Keir Starmer’s resignation as Prime Minister and Labour leader on 22 June 2026 was delivered with characteristic composure outside 10 Downing Street. In a speech that ran to just under fifteen minutes, he catalogued his domestic achievements: a stronger economy, falling NHS waiting lists, improved workers’ and renters’ rights, and half a million children lifted…… Continue reading The Silence That Spoke Volumes: How Foreign Policy, Not Domestic Policy, Brought Down Keir Starmer
Tag: Politics
The Burnham Bounce
Andy Burnham has won a decisive victory, scoring hugely in terms of the vote in Makerfield, with the swing moving in Labour’s favour while the percentage who voted for Reform decreased even as their overall number increased. The tide has turned on Reform, and this represents a significant opportunity for Labour to get behind somebody…… Continue reading The Burnham Bounce
When Tolerance Fractures: How Everyday Exclusion Fuels Political Violence in the Netherlands
The Myth That Cracked For decades, the Netherlands wore its reputation for tolerance like a badge of honour. Amsterdam’s canals, the country’s liberal social policies, and its historical embrace of multiculturalism created an image of a nation that had solved the puzzle of living together across difference. Yet scratch beneath this polished surface, and a…… Continue reading When Tolerance Fractures: How Everyday Exclusion Fuels Political Violence in the Netherlands
The Weaponisation of Racial Inequality: How the Far Right Sells Working-Class Communities a Lie
There is a dangerous fiction taking hold in British politics, and it is being sold hardest to those who have the least. Across the airwaves, in manifestos, and through social media channels, the far right and populist radical right are pushing a single, seductive message: that diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives are themselves a source…… Continue reading The Weaponisation of Racial Inequality: How the Far Right Sells Working-Class Communities a Lie
The Architecture of Silence: Power, History, and the Unspeakable
On why the Israel-Palestine debate is not really about Israel-Palestine There is a room. In it sit Jews and Muslims who want to do the right thing. The desire matters; it may be everything. But the room is not sealed. Outside it, machinery operates that determines which voices survive the door, and the machinery is…… Continue reading The Architecture of Silence: Power, History, and the Unspeakable
From Tragedy to Backlash: How the Henry Nowak Murder Became a Flashpoint for Racism, Islamophobia, and the Sikh Community
On 3 December 2025, an 18-year-old accountancy student named Henry Nowak was walking home from a night out in Southampton when he encountered Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man. What followed was a brutal altercation that ended with Nowak stabbed five times – once fatally through the heart – with an eight-inch ceremonial blade. Digwa…… Continue reading From Tragedy to Backlash: How the Henry Nowak Murder Became a Flashpoint for Racism, Islamophobia, and the Sikh Community
Nothing in the Middle: Makerfield and the Unravelling of Britain
There is a road south-west of Wigan where the old order is quietly dying. On 18 June, the towns of the Makerfield constituency — Ashton-in-Makerfield, Bryn, Hindley, and Abram — will choose a new MP, and what looks on paper like a routine by-election is really a referendum on whether Britain still has a recognisable…… Continue reading Nothing in the Middle: Makerfield and the Unravelling of Britain
Why London Manufactures Its Own Extremists
Why the typical urban radical isn’t who you think — and why it matters When we picture a modern extremist, our mental image is often shaped by a familiar story. The “left-behind” white working-class voter from a deindustrialised town. The forgotten resident of a former mill city. Someone whose anger about immigration and identity has…… Continue reading Why London Manufactures Its Own Extremists
The Three Lives of Faragism: How British Populism Reinvented Itself – and Built Its Own Trap
When the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, many commentators assumed Nigel Farage’s political story had reached its final chapter. After all, what use is an anti-EU insurgency once the country has actually left the EU? The assumption was simple: Faragism was a single-issue fever, and the fever would break as soon…… Continue reading The Three Lives of Faragism: How British Populism Reinvented Itself – and Built Its Own Trap
Sunday Reflection: Two Marches, One Country
I’ve been trying to reflect on the march yesterday in London, orchestrated by Tommy Robinson and his ilk, in relation to the ideas of uniting the Kingdom, which seems to be a rerun of what occurred last September in London, where approximately 140,000 people had turned up to become Britain’s largest-ever far-right rally. By all…… Continue reading Sunday Reflection: Two Marches, One Country