Francis Beckett
15 October 2024
Starmer’s Stockholm Syndrome over the Daily Mail
The paper loathes Labour and its PM - and that won’t change. So why are they still so keen to please it?
Read the full article02 October 2024
Belgium, the land of beer
Belgians are justly proud of their national drink, and just a little bit fussy about it
Read the full article20 July 2024
Returning to Nice for Bastille Day
Nice is still celebrating Bastille Day in the shadow of the 2016 terrorist truck attack
Read the full article17 July 2024
A wedding at the heart of the EU zone
Many of those who keep the wheels of Eurocracy turning get hitched in Brussels’ town hall
Read the full article01 July 2024
French politics burns in the summer heat
In Nice, a stronghold of the French hard right, the racial and political tensions simmer
Read the full article10 April 2024
In Nye, British theatre goes beyond history
This production at the National Theatre gives Nye Bevan the Churchill treatment
Read the full article20 March 2024
My thwarted trip to Rome
At every step of my breathless and frustrating journey, Gatwick Airport was able to cash in on the unexpected delays
Read the full article10 January 2024
A New Year’s Eve feast in Spain
No matter the season, you can eat well in Galicia
Read the full article22 November 2023
Brexit has wiped Britain off the map
Brussels spares little time to think of the UK, and the waters of the North Sea really are closing over the British
Read the full article07 October 2023
Nineteen words that hint a Starmer government could be far more radical than we think
The Labour leader’s praise for Clement Attlee in a new book is significant
Read the full article27 September 2023
The chronicles that keep France’s past alive
In Crécy, chroniclers understand that history is not just drama: it’s humdrum everyday life
Read the full article10 May 2023
For ever, our corner of a foreign field
Today, the first world war is far from forgotten in Flanders, and the English are always welcome
Read the full article31 January 2023
What Britain’s MEPs did next
Three years after they left Brussels, a new book finds them still – mostly – fighting for Europe
Read the full article16 December 2022
The forgotten European army
A new book about Britain’s MEPs charts the political journeys of this quiet army of people still – mostly – fighting for Europe
Read the full article03 December 2022
The bomb that killed the truth
It is five years since the Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered. Her son Matthew talks about his family’s continuing fight against corruption
Read the full article19 October 2022
Every bit of Tory chaos makes a return to the EU more likely
Starmer’s Labour would be radical in power - and rejoining should not be ruled out if it won a second term
Read the full article27 September 2022
The EU doesn’t trust Truss and is now looking to Labour
Keir Starmer and allies fear Tory ‘scorched earth’ diplomacy will leave them with a mountain to climb if they take power
Read the full article21 September 2022
Starmer’s secret talks to unblock the Brexit fatberg
Labour’s leader is perceived to be sitting on his hands over Europe. But private discussions with European leaders tell a different story
Read the full article12 January 2022
The Spider Woman bites back
Lady Hale, former president of the Supreme Court, remains as calm and steadfast as ever. But, as her much-praised book indicates, we haven't heard the last of her measured voice.
Read the full article25 November 2021
In praise of Diane Abbott
She is one of the most maligned and mocked politicians of our age. But the pioneering MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington has a record worthy of greater respect.
Read the full article07 October 2021
The volunteers stuck in a vaccine maze
FRANCIS BECKETT took part in a medical trial for a vaccine that has yet to get approval. He and others have been left in a strange limbo – jabbed, yet not jabbed.
Read the full article28 May 2021
Why it’s time for Labour to divorce the unions
It's not a case of simply wanting to gerrymander the left, says Labour historian FRANCIS BECKETT, just that the traditional arrangement no longer suits either group
Read the full article
09 February 2021
The inside story of how Labour botched its anti-Semitism crisis
11 December 2020
The inside story of the election defeat that doomed Labour and sealed Brexit
06 August 2020
How to lose friends who alienate people – how populism has taken over right-wing politics
06 July 2020
The 1945 Rising: What Labour can learn about winning a majority after a crisis
