America has just withdrawn its B-1 bombers from their base at RAF Fairford, retreating in the face of a threat that remains unclear. Nobody has shot the bombers down, nobody has attacked the base and Iran denies that it was planning to do so. But intelligence suggesting that the aircraft and the people operating them … Read more
Tomorrow the Conservative Party conference starts in Birmingham. To prepare for it I have been reading one of the most significant political texts of the last decade, a book which I think is essential to understanding the modern British right. It is Liz Truss’s autobiography, Ten Years to Save the West. Its subtitle is Lessons … Read more
It is Andy Burnham’s first Labour conference as PM. The big headline is that he wants social care to be free at the point of use, and that some, but not by any means all, of the funding will come from scaling back the pensions triple lock. At first sight, this sounds like an obviously … Read more
When I moved back to the UK from Spain last year, two things struck me. Every British city centre smells of weed. Brits are angry, and they are at their angriest behind the wheel of a car. I have written before about how the UK quietly decriminalised weed. Theresa May cut police budgets, police forces … Read more
There is some good news coming for your electricity bill next week. From 1 October the government is temporarily abolishing the 5% VAT charged on domestic electricity. The Treasury reckons that will save the average household about £45 a year. Unfortunately, on precisely the same day, the energy price cap is going up. From October … Read more
It’s September and the students are going back to Uni. Half a million new graduates will be getting their student loan documents. I have been writing about student loans for a while. Back in 2018 I wrote The Great Student Loans Swindle, followed a month later by Student Loans Swindle 2: Cash from Chaos. Earlier … Read more
I went to school in Durham. Belmont Comp, then Durham Johnston. Durham High School for Girls was posh. Prim green uniforms. This will be the first year since the late nineteenth century that there isn’t a new intake at DHS. It closed over the summer, following a takeover by a Chinese education company. There are … Read more
Something fairly fundamental is about to change in British politics. For the last few decades Britain has operated a slightly odd system for financing politics. We restrict how much political parties can spend during elections. We require larger donations to be declared. We restrict who is allowed to donate. But once someone qualifies as a … Read more
