UK Politics
— With everyone from rail workers to civil servants going on strike over the winter, it’s hard to see this ending well. To say the least, Rishi Sunak’s government is in a very difficult position.
Scottish Independence
— The decision of the Supreme Court is a seismic and fundamental shift in the basis upon which Scotland is a part of the United Kingdom, a change which has been imposed on Scotland without consultation, consent, consultation or permission.
Long-Read
— Professor Chris Grey’s analysis on how the budget aftermath exposed the costs and the lack of public consensus for Brexit. Some of the revived debate repeats the past, but there is a new context. How Labour responds now is crucial.
Trust in Politics
— The public does not trust British political parties at the moment, particularly not the Tories. This affects their ability to govern because much of governing is about persuading people to do or not to do things, and that becomes impossible if voters believe that they are being lied to all the time.
OPINION
— We are stuck in the Tory game of make-believe that everything is coming up roses in an English country garden. The reality is that following Brexit the rest of the world looks at England with a mixture of perplexity, pity, and amused contempt.
Analysis
— A third of the people surveyed incorrectly thought there was a £2,500 cap on energy bills following Liz Truss’s claim that her government was “making sure nobody is paying fuel bills of more than £2,500”.
Analysis
— Recent scenes at Victoria Station and Manston immigration centre are one way the government drives anti-migration sentiment. 12 years of Tory governance has pushed narratives that dehumanise vulnerable people, and turned the border into a spectacle.
Long-Read
— Rishi Sunak’s pitch of economic competence brings the cost of Brexit into new focus. For all the claims of the usual suspects, voters won’t be willing to pay the price of this failed and unpopular project.
OPINION
— With the Conservatives in government, the UK is very firmly on a trajectory to more cruelty, more demonisation of the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable.
COMMENT
— It’s not May, Johnson, Truss, or Sunak that is the problem, it’s the entire detestable lot of them.
UK Politics
— Rishi Sunak is the fifth prime minister since 2016 and the third since the last general election. The UK does not have a written constitution so it’s difficult to say definitively when a government does or doesn’t have legitimacy, an expert explains.
COMMENT
— Lawyers have uncovered conduct by a 55 Tufton Street charity which appears to breach charity law. A cross-party group of MPs has written to ask the Charity Commission why it is allowing Tufton Street dark money to pretend to be for the public good – and claim top ups from the public purse.
Analysis
— It has been a short but very eventful journey to the top for a man who has only been in parliament since 2015.
Stats
— Rishi Sunak is the UK’s fifth Prime Minister since the Brexit vote of 2016, and the third of 2022, following Liz Truss’s exceptionally short time in Downing Street. But is he only the best of a bad bunch?
Analysis
— Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, ran into trouble even before taking office.
OPINION
— Party still comes before country and constituents and democracy to the Conservatives. The Tories would do anything now, including giving Boris Johnson another go at being PM, to avoid annihilation in a General Election.
