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…
Why Ukrainian liberals love conscription
“No!” the woman cries. “May you be damned!” You can hear the despair in her voice, as masked men grab her husband, then bundle him into a waiting van. Within…
Where’s the economic strategy, Andy?
At the World Cup, a single misjudgment by the manager ended the England team’s hopes of reaching the final. In politics, Keir Starmer never recovered from sending Peter Mandelson onto…
Inside Liz Truss’s America-brained CPAC
What is a conservative? For Michael Oakeshott: someone who prefers “the familiar to the unknown” and “present laughter to utopian bliss”. For Roger Scruton: someone who wants to protect repositories…
Burnham faces an insurgent Britain
In the BBC’s 1975 Panorama documentary on Sandhurst — now on iPlayer, perhaps through a scheduler’s sense of mischief or apprehension — we follow officer cadets as they train to…
What “Pride” tells us about progressive prejudice
“Dai, your gays have arrived!” yells Gwen, a pensioner, as she opens the door of Dulais Valley Lodge in the coalmining heartlands of South Wales. A group of young Londoners…
Christopher Nolan: Hollywood’s last hero
Christopher Nolan has described the Homeric source material of his new film of The Odyssey as “foundational” for his work. On the surface, it’s a banal comment, too vague to…