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![]() Simon JenkinsThe Guardian |
Politics never ends. Today the selection begins of the leader of the opposition and thus possibly the next British prime minister. The pollsters’...
Boring. That was the universal response to Wednesday’s first prime minister’s questions of the new parliament. Where was the screaming, yelling,...
Kamala Harris is now the frontrunner to be the Democratic party’s candidate for the most powerful job in the world. She appears sorely...
Outside Glastonbury last month, festivalgoers might have caught sight of David Cameron’s- policy of planning de-regulation in action, sprawling...
When Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, a few foreign events were arranged to glamorise his arrival. He visited a Nato summit and promised to spend...
You can grieve over the bodies, the coffins, the funeral rites, but the worst aftermath of death is the autopsy. Who, or what, was to blame? Focus...
For the next two years, the best job in British politics will be leader of the opposition. The first two years is usually the honeymoon period for an...
To tax or not to tax? Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private schools seemed a good idea at the time. Its programme was bereft of leftist clout. The...
Is Nigel Farage guilty as charged? An appeaser, a disgrace, an apologist for Putin, an insult to Ukraine, says a chorus of British party leaders on...
What do Britons most love about Britain? At the last count it was still the NHS. After that it was not the royal family, the army or democracy....
Smash him. Go for the jugular. Take the gloves off and hit him with the big one. We have nothing to lose. A sure sign of political panic is when the...
A Japanese developer has announced it will demolish a new tower of luxury flats in Tokyo it was weeks from completing. The reason? The 10-storey...
Attacks on Rishi Sunak for cutting short his attendance at the D-day commemoration have been overblown. His early return home was a presentational...
This is the wail of the floating voter. I start every election a deliberate floater. An open mind staves off tedium. The only alternative is going on...
“Guilty”, screamed the one-word headline in the New York Times last week, dripping with undisguised glee. Howls of contempt descended on Donald...
They could as well have felled Big Ben, drained the Serpentine or butchered the ravens in the Tower. No more daily print edition of the Evening...
Rishi Sunak’s reinvention of national service is a desperate, last-minute election gimmick. But that does not make it a bad idea. If there is one...
We are told the focus groups are clear as a bell. No, Labour’s Keir Starmer is not exhilarating. No, the economy is not screaming for new...
The Julian Assange farce has run its time. He should be left to return to his homeland of Australia. Yet another appeal against successive British...
There is one test of a true radical. It is not a quest for revolution in politics, philosophy, art or religion. The challenge lies in the realm of...
Rishi Sunak is talking rubbish to win votes. He warns today that the next few years will be among the most terrifying and “transformative” the...
The Garrick Club’s vote this week in favour of admitting women as members mattered. It mattered – and was the subject of widespread public debate...
England’s 12 “metro mayors” should be abolished. Metro mayorships are artificial creations whose regional geography rarely reflects any civic...
To gain admission to the local church school near my home, parents were always advised to attend church. Otherwise, they were told, they should try...
How much money should go to those given infected blood in the 1970s and 80s? And how much to the wronged subpost office operators? Such questions...
Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging...
Almost everyone agrees the government’s Rwanda bill is a bad idea. Its effects on deterring immigration will be trivial. It fails to show that...
Just because Liz Truss and Boris Johnson – both opposed to the government’s proposed new smoking ban – hold a belief does not make it wrong....
Britain’s use of its air force to defend Israel against Iran at the weekend was an emphatic intervention in the war in Gaza. It was more than...
There should be a general election now. The agony of British politics is growing too much to bear. The morbidity of the Tory government is too...
Poor old Foreign Office. The imperial roar has become a squeak. All the wrong pictures adorn its walls, and the wrong attitudes its mindset. And now...
It is right that expressions of hatred against groups based on race and ethnicity are illegal. Whether these laws have ended hatred or merely driven...
Do clubs matter? Yes, to their members, and clearly yes to those they exclude. When Alexis de Tocqueville compared American democracy with British, he...
Once upon a time Britain would have sent a gunboat up the Yangtze River. That would teach those Chinese a lesson. To hear some MPs talk about...
The west’s derisive reporting of Vladimir Putin’s election victory this week was a mark of his success. It was described as an abuse of democracy,...
There are many good reasons for Rishi Sunak to postpone a general election. All are about reducing his party’s potential loss of seats. There is...
Guess which public service is hardly ever mentioned in stories about austerity? The answer is prisons. Last week, prison governors were told by the...
Not since Trotsky vanished from the Soviet politburo portrait has photo-editing caused such a storm. What dark secrets lie behind the daughter’s...
Donald Trump is certain to be the Republican candidate in this year’s election for US president. He is also currently favourite to win. To most...
The German armed forces are mad. The leaking by Moscow of a 38-minute discussion between the head of the Luftwaffe and senior officers on sending...
This article contains spoilers about the final episode of The Jury: Murder Trial Should juries be abolished? Last night’s Channel 4 docudrama of a...
Rishi Sunak’s high-profile announcement of projects to be apparently funded by killing the northern leg of HS2 is a gem of political cynicism. He...
The most exhilarating view in Britain is to be abolished. A high court judge this week brought a 30-year battle over Stonehenge to a conclusion by...
Every country walker knows the cry. Where the hell is the footpath? A right of way with no signpost is not a legal right at all. It is an invitation...
King Charles has cancer. Coverage of this story in the days since the announcement has been funereal. Daily bulletins are issued. Heads of state send...