September 24th 2018
We’re Not in Kansas
The Wizard of Oz was - before its salvation via Judy Garland - a popular but cranky extended allegory for a niche conspiracy theory. L. Frank Baum - the creator of Oz and of...
September 17th 2018
This Charming Man
Aung San Suu Kyi has a Nobel Peace Prize. Morrissey created a hymnal to the sorrows of working class difference. Harvey Weinstein has quite a few Oscar winners to his name. It is possible...
September 3rd 2018
Bomb First (My Second Reply)
Is this how it will be forever? Week in, week out. Like films in the Saw horror franchise or the Changing of the Guard? Boris Johnson - former London Mayor, former Foreign Secretary, former...
July 18th 2018
Sugar, We're Going Down
The phenomenon of dynamic equilibrium is one that we are all familiar with even though we may not think about it much. When you add sugar to a glass of water the sugar dissolves. All...
June 15th 2018
When The Levee Breaks
No-one likes a know-it-all and ‘told you so’ are three of the least popular words in the English language but, still, the PM can’t say she wasn’t warned. Irreconcilable promises always - always - find...
June 13th 2018
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Recent studies have demonstrated that prolonged periods of financial insecurity can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. People who live on the breadline - not knowing from one day to the next how they will feed...
June 12th 2018
The Unlucky General
Relentlessly, right up to the line, 2017 continues to surprise and unsettle. Damian Green believed that he was in the clear. So did many of his colleagues and sources close to the Prime Minister. But...
May 25th 2018
Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again?
Michael Gove thinks that the Chancellor is getting in the way of a ‘green Brexit’. Jacob Rees-Mogg is worried that it has started to look like Theresa May ‘doesn’t want to Brexit’ at all. Greg...
May 4th 2018
Daydream Believers
From the outside, apocalyptic movements are hard to comprehend or understand. Repeated promises that the ‘end is nigh’, often with a specific date attached, lead to nought. The world keeps turning and apocalypse keeps being...
March 8th 2018
A New Morning?
Well, they did it. After months of speculation that Nigel Farage and his supporters were over-egging their chances of topping the Euros, UKIP proved that it wasn’t hubris after all. They won on vote share...
February 1st 2018
Victory on a Plate?
As Team GB goes for gold – and the UK focuses on winners and losers – press attention is turning back to politics and the condition of the Coalition. Like a fragile cracked vase, the...
February 1st 2018
Dizzy! My Head Is Spinning
As ever, Prime Minister Theresa May is battling a leadership crisis this week. Rumours abound that the Chair of the 1922 Committee is getting perilously close to having enough letters of no confidence in...
December 5th 2017
The Walls Are Closing In
Theresa May is running out of choices. This is happening because of the choices that she once made. The clock is ticking on our negotiations with the EU, because Theresa May triggered Article 50 sooner...
November 23rd 2017
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right
Philip Hammond was once - very recently, in fact - a politician basically in touch with the consensus of his age. Mildly pro remaining in the EU, enthusiastic about balancing the budget, keen on the...
November 9th 2017
Play It Again, Sam
This is the Groundhog Day Government. Another week, another scandal, another minor reshuffle to paper over the cracks. Lessons learned? None. Hope of avoiding repetition? Zilch. Theresa May is doomed to go from one...