Over the last few weeks I’ve been travelling up and down the East Coast, visiting places that already have Reform MPs, and places they are targeting in the upcoming local elections. You can find the other pieces below. I’ve saved the most interesting for last: Sunderland. I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m a Sunderland … Read more
Over the last few weeks I’ve travelled up and down the East Coast. It’s the tenth anniversary of Brexit, and with local elections looming, Reform are loudly predicting a string of victories. In some places they sound less like a political party and more like a touring production—same script, slightly different audience each night. Hull … Read more
Small boat crossings are falling. They are down around 40% in April 2026 compared to the same month last year, and down roughly 38% so far this year. That makes nearly nine months of sustained decline. More strikingly, the pace of that decline is increasing — from around 30% in the latter part of 2025, … Read more
Starmer has survived a key vote in the House over the Mandelson affair. This isn’t a shock. Contrary to the popular press and the internet, he was never likely to lose. I don’t normally comment on people or events. Normally I stick to rather policies, but this affair does reveal some important things about how … Read more
Kent is one of Reform’s flagship councils. With the local elections coming up I wanted to talk about areas where Refrom control the local authority and their track record. Kent County Council governs one of the largest populations of any local authority in England. It sits at the top of a two-tier system — county, … Read more
It’s ten years since the Brexit vote, and over the last few weeks I’ve been visiting towns along the East Coast. Some — Clacton, Great Yarmouth, Skegness — have already elected Reform MPs. Others are targets in the next round of local elections. I worked in Redcar and Cleveland for a decade, in the NHS, … Read more
There are two very different ways of looking at Hartlepool. The first is the lurid headline version — the kind of thing you might find in the Sun, focusing on obesity, ill health, decline. The second is less obvious: Northern Studios, the largest film and television production facility in the North East, part of the … Read more
There is a structural problem in modern politics that we don’t talk about enough. Markets move on information. Governments create information. And in an age of erratic communication, that information is often released in ways that are unpredictable, informal, and badly timed. Take Donald Trump. One of the defining features of his recent presidency has … Read more
