One of the defining principles of old-school Conservatives in the UK and the US was “sound money”: maintaining the value of the currency, keeping inflation in check, and controlling the money supply. Under Thatcher, this was elevated into the main tool of economic policy—with disastrous consequences. Modern right-wingers on both sides of the Atlantic have … Read more
All summer long the press — along with a depressing number of commentators and politicians — warned of a “summer of violence,” supposedly echoing last year’s riots in British cities. At times their warnings felt less like reporting and more like an attempt to foment unrest themselves, an embrace of mob politics. The reality fell … Read more
Farage’s Authoritarian Dream Nigel Farage has unveiled another round of “policy announcements” — less a manifesto, more a vision for a whiter, more conformist Britain. Meanwhile, the Government appears asleep at the wheel, or perhaps snoozing on a deckchair. Angela Rayner provokes tabloid paroxysms by vaping in a dinghy or drinking rosé in a dry … Read more
From QAnon to Rotherham: Why the Establishment Always Looks the Other Way The US and UK right are in a strange and sordid mess when it comes to child sexual abuse. In Britain, the very people who fume about asylum seekers living near schools—in case they might be paedophiles—are now outraged about new online safety … Read more
I grew up in close-knit former mining villages in East Durham—places not unlike Seaham, a town I know well. For years, I was a regular at the Seaham Food Festival, which takes place again this weekend. Where I’m from, solidarity mattered. People stuck together and looked out for each other. These were the kinds of … Read more
Riot Season Starts Early Riot season has started early this year. In Ballymena, a far-right mob linked to drug gangs and paramilitaries attacked immigrants and drove them out of their homes. A week later, they burned effigies of asylum seekers on 12th July bonfires — a chilling endorsement of lynching immigrants. Let’s be clear: what … Read more
Labour and Grooming Gangs : Why Some Politicians Want It All Kicked into the Long Grass Last month, the Government agreed to hold a new national inquiry into grooming gangs. Like the Government, I was initially sceptical. The Jay Inquiry already spent seven years investigating historic child sexual exploitation, producing a raft of recommendations that … Read more
Do We Really Spend £1 Billion a Week on Benefits for Foreigners? No. Last weekend, The Telegraph ran an eye-catching headline: Cue a flurry of shares from Reform UK supporters and the usual angry right-wingers on social media. Unsurprisingly, most hadn’t read the article—just the headline. The piece itself was behind a paywall, which didn’t … Read more
Nations depend on rules – fair rules.Sometimes they’re written down, often they’re not, but either way, they give shape to our values.They guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe to one another.Now, in a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more … Read more
Why the Hate Towards Labour? Now the dust has settled on the local elections, the results weren’t exactly a shock. The Conservatives took a predictable beating—squeezed by the Liberal Democrats in the South and by Reform UK everywhere else. Reform are now well-positioned to take over the right of British politics. They’re peeling off Tory … Read more