How Greek voters will decide Britain’s general election
Before the eurozone crisis, Greek elections didn’t receive much attention in Westminster. At the moment, however, the polls from Athens…
The election where everyone loses
Whatever happens on 7 May, both main party leaders face disaster
Cameron’s winning hand
Almost exactly five years ago, the Conservatives fired the starting gun for a general election — and shot themselves in…
Balkans ballyhoo
A masterpiece at the National. A masterpiece of persuasion and bewitchment. Croatian word-athlete Tena Stivicic has miraculously convinced director Howard…
The age of indecision
A recent email from Samantha Cameron started an intriguing debate in the Prime Minister’s social circle. It was an invitation…
What’s behind the Boris show?
To interview the Mayor of London is to witness an extraordinary performance
Scotland’s unwon cause
The successful launch of a nationalist newspaper shows just how much trouble the Union is still in
Tackling Jim Murphy
The author of a rather brilliant little book about football could just hold the key to Labour’s otherwise negligible prospects…
