Andrew Gimson
All politicians like to be photographed at election time pulling a pint of beer, but the man who has stepped forward for the past 30 years as the true champion of the man in the pub is Nigel Farage.
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Don’t believe the polls – Reform are not imploding
Oliver Dean
So we should take these polls with a rather significant pinch of salt. The Westminster commentariat will likely obsess over these numbers and seat projections – pushing the idea that Reform is on the way out. But step outside the confines of SW1, and this is not an attitude shared by the public.
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Privatisation didn’t fail. We failed privatisation
Matthew Jeffery
Privatisation was one of the great achievements of modern Conservatism. But we allowed others to claim it had failed. The truth is simple. The policy succeeded. The system around it did not.
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Don’t just enjoy Farage’s failures, learn from them
Peter Franklin
It is conceivable that Reform could implode. It didn’t even exist a decade ago and its roots are shallow. However, the underlying populist impulse is deeply rooted.
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Burnham’s social care reforms offer the Tories a lifeline
John Oxley
It is not enough for a new PM to say he wants to fix it. Burnham’s premiership will now be defined by his follow through. The Conservatives have to decide if and how they want to be part of that.
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Burnham gets some things right about Thatcher
Miriam Cates
Through blood, sweat and coal, the North of England was once responsible for generating the wealthiest era in British history. Politicians of all political persuasions should be asking what can be done to make the regions great again, not out of pity or nostalgia, but because the UK’s economic success depends on it.
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Nationalisation didn’t work then, and it won’t work now
John Redwood
Everything Mr Burnham says is geared to polling and to his immediate political task, self-defined as seeing off the voting threat from Reform. As Prime Minister he will be judged more by what he does than what he says.
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Lord Ashcroft
At least as many, however, thought they should have contested the election, providing some proper opposition to Farage and offering local voters a real alternative: “If you’re dedicated to what you believe in, you’ve got to stand up for it.”
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I’m a GP – this is what Burnham should do to fix social care instead
Reva Gudi
I did not arrive at this from a Treasury spreadsheet, but from decades of looking after the elderly in their homes, in care homes, in conversations with families trying to do right by the people they love.
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Britain built the jet engine. Now let’s build the world’s nuclear battery
Jamie Mulhall
Modern Britain too often hesitates. We consult, delay and postpone while other countries simply build. The Victorians thought differently. They built railways, docks, bridges and telegraph networks because they understood that infrastructure creates prosperity.
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