The Mirror Crack'd

Work has begun on updating the UK government's so-called 'War Book', which hasn't been looked at in decades. According to the House of Commons Library, this exercise is not about military preparedness for imminent conflict " but reflect[s] the government’s ‘whole-of-society’ approach to defence and national security."  Hence, presumably, recent advice that has seeped into the public domain about stocking up on tinned food, bottled water, torches, a battery radio and candles. Well, we live in an increasingly uncertain world and you never know. But, while the dust is blown off the Cold War advice and precise details of the new version remain unclear so far, I think it's becoming glaringly obvious that the climate crisis and growing international bellicosity (which feed off each other - as it were) will be felt at home in food shortages, power blackouts and rampant inflation, maybe as soon as this winter. How much we can realistically hedge against this as pr...

England comprises over 84% of the population of the United Kingdom and yet has no vote when it comes to independence referenda (if and when reluctantly granted) on the future of the Union - is this fair? I pose the question in light of yesterday's historic meeting of the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in Cardiff - dubbed the 'Celtic Summit' - in pursuit of a perfectly l egitimate common aspiration to independence and the dissolution of the United Kingdom. To answer my own (probably rhetorical) question, I would say that one can hardly envisage a situation where a constituent nation in a liberal democracy is kept forever in thrall to a union against the settled will of its people. In a UK marriage one partner has only to state that the union has broken down irretrievably for the unwilling partner to be unable to contest this reason. It's known as a no-fault divorce.  In reality, the United Kingdom was a series of shotgun weddings. As I have written about...

It's over a year since I last did one of these slots so now seems as good (or bad) a week as any to revive it: Dire straits In the latest of Donald Trump's crazed foreign policy misadventures, he has now succeeded in closing not one but two of the world's most important maritime passages: the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and the Bab al-Mandab, gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Before he does any more damage to the world economy can someone please put this deranged lunatic in a strait-jacket. Kronos ate his children Jacob Coxon quit his lucrative job at Anthropic this week fearing the strong likelihood that unfettered AI development could destroy humanity. Coxon (27 going on 15, with a distinct Harry Potter vibe) looks like just the sort of Gen Z Silicon Valley/Bay Area geek who would press ahead with such research without any regard to its real-world consequences. Luckily for us he seems neither a narcissist nor nihilist, appearing instead to...

In Mao's China the Neighbourhood Committees (Juweihui) were a mechanism for keeping tabs on community activities, countering crime and stifling political dissent. The Gao Ma (grandmas) or Dama (aunties) were elderly women empowered by the Chinese Communist Party to maintain order on behalf of the Juweihui and report back on any infringements. As such, rather like the historic concierges in post-Revolutionary France, they were the frontline of state surveillance, commanding fear and affection in equal (or perhaps unequal) measure. In light of recent well-publicised events in Middlesbrough, I find myself pondering the advantages of such social management at the  grassroots level. I realise that this is potentially a busybodies' charter or, as in the cases cited above, something even more sinister. Where even existing Neighbourhood Watch schemes in this country are often sneered at as "curtain-twitchers" (having been a Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator myself in the past...

Andy Burnham's marathon session in the House of Commons yesterday, and his performance at PMQs today, are a good start, but now he has to deliver. Talk is cheap, as we all know, and there was certainly plenty of that yesterday as the new Prime Minister set out his stall to a packed House. In a prequel to today's PMQs Burnham gave his Statement, to which Kemi Badenoch, as Leader of the Opposition, responded. Try as she might - which wasn't very hard - she failed to land a blow on her new opponent, appearing to succumb to his irresistible charm and patent sincerity, ending up laughing along with him at her own expense. An exhausting three-and-a-half hours later (and, yes, for the record, I watched the entire session on Parliament.tv) a tired and emotional (in the literal rather than Private Eye sense) Burnham left the Chamber. He must have been feeling shattered but quietly satisfied as he headed for a well-deserved cuppa - or maybe something a little stronger. He acquitted h...

