Stephen Bush

Thursday, 10 July, 2025

1 hour ago

Wednesday, 9 July, 2025

Inside Politics

Is the UK’s triple lock pension the carousel that won’t stop?

Difficulty of curbing growing state spending on a policy tied to broader problem of ageism

Tuesday, 8 July, 2025

Inside Politics

Labour’s taxes on wealthy are already doing more harm than good

Party has boxed itself in and is gaining none of the political credit for introducing non-dom changes

Monday, 7 July, 2025

Inside Politics

Labour drift won’t solve UK’s two-decade sluggishness

Party never explained why Tories failed to restore growth — now it struggles to match policies with hard fiscal reality

Saturday, 5 July, 2025

Labour party UK

How Labour can resurrect itself

To recover from a dreadful first year, Starmer must acknowledge his failures

Saturday, 5 July, 2025

Film

Do we still need Superman?

The world may be crying out for a saviour, but a movie reboot centred on this sunniest of heroes may be a hard sell

Friday, 4 July, 2025

Political Fix podcast37 min listen

A year of Keir

Labour's cheers, tears, and welfare fears

Friday, 4 July, 2025

Inside Politics

Breakthrough barriers for UK’s populist left

Zarah Sultana’s surprise declaration she will co-lead new party suggests schismatic tendencies facing these groups

Thursday, 3 July, 2025

Inside Politics

Why Starmer and Reeves got this one wrong

Blaming the parliamentary party for poor discipline misses the bigger problem of the bill’s lack of logic

Wednesday, 2 July, 2025

Inside Politics

UK benefits bill will keep rising without NHS reform

Ministers want to get the sick into work, but without proper support for chronic illness the costs will increase elsewhere

Tuesday, 1 July, 2025

Inside Politics

Labour may avoid defeat but it has lost the policy argument

Concessions spare political pain, though case for ‘reform’ was about meeting a fiscal rule rather than efficiency

Monday, 30 June, 2025

Labour party UK

Labour had a theory for acquiring power, but none for how to wield it

A lack of interest in the real meat of policy helps to explain why Starmer’s first year in government has gone so badly

Friday, 27 June, 2025

Political Fix podcast35 min listen

Starmer’s welfare woes

Plus: is the UK prime minister faring better on the world stage?

Friday, 27 June, 2025

Inside Politics

Welfare U-turn permanently alters Labour’s playbook

Keir Starmer’s retreat symbolises end of high-handed forceful approach to managing MPs

Thursday, 26 June, 2025

Inside Politics

Labour’s blame game ignores what’s really missing at the top

Fractiousness among MPs stems from the party’s original sin in making irreconcilable promises

Wednesday, 25 June, 2025

Inside Politics

Starmer’s malfunctioning political machine

Dissent against leadership is partly a result of poor policy rationale, partly poor MP management

Tuesday, 24 June, 2025

Inside Politics

Labour’s welfare revolt shows politics always catches up with policy

Benefits system must get better at reducing poverty but these spending cuts will not solve the problem

Tuesday, 24 June, 2025

Cyber Security

Are we human or are we spammer?

As technology becomes better, a return to face-to-face encounters looks more likely

Monday, 23 June, 2025

Inside Politics

Keir Starmer’s balancing act on Iran risks political pain at home

A more dangerous world is increasing the sense that Britain, including its leaders, is being shaped by uncontrollable forces

Friday, 20 June, 2025

Inside Politics

The new alarming Tory language on Britishness

By redefining ‘native’ to exclude mixed-ethnicity Britons, the Conservatives shift towards a racial purity test once unthinkable

Thursday, 19 June, 2025

Inside Politics

Absence of leadership forces Labour to play to electorate

Only a wider governing philosophy will enable Keir Starmer’s party to see off Reform UK threat

Wednesday, 18 June, 2025

Inside Politics

Deportation case tests Labour’s appetite for ECHR reform

Inability to extradite fugitives wanted for murder and child rape prompts MPs to call for reinterpretation of human rights

Tuesday, 17 June, 2025

Inside Politics

Labour’s policies on non-doms and welfare risk pleasing no one

Ending non-dom regime started life as a political attack line but is now clashing with the reality of governing

Monday, 16 June, 2025

UK society

If we don’t watch TV together, can we still live together?

Fragmentation of both our entertainment and our news harms societies as well

Monday, 16 June, 2025

Inside Politics

This is not how you should legislate assisted dying reform

Bill likely to pass into law but such a major change to society and the state’s role merits government being explicit author