Jonny Ball

It ended not with a bang but a whimper. It came from the back of the Prime Minister's throat, as Keir Starmer promised to be a better husband and father.

Why Burnham should call a snap election

Britain waits on tenterhooks to see which Andy Burnham will enter No. 10 next month. Will he live up to the promises of “Manchesterism” and become the era-defining radical: a new Thatcher-in-reverse, waiting to bend the country’s governance structures and political economy to his will? Or will he be yet another dud, a bit-part player [...]Read More...

Calling Blue Labour a faction would be an insult to factions. Where some Labour tribes organise internally in their local parties, wield influence

Blue Labour's last chance

Andy Burnham is a wool. To those unlucky enough not to hail from the new home of English power — the North West — “wool”, or “woolyback”, is a gently

The UK’s Right-wing press is being driven into apoplexy by news of “the most Left-wing government since the Seventies”. Fears abound of spendthrift ministries, mass nationalisations and economic turmoil. But so far there is little to suggest Andy Burnham will do much more than continue in the footsteps of his post-Brexit successors, managing Britain’s unfavourable [...]Read More...

If a week is a long time in politics, then seven months must be an age. It was only in January this year that members of Labour's ruling National

The great mayoralty swindle

In news that will surprise few, Nigel Farage has retained his seat in the Clacton by-election. His chief opponent, the tiresomely twee Count Binface, whose satirical electioneering seems to have superseded the traditional joke candidatures of the Monster Raving Loony Party, somehow came to consolidate much of the anti-Farage bloc behind him in the pensioner-friendly [...]Read More...