Who will be Labour’s next John Prescott? Opinion He couldn’t have been more different to Tony Blair, yet John Prescott ended up being our longest serving deputy prime minister. But is there a talent like him in Starmer’s cabinet? Asks William Atkinson As well as having a decent right hook, the late John Prescott was our longest-serving deputy prime minister (DPM). The formal creation of the [...]
Breaking Badenoch: Why Kemi’s position is already precarious Live! Kemi Badenoch has won the Conservative leadership with a policy-light campaign, but if she’s really committed to radical change as she says, she won’t be able to appease all wings of the party for long, says William Atkinson The greatest Tory defeat came not on 4 July this year, but on 24 December 1688. That [...]
Who came out on top at Conservative Party Conference? While Kemi Badenoch did the most to undermine her own chances of becoming leader of the Conservative Party, James Cleverly came across as everybody’s favourite second choice, William Atkinson Party conferences are always odd. As Conservative membership has dwindled from 1m in 1990 to around 100,000 today – CCHQ won’t publish the figure, out of [...]
Starmer can’t keep blaming everything on the Tories August 29, 2024 Starmer will soon find out that he can’t keep piously contrasting himself with the previous government while snatching benefits from pensioners, promoting party donors and paying off his pals in the trade unions, says William Atkinson The most important number for Keir Starmer’s government isn’t 411 seats he won, the £22bn black hole that Rachel [...]
The Tories can come back stronger, but only if they stop chasing Reform August 7, 2024 Reform’s surge was a consequence of Tory failure, not its cause, writes William Atkinson
My generation must never forget the sacrifice D-Day heroes made for our freedom June 5, 2024 80 years on from D-Day, memories of the allied re-invasion of Normandy are fading and a mood of national pessimism downplays its success. It’s time for that to change, argues William Atkinson For my generation of young people, D-Day’s importance and the scale of the heroism involved can pass us by. Only 48 per cent [...]