Andy Burnham has spent the summer making a string of policy announcements - this week he will find out how it's gone down. With the summer recess and August Bank Holiday out of the way, schools and Parliament return for the autumn today and, rather like teachers having an inset day, so MPs will take the day to settle in before the first Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) kicks business off in earnest tomorrow. Burnham may choose to make a statement to the House today but the PMQs set-piece at the despatch box tomorrow will be his first major performance in the Chamber of the House of Commons since becoming Prime Minister on 20th July. To describe it as eagerly-awaited would be an understatement and it will be closely scrutinised and analysed. Therefore, it is essential that Burnham gets the tone right since it will define the rest of his premiership. No pressure there, then. His many pledges over the summer, variously described as a flurry, slew or spate, will certainly provide ...

The UK Government Resilence Action Plan (RAP) 2026 was published on 14th July so why are we only hearing about it now? I consider myself fairly switched-on and tuned-in but I don't recall hearing about this before and yet, today, the press and media are full of advice on stocking-up at least 72 hours'-worth of basic essentials such as bottled water, tinned food, a first-ai d kit, candles and battery powered torches and radios in case of a national emergency. Could it be that the month's delay has been due to the changeover of Prime Ministers? I think the game is given away by the strap-line on the Cabinet Office report to be found on the UK.Gov website: "This was published under the 2024 to 2026 Starmer Labour government". So during the past month, while parliament has been in recess and Labour has been rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, we, the British people, have been kept in the dark, effectively left to fend for ourselves as potentially existential in...

After a long, hot summer of urban noise and disturbance I recently sought refuge in the country - it didn't go exactly according to plan... After no-mow May (and - coincidentally, surely? - the local elections) the grass on my East London estate has not been cut by the council. As a consequence, long, tinder-dry grass is now at the mercy of any disposable barbecue (believe me, it happens even on inner-city estates) or thoughtlessly discarded cigarette butt so I expect a conflagration at any moment - just as well we currently have fire wardens - but that's another story, for another time... We have also been plagued recently by late-night/early-morning fireworks exploding noisily and shattering the already fragile nighttime 'calm'. Suffice to say, between heatwaves and antisocial behaviour we have had little sleep these past few months..  So, while news that Prime Minister Burnham (appropriately so-named in this context) has temporarily banned the use of disposable barbe...

Writing my previous piece, Hard truths, shocked me even as I was writing it. I don't know what my small but loyal cohort of readers will have made of it - and, as I haven't enabled comments, I may never find out - but, while thinking the previously unthinkable was an uncomfortable experience, publishing my conclusions was agonising. If my writing goes down to posterity at all (which I very much doubt) I wouldn't want it to be as the ravings of a crypto-fascist. Nevertheless, I stand by what I wrote and was interested, therefore, to read a piece in Engelsberg Ideas by Jack Dickens entitled Europe's Lost Reason of State. This came as a revelation to me and I admit I was initially somewhat alarmed to learn that the concept derives from the writings of Machiavelli. (If one is judged by the company one keeps, what does quoting the godfather of the dark arts of Renaissance political philosophy say about one's moral compass?) To quote Dickens: "Reason of State was for...

On 22 June the EU's three main institutions reached a landmark decision. After twenty years of fierce debate around the handling of irregular migration the European Commission, the European Council and European Parliament reached a political consensus on this highly contentious issue. Driven in part - possibly in large part - by the growth of rightwing politics in many European countries, the change of mood - and therefore of policy - seems to be a response to decades of un- or poorly-controlled migration. Much of the anti-migrant sentiment has undoubtedly been whipped up by hate-fuelled rhetoric from commentators with a clearly xenophobic, and more particularly, Islamophobic axe to grind. However, even those more liberal and sympathetic onlookers now appear to be questioning some of their former assumptions in light of recent highly-publicised events. I count myself amongst them. The EU has given its members the green light to pursue 'return hubs' - third countries to whic...

