Inside the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship I attended another far-right meeting this week. This one didn’t feature skinheads, St George’s flags or chants outside a hotel. Instead there were smart suits, venture capitalists, cabinet ministers, think tank directors and some of the most influential figures on the international conservative right. It was the Alliance for … Read more
We woke up 10 years ago to discover Britain had voted to leave the EU. For many a day of national humiliation. I started writing Industrial Estate of Mind shortly after the Brexit vote. At the time I was working just outside Durham in an area that had been solidly Labour for generations but had … Read more
There have been some noisy headlines about chaos in councils where Reform won seats last month: resignations, council meetings in disarray, councillors disappearing on holiday en masse. Durham became a Reform-controlled council last year, and I finally managed to catch some Reform councillors in action. I had spent months trying to speak to, photograph or … Read more
Another summer and, once again, another riot. By now the pattern is becoming familiar. A tragedy occurs involving a white victim and a non-white perpetrator. The victim’s family appeals for calm and asks that their loss should not be used to fuel racial hatred. The appeal is ignored. “We want to use Henry’s heartbreaking story … Read more
People worry that AI is getting smarter. Genius science curmudgeon Richard Dawkins recently declared that AI was conscious — or at least conscious without knowing it. The singularity is apparently coming. People are already forming emotional bonds with chatbots, in some cases even falling in love. But that’s not my experience. I’m angry about the … Read more
Clearly this was a big night for Reform, a bad night for Labour, and a mixed night for everyone else. Labour lost seats to the Greens, to a lesser extent Reform, and to Plaid Cymru and the SNP. The Conservatives lost seats heavily to Reform. But for the Government to lose seats at this point … 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
I was working in Leeds when I first started seeing adverts for WKD. Billboards, TV spots—loud, garish, and oddly confrontational. They didn’t look like advertising as we understood it. Traditionally, advertising sold aspiration. Buy this and you’ll be better, cooler, more successful—more attractive, even. WKD did the opposite. Its campaign—“Have you got a WKD side?”—didn’t … Read more
Last week, Nigel Farage announced that a future Reform government would ban working from home. If that sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve heard it before. Boris Johnson floated the same idea four years ago. Same rhetoric. Same applause lines. Same fatal flaw. Reform supporters bristle when critics describe the party as a retirement home for … Read more
Reform UK has received a record £9 million donation from cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne — the largest single donation ever made by a living person to a British political party. Harborne, who is based in Thailand and also known as Chakrit Sakunkrit, is not new to UK political funding. He previously donated substantial sums to … Read more