Starmer's speech was a promising start. Corbynites will criticise him for not being Corbynite: well (surprise, surprise) he never...

As a student of history, I do not usually engage in futurology (or as Dominic Cummings would have it, 'superforecasting' ) which I regard...

It is a natural, but often not very helpful, tendency to divide people into those who are unambiguously good or bad. (During the...

There has been much criticism of Starmer for avoiding the issue of Brexit. Corbyn was criticised for the same reason ; and Miliband, when...

The announcement by the government that various civil service departments are to move from London to various parts of the 'regions'...

It is clear that many Conservatives would like to 'defund' the BBC by making it a subscription service. However, as one of the keenest...

Historians who have analysed the chequered history of Britain's relationship with the EU (such as Hugo Young's 'This Blessed Plot' (2000)...

Please read this blog (including the longer peces spread over several blogposts) and write critical comments, which I value very much, as...

After having drawn attention to the sharp and unyielding division in American politics between a regimented Republican Party and the...

What happened to the Republican party from 1964 onwards ? It would not be an exaggeration to claim that it was an orchestrated takeover...

American political parties have historically been extremely dissimilar to the very ideologically regimented and homogeneous nature of the...

It is important to realise three important facts about the new centrality of right-wing extremists in American politics. First, Trump did...

Of course, I was relieved when my fears regarding Trump's possible re-election were not realised (see blogposts from June and July 2020)....

All epidemiological reports indicate that most people (with some well-advertised atypical exceptions) are abiding by the public health...

Commentators such as the political journalist and broadcaster Steve Richards (in his 'The Prime Ministers (2020)' , the former Labour...

Before I leave the subject of austerity, I have to note that it was a political masterstroke that local authorities were, in fact, made...

In the previous section (Part 1) of this blogpost, I specified the general reasons why people have, for a long time, been predisposed to...

You would have thought that a government which was responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths would reap some 'payback.' You would...

I have just read Steve Richards' characteristically perceptive piece in 'Prospect' magazine which criticises Starmer's recent embrace of...

Here are four ideas as to the ultimate purpose of Gavin Williamson : As a former Chief Whip, he knows where the skeletons in Johnson's...