December 8th 2023
We’re all born naked and the rest is drag
It takes charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent to become Prime Minister, normally. It also takes ambition. You have to really, really want it in order to get it. The hoops through which you will have...
November 13th 2023
Ghosts of Christmas Past
Back in October, Rishi Sunak claimed - to a slightly baffled Conservative Party Conference audience - that his government was a change government. Politics had been broken for thirty years. Rishi and his band of...
November 3rd 2023
Broken State
In shocking news to us all, it was revealed, this week that our government was almost comically badly run during the pandemic. We say ‘almost comically’ because when one sets aside the mutual loathing, the...
October 20th 2023
The Only Thing They Fear Is You
Today’s by-election results are un-spinnably terrible for the Conservative Party. Yes, Greg Hands might be bouncing around TV studios putting a brave (courageous, Sir Humphrey might say) face on it. But make no mistake, Tamworth...
October 11th 2023
A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be
Keir Starmer made the intent of his leader’s speech explicitly clear at the outset and in the surrounding briefings. His plan for Labour had always had three, distinct stages. First, he wanted to fix the...
October 6th 2023
A New Flower of Scotland
If you find yourself on the Glasgow to Liverpool train today, don’t be surprised if you find a couple of battle-hardened Labour activists popping the M&S prosecco amongst the ubiquitous hen dos and lads weekends...
October 5th 2023
Rogue Trader
Imagine your house needs an extension. You find a builder, you commission plans, you battle your council for permission, and you’re ready to go. Down comes your back wall, the kitchen is stripped out, foundations...
September 22nd 2023
Any Old Iron
How many bins is too many bins? Rishi Sunak believes the answer to that crucial question is ‘7’. And now that he is Prime Minister he is very clear that he will wield his power...
September 4th 2023
Back to School
Another brick in the wall
After the summer season of exam results, today the moment finally came when the shadow front bench were presented with their grades by Head Master Starmer....
July 21st 2023
A Swing and a Miss
By-elections don’t really tell you anything about the likely outcome of a general election, except when they do. There are a range of factors that might make one take the results in Selby, Somerton and...
July 7th 2023
Super-Massive Black Hole
Sometimes, however unfairly, the past cannot be kept in the past. It rears its ugly head in the mirror - often at the moment it is least welcome. This is as true in politics as...
June 23rd 2023
“I’m totally, 100% on it.”
Not, this time, fizzy beverages for our self-declared “total Coke addict” PM. No. This week, Sunak has been reassuring the nation - in the style of a particularly desperate Apprentice contestant - that he is...
June 9th 2023
Lodestone Political Note – Long Road Ahead
Most of us have been there. Sat in the tranquil, a little too quiet living room of the very nice home off to which an elderly relative has been shipped. Trying not to let the...
