Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

The problem with the Ann Widdecombe suspect’s ‘fair trial’

It’s hard to hold anyone responsible for anything today in British politics. That’s because no sooner have the facts emerged than everybody in Westminster has played another game of musical chairs. If the word “amusing” can be used in the same paragraph as “attempted beheading” allow me one amusing example. In June, a 30-year-old asylum seeker from Sudan allegedly attempted to behead a local man on the streets of Belfast. It was apparently caught on video. Everyone was geared up to make their points. The left was preparing to argue “So you’re saying all asylum seekers are beheaders, are you?” while the right was gearing up to say: “We must hold people accountable.

Cockburn

Drama, debt and dysfunction at the DNC

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin stepped into his role in early 2025. He said last year it’s the “political equivalent of being a fire hydrant. You get pissed on by everyone.” That might be partially his own fault. The committee, under his leadership, is $2 million in debt. Their physical headquarters have been put up for collateral in a last-ditch attempt to obtain a line of credit. And Martin threw his phone at a junior aide in a fit of frustration at the beginning of the month, resulting in an HR investigation. Tensions heightened at the DNC in May, when the long-awaited autopsy of the 2024 election loss was released – a typo-filled report with no solid thesis and notable absences of relevant details.

Freddy Gray

Will Trump and Miliband hit it off?

Freddy Gray is joined by Ben Judah, a former Labour Special Advisor to discuss the new government's outlook on foreign affairs. Freddy and Ben examine how Andy Burnham's appointment of Ed Miliband as Foreign Secretary will shape the way Britain builds on its special relationship with the United States and the Trump White House. They also discuss the implications of Miliband's past positions on net zero and fresh drilling for oil and gas, and how that might come to affect his personal relationship with Marco Rubio and Donald Trump. Learn how to earn yield on gold, paid in gold, at Monetary-Metals.com/Americano Produced by Natasha Feroze and Henry Lloyd https://www.youtube.com/watch?

How will Team Burnham deal with Team Trump?

Alan Dershowitz

‘Goy’ and ‘goyim’ are not pejorative terms

The words goy and goyim are thrown around by Jews and non-Jews to mean very different things and to convey very, very different impressions. Some antisemites try to weaponize these terms to accuse Jews of being exclusionary or discriminatory against goyim (the correct Hebrew pluralization of goy, rather than the anglicized “goys”). Some Jews have also weaponized the term against their enemies: Ben Shapiro has accused, Tucker Carlson, of “goyslop” for falsely claiming that Jews want “goyim” to die defending Israel. The original meaning of the word goy is neutral. It simply means “nation.” The Bible describes the Jewish people as “goy Kadosh” – a holy nation. In post-biblical eras goy has come to mean “gentile” – any person or nation that is not Jewish.

Saturday

July 25, 2026

Jacob Heilbrunn

The media will miss Trump when he’s gone

Hats off to President Trump! At the conclusion of his speech to the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Trump donned a red cap with 2028 emblazoned upon it and declared that he had hit upon a scheme to “save” the ratings of the new media. “I am pleased to announce my intention to run for a fourth term as President of the United States,” he said. Trump evoked a few titters from the assembled press corps at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but that was about the extent of the hijinks. In one sense, it’s no laughing matter. What will the press do without Trump? He’s correct in viewing himself as its savior. Without the 24/7 entertainment provided by the Donald, views would dwindle.

Daniel McCarthy

I invented Nixonmaxxing

The kids call it “Nixonmaxxing,” and I invented it 30 years ago. “I think that his historical record is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, but I think deservedly so,” Vice President J.D. Vance says about Richard Nixon, who has become, as a recent Wall Street Journal headline put it, “an unlikely new icon” for young conservatives. Maybe I can’t claim to have been the first teenage Republican to have embraced Nixon chic, but all the way back in 1996 a young Danny, irked by the banality of college application essay questions, decided to make his pitch to higher education by writing about the merits of the president who’d been taken down by Watergate. It was a way of daring colleges and universities to reject me.

