|
Anne McelvoyThe Guardian |
The relief in Rishi Sunak’s circle in the early hours of the morning was palpable: a victory in a long battle to pass legislation that the Prime...
Say what you like about the Conservative Party, but it is certainly a drama-comedy series which keeps on running, and is never short of spicy new...
The Prime Minister is often described as a passionless political creature – a technocrat who can juggle spreadsheet numbers and sift to game the...
The hostile relationship between Iran and Israel is a cauldron which, when it boils over, poses a grave escalation threat across the Middle East. That...
It now looks like a matter of “when” not “if” Iran launches a retaliation attack on Israel – payback for an air strike on the Iranian...
If you have been as absorbed as I am by Netflix’s stylishly grim Ripley remake, you will be sharing the twin sense of luxuriant fascination with the...
Britain’s response to Israel’s war on Hamas is at a precarious point. The coming days will sorely test the resolve and agility of the UK’s...
Wars have no respect for our short attention spans. While the Israel-Gaza conflict has ignited heated protests across Western capitals, with a mass...
It was going to be May and now it isn’t. But it could be June – perhaps. This week, the buzz among some of the fractious Tory MPs heading off for...
My formative journalistic years were spent reporting on the final freeze of the cold war – days of hard times and soft currencies. When I return to...
First they tore up Parisian streets in tractors and terrified the French political elite into scuppering free trade deals. Then, via Brussels protests...
Fate deals a rough hand to royal clans as randomly as it does ordinary mortals. The difference is that the monarchy is a professional “firm” as...
Two contrasting strands of opinion zone in on predictive demographics as pointing to a future they either fear or would like to bring about. One set...
If there is one comparison likely to land a politician in hot water with both ends of the political spectrum, it is comparing their intentions with...
Political claims to the moral high ground are treacherous territory – one that can swiftly give way to an ethical quagmire. And so it has proved in...
The “Red Wall“, so dramatically demolished in the post-Brexit rout of 2019, has been rebuilt with greater speed than most British infrastructure...
Somehow, there is always Boris. Limelight is the natural setting for a man who, as his biographer describes him in a new Channel 4 documentary,...
More than any other Cabinet ministers, chancellors tread in the ghostly footsteps of the No 11 inhabitants who went before them. And so, in the run-up...
Who’s sorry now? The Lee Anderson affair was intended to be a storm that would retreat after a talking to from the whips, a grumpy retreat by...
Where is the uncrossable line in the growing culture wars surrounding Gaza protests? The latest outrage – or defiant stand, depending on your view...
There are days when Britain’s parliament is a model of cut-and-thrust debate and memorable exchanges conducted with zingers and good humour....
Election horns are tooting, the blood is up – and the hunt is on for rural votes. It is a battlefield that has seen a Tory retreat which Labour...
When does a pre-election “chicken run” become a mass participation event for Tory MPs? The Parkrun of politics is under way, as MPs, reeling from...
The Munich Security Conference is one of the odder pitstops on relentless circuit of global decision-makers. Located in a hotel in the middle of the...
By-elections are seen as bellwethers of national political trends – the equivalent of the water diviner’s twitching rod. Just as often though,...
It has become evident that King Charles’s illness – and the gruelling nature of the cancer therapies which will hopefully cure it – has thrust...
Sometimes the bear traps of politics are signposted with a big yellow arrow. Sometimes, they come in the cunning form of a matey exchange on a Piers...
It is one thing for the Government to find itself locked in combat with the Supreme Court, “leftie” human rights lawyers, NGOs and political...
Leadership contests that look like sudden death-or-glory do not begin when the participants hit the starting blocks. More often, they are foreshadowed...
For a “secret” plot, it has made an awful lot of noise. The “Sheekey coup” allegedly cooked up over fish dishes at a pricey London restaurant,...
Is the BBC biased? Even the Cabinet seems divided on this question, which plagues the national broadcaster with renewed vigour as the future of its...
The Rishi riddle is preoccupying Tories emerging from the January slump into a fierce bout of pre-election hostilities, which will set the tone and...
Five deaths of migrants fleeing Iraq and Syria and setting off from the French coast for Britain this weekend was a desolate return to “business as...
Check out Rishi Sunak’s Wikipedia page and the description is “Prime Minister of the United Kingdom”. Like all the best titles, it is simple –...
The new year signals more suffering for the besieged people of Gaza as Israel’s military trains its fire on rooting out Hamas by widening its...
What a difference the prospect of a new year containing a general election makes. Labour’s asylum and immigration proposal is a prime example of a...
What a difference the prospect of a new year containing a general election makes. Labour’s asylum and immigration proposal is a prime example of a...
A bracing new wind is blowing through New Broadcasting House as the chairman elect, Samir Shah, prepares to take up the role and runs straight into a...
Three former chart-topping politicians are back for the revival tour at the end of 2023. All of them had their fortunes decided by the Brexit...
How much immigration does the Government think is beneficial to the UK? The answer reveals an astonishing amount of ideological diversity in the...
The single most influential metric for the country’s wellbeing is in a gloomy state. Lest we doubt it, the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew...
Science and politics are never easy bedfellows. The first is essentially an analysis of what is known and what is not, giving us the evidence to make...