Speaking to a group of Americans this week, I was asked about Scotland’s increasingly troubled relationship with North Sea oil. They were mostly elderly and retired, and remembered the excitement around its discovery in the early 1970s. As far as they could tell, today’s Scottish politicians want little to do with its lucrative but environmentally awkward black gold. This often feels true. As fears over climate change have grown, politicians have become increasingly oil-sceptic (in public at least). Labour has ruled out granting any new North Sea licences when it takes power and wants to extend the windfall tax on oil and gas companies. The SNP, for as long as it was in partnership with the Greens, was similarly loath to ...

The local hero of the 2024 general election has been crowned: according to the Guardian it’s “Whitby woman”. And every general election campaign these days generates its own fictitious kingmaker, a geographically tethered but politically floating voter who will prove decisive come polling day. These voters are semi-mythical prizes. But they do capture some notion of sociocultural demographics in this country, one that doesn’t completely vanish after the exit poll chimes in.  The first such apparition to call the shots in this way were the “Mondeo men”, whom Tony Blair sent out his pack of political scientists and spin doctors to woo. The term, an update on the less-PC “Essex man”, gained prominence after the 1996 Labour Party conference, when Blair ...

When I arrive at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Friday 7 June for the first UK date of Taylor Swift’s global sell-out Eras tour, I will have seen every section, transition and poorly conceived dance move before the show begins. I will already be aware of what’s in the set and in what order it will be played. The only difference will be that, this time, I will actually be there rather than on my living room sofa watching it on a grainy, distorted live stream. This reality is mortifying to admit, both as someone sceptical of Swift’s politics and who, in theory, is resistant to the idea of pre-watching a show I’ve paid more than £100 to attend. But I’m far ...

European parliamentary elections are imminent. In the run-up, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has unleashed a full-throttled propaganda assault on the continent. Her campaign team has described the approach as “personal” and “dynamic”, but so far the crop of videos has drawn a chorus of ridicule. In one oddly whimsical clip posted across her social media accounts, Von der Leyen is seen strolling through what looks like a verdant Teutonic forest, uttering the words “this is where I find my strength and the energy”. Strength, vitality, German blondes looking fresh-faced and purposeful: what associations might she hope to conjure with such imagery? Some noted that the clip was reminiscent of the “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” scene from the ...

The highly questionable – if not downright false – claim that a Labour government would cost households an extra £2,000 in taxes has dominated the headlines today. And it’s right that the media probes where these claims come from so voters don't believe untruths. But I’ve found myself thinking a great deal about another question from last night’s leaders’ debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer: when both men were invited to answer with a "yes" or a "no" whether they would use private healthcare if they had a loved one in need of surgery who was stuck on a long waiting list. Yes, answered Sunak immediately. No, Starmer replied, similarly without hesitation. Asked again, he stuck with his answer: “No. ...

Labour is heading for a landslide victory and the Conservatives for an epic defeat. As a consequence, it was Rishi Sunak who arrived with the most to do at tonight’s ITV election debate. The Prime Minister sought to cast Keir Starmer as an untested leader who would raise taxes, punish pensioners and increase immigration. At times, Sunak succeeded in discomfiting the Labour leader. Starmer struggled to rebut his repeated claim that Labour would raise taxes by £2,000 per family. It was only after much waffle on fiscal assumptions that Starmer eventually declared the figure was “absolute garbage”. When Sunak accused him of planning a “retirement tax”, the Labour leader could only invoke Liz Truss (a strong card, in fairness).  But this debate ...

When Rishi Sunak called the general election, the Tories had a record polling deficit. Despite various policy initiatives and relaunches, it was a deficit that had remained more or less static for many months. Some inside Downing Street believed it would only start to narrow once the public focused on the choice in front of them during an election campaign. Two weeks into that campaign, there is no sign of it narrowing. If anything, Labour’s lead has grown. The Tory strategy has been straightforward. They have lost support to both their left and their right, but the view was that Reform UK’s support would be the easiest to squeeze. Appeal to older, socially authoritarian voters with talk of national service, tax ...

Whenever Stephen Fry is in the news, denouncing the centuries-old, expensive institutions that he frequents, I ask myself: who is this for? Is Stephen Fry’s fanbase really expecting the actor to cut ties with everyone he knows and spend his remaining years in comfortable retirement? Does Stephen Fry know that it’s 2024, and we’re a few years past needing to cancel every bakery and bar that doesn’t operate solely in the name of racial justice?  At the weekend, it was Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)’s turn. Fry, who is the former president of the MCC, has said the 237-year-old club “stinks” of privilege. He added of his former stomping ground: “It has a public face that is deeply disturbing, sort of beetroot-coloured ...