Friday

July 24, 2026

Tim Shipman

Andy Burnham’s centrist act isn’t fooling anyone

When Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood arrived in Downing Street on July 20, the image of political rivals arm in arm symbolized a new government of differing views taking shape. It might have been more awkward. As they neared the door of No. 10 and the waiting television cameras, Miliband turned to Mahmood and asked: “Should we turn around for a photo together?” Mahmood gave the idea short shrift: “We’re not getting married, Ed!” But in a sense, Labour is seeking a new relationship with the British public – and everyone around Andy Burnham is alive to the importance of images, symbols and vibes. As Wes Streeting, the new Defense Secretary, put it in cabinet the next day: “We have a second chance to make a first impression with the voters.

Madeline Grant

Mr. Burnham, put on a suit and tie

A brass fanfare; a wide establishing shot of five men in three-piece suits, seated in a library of leather-bound tomes – this is Harold Macmillan doing informal. The scene is from a 1959 party political broadcast, which purports to show a “relaxed chat” between Macmillan and four of his ministers, all of whom he refers to by their cabinet titles. Almost everything about it is artificial (including quite possibly the claim that it took place the day after the parliamentary recess). Watching it now is a reminder of two things, perhaps contradictory. First, that prime ministers have always played a clever and not entirely authentic game when it comes to informality; second, how far we’ve fallen. Can you imagine the equivalent today?

Freddy Gray

Will Trump’s ‘massive attack’ be on Yemen?

It is my solemn duty to report that, as ever in Trumpworld, the news zone has flooded and we are paddling through a reality-bending time loop. Last night, the government reapplied tariffs on more than 80 countries, on this occasion using dubious concerns about "forced labour" to justify the charges on Britain, the EU, Australia and elsewhere. Tonight, the President will attend the rearranged White House Correspondents’ Dinner, three months after the last one was canceled following another assassination attempt. The dinner will be held at the Waldorf Astoria, DC, which used to be the Trump International Hotel. The guest list and security will be tighter this time, and Donald should have a chance to make some good jokes.

Jacob Heilbrunn

The Fetterman Show

Will he or won’t he? Senator John Fetterman is causing heart palpitations among Democrats with his recent threat to cross the political aisle should they “officially become the anti-Israel party.” Ever since he announced that he would form a joint campaign fundraising committee with his fellow Pennsylvania Republican senator David McCormick, Fetterman has captured the spotlight, which is how he likes it. New York magazine reports that in 2026, Fetterman has already popped up on Fox News 56 times. It’s quite a remarkable turnaround for Fetterman who originally campaigned for the Senate from the Left, defeating his more mainstream Democratic rival Conor Lamb in the 2022 primary.

Michael Gove

I was targeted by a killer – but I’m still against more security for politicians

Reason, David Hume noted, is a slave of the passions. Arguments, especially political crusades, are often rooted in emotional responses, with the evidence assembled to justify a position which is heartfelt but often wrongheaded. So it is with the cry, from politicians, for more steps to be taken to safeguard the personal security of politicians. The killing of the former Member of Parliament Ann Widdecombe, like the deaths of Jo Cox and David Amess, has generated new demands for action, and legislation, to protect those in public life from risk and danger. The transparent nobility of Ann’s life and the grotesque tragedy of her death make it emotionally difficult to resist the call for strengthened perimeters around our politicians.

Thursday

July 23, 2026

Cockburn

Mike Lindell’s long-shot bid for Minnesota governor

“For the best night’s sleep in the whole wide world, visit mypillow.com” is a jingle that punctuates every hour of Fox News viewing. Now “MyPillow guy” Mike Lindell is changing his tune: for the best governor of Minnesota in the whole wide world, vote Mike Lindell 2026. Lindell is a Trump ally, businessman and election conspiracy theorist. He’s known for his rags-to-riches origin story, rising from a crack cocaine addiction to achieving sobriety and turning to religion. He founded My Pillow in Minnesota in 2004. For readers unfamiliar with Lindell’s political history: before his run for governor, Lindell was sued by a voting machine company, then known as Dominion Voting Systems, for defamation pertaining to false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

John Power

Is Ed Miliband preparing to take on Donald Trump?

