On the eve of last year’s conference in Brighton, there was a Queen on the throne, a Johnson in Downing Street, and few had heard of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Now, as we gather in Liverpool, the political landscape that Keir Starmer surveys is changed utterly. As he rehearses his big speech in
Keir Starmer celebrates his sixtieth birthday this weekend. When he’s blown out his candles, maybe he will consider the past couple of years. The opinion polls show a remarkable turnaround in Labour’s standing since the wasteland of 2019, especially on economic competence. Starmer has brought Labour back from the dead.
Only the most cynical or the most naïve people parrot the lie that Sam Tarry was ‘sacked for appearing on a picket line.’ If that was even a little bit true then Lisa Nandy would have been out on her ear, along with several other frontbenchers over this summer of discontent.
It is hard to tell who was more upset by Labour’s breakthrough result in Wakefield: those circling the wagons around the soon-to-be-ex Prime Minister? Or the self-styled Labour ‘left’? Given their vituperation once the news of Simon Lightwood’s victory came in, I would say the latter. I won’t give them
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee should be the occasion for more than a few half-hearted street parties and a second-rate pop concert. If the Monarchy chooses to place itself in the public gaze, then it should be prepared for proper scrutiny, not just bunting, cheering, singing, and drinking. And Duran Duran.
Her Majesty the Queen has a new Labour council, the best jubilee gift she could possibly have hoped for. Not only the people in palaces, but also the oligarchs of Mayfair, the aristocrats of St James’s, and bankers of Belgravia are celebrating Westminster council turning red for the first time
In this month’s Paul on Politics, spring has sprung and with it minds are turning to the fresh potential Labour candidates for the next election… Margaret Beckett is the latest Labour old stager to announce their retirement. Some aspirant Labour MP will bag her Derby South constituency (majority 6,019). Yes,
In this week’s column, Paul takes on the anti-Nato left, tracing its roots to show is has always been a fundamentally un-Labour position. There is no evidence that Lenin ever used the phrase ‘useful idiots’ to describe those in the West who gave succour to the cause of Russian communism
In his first column of a new, monthly, series for Progressive Britain Paul Richards takes on Michael Gove… The Labour Government elected in 1997 set the ambitious goal that within 10 to 20 years no-one should be ‘seriously disadvantaged by where they live’. After nearly two decades of Tory indifference,
Could Jeremy Corbyn win as an independent? Or will he just serve as a distraction to the fight against the Tories? The Daily Telegraph reports that Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour MP for Islington North, is contemplating starting a new far-left political party using the resources of the ‘Peace and
