The Politics Column
Rafael Behr's take on politics inside Westminster
Articles in The Politics Column
Results 1 to 10 of 366
UK Politics
By hugging Clegg close, Cameron might end up suffocating him
- 09 February 2012
- 6 comments
The Tories are trying to smother in advance any talk of Lib Dem collaboration with Labour.
UK Politics
Cameron's pulling us to a European exit but this is no sceptic’s fantasy
- 26 January 2012
- 12 comments
The PM has yet to get into the room to fight a battle to secure the national interest.
UK Politics
To Labour’s surprise, Cameron refuses to play the villain
- 19 January 2012
- 15 comments
The PM has a record of expressing uneasiness about the ugly side effects of an unbridled market economy.
UK Politics
Cameron is good in a crisis. Sadly, it tends to be one he’s created himself
- 12 January 2012
- 27 comments
Cameron's intense relaxedness about the technicalities of government is his greatest weakness.
UK Politics
Welfare reform? You can’t force people into jobs that don’t exist
- 05 January 2012
- 80 comments
There is only so long the Tories can blame the length of the dole queue on the people standing in it.
UK Politics
Wanted: a vision to trump Cameron’s offer of bleak isolation in Europe
- 13 December 2011
- 39 comments
The problem is that if the euro sinks, the UK will be dragged down with it.
UK Politics
Pity David Cameron: the Tory back benches are doing Ed Miliband’s job for him
- 08 December 2011
- 23 comments
For Tory MPs, the Prime Minister’s bungled euro negotiations feel like treason.
UK Politics
It is Osborne’s plan that failed, but Miliband who must move on
- 01 December 2011
- 25 comments
What Labour lacks is a story to tell about how it would govern in a time of austerity.
UK Politics
Osborne can stop voters worrying by learning to love the state
- 24 November 2011
- 10 comments
Soon, the Tories will have no choice but to think of government not as part of the problem, but the solution.
UK Politics
Cameron can’t please female voters leading a party of grumpy old men
- 17 November 2011
- 24 comments
The Prime Minister's real problem is a party that was already too unpopular to win an election but has not the will to change.