Just one day after Ed Miliband was made UK Foreign Secretary we heard in the Telegraph that the White House is upset about the appointment, and even warned against it. Donald Trump is apparently unimpressed by Miliband’s role in blocking North Sea oil drilling. Miliband has also railed against Trump in the past, calling him a “racist, misogynistic self-confessed groper” on the BBC’s World at One in 2016, as an example – but in fairness his predecessor David Lammy called Trump “beneath contempt” before he became foreign secretary. Trump can forgive and forget – so long as his interlocutor is willing to forget their own pride. Miliband could bend the knee, but there is also some appetite to confront Trump.

Freddy Gray

The radical left-wing takeover of the Democrats is nearly complete

Tuesday August 4 could prove to be a turning point in American political history. If Democratic primary voters in Michigan choose Haley Stevens, a moderate, as their Senate nominee, the party establishment should stagger on, perhaps up to and beyond the presidential election of 2028. It’s more likely, however, that the Democrats will elect Dr. Abdul el-Sayed, a pro-Palestine radical who supports Medicare for All and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. El-Sayed’s victory would confirm that the hard left is the coming force in national politics, and suggest that the long-anticipated socialist takeover of the oldest party in the US – the party of Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman and Bill Clinton – is finally under way.

Wednesday

July 22, 2026

Cockburn

Energy investor that bailed on Britain IPOs for $230 million

Britain is losing out as a result of its changeable energy policy. That’s the main takeaway from Samos Energy’s recent closing of a $230 million initial public offering. On July 13, Samos Energy Acquisition Corporation announced the conclusion of its IPO of 23 million units, sold at $10 each to raise a total of $230 million. This number included an extra 3 million units that were bought due to high demand. The IPO comes after the company shifted its attention from the UK to Africa and South America, when co-founder Jacques Tohme called out the problems on the North Sea that influenced his decision. “The UK Treasury has become very unstable and lacks engagement with the industry,” Tohme said in 2023.

Matthew Lynn

Why aren’t American companies passing on tariff refunds?

Even for an economy as large as the United States, $70 billion still counts as a significant sum of money. After the first round of President Trump’s tariffs were ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, customs officials have already issued that amount in refund checks. Here’s the problem, however: none of it appears to have been passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices. In reality corporate America is pocketing the money – but it is also playing with fire by inviting retaliation from President Trump. Almost no major policy has ever been quite so chaotically implemented as the tariffs imposed by President Trump on the oddly named Liberation Day in April last year.

John Fund

The urgent need to fix voter fraud

New Jersey officials just admitted that roughly 6,600 non-citizens were illegally registered to vote between 2023 and 2024. More than 400 of them actually cast ballots in one or more elections. Officials blamed a software error at DMV offices that registered non-citizens to vote when they applied for drivers’ licenses even after they admitted they weren’t citizens. Democratic Governor Mikie Sherrill blasted “the reckless failures that allowed this to happen.” She even pointed a finger at her Democratic predecessor then-Governor Phil Murphy and the “lack of transparency shown by those in charge at the time.

Tuesday

July 21, 2026

Alexander Munguía

Colombia’s transition is being brokered on the Potomac

It is another sweltering afternoon in Washington, and the room at the Atlantic Council is filling with businessmen and diplomats for a speech already ten minutes late. José Manuel Restrepo, Colombia's vice-president-elect and a former finance minister, is no stranger to the venue: since last fall he has been a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. But the think-tank polish sits on top of a crisis back home. In June, the right-wing outsider Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia's presidency by a whisker – some 250,000 votes out of 26 million – beating the chosen candidate of the outgoing president, Gustavo Petro. Petro, the country's first leftist leader and a former guerrilla, has refused to accept the result.

