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Rafael Behr

Rafael Behr

The Guardian

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There’s a gaping hole at the centre of the Tory party where ideas should be. The risk is Liz Truss will fill it

It would be charitable to ignore Liz Truss. Attention is her addiction and any dose, even laced with scorn, sustains the toxic belief that she has...

previous day 10

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

When Rishi Sunak speaks, the nation shrugs. There’s no coming back from that

Rishi Sunak is not a deep-cover agent of the Labour party, but politics might not look very different if the prime minister were on a secret mission...

10.04.2024 30

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

First Dog on the Moon A fire ant and a feral horse walk into a bar …

03.04.2024 30

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Frenzied politics is damaging to us all. We need the Daniel Kahneman doctrine

Here is a simple maths problem: together a bat and ball cost £1.10. The bat costs one pound more than the ball. How much is the ball? It doesn’t...

03.04.2024 80

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

There is a far bigger threat to Britain than fringe extremists: Tory radicalisation

When Thomas Mair was arrested for the murder of Jo Cox MP in 2016, he told police he was a “political activist”. Asked to identify himself in...

13.03.2024 80

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Even Tory voters won’t be fooled by the tax cuts in Jeremy Hunt’s fairytale budget

It is one of the standard nightmares. An unseen predator is bearing down on you but your legs won’t move. Terror surges up from your lungs but you...

06.03.2024 40

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Islamophobia and antisemitism in UK politics have a grim, exhausting symmetry

People who don’t join political parties imagine that membership is an expression of opinions held in common. It starts that way, but over time,...

28.02.2024 90

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

‘Get the Tories out’ will carry the election, but it won’t fix the faultlines of a broken politics

A reliable test of a party’s campaign readiness is the pub justification question. Imagine friends having a drink on the eve of polling. Like most...

21.02.2024 50

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Europe and the US are drifting further apart – and Britain will be left to flounder

Nine months is a long time to hold your breath. The identity of the next US president won’t be known until 6 November, but already the prospect of...

14.02.2024 90

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Keir Starmer’s method has worked so far – now begins his toughest test

The sky was reliably clear over May Day parades in the Soviet Union, not because it never rains in Moscow but because the Kremlin would order the...

07.02.2024 10

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Tories fret about a nanny state – but with decay all around, voters want politicians who step in

Nicotine is a brilliantly malevolent molecule. It stimulates reward receptors in the brain that light up with satisfaction at a job well done. The...

31.01.2024 20

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Keir Starmer turned his back on Europe. A Trump revival should force a rethink

British prime ministers do not, as a matter of protocol, express preferred outcomes in US elections. But there is no convention limiting the number of...

24.01.2024 10

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Nigel Farage is circling. His aim? To pick apart the carcass of a withered Tory party

A quiz question for politics nerds: what connects Eastleigh, Salisbury, Bexhill and Battle, South Thanet, Bromley and Chislehurst, Buckingham and –...

16.01.2024 2

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Keir Starmer dodging Tory traps is a sign of good judgment, not timidity

Britain is a country that tends to elect Conservative governments, while trending towards Labour. There is a tension in that condition, making the...

10.01.2024 10

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

In Britain and the US, elections signify democracy. They also mask its decline

This year, countries with a combined population of about 4 billion – half of all the people in the world – will hold elections. That would be...

03.01.2024 60

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Britain needs rescuing from the Tory cult of immaculate sovereignty

There is an ingenious remedy to the deepening crisis engulfing Rishi Sunak. The prime minister could pass an act of parliament declaring that the...

12.12.2023 3

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Why does the spirit of Remain survive? Because it is about so much more than Brexit

If there had never been a referendum on EU membership, Britain would still be divided between “remainers” and “leavers”. They would just be...

06.12.2023 20

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Rwanda is a proxy in the war for the Tory soul. It’s a war Rishi Sunak is losing

Rishi Sunak will not “stop the boats” carrying asylum seekers across the Channel. He still promotes that general ambition, but with synthetic...

29.11.2023 40

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Hunt’s budget may be economic fantasy, but he’s set a political trap for Labour

Another week, another front opens in the Conservative party’s multipronged campaign against facts. In Wednesday’s autumn statement, Jeremy Hunt...

22.11.2023 8

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

David Cameron’s Tory party is dead – and its ghost can’t save Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak’s decision to bring David Cameron back into government is a bold act of surrender. It is an admission that the only way out of the mess...

15.11.2023 8

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

In his speech, King Charles spoke of ‘my government’. Well, it certainly isn’t ours

Among the many silly splendours in the state opening of parliament, one detail conveys the weirdness of British democracy more precisely than the...

07.11.2023 5

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Rishi Sunak’s vanity jamboree on AI safety lays bare the UK’s Brexit dilemmas

Who is the more trustworthy custodian of machines capable of diverting the course of human civilisation: Elon Musk or the Chinese Communist party?...

01.11.2023 40

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Mired in trivia, British political discourse is utterly unfit for times of war

There is not enough argument in British politics, although there is no shortage of dispute. Maybe the distinction is pedantic. The two words can be...

19.10.2023 100

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Starmer’s vision silenced Labour sceptics – but disillusioned voters will be a much tougher crowd

C ombine confidence of success with dread of disappointment, and you get the nervous excitement at Labour’s annual conference this week. On paper,...

10.10.2023 5

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Mad, bad and dangerous to know: we are witnessing the Tories’ final descent into absurdity

T he Conservatives have embraced the spirit of opposition with the arrogance of a party that is used to being in government. Their conference in...

04.10.2023 20

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Trump on trial The Trump tale takes a new twist and it’s a real turn up for the books

28.09.2023 7

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Sunak says he is making decisions for the long term, but that’s his vanity talking. He’s failing and he knows it

R ishi Sunak has been an MP since 2015 and has never known the indignity of opposition, or even the frustration of a slow track to ministerial office....

28.09.2023 7

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Getting a better Brexit deal means making Britain European again

A perverse consensus is emerging in British politics that simultaneously accepts and denies that Brexit has failed. The prime minister and the leader...

20.09.2023 5

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

Keir Starmer’s caution may be frustrating, but it’s right. Voters no longer trust big promises

P rime minister might not be the hardest job in Britain, but it combines the highest level of responsibility with the lowest barrier to entry for...

13.09.2023 100

The Guardian

Rafael Behr

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