Guardian comment piece on derisory ‘catch-up’ funding and failure to recognise the sacrifices made by children.
Punishing the young serves Johnson’s politics of nostalgia
‘The secret of Johnson’s success lies in his break with Treasury dominance’
New column for The Guardian, on the long shadow of Gordon Brown, and how Johnson has escaped it.
‘Johnson’s Tories are reaping the rewards of an economy built on house prices’
Comment piece for The Guardian, on the political and cultural consequences of Britain’s post-2008 model of capitalism, in which all the gains go to asset-owners.
Review of The Assault on Truth
I reviewed Peter Oborne’s new book, The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism, for The Guardian.
The history of The Spectator
A review essay, published at the New Left Review blog, on the history of The Spectator and what it tells us about Britain’s new political elite.
The decline of the ‘state effect’
Comment piece on the crisis of trust in British government, originally drafted in October, now shared on the PERC blog.
The rise of the rule-breakers
Article written for The New Statesman, on the problem of rules and behavioural governance in the face of coronavirus.
The Great British battle
Essay published by Guardian Review, on the nationalist currents being stirred by the covid crisis.
On the threat of the new Johnson government
Column written for The Guardian, on the Trojan Horse of Brexit and Boris, that contains as yet unknown policies and dangers.
‘The punishment of democracy’
Blogpost on the hellish election campaign season, at Goldsmiths Political Economy Research Centre.
‘How Boris Johnson and Brexit are Berlusconifying Britain’
Comment piece published in The Guardian, on the election and the end of liberalism.
‘The Tories have lost their ideology. Now they are merely the party of resentment’
Column, coinciding with Conservative Party conference, published in The Guardian.
‘How to be Prime Minister’
Article published in The London Review of Books, on Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Dominic Cummings.
Britain’s ‘asymmetric polarisation’
The LRB has published a round-table of contributions on the current crisis of British politics. I’ve focused on the worrying degree to which the radical right has now pulled away from the rest of the political spectrum, turning against compromise, parliament and Whitehall.
