James Ball
24 November 2023
I’m A Celebrity… is going badly for both Nigel Farage and ITV
Ratings are down and the Brexiteer is missing his chance to capitalise on new net migration numbers
Read the full article22 November 2023
The autumn statement points to a general election in May
A national insurance cut for January indicates we could only be six months from a poll
Read the full article21 November 2023
Rishi Sunak is no magician
David Cameron is Rishi Sunak’s latest trick to persuade voters that he is competent. Like his others, it is doomed to fail
Read the full article19 November 2023
The do-nothing left aren’t morally superior… they are irrelevant
In failing to realise the value of compromise, serial protestors guarantee they will change nothing
Read the full article15 November 2023
Rwanda was a colossal waste of time and money. Now Sunak should take the blame
The Supreme Court’s judgement makes clear that this was a plan that would never have worked
Read the full article15 November 2023
Nigel Farage, the biggest snake in the jungle
Does Nigel Farage’s I’m a Celebrity... appearance signal a return to the mainstream? Or just desperation?
Read the full article09 November 2023
Sunak and Braverman have pushed the Met into crisis
Their idiotic interventions about Saturday’s protest have made a delicate situation much worse
Read the full article08 November 2023
The deadly failings of a moral pygmy
Boris Johnson’s lack of focus and lack of humanity cost lives during Covid. Yet instead of facing charges, he is raking in the cash
Read the full article07 November 2023
Rishi Sunak only has a year left as PM. Is this really all he wants to try to do with it?
The King’s Speech shows a government out of ideas and running out of time
Read the full article03 November 2023
Sunak’s toadying interview with Elon Musk has damaged what remains of his reputation
The PM’s tone-deaf remarks in his weird AI chat again shows he is useless at politics
Read the full article31 October 2023
The Covid inquiry and Dominic Cummings’s potty mouth
The insulting terms he used for Johnson and others tell us much more about him than his intended targets
Read the full article28 October 2023
The prison walls are starting to close in on Donald Trump
Plea deals for his former allies are a disaster for the election-denying ex-president
Read the full article25 October 2023
No, these two stories about Rishi Sunak don’t prove he is a tech genius
There’s more to running a country than making your own spreadsheets and repeating an anecdote about AI
Read the full article23 October 2023
If Starmer wins, he should break up the Treasury and remake No 10
Two good ideas for an incoming Labour government come from a former Tory minister’s report
Read the full article20 October 2023
Five takeaways from today’s historic by-election results
What should we make of Labour’s thumping success?
Read the full article19 October 2023
The BBC, Gaza and Hamas
It made mistakes on Tuesday night, and poor reporting in febrile times can be dangerous – but even so, the BBC is not the story
Read the full article18 October 2023
The “3.5% rule” needs protesting
Support for a campaign by just 3.5% of people is supposedly a tipping point. That doesn’t add up
Read the full article15 October 2023
Could Labour’s past NIMBY moments come back to haunt them?
Shadow housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook opposed a new development two years ago
Read the full article11 October 2023
Twitter’s fake news over Israel and