INVENIRE

Reform needs a reality check I can’t imagine being Keir Starmer at the moment. You’d imagine, with 403 MPs, that it was easier than ever to be Prime Minister: with that many backbenchers, bills amount to decrees. Reality begs to differ. Having promised not to raise taxes on working people, the nearest available method to filling the “black hole” — cutting spending — has been scuppered too. A revolt by Labour backbenchers has gutted his ministry’s attempt to reform welfare spending. In the most recent edition of Prime Ministers’ Questions, following this U-turn, he failed to confirm that Rachel Reeves would keep her job, leaving the Chancellor in tears. Ordinarily, a series of Labour faults of this sort would put the ball firmly in the Tory court. In the 70s, “Labour isn’t working” meant “Vote Conservative” — the implication was obvious. However, the trends of the past twelve months suggest that Reform has been best positioned to capitalise on Labour failures. National popular vote poll...

Everyone, even centrist-in-chief Rory Stewart, agrees that Britain needs reform. Crime, violent and petty, goes unpunished. Economic growth has flatlined since the Great Financial Crisis. Britons, especially young ones, are ashamed of their country. There lies the fundamental appeal of the Reform campaign: the current way, however articulated, isn't working and so the country needs something radically different. The party catapulted itself to the third most popular in Britain at the summer's General Election with a bold promise to break the two-party duopoly, reduce net migration to zero from its sky-high startpoint, and simultaneously cut taxes for everyone while reducing the budget. First Past the Post's tendency to protect established players prevented Reform from winning more than five seats outright. Nonetheless, the party's millions of votes nationwide made it a kingmaker in numerous constituencies and inaugurated a new era in British politics. The Labour Party...

Emboldened by electoral victory last November, Trump is governing unrestrained. He straddles the Western hemisphere as Punch's Rhodes did Africa, spanning everything from the Panama Canal to Greenland and the Great White North with the threat of mass deportations, import tariffs, and outright annexations. That he is discussing the futures of sovereign countries with democratically elected, internationally recognised leaders is all but a footnote to his one-page memorandum to see America win again. He wields his baton of choice, tarriff by executive order, with all the confidence of a Victorian policeman. It is increasingly clear, where it was not before, what Trump's priorities will be in his second term. Confusion abounded between November and January as to what Trump 2.0 would look like. His executive branch nominees included both union fanatics and business leaders, both loyalist lawyers and venture capitalists. A rift appeared in the MAGA coalition following the appointment...

Starmergeddon has reminded us that being in opposition is much easier than running the country. While good governance requires making the "tough choices" to which Starmer and Reeves have alluded, opposition consists of identifying the Government's failures and presenting one's party as the common sense replacement. The Conservatives have played to this natural advantage, organising opposition to the Government's plans to de-universalise the Winter Fuel Allowance for over-65s and introduce inheritance tax on agricultural estates. The Tories batted well to defend their target voters, painting the Labour Party as incalculably cruel by comparison. The 'Family Farm Tax', as it was soon monikered, was even more fertile ground politically. Britain's farmers, stewards of our green and pleasant land, were heroes in conflict with a cabal of metropolitan left-wingers who sought to undermine their  way of life . While reliable polling of public opinion is not yet ...

After Kemi Badenoch's McFarce earlier this week, Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick is emerging as the champion of the party's right-wing, and the outright frontrunner in the four-way contest. In an opinion piece for the Daily Mail, that megaphone of Middle England, Jenrick claimed that left-liberal policies on immigration and the culture had "put the very idea of England at risk." Without detailing the minutiae of what constitutes Englishness, Jenrick awoke the dormant conversation surrounding the identity of the largest nation in the Union. What was once the preserve of irrelevant, eschewed political parties, such as the English Democrats, is now contested on Sky News, and in that sense, Jenrick has already won the day by bringing the issue to the attention of the public. In addition to his predictable commitments to having Britain leave the ECHR, the Tory candidate has reminded us that England matters too, advertising himself as the man to revive the C...

Britain finally took sentencing seriously this summer. Despite previous announcements that prisons were incapable of absorbing more convicts, courts stood firmly on the side of order. The use of televised sentencing only heightened perceptions that the crimes committed in the aftermath of the Southport stabbing were particularly egregious. The decision to broadcast sentencing statements to every TV screen in the country was not a ploy to fill up TV programming schedules, but evidence that even TV executives were fully devoted to the mission of His Majesty's Government.  While most Britons supported the crackdown on violent conduct, efforts to police speech surrounding the riots spurred on debate regarding appropriate limits to speech in general. That "grossly offensive" speech is criminalised under the 2003 Communications Act drew the derision of many international observers, including Elon Musk. Whether motivated by genuine support for our speech laws or merely a reflexi...