Matthew Fraser

My Paris neighborhood has become a no-go zone

When I moved into Paris’s seventh arrondissement, I was not expecting to find myself living in one of the city’s dreaded no-go zones. My neighborhood, admittedly, is not one of the notorious districts on lists of forbidding no-go zones in the French capital’s bleak north end, plagued with crack houses and criminal gangs. I live in one of Paris’s poshest areas. The seventh arrondissement is known for its burnished boulevards and grand monuments. Every morning, I walk my two dogs on the Champ de Mars in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Le Point magazine observed that “France is dishonored by the state of the Champ de Mars” World famous for the annual fireworks display to celebrate Bastille Day, the Champ de Mars boasts a glorious past.

Monday

July 20, 2026

David Blagden

Why Elbridge Colby’s NATO warning shots will backfire

It is hardly news that US relations with the rest of NATO (“rNATO” hereafter) are at an unprecedentedly low ebb. But they took a new and interesting twist last week when the US Under Secretary of War for Policy, Elbridge Colby, issued a curious statement via social media, opining that “middle powers” have no coherent basis for alignment independent of the United States, and that they would therefore be foolish to try. The “middle powers” in question here are erstwhile US allies with enough of their own wealth and technological capacity to pursue meaningful sovereign capabilities, but not enough to independently rival systemic great powers such as the United States (the likes of Germany, Japan, Britain, Canada, Australia and so forth). Colby is a serious strategic mind.

Jawad Iqbal

Andy Burnham’s good vibes just won’t cut it

Andy Burnham became Britain's Prime Minister today – the seventh leader of the country in the last decade. It is a case of all hail the new messiah, who promises to build “a new politics” (the eternal empty vow of every politician when taking power), but this time with a shiny new twist. Burnham, who oozes a desperate desire to be liked, will lead a government focused on good vibes and the fantasy of a mythical Labour paradise lost, rather than anything grounded in the harsh political realities of today. His approach to power boils down to trusting his instincts (those vibes, again), based on the delusion that he has a special connection with ordinary voters.

William Atkinson

The sheer awfulness of CPAC GB

Readers, I have been to a few political conferences in my time. But none of them were as empty, miserable, or downright weird as CPAC GB. Having heard that Liz Truss was bringing the American conservative jamboree across the Atlantic, I felt obliged to go, and comforted myself that there would at least be a bar to flee to if it all got too grotesque. But there was no bar. Or at least there wasn't until I discovered the secret pathway from the Intercontinental Hotel that emerged next to the O2's Wetherspoons. Until then, being cursed with vision, hearing and sanity meant enduring an event that made Truss's premiership look like a model of tact and foresight.

Saturday

July 18, 2026

Jane Stannus

Trump is smoke-signaling with his forest fire tariff

The latest incursion into American airspace is forest fire smoke from Canada. An invasion, according to President Trump. And the man with a tariff for every occasion does not disappoint “We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable! I will call the Prime Minister,” promised Trump. “(…) This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying.

Friday

July 17, 2026

Roger Kimball

Only cheats fear the SAVE Act

David Axelrod, Barack Hussein Obama’s chief strategist, was clearly worried about Donald Trump’s prime time speech about election integrity last night. Hyperventilating on X Tuesday, he warned that “If @POTUS really trots out Pulte, Patel and a crew of political apparatchiks posing as intel experts... to announce they've uncovered ‘evidence’ of foul play in 2020, it’ll only heighten fears that he'll claim an ‘emergency’ down the line and claim extraordinary fed power over elections. If so – and there are plenty of other signs of manipulation brewing – the most important battles of the midterms may be in the courts.” Let’s begin by considering Axelrod’s rhetoric.