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Behind the football club on the outskirts of Calmore, Hampshire, on the eastern edge of the New Forest, there is a patch of waste ground--one day, it will be an [...]

WHEN LABOUR swept back into power in last month's British general election, I felt elated. But I also grew worried about the potential implications of the results for mainstream politics. [...]

Hippy-punching is a simple concept. To gain the trust of voters, leaders of centre-left parties must hunt down their most left-wing members and pummel them. Once an Americanism, it is [...]

The state opening of Parliament is an odd mix of pageantry and wonkery. 'My Government's legislative programme will be mission-led,' declared King Charles III, addressing the red-robed Lords from a [...]

The power of a new government stems not from its ideas but its enthusiasm. Labour, which https://www.economist.com/britain/2024/07/11/britains-general-election-was-its-least-representative-ever on July 5th, kicked off with a flurry of green measures approved with [...]

This is the introduction to Blighty, a weekly, subscriber-only newsletter in which our correspondents turn their gaze on the latest developments in Britain. Sign up for https://www.economist.com/newsletters/blighty . Matthew Holehouse, [...]

THE LABOUR PARTY'S https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/07/05/labour-has-won-the-british-election-now-it-has-to-seize-the-moment in Britain's general election seems to have bucked the trend of declining support for social-democratic parties, particularly in the face of fervour for the populist right. [...]

This is the introduction to Blighty, a weekly, subscriber-only newsletter in which our correspondents turn their gaze on the latest developments in Britain. Sign up for https://www.economist.com/newsletters/blighty . Matthew Holehouse, [...]

On July 1st Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, performed another publicity-seeking stunt in a campaign full of them—bungee jumping. Dangling by his ankles, Sir Ed shouted: [...]

It has been a difficult few years for Liz Truss. First she crashed the British economy. This was painful for her. ('I could hardly sleep,' she writes in her recent [...]

Squint a little and the letters 'UwU' resemble someone with large, cartoonish eyes and a serene smile. The cutesy emoticon is a staple of a certain corner of the internet, [...]

On the evening of June 13th, St Margaret's Church in Rainham was packed. At a long, cloth-covered table in front of the altar, six would-be mps answered locals' questions about [...]

THERE IS LITTLE doubt about the likely victor of Britain's general election on July 4th: with a https://www.economist.com/interactive/uk-general-election/polls/ in national opinion polls, the Labour Party is extremely likely to win. [...]

IT is a seaside tradition that is becoming as familiar as the Punch and Judy show. Nigel Farage goes to Clacton, a windy town on England's east coast. The Tories [...]

At the heart of Labour's economic strategy is a puzzle. All hope of repairing Britain's crumbling public services is pinned on https://www.economist.com/britain/2024/06/03/can-britains-economy-grow-as-fast-as-it-needs-to . To get it, Sir Keir Starmer, the [...]

This is the introduction to Blighty, a weekly, subscriber-only newsletter in which our correspondents turn their gaze on the latest developments in Britain. Sign up for https://www.economist.com/newsletters/blighty Matthew Holehouse, our [...]

An old axiom of British politics is that the Conservative Party is ruthless in its pursuit of power. Lately it has seemed relentlessly focused on losing it. It has purged [...]

This is the introduction to Blighty, a weekly, subscriber-only newsletter in which our correspondents turn their gaze on the latest developments in Britain. Sign up for https://www.economist.com/newsletters/blighty . Matthew Holehouse, [...]

This is the introduction to Blighty, a weekly, subscriber-only newsletter in which our correspondents turn their gaze on the latest developments in Britain. Sign up for https://www.economist.com/newsletters/blighty . Matthew Holehouse, [...]

'We need to send these monkeys a very significant shock,' says Ben Habib, Reform uk's candidate in the Wellingborough by-election. It is doubtful if anybody who has come to hear [...]

On the day Theresa May signed her Brexit withdrawal agreement with Brussels, Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, resigned. She tried to dragoon Michael Gove, a leader of the Brexit campaign, [...]

David Cameron always looked the part. Even the most powerful man on Earth was taken aback by the ease with which the jacketless, tieless British prime minister behaved. Barack Obama, [...]

Rishi Sunak stood glowering over a school table and listed, with disdain, the flavours of the vapes that lay on the table in front of him. 'Grapefruit,' the Prime Minister [...]

The House of Commons is designed to create conflict not consensus. Parliamentarians sit facing each other in the chamber and heckle. Coalitions are rare. Governments govern and oppositions oppose. Yet [...]

IF THE labour party wins the next election, its government will be notable in one respect. Our review of the shadow cabinet's biographies suggests that four people, or 13%, of [...]

Ramsgate Harbour once held a busy fishing fleet. Today the only sign of life is aboard four berthed cutters of the Border Force, whose task is to intercept migrants from [...]

I t is starting to dawn on me that I will soon be the only commoner I know. I am racking my brains trying to think of anyone I have [...]

Then there's the other candidate, or ex-candidate, for the Rochdale by-election, the one nobody is talking about. The Green party hopeful, Guy Otten, had his party's support withdrawn last week [...]

Who's afraid of the Green party? Within Labour, the answer varies depending on which member of the shadow cabinet you speak to. Some laugh off the idea that the Greens [...]

These days I think often of Doctor Faustus. Not because I am contemplating selling my soul to Mephistopheles, but rather because I take a moderate interest in the Conservative party, [...]

For once, the message from the Downing Street machine was frank, accurate and crystal clear: 'It's over.' The double resignation of Sajid Javid, the health secretary, and Rishi Sunak, the [...]

The Celtic virus is back in British politics and defying all efforts at immunity. The first wave hit Ireland in 1921 and broke the island in two. The second wave [...]

Youth is wasted on the young. But wealth is wasted on the old P ITY THE millennial. Greying at the temples, thinning on top and thickening round the middle. Once [...]