James Ball
20 October 2023
Five takeaways from today’s historic by-election results
What should we make of Labour’s thumping success?
Read the full article19 October 2023
The BBC, Gaza and Hamas
It made mistakes on Tuesday night, and poor reporting in febrile times can be dangerous – but even so, the BBC is not the story
Read the full article18 October 2023
The “3.5% rule” needs protesting
Support for a campaign by just 3.5% of people is supposedly a tipping point. That doesn’t add up
Read the full article15 October 2023
Could Labour’s past NIMBY moments come back to haunt them?
Shadow housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook opposed a new development two years ago
Read the full article11 October 2023
Twitter’s fake news over Israel and Hamas is a consequence of Elon Musk’s actions
The social network has been reprogrammed in a way that seems to encourage disinformation
Read the full article11 October 2023
Our justice system is criminal
Britain’s political class is locked in a cycle of consensus on law and order that costs a lot and delivers little
Read the full article09 October 2023
The Tory cock-up that has given Keir Starmer a free ride this week
Letting Labour hold their conference last is another Conservative blunder
Read the full article04 October 2023
Sunak’s conference of chaos should spell the end of the Tories
Four days of shame in Manchester from the party of short-termism and moral bankruptcy
Read the full article04 October 2023
The costly rise of the high street casino
An 89-year-old German is bringing 24-hour gambling to Britain’s town centres. Can he be stopped?
Read the full article04 October 2023
It’s time to bulldoze Westminster… literally
Parliament is falling apart and will cost billions to patch up. We should just flatten it and start again
Read the full article13 September 2023
Our water is full of crap… remind you of anyone?
Michael Gove’s planned changes to rules for housebuilders could cause even more pollution in Britain’s waterways
Read the full article13 September 2023
The EU’s weird war on big tech
The need to tackle the likes of Google and Facebook is obvious. But is Brussels fighting the right battles?
Read the full article30 August 2023
Can Chris Bryant clean up politics?
Fresh from a spat with Nadine Dorries, the chair of the Commons Committee on Standards says Westminster is on trial... but radical change isn’t quite his cup of tea
Read the full article22 August 2023
The baroness, the PPE cash and the slow death of trust
This scandal may have disappeared from the headlines, but it remains corrosive to public faith in British politics
Read the full article16 August 2023
The return of Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s Rasputin
The former prime minister’s right-hand man was blamed for losing the 2017 election. So why is his stock rising?
Read the full article02 August 2023
Welcome to the land of no hope or glory
The Tories look exhausted. But Labour seems out of ideas, too. Are we headed for the most depressing election campaign ever?
Read the full article26 July 2023
The climate bomb ticks on
Severe weather events show that our house is on fire. Yet we continue to dither over a plan to save the planet
Read the full article19 July 2023
A digital virus is running free
The QAnon cult is spreading – with deadly consequences. How can we stop it and its successors?
Read the full article12 July 2023
Katharine Birbalsingh: Lessons for an empty head
“Britain’s strictest teacher” is a bizarre cosplay act for those who believe everything was better in the 1950s
Read the full article04 July 2023
The slow, sad death of Twitter
Elon Musk has hollowed out the social network just as a vital election cycle approaches
Read the full article21 June 2023
Oakeshott and Tice, the gruesome twosome of the right
Isabel Oakeshott and Richard Tice rose to the top of the culture war pile through charm and ruthlessness. What will they do next?
Read the full article13 June 2023
How Boris Johnson killed the House of Lords
Sunak was too weak and slow to do anything about Johnson’s dirty honours. The upcoming byelections will make things worse
Read the full article
06 June 2023
Food inflation: The government must step up to the plate
Voluntary price controls won’t solve crippling food inflation – only more money for the poorest will
Read the full article31 May 2023
A parliament hanging in the balance
Owen Jones has got it wrong (again). Hoping for a hung parliament is a self-indulgent waste of time
Read the full article24 May 2023
Useless duckers: Why Brexit is always someone else’s fault
His admission that “Brexit has failed” shows once again that for Nigel Farage and the populist right, shifting the blame is second nature
Read the full article17 May 2023
Proportional representation won’t kill off the Tories
A new voting system does not mean progressives in perpetual power – if anything it would bolster the far right
Read the full article10 May 2023
Labour, the party of small change?
The UK’s problems are deep, but its pockets are not. What can Labour promise on the cheap to excite voters?
Read the full article03 May 2023
The right are losing their own culture wars
From Tucker Carlson to Andrew Bridgen and GB News, populists have lost their grip on the narrative
Read the full article26 April 2023
The needy relationship
Right wingers sniping at Joe Biden is one more example of their delusion about Britain’s importance to the US
Read the full article19 April 2023
We need a big idea, do we not?
Our political leaders only offer up the small stuff. But this isn’t just pre-election caution – it marks the demise of radical ideology
Read the full article13 April 2023
How you can beat the voter ID con
After a cynical move by the government, 3 million Brits could miss out on voting in May’s elections because they don’t have photo ID
Read the full article