Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has announced what the government is describing as the “biggest employment reforms in a generation” to address the fact that 9.25 million people in the UK are economically inactive. The reforms include a new National Jobs and Careers Services, changes to how apprenticeships are funded, an overhaul of the Jobcentre system, mental health support and other public health measures. Those last two measures are the key point, because while there are many parts of the employment system that need fixing – the Apprenticeship Levy, for example, has long been misused by some businesses to pay for things like management training courses – the most frightening thing about Britain’s labour market is the number of ...

More than two and a quarter million people have signed a petition calling for a general election. This doesn’t mean anything in real terms for Keir Starmer, but it is worthwhile to look at where these signatures are coming from: not population centres, nor cities but rural, shire England. Look at North Yorkshire on the map above – deep red. Look at Lincolnshire – the reddest it’ll ever be. Ditto Essex. There has been plenty of consternation at the verification process for the petition. The website asks you to provide a postcode to sign, but it doesn’t require any proof of address. So who is to say that the entire list of signatories isn’t just overrun with Americans inspired by Elon ...

Not every MP will have a strong view on social issues. Matters relating to the economy, public services and the country’s place in the world are more likely to motivate an aspiring politician. They will then join a party, made up of others who are broadly (sometimes very broadly) of the same mind set and values. That party then obtains most of its votes from those who are sympathetic to its values. Once in parliament, an MP can safely follow the party line, unless they actively choose to go their own way. Then along comes an issue such as assisted dying. It is unlikely that it is an issue that drew an individual MP into politics; it does not divide down ...

What should we read into the fact that more than two million people have signed a petition demanding Keir Starmer call a general election? In one way, not very much. Since 2011 people have been able to voice their concerns via the petition.parliament.uk website. The government is supposed to respond to any petition with more than 10,000 signatures, while those with more than 100,000 “will be considered for a debate in Parliament”. Note: “considered”, not guaranteed. The petitions website is not a forum for a kind of direct democracy, more a cross between a litmus test for the mood of the country and a form of nationwide group therapy. The most successful (if you can call it that) petition was launched in ...

Much will be written about the late John Prescott’s political career but, for many, he will be remembered as “Two Jags”: a man who not only owned a Jaguar but also had the use of another in his capacity as a cabinet minister. That such an arrangement seemed so unusually extravagant in the late 1990s is indicative of the esteem that the marque was once held in. Today, few people would stop for a Jaguar parked in the street, let alone care how many a senior politician might own. And in seeming recognition of this popular indifference, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has decided it is time to reboot the brand. A rebrand is always a risky strategy, especially for a company ...

There have been many opportunities to foreground Israel’s cruelty in the past year, but the issuing of arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a milestone both serious and seismic. It means the political leaders of an alleged democracy cannot step foot in any of the 124 states – including Britain – that are party to the Rome Statute without risking arrest. It means they join Hamas commander Mohammed Deif (who is reportedly dead) on the list of individuals formally indicted for the kinds of offences humanity has collectively agreed are gravest of all. Yet today (22 November) the British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper refused to ...

The left needs to “build their own Joe Rogan”. As liberal America surveys the smoking ruins of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, and the mainstream media looks on bewildered at how they were outflanked by alternative new platforms, this is one rallying cry that has gained some momentum. If elections are now being won or lost on podcasts, perhaps liberals can build their own? The spark for this brainwave was clearly Trump and JD Vance’s appearances on Rogan in the days before the election – alongside the claim that Kamala Harris skipped the podcast for fear of a backlash from progressive activists for “amplifying” an anti-vaxxer meathead. Whether Rogan’s interview with Trump and his subsequent endorsement was that decisive in shifting the ...

It’s no exaggeration to say that there’s an air of panic around Scottish Labour at the moment. The party didn’t expect to find itself falling behind the SNP with just 18 months to go until the next Holyrood election. That really shouldn’t be happening when the governing party has been in office for 17 years – a duration that will have stretched to almost two decades by the time Scots go to the polls in May 2026. Regardless of that government’s performance – which has hardly been impressive – there should by now be an air of fatigue in the country and a desire for change. And yet recent polls put the Nats ahead, and on course to remain the largest party ...