A message of thanks from the founder of Backbench It can be difficult for some members of older generations to appreciate the influence of the online world on our lives. They see the internet like a video game: something intangible,…
Despite the chaos of the past few years and months, politics in this period has actually unfolded in slow motion. In 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party and, since then, a lot of people (myself included)…
“Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice – stability and strong government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband.” This epoch-defining phrase has achieved a remarkable feat. It has been used as a cliché in two different political periods. First, it…
In mid-December the international community was stung by a tweet from Donald Trump (welcome to modern diplomacy). The President announced his plan to withdraw 7,000 troops from Afghanistan, half of its current force, and all of its 2,000 troops from Syria. Claiming…
I’m going to try something risky in this review: I’m going to make at least one prediction about politics. This will inevitably end badly. British politics is so complex and volatile that the prophecies of most journalists turn out to…
WARNING: SPOILERS Two things have mesmerised Britain this summer: Gareth Southgate’s waistcoat and Bodyguard. Roughly 11 million people watched last night’s final episode of the absorbing BBC political drama, fronted by Richard Madden. To put that figure in context, over 24 million…
There are many pantomime villains in modern politics. In the warped parody of Westminster, Theresa May is seen as a slowly malfunctioning robot soon destined for the scrapheap, Jeremy Corbyn a poorly disguised Soviet agent, and Nigel Farage (in the words…
At the end of 2016, when I reviewed Labour’s annual performance, I said that Jeremy Corbyn had defied expectations. In a crowded field, Corbyn was, in my view, the most incompetent politician of the year – defeating, amongst others, Hillary Clinton, Donald…
There is surely nothing more frightening to a British politician, in current times, than to shake open the morning newspaper and see your name attached to the words ‘honeymoon period’. The honeymoon period is now the poisoned chalice of British…