Downing Street Parties

Boris Johnson’s Downing Street party apology: Three key takeaways.

— Boris Johnson is sort of sorry – but the caveats are key. There is little doubt that his apology only occurred because the PM had no other choice – the evidence was too strong. But we can be sure that he will stick to this argument like glue.

Brexit

Brexiters now worry about the judgment of history.

— Professor Chris Grey’s analysis on the recent spate of Brexiter anxiety about Brexit realities, the conundrum this poses for Boris Johnson, and why it matters so much to Brexiters – and to all of us.

Analysis

Brexit returns to its roots.

— Professor Chris Grey unpicking Frost’s resignation, and arguing that it shows how Brexit events and policy are once again entirely about the toxic internal politics of the Conservative Party.

Analysis

How much trouble is Boris Johnson in?

— Backbenchers are rattling their sabres and a brutal by-election loss has made it all so much worse for Boris Johnson.

Analysis

Conservative MP rebellion: ‘Human rights’ opposition to new COVID measures doesn’t add up.

— The libertarian Tory MPs’ revolt over new public health restrictions comes in stark contrast to their support of other draconian laws that violate human rights. We have rights by virtue of the fact that we are human, not simply because we are good citizens.

Analysis

Not my Brexit.

— Professor Chris Grey’s latest Brexit analysis. As the damage they have caused quietly mounts, some leading Brexiters are saying “it’s not my Brexit” whilst others say that we must wait decades to judge – both are ways of avoiding accountability.

OPINION

In Tory Britain, you never know what will happen yesterday.

— The UK is now at that critical point where it is about to slide into full-blown authoritarianism, presided over by an entitled clown.

COMMENT

A moral vacuum... on either side of the English Channel?

— On either side of the English Channel, the debate is about a moral vacuum.

Analysis

Why the UK government’s plan to overturn court decisions is a bad idea.

— Plans by the government to regularly overturn court decisions are the perfect way to avoid accountability, undermine independent scrutiny and weaken the role of the courts in holding the government to account.

Downing Street Parties

Downing Street Christmas party: Four key takeaways from the leaked Allegra Stratton video.

— The aesthetics of Allegra Stratton’s mock press conference made the revelations coming out of it so much worse.

Brexit

Brexit discredited.

— Brutal but fair, Professor Chris Grey’s Brexit analysis of the strange case of Thatcherite Brexiters and the incoherent post-Brexit strategy their misunderstandings of markets and regulation have led to.

Brexit

The joke isn’t funny anymore.

— Boris Johnson’s reputation may have reached a tipping point, but ‘Brexitification’ is pervasive and nowhere more evident than in the vile politics of the cross-channel migration tragedy.

OPINION

The perfect figurehead for a corrupt and unreformable Westminster.

— What the Tories are getting with Boris Johnson is precisely what they should have expected they were going to get. He’s incapable of change and as such is a perfect figurehead for a corrupt and shambolic Westminster which is incapable of reform.

Brexit

A pause to reflect.

— With the Northern Ireland Protocol talks looking set to continue, some reflections on how narratives of the success and failure of Brexit are developing and how these will eventually coalesce into a ‘received image’.

Watch Now

It’s the newspapers’ fault if Boris Johnson was pictured on a train maskless – Business minister.

— On Monday morning, Good Morning Britain’s co-host Adil Ray asked Paul Scully, the Minister for small business, whether he thought PM Boris Johnson had no common sense after he was recently photographed maskless on a busy train and already maskless a few days before that in a hospital.

Analysis

Sleaze: Why Boris Johnson is being reminded of the lurid scandals of 1990s Britain.

— There are important similarities between the current PM’s woes and John Major’s – but a very important difference, too.