Kevin Keegan: true King of the North
In the late afternoon of 16 February 1909, a terrifying explosion tore through the Burns Pit at West Stanley in County Durham. Sheets of flame erupted from the pit shaft,…
The scandal of moonlighting doctors
On 1 March 2019, managers at Basildon University Hospital needed to find one of their most senior obstetricians — fast. The Care Quality Commission was in the building asking pointed…
Burnham’s potemkin radicalism
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…
Who’s afraid of the Abdul bros?
A populist insurgent is rising in a Democratic primary, outperforming the expectations of pundits and political elites. But the party establishment warns that the insurgent — a straight man —…
Trump’s shadow economy
School’s out for summer — and for one White House staffer, months of seaside lolly-licking beckon. Yes, Gabriel Perez’s schedule is wide open now that he’s been placed on unpaid…
The poverty of white nationalism
Over the last decade, once-fringe views on race and American identity have taken over important sectors of the US Right. These include the belief that people from some cultures aren’t…
Shabana Mahmood: human shield
If Shabana Mahmood didn’t exist, “Blue Labour” would have to invent her. The Home Secretary, one of few Cabinet ministers kept in their role by Andy Burnham, is tough on…
Burnham’s afternoon of the long knives
By the late afternoon, the announcements came with metronomic regularity, the great and the good of the last Cabinet eliminated. Rachel Reeves, gone. David Lammy, gone. Liz Kendall, Darren Jones,…
Labour’s next civil war
Who is Andy Burnham? It’s the £2.91-trillion question that the bond markets will be considering today. Labour has committed itself to a Doctor Who strategy, hoping that a regeneration of…
How Ferrari lost its sex appeal
Accustomed to near-universal adoration for its internal combustion and hybrid supercars, Europe’s most famous manufacturer cannot have anticipated the collective snort of derision that greeted its first battery-electric model, the…