Can populists survive in public office? Ask Geert Wilders… June 9, 2025 Right-wing firebrand Geert Wilders has withdrawn from government in the Netherlands after discovering that governing is harder than criticising from the fringes. It’s a lesson Nigel Farage may learn too, say Eliot Wilson Last week, greeted by more weary fatalism than surprise, the government of the Netherlands collapsed. On Tuesday, radical nationalist Geert Wilders withdrew [...]
Government needs to focus on lowering energy costs to sell net zero, polling says June 9, 2025 The government’s embattled net zero mission suffers from a PR problem. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has been tasked with two huge goals: achieving clean power by 2030, and net zero by 2050. According to fresh polling by PR agency Grayling Media, 55 per cent of people think the 2030 clean power target cannot be attained. [...]
Zia Yusuf returns to Reform – just two days after quitting June 8, 2025 Zia Yusuf is returning to Reform UK as head of their “UK DOGE” programme. Just two days after the party chairman stepped down, following a dispute with the party over whether they would support the introduction of a burqa ban, Yusuf announced his new role on social media. Yusuf said he reconsidered stepping away from [...]
Businesses should dictate on burka ban, Badenoch says June 8, 2025 Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said employers should be able to decide if their staff can wear burkas in the workplace. Badenoch also said people who come to her constituency surgeries must remove their face coverings “whether it’s a burka or a balaclava”. Badenoch posted a video on X of part of her interview with [...]
Free Thinking: Is Nigel Farage the real prime minister? June 6, 2025 With everyone in Westminster dancing to Nigel Farage's tune, we have to ask: is the Reform UK leader the real prime minister?
Tory immigration policy: Kemi Badenoch unveils review into leaving ECHR June 6, 2025 Kemi Badenoch has used a major speech on immigration to announce a review into the UK leaving the European Court of Human Rights. In a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in Westminster, the Conservative leader announced a “lawfare commission” whilst slamming “a legal culture that’s become more interested in political activism than [...]
Reform lost their businessman – what does this mean for the party? June 6, 2025 Barely a week ago, Zia Yusuf was hosting journalists in the City, trying to sell them on Reform’s crypto plan. But things quickly went awry for the Reform party chairman. On Wednesday, Yusuf publicly contradicted Reform MP Sarah Pochin’s call in Parliament for a burqa ban. On Thursday, he resigned. The chairman announced he was [...]
Farage considered ‘more working class’ than Starmer, polling finds June 6, 2025 Reform leader Nigel Farage is seen by voters to have more solid working class credentials than Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, fresh polling by More in Common has found. 19 per cent see the Reform leader as a member of the working class. For Starmer, the number is 17 per cent. This follows Farage’s claim [...]
Reform in chaos as Zia Yusuf quits as Chair June 5, 2025 The chairman of Reform UK has quit his position, saying working to get the party elected was no longer “a good use of my time”. Zia Yusuf’s decision follows a row in which he described a question to the Prime Minister concerning a ban on burkas from his party’s newest MP as “dumb”. Announcing his [...]
Labour’s not for turning but the Inheritance Tax battle will rumble on June 5, 2025 Civil servants and politicians could not believe their eyes. As the hoarse grumble of diesel motors thundered along Whitehall, a fleet of tractors descended onto Parliament Square, heralded by a cacophony of honks to the tune of Aqua’s Barbie Girl. Beginning in November, farmers marched to Westminster to protest the government’s inheritance tax (IHT) reforms. [...]