The UK has had six prime ministers in the last 10 years – with a seventh likely to be in place by as early as mid-July. John Crace ranks those who have been booted out of Downing Street between 2016 and 2026. Worst of all is… 6. David Cameron David Cameron. Photograph: WPA/Getty If you’re … Read more
How much of our political agency have we sacrificed on the altar of imagined constraints? That question has been troubling me since last week, when I stepped out of the glitteringly art deco Grand Rex cinema in Paris. I had just been to see part one of La Bataille de Gaulle, a two-part epic based … Read more
Andy Burnham should be ready to exploit the UK’s remaining North Sea oil and gas resources to avoid mass job losses in Scotland and the north-east, the director of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Shevaun Haviland, has said. The decision about whether to allow extraction at the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields now appears likely … Read more
Sir Keir Starmer had years in opposition to prepare for government. His likely successor, Andy Burnham, has weeks. Unlike the outgoing prime minister, Mr Burnham will bring past ministerial experience to the top job as well as lessons learned as the mayor of Greater Manchester. But as every veteran of No 10 attests, the pressures in that building … Read more
On 23 June 2016 Britons voted to leave the EU. A decade later, the Guardian’s economics editor, Heather Stewart, looks back at the Brexit campaign promises. From immigration, a bus promising £350m a week for the NHS, to bendy bananas, the ‘most consequential decision in modern history’ had mixed results
UK could rejoin EU on ‘short’ timeline if it wanted, former EU Brexit negotiator says Lisa O’Carroll The UK could rejoin the EU on a “short” timeline because of the remaining alignment on regulation, Michel Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator has said. Michel Barnier talking in London at UK in a Changing Europe Brexit … Read more
Over the weekend, as evening fell on the hilly (and, crucially, shady) Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, one of Paris’s most popular green spaces, the joyfully chaotic Fête de la musique – a summer solstice celebration of music in all its forms – got under way, with competing DJs starting their sets in nearby cafes. It was … Read more
In Germany, Downing Street was likened to a transit station, given the regular comings and goings of different prime ministers and staff. Meanwhile, a bemused Spanish newspaper concluded No 10 seemed to have been fitted with a revolving door. As news outlets across Europe digested the implications of Keir Starmer’s precipitous fall from landslide election … Read more
Britain is not ungovernable, but the chalice of high office has been spiked with unusually fast-acting poison. Six prime ministers down in a decade. The spectacle of the lectern planted outside No 10 for a resignation speech has acquired the familiarity of ritual. Since the Brexit referendum, the average tenure in Downing Street has been … Read more
Let’s imagine you’ve been dumped by someone you were expecting to stay with for the rest of your life. The breakup is bitter. The logistics, exhausting. The two of you spend an eternity negotiating who gets to keep the dog, the flat, the friends; it’s hard to imagine that things will ever feel normal again. … Read more