Suella Braverman came under fire for her criticism of the Progress Flag There are few gulfs greater than that between the rhetoric and the policy accomplishments of the Conservative and Unionist Party. The eight years since the Brexit referendum have seen numerous Conservative politicians style themselves as committed traditionalists, supposedly determined to reverse the constitutional and cultural change initiated by New Labour. Nevertheless, despite a General Election victory to the tune of a majority of 80 in 2019, the Conservative Party has brought about an anti-work marginal tax schedule , given up on border control, and presided over a soft-sentencing approach to law and order. Have we had a Conservative Party at all? A perusal of The Telegraph's opinion section at any point between the dampened Downing Street election announcement and polling day itself makes the size of the gulf ghastly. Every week saw a new plea by a Tory parliamentarian or one of their Fleet Street allies...

The Los Angeles Lakers' selection of Lebron "Bronny" James Jr. in the NBA Draft last week reminded us that nepotism is alive and kicking. The best player of the past twenty years gave his son, an unremarkable college basketball player, a remarkable first job. Such an action would have been impossible for James Sr's parents, and so such an act demonstrated that the James family are members of some elite, even if it lacks the shields and signet rings of the older European aristocracy. Lebron James drinks the wine of the American Dream vineyard. Though born poor, he was, more importantly, born into a society that rewarded his blend of physical giftedness and hard work. Lebron the elite talent became Lebron the elite performer and has become Lebron, member of the American elite. He has the social and economic clout necessary to set up schools, purchase Los Angeles mansions and have people sit up when he comments on social issues, such as the NFL national anthem protests. ...

The history of the modern state of Israel would be incomplete without mention of its relationship with the West and, in particular, the United States. While Israel has nominally "fought alone" in the majority of her wars since 1948, the invisible hand of American financial and diplomatic support has been an ever-emboldening presence for Zionist ambition. The United States was the principal promoter of Resolution 181, the 1947 proposal which brought about the partition of the then-dying British Mandate of Palestine into distinct Jewish and Arab states. Following the Israeli declaration of independence in the following May, President Truman immediately announced American recognition of the state. In the 75 years of Israel's existence, she has been the greatest beneficiary of American foreign aid, receiving $158 billion (not adjusted for inflation) in this period. Support for Israel and its policy objectives, foreign and domestic, have become a fact of life in Washington DC....

In enshrining values such as the consent of the governed, the American constitution is commonly associated with the Whig political tradition. Despite the fact that the American constitution owes more to the ideas of Whigs than those of royalists, the Constitution’s repeated insurance against treason and its framework for the foundation of a strong federal government indicates its mixed ideological heritage. Moreover, the Constitution’s blend of Whig and royalist ideas, girded by its own historical context, demonstrates that these political philosophies are not diametrically opposed; the Whigs of the 17th and 18th centuries supported the notion of monarchy, albeit a constitutional one. While the Constitution draws much from whiggish thought, evidence of royalist inspiration abounds. The American constitution’s emphasis on the consent of the governed is drawn from whiggism. The idea that “the People of the United States” are the sole arbiters of government legitimacy recurs. The fact tha...

If good politics unifies, rather than divides, populations; achieves political goals and reflects the will of the electorate, politics would be better without political parties. Partisan politics stokes unproductive national division, reduces the quality of political discussion, hinders political progress and allows for the corruption of the government by corporate and foreign - non-constituent - agents. Nevertheless, the weight of criticism of partisan politics has not yet resulted in detaching politics from partisanship. Citizens of liberal democracies live in a state of “partisan realism”; to appropriate Mark Fisher’s description of capitalism, “it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to political parties.”. The fact that only ten sovereign states lack political parties - seven of which are absolute monarchies - justifies the belief that parties are the gatekeepers to politics and immutable components of democracies. Therefore, in addition to outlining how political ...

The solution to our economic woes lies in unleashing our building potential The year is 1979. Beholden to trade union leaders, strikes have left Britain in disarray. In the wake of the Winter of Discontent, descriptions of Britain as the "sick man of Europe" seemed apt; such a label is not out of place today. Like James Callaghan was then, much of our political class seems to be on the beach in the Bahamas, with their heads in the sand while catastrophe awaits. Cures to our malaise are available, but the anti-growth coalition that dominates Britain refuses to enact any policy that capitalises on the resources — human or physical — available to us. Even among information economies, Britain is blessed with its array of world-class higher education institutions. Despite this, no considered effort has been made in converting this abundance of talent into economic prosperity. None of the world's ten largest biomedical companies are British. World-class universities are the key...