Lofty views have long moved thoughtful souls to reflect on their property portfolios. The great Alexander hiked up the Eurasian Steppe in order to cry, because there was no land left to conquer. Mufasa the lion led Simba up Pride Rock to celebrate the fact that “everything the light touches is ours”. I believe stout Cortez did something of the like too.  Probably none of those famous perches reached a vantage so high as London’s 224-metre “Cheese Grater” skyscraper. But the folk who gathered there on Tuesday 22 July had less vaunted reflections. Alexander wept because he owned all of his view. The attendees here wept because they owned none of theirs. Everything the light touched was a landlord’s. The event ...

I met my first full-on MAGA type this week. I could tell, because he was wearing a baseball cap with “TRUMP” written across it. This being Scotland – Edinburgh, to be precise – there might have been a chance of someone flipping it off his head, had he not been around 6’3”, seemingly made of bricks and, I soon learned, a veteran of the US Navy. He was probably safe. We fell into conversation, which involved him almost weepily describing what he saw as the US President’s astonishing virtues. The economy was flying, immigration was being crushed, and America’s enemies were on the run – as were the “pathetic” Democrats. When I (gently) put the alternative case to him I was dismissed ...

A reshuffle, as the former Tory chief whip Simon Hart recently told me, is “like having a jigsaw with the wrong number of pieces”. It’s never an easy nor a straightforward process, and should therefore be attempted only with extreme care. The first question a reshuffle-curious party leader should ask is: what’s the point? There’s the obvious answer, which is to fill gaps left by a resignation – on personal grounds, or due to some kind of failure or misconduct. But whether it stops there or becomes an opportunity for a wider shakeup depends on the situation the party is facing and what message the leader is hoping to convey. Despite previously insisting that her top team would be in place until the ...

A new left-wing movement is struggling to be born. On Monday evening (21 July), a collection of more than 1,000 trade unionists met on Zoom to talk about the need for a new party (“I didn’t leave the Labour party, the Labour party left me”). The meeting represented the latest attempt to formalise this breakaway, following the half-announcement of a new party led by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn earlier this month. But confusion still reigns. Speaking to the meeting, Sultana boasted that the party could claim over 20 per cent of the vote. Meanwhile, it is rumoured that Sultana herself is already being sidelined from the leadership of any new organisation. Jeremy Corbyn and the former Unite general secretary, Len ...

Yesterday morning (21 July), in Kingfisher Wharf in Fulham, Steve Reed announced the start of the “water revolution”. Following the findings of the Independent Water Commission, led by Sir Jon Cunliffe, the Environment Secretary outlined what is now being dubbed the “Reed Reforms”. The water regulator Ofwat will be abolished and a new consolidated body will be set up in its stead, intended to “prevent the abuses of the past”.  Speaking in Parliament later that day, Reed confirmed the Government would take up five other recommendations included in Cunliffe’s review. These include: a new statutory ombudsman to help customers resolve complaints, an end to companies monitoring their own pollution, and region-specific operations within the new regulator. This is all part of Reed’s plan ...

Given the news over the weekend that more than 100 pro-Palestine protesters across the country were arrested for allegedly supporting the recently proscribed group Palestine Action, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the UK is teeming with defiant activists determined to flout the law. But on Monday (21 July) outside the Royal Courts of Justice, just a single protester stood dressed in red, white and green, her lonely Palestine flag rippling in the warm breeze. Inside, Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori was attempting to persuade a judge to allow her to challenge the group’s proscription at the High Court.  Founded in 2020, Palestine Action embraced direct action protests in order to disrupt the manufacturing of or sale of weapons to Israel. They have ...

What does it mean to belong to a nation that doesn’t recognise you? If you’ve spent any time on British political X in the last few days, you’ve likely seen a video of GB News US Correspondent Steve Edginton interviewing people in a pocket of South London about their relationship to British identity. The segment is part of a wider documentary titled Yookay vs Britain: How immigration transformed a nation. But one moment in particular has captured public attention: a young black man passionately articulating his experience and sense of belonging. He is asked by Edgington about Britain and Britishness, and talks about south London, about Stockwell and Clapham, and how he was born in Britain and it is his “home”. ...

When she spoke on BBC Radio 4 at 9:30am on 17 July, Diane Abbott was a Labour party member of over 40 years, a political veteran and the Mother of the House of Commons. By the evening of the same day, she had been suspended from the party and had been forced into a defensive crouch, saying it “is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out”. Somewhere in the middle, we have an argument about race, racism and hierarchies of racism. Not for the first time in recent years, a debate once relegated to academic sociology departments has rocked British public life. On the radio, Abbott doubled down on a letter she wrote to the Observer in 2023 which distinguished the ...