Politics

As an outside observer sitting in Warsaw, there is a peculiarly persistent oddity in the culture wars of Britain. For anyone outside the cycle of outrage that provides the fuel for the culture wars, they are increasingly difficult to follow. The level of apocalyptic seriousness is high – the stakes are always life or death – but the subject matter itself is often remarkably parochial. Britain appears to be having a fierce conversation with itself. Britain would benefit from turning down the volume and stepping away from the machinery of endless argument Only weeks ago, a museum in Brighton managed to ignite a small national row by suggesting that Father

Poor old Andy and those sad eyes of his. The Mayor of Greater Manchester has had a pretty rotten day, being blocked by his own party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) by some eight votes to one. His sole backer was Lucy Powell, whose candidacy for deputy leader was memorably likened to Lurleen to Burnham’s George Wallace: a useful proxy to circumvent constitutional limits. Burnham initially sought to take all this with good grace. ‘Tomorrow I return with full focus to my role as Mayor of GM’, he declared defiantly on X, ‘defending everything we have built in our city-region over many years. I decided to put myself forward to

Andy Burnham has tonight confirmed that he wants to be a candidate in the forthcoming Gorton and Denton byelection. The Greater Manchester mayor submitted an application before the 5pm deadline. Ten officers on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) will tell Burnham by tomorrow what decision they reach. ‘The Gorton and Denton by-election looks to be a fascinating contest, even if Burnham is blocked.’ In his letter posted online, Burnham wrote that ‘this has been a difficult decision for me to make’ but that he wanted to stand as ‘there is now a direct threat to everything Great Manchester has always been about from a brand of politics which seeks

Keir Starmer has tonight been forced to stall the Bill which would hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius. The legislation enabling the deal was expected to be debated in the Lords on Monday. But this evening, it was revealed that the votes have been delayed amid parliamentary ping-pong and a backlash from the Americans. Both the Conservatives and Reform UK are keen to take credit for the pause in the bill, under which Britain would give up the archipelago and lease back the Diego Garcia base. The Conservative case for credit is on the legislative front. Peers like Lord Hannan argue that the U-turn occurred only after the Tories