Category : Political

Never mind about the economy, Britain has a new luxury brand – Rishi Sunak | Marina Hyde

As pandemic announcements go, the chancellor’s second budget can’t compete with his Instagram hoodie shotsExchequer spokesmodel/gyoza-toting architect of Eat Out To Spread It About/the Conservative party’s idea of a cool person. Wherever you were bef...

Johnson is subdued but his dog is causing havoc. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? | Marina Hyde

Forget the spad wars at No 10 – the real drama is over Dilyn, the prime minister’s sexually incontinent canine“I won’t be buccaneering with people’s lives.” I think you dropped an “any more”, prime minister. But hey – let’s not tell our sad stories....

From Farage's flotilla to rotting exports – it's the story of Brexit, in fish | Marina Hyde

Four years ago, Brexiteers led an iceberg-worthy event on the Thames. Now they’ve ghosted an entire industry“Every revolution evaporates,” declared Kafka, “and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.” The government’s Brexit deal has gone...

Ten years for breaking Covid travel rules? Borders are the latest Boris Johnson fail | Marina Hyde

The government’s new quarantine restrictions sound tough – but they’re exactly one year too lateYesterday’s news that the government had still yet to sign a single contract with a hotel for its quarantine scheme felt puzzling. Traditionally, politici...

Britons want a bit of drama from their leaders – and Keir Starmer isn't serving it | Marina Hyde

The lawyerly Labour leader may think the public want calm and competence, but has he met them lately?Like all desperate thrill-seekers in this interminable lockdown, I was momentarily stirred to hear there were some handbags between Boris Johnson and...

Just what we needed, a new strain of nationalism – the vaccine kind | Marina Hyde

It’s a tribute to the ingenuity of the human spirit that the UK and the EU can still come up with new sources of bitter disputeHow are you enjoying the vaccine wars? The EU’s meltdown at the UK is one of those rows that turns you into the grimace-fac...

When will Boris Johnson stop giving Covid variants a sporting chance? | Marina Hyde

It seems the virus is the only thing ministers are happy to see crossing the UK’s borders without getting tied up in red tapeCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIt’s been encouraging to hear for yonks now that this idea of qua...

It's Churchill or bust: now Britain's culture warriors are looking to Washington | Marina Hyde

Joe Biden has moved a sculpture off his desk. Cue howls of outrage – but a perplexing silence from Boris JohnsonGird your loins, foot soldiers – or maybe don’t, for these are confusing times in the Conservative culture wars. On the one hand the commu...

Why is Marcus Rashford the only millionaire the Tories hate listening to? | Marina Hyde

In public their MPs say he’s doing an ‘incredible’ job. But, after all the U-turns, in private the false bonhomie is failingThere is no one vignette about the government’s handling of the pandemic that “says it all”, but there will always be a broken...

How many waves will it take for Britain's lockdown sceptics to finally call it a day? | Marina Hyde

You’d have thought the crisis would give them pause. But then, like the government, they have a hard time learning from their mistakesI am agonised to learn that the Daily Telegraph has been censured for a column published last July, in which Toby Yo...

So Boris Johnson was cycling seven miles from Downing Street? It's not far enough | Marina Hyde

Given his dismal blame-shifting record on the pandemic, the further away he is from the seat of power, the betterCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLockdown day number what-does-it-even-matter-any-more, and what’s the general...

It's back to school for Boris Johnson, the man who refuses to learn | Marina Hyde

As we enter a third national lockdown, it’s clear the PM is repeating his own mistakes at a colossal cost to everyone elseCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAnother series of breakneck U-turns from the government’s world-beat...

With a heavy heart, Johnson will always remind us who the real victim is: him | Marina Hyde

His compassion for the public may be limited, but never let it be said that our leader is a man who neglects his own emotionsIt is one of the curiosities of this inside-out age that Donald Trump is loved by conspiracists, even though he is a leader –...

It’s Christmas in the Conservative party – time to sling another fib on the fire | Marina Hyde

From the tier system to the Brexit deal or no deal, Tory MPs have an incredibly busy schedule of self-deception to juggle My favourite ever political doorstep question came from Michael Crick, who greeted a certain New Labour figure with the early mo...

Viruses adapt, it seems: what a tragedy that Tory cabinet ministers don’t | Marina Hyde

Nobody U-turns more than this government. Still, it’s ploughing ahead with its plans to ‘save Christmas’Once history has repeated itself as tragedy, and then as farce, where does it go for the third wave? Panto? Certainly, small children would now be...