DAVID LIPSEY | The vice-presidency of the United States is famously not worth a bucket of warm spit. So what is the deputy leadership of the Labour Party worth?
PHILIP JOHNSTON | Who would be home secretary? Who would want to be? Even though it is considered one of the great offices of state, alongside foreign secretary and the chancellor, it rarely...
PETER RIDDELL | Tony Blair is busy, busy. The more he is under pressure over his future as prime minister, the more determined he is to show that there is a lot more for him to do in Number 10.
ROBERT SHRIMSLEY | The news that the UK Independence party is a magnet for - in David Cameron’s phrase - ‘fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists’ should not come as much of a surprise.
PHILIP JOHNSTON | It is almost 20 years since Margaret Thatcher, on the morning of her third election victory in 1987, stood on the staircase of Central Office in London and said: ‘We must do...
PETER WILBY | When I edited the New Statesman, I was rung by a former Labour minister who wished, he said, to write an article on the future of democracy.
PETER RIDDELL | Every conversation with a minister, senior civil servant or special adviser now turns inevitably - and usually quickly - to the question of what type of prime minister Gordon Brown...
PETER WILBY | About six years ago, at the end of a long dinner in Edinburgh, I discussed patriotism with Gordon Brown (this being the nearest thing to light-hearted chat that you can get with the...
DAVID MEILTON | If you still think of good old Santa as an old fuddy-duddy dressed like a lumpy pillar-box with a tatty beard, prepare yourself for a shock.
PETER HETHERINGTON | Here’s a seasonal teaser to throw into the annual round of Trivial Pursuit, or the other festive games that can enliven an otherwise monotonous family get-together.
