Neither party is being honest about tax rises June 12, 2024 Promises not to raise headline rates are designed to distract from the fact inflation is dragging millions of people into paying more. But history tells us that candour never pays on the campaign trail, says Will Cooling You may not know it from the campaign, but if there is one thing that everyone agrees on, [...]
Rishi may as well have been debating Liz Truss – he lost that one too June 5, 2024 Whether it’s his own leadership rival or the general public, Rishi Sunak keeps speaking to people like he’s a British tourist in the Mediterranean struggling with a non-English speaking waiter, says Will Cooling In a summer contest that he has surprisingly brought forward despite his unpopularity with the electorate, Rishi Sunak impresses journalists by aggressively [...]
Election 2024: Is Keir Starmer ready for government? May 22, 2024 If the pledge card Keir Starmer launched last week is anything to go by, the still doesn’t know what it will actually deliver if it gets elected, says Will Cooling Last week Sir Keir Starmer put Labour’s election campaign on a new footing when he launched his pledge card. This attracted groans, as many commentators [...]
Want to know why the Tories will lose? Watch Clarkson’s Farm May 9, 2024 Clarkson's Farm lays bare the realities of life in what should be the Tory heartlands, from post-Brexit subsidies to the Kafkaesque nightmare of the planning system,
If Labour really want to win, they must keep Liz Truss in the news April 25, 2024 Not only was Truss’ premiership a disaster, she embodies traits many people hate about the modern Tory party. Labour should keep reminding people of that, and there’s an old trick they can use to do it, says Will Cooling If there is one bias that the media has, a bias that is literally hardwired into [...]
What can Wrestlemania teach us about Trump voters? April 11, 2024 Social conservatives used to criticise wrestling for its bad language and violence, now liberals say it’s too sexist. That cultural shift may be reflected in voting patterns too, if Donald Trump can persuade enough people that the Democrats are today’s prudes, says Will Cooling It is nearly a decade since Donald Trump descended the golden [...]
Why the BBC must stay publicly funded March 28, 2024 The licence fee needs to change, but only taxpayer funding can ensure a distinctively British voice in domestic and global media, says Will Cooling Ronald Reagan once joked that the scariest words in the (American) English language were “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help”. It increasingly feels like the modern British version [...]
Old buildings are not as important as people having places to live March 14, 2024 Objections to ripping down an art deco cinema in Birmingham are understandable, but if we want our cities to have vibrant art scenes, we need strong economies to support them, says Will Cooling It’s easy to forget that the most important letter in Nimby is the M. Arguments about degrowth, city centre living or suburban [...]
The British public aren’t woke, but they know bullying when they see it February 29, 2024 The Tory party’s inability to decisively move against Islamophobia is of a piece with its entire approach to culture war issues, writes Will Cooling.
By-elections are circuses of democracy, it’s time to give them up February 15, 2024 By-elections may capture the national imagination, but they often do more harm than good, writes Will Cooling.
