The planet burns, the bills get higher; the workers strike and here we are waiting to be told by fewer than 200,000 Tories who our next prime minister will be. We’ve recorded the hottest day ever in the UK, and we’re also living through some of the oddest. What we can be sure of is
Tag: UK politics
The spectacular demise of Boris Johnson and what comes next
Boris Johnson’s demise as prime minister was destined to be spectacular. At the start of the year, I wrote that it was likely that he had already done something that would court controversy and so it proved. Ultimately it was his style of denying everything in the first instance and then backtracking, if necessary, that
Charles: the interfering royal with bags of cash and laws made just for him
Last month I wrote about the showy jubilee celebrations and how it wouldn’t be long before the show is over, leaving us with the reality of monarchy. That reality is, of course, an abuse. It’s an abuse of power, wealth and privilege. The family at the centre of the institution do not deserve power, wealth
Boris Johnson: the King Midas who turns everything to shite
No sooner than Boris Johnson tried to look statesmanlike, it all fell apart. Some prime ministers get to retreat from national issues by bursting onto the world stage. He wanted to be world king as a child. It turns out he’s King Midas but instead of turning everything to gold, he turns everything he touches
The world has changed. British politics in a new context
The world has changed. That’s what the rulers of the world tell us. I’m afraid that means it has. The issues of British politics suddenly pale. They are less significant but they are also impacted by the events playing out in Ukraine. We are all immediately shocked, despite the warnings for years and we are
We need to stop Boris Johnson before it is too late
Boris Johnson is the most dangerous prime minister I’ve suffered. I consider him much more dangerous to the people of the UK than Donald Trump is to the people of the USA. Obviously, one is in power and the other is not but there is also a fundamental difference between the constitutions of the two
The multiple and overlapping crises in the UK point to a sustained need for mutual aid
In the recent printed edition of Freedom, there was an article reflecting on Covid and the mutual aid groups that sprung up in the early days of the pandemic. It focused on some of the problems encountered by anarchists as the pandemic progressed such as the way mutual aid was assimilated into a sense of
The tensions in Johnson’s government provide opportunities
As the political year ends, it’s worthwhile to reflect on the utter incompetence of Boris Johnson. I’m undecided over whether an incompetent government is worse than one that functions well. It’s probably best to judge them on what they do. The issue with Johnson is that his incompetence has cost thousands of lives. We could