James Ball
09 November 2024
Dominic Cummings: a one hit blunder
The former political adviser has mistaken himself for a visionary intellectual rebel. If that’s so, why is his legacy so small – and crap?
Read the full article07 November 2024
How Europe should deal with Trump
As Ukraine despairs and Europe’s populists cheer Trump’s win, Keir Starmer faces up to the need to rejoin the single market
Read the full article06 November 2024
The night when hope ebbed away
Trump is now ominously close to victory as the Harris surge proved a fantasy
Read the full article02 November 2024
Badenoch inherits the poisoned chalice
The new Tory leader has been handed a shaky mandate by a depleted party rooted in deep denial
Read the full article01 November 2024
The White House race is ending in chaos and calamity
The Harris v Trump contest remains on a knife-edge. So does the country
Read the full article30 October 2024
Where’s the vision, Rachel?
The Budget largely avoided tough choices as the new chancellor put pressure on Wes Streeting by throwing cash at the NHS
Read the full article30 October 2024
America, nihilist nation
The shining city on the hill has become a citadel of darkness. Whoever wins, American optimism is dead
Read the full article27 October 2024
A crowd-pleasing open goal for Labour
This £200m policy would help children and be the first step to restarting Sure Start
Read the full article24 October 2024
Spot the lies in Farage’s tale of his Trump trips
The Reform leader’s attack on Labour over its activists volunteering for Kamala Harris has blown up in his face
Read the full article23 October 2024
Can Kamala do it?
The Democrats are united and have stuck to a plan that has worked so far. But if it goes wrong, the party could go into meltdown
Read the full article21 October 2024
How to kill a newspaper
Owned by an oligarch and run by an editor who seems suddenly out of his depth, the London Evening Standard has been subjected to a slow, cruel death
Read the full article20 October 2024
Alan Johnson’s lesson for Keir Starmer
Johnson says that his new book on Harold Wilson isn’t meant as a message to the current PM. But it is
Read the full article17 October 2024
Carla Denyer: the most ignored woman in British politics
The Green party risks being dismissed as a hard left protest vote – how can it broaden its appeal?
Read the full article15 October 2024
The Taylor Swift scandal is not a scandal
Giving a police escort to a woman who has been a terror target was the right thing to do
Read the full article09 October 2024
The burden of assisted dying
Putting a cherished but broken NHS at the centre of a complex moral argument is fraught with danger
Read the full article08 October 2024
Pension credit claims double after winter fuel raid
Rachel Reeves will have less to spend - but will argue the rise in applications vindicates her strategy
Read the full article07 October 2024
Losing Sue Gray won’t end the Starmer drama
Her departure offers the chance for a reset - but fixing Labour’s stumbling start needs much more than a reshuffle
Read the full article02 October 2024
Cleverly deals a blow to Jenrick and Badenoch
An unexpectedly strong Tory conference speech leaves the right wing candidates unsure of reaching the final vote
Read the full article02 October 2024
The case for audacity
Labour must deliver policies that make people glad they voted for a new government
Read the full article01 October 2024
There is no Starmer superinjuction
Baseless rumours about the PM, Lord Alli and a court order are a right wing fantasy fuelled by grifter ‘journalists’ and social media
Read the full article30 September 2024
There’s a whiff of Truss about Badenoch
Tory MPs are worried by the former trade secretary’s gaffe over maternity benefits
Read the full article27 September 2024
Of course Starmer was right to meet Trump
The PM would prefer a Harris victory, but snubbing the Republican would have been dereliction of duty
Read the full article25 September 2024
Sunak: the sequel?
The new prime minister’s government has started with worrying echoes of how his predecessor’s ended
Read the full article24 September 2024
Starmer’s not for turning
The prime minister rejected a reset and instead fell back on old themes in his Labour conference speech
Read the full article24 September 2024
Labour’s corporate conference
Sponsors’ stalls at the party’s Liverpool get-together shows how much the political axis has shifted
Read the full article22 September 2024
The dangers of longevity
People in the UK are living longer lives – our economic system is not set up to deal with the consequences
Read the full article18 September 2024
Starmer’s missed opportunity
Labour could have made a much better argument over the scrapping of the winter fuel allowance. But it didn’t. Big mistake
Read the full article15 September 2024
Starmer is ignoring an open goal
Everyone wants to regulate lobbying – even the lobbyists. Why won’t Labour do it?
Read the full article11 September 2024
The weird and artificial Tory leadership race
The slow march towards crushing defeat goes on
Read the full article11 September 2024
Elon Musk: a man without a plan
A credulous, paranoid chancer, Musk has risen to fame through luck and other people’s hard work
Read the full article09 September 2024
The winter fool allowance
Starmer’s decision to cut heating benefits for pensioners is woeful politics, and Labour MPs are in despair
Read the full article07 September 2024
It’s time to build jails
Labour has inherited a jails crisis. Its short-term decision to release prisoners will be unpopular. The long-term answer might be even more so
Read the full article