Of the thousands of young Moroccans who entered Ceuta by sea recently, 72 drowned in the attempt. Just process that statistic for a moment. That's 72 young people who left home in high spirits one day only to be returned in body bags the next; 72 families grieving children lost in a moment of juvenile enthusiasm gone fatally wrong; 72 funerals for mourners to lament a senseless loss of a young life. The repercussions of this will be generational and could become existential for the Moroccan state if, or when, that grief turns to anger. Meanwhile, those opportunist politicians in Europe and the United States who disseminate mis- and disinformation whenever a situation like this arises make mischief with human tragedy in an attempt to stir up xenophobic hatred. Facts are never allowed to get in the way of their hate-filled messaging, or are dismissed as 'fake news'. Admittedly, independently verified facts can be hard to uncover but they are available if you bother to look fo...

The self-immolation of Tunisian, Mohamed Bouazizi, on 17 December 2010 triggered the Arab Spring. The 26 year-old street vendor was driven to take his own life in such a horrific fashion out of despair at his experience of grinding poverty and relentless police harrassment. His death caused a wave of anger and revulsion amongst the Tunisian population and, on 14 January 2011, the country's President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was forced to step down and fled into exile. The unrest spread throughout the Arab world, triggering the overthrow of several despotic regimes and seeming to hold out the prospect of widespread democratisation. Sadly, but perhaps predictably, the movement was stifled through a combination of vicious state crackdowns and Western unwillingness to upset the status quo in a strategically critical region. A combination of self-interest, complicity and indifference on the part of Western powers effectively snuffed out the movement and, in 2012, the uprising was over....

The 23rd Commonwealth Games opened tonight in Glasgow under this inspiring, if contentious, motto. You could be forgiven for not noticing, given its low profile, but it used to be a big deal. The British Empire Games began in 1930, becoming the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1950 before finally settling on its current name in 1966. Just through its changing titles it's possible to chart the evolving story over the years, not just of the sporting fixture itself but of British imperialism and colonialism. The pared-down, scaled-back nature of this year's Games compared with those last held in the Scottish city in 2014 seems to suggest a faltering present and an uncertain future. Three Games were to have been held in Victoria, Australia, but in 2023 the state government announced it was pulling out on cost grounds so Glasgow came to the rescue and the King, Queen and Prime Minister will be there at tonight's opening ceremony. The suspicion must be that Australia, a s...

It looks like one of the first decisions Andy Burnham will be making on Monday will involve energy supply. On arriving in Downing Street having 'kissed hands' with the King he will face the serried ranks of press and media assembled on a specially constructed grandstand to cover his totemic moment behind the lectern. It's not clear if he will be taking questions afterwards but, depending on how his speech is received, it could easily be downhill all the way after that. I wish him well because this performance could make or break his premiership. Presumably by Monday morning he will have finalised his Cabinet choices, the two major ones at this particular juncture being Chancellor and Energy Secretary, with the most hotly-tipped candidates being Ed Milliband and Shabana Mahmood, interchangeably. In Sir Keir Starmer's Cabinet, Ed Milliband was Energy and Net Zero Secretary and Mahmood Home Secretary. With Milliband being the champion of renewable energy and net zero polic...

As Andy Burnham addressed the Labour Party faithful today it was hard not to be swept up in the enthusiasm. Burnham's leadership acceptance speech at Congress House was, as expected, extremely upbeat and positive. It was impossible not to compare it with Keir Starmer's lacklustre efforts, which serially failed to motivate his party,  boost its flagging morale or secure his position. On the contrary, the more the membership heard from him, the more deflated their mood became and the less they trusted his leadership. No-one could begrudge Burnham his moment of elation today - although he deftly avoided triumphalism - but he would do well to bear in mind the old adage, fine words butter no parsnips. Talk is cheap but the difficult bit will be delivery - and time is not on his side.  In thirty months or so preparations should be getting underway for the next General Election - unless, that is, Burnham decides to go to the country early in the hope of being returned for another fiv...

There's no place for politics in sport, right? Well, good luck with that one, especially where obscene amounts of money meets global TV coverage, as with (a random example off the top of my head) the FIFA World Cup™. Things got off to a good start when FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, presented Donald Trump with the specially-invented FIFA Peace Prize to mollify the US President for being snubbed over the Nobel version. It was all downhill from there, with Trump's successful intervention to secure the withdrawal of the red card - and thus one-match suspension - awarded against US player, Falorin Balogun, allowing him to play in the subsequent match against Belgium.  There was widespread schadenfreude when the US lost that match 4-1 but now the controversy has moved on to the actions of some Argentinian players after their victory over England in last night's match, when Lisandro Martinez and Giovanni Lo Celso were among those holding up a sheet bearing the words Las Malvin...

I wonder if Donald Trump will take time out of his busy (golfing) schedule to see Christopher Nolan's newly-released epic, The Odyssey? It seems unlikely (not enough car chases) but if he does he might learn something useful about hubris and nemesis following his disastrously brazen intervention in the Folarin Balogun red card debacle. Trump, a self-proclaimed leading expert on football fouls (despite admitting not knowing what a red card was), phoned his pal, FIFA president and Trump ass-licker-in-chief, Gianni Infantino (a White House insider was quoted as saying if he spent any more time in the Oval Office "they would have to start charging him rent"), to get the one-match ban on Balogun overturned after he fouled Bosnia and Herzegovina defender, Tarik Muharemovic, and got a straight red card from the Brazilian ref, Raphael Claus , for doing so. Trump, not widely known for caring about the welfare of young Black men, preferring to see them jailed, shot or deported by I...

Like all foundational myths, 'the 4th of July' requires some qualification. The semi-quincentenary of the founding of the United States of America is marked today - a bittersweet occasion, especially under its current President - but the date is somewhat arbitrary. I hate to be pedantic (me?) but, while true that delegates of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies signed off the Declaration of Independence on 4th July 1776, the New York delegation abstained until receiving authorisation from their state capital, Albany, which came on 2nd August 1776. The Declaration proclaimed the Thirteen Colonies "free and independent States", no longer colonies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and, thus, no longer part of the British Empire.  But this was only the beginning of a painfully protracted struggle to break free, not the end. Years of bloody battles and skirmishes followed, with the definitive peace treaty only signed, in Paris, on 3rd September 1783. Even then, this was n...

Will Andy Burnham, as Prime Minister, be able to rebalance the country as he says he intends to? Speaking today at Manchester People's History Museum (a pointed choice of venue), Burnham set out his visionary programme not just of change but of hope and received a rapturous response from his audience of regional mayors and politicians in doing so. At last, after two wasted years, a clear path has been laid out for the Labour government to follow. The sense of relief and excitement in the room was palpable, even on TV. It's pointless asking now why this couldn't have been done in July 2024; the man elected then and responsible for the drift since has stood down and his successor-in-waiting has set out his stall in both philosophical and practical terms. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. All he needs is the opportunity to get cracking on delivery. The man dubbed 'the King of the North' certainly has impeccable northern roots and ten years' experience successfully r...

We hear a lot about dashboards these days but, in the political context, it's perhaps worth remembering the word's original meaning It derives from the physical board attached to the front of a horse-drawn carriage to block mud and debris ('the dash' kicked up by the horses' hooves) from hitting passengers. Maybe you should ponder this fact as your civil servants analyse the data for you in real time. In other words, you'll need to develop a canny strategy for avoiding the shit when it inevitably flies and make sure it doesn't stick to you. But I'm sure you knew that anyway. So, as you prepare for your coronation I append my advice to consider in the short time available to you before assuming the mantle of the highest office of state. I know Oscar Wilde observed that the only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on but, unfortunately for you, there's no-one you can pass it in to - the buck stops with you from hereon in. (Luckily for you, you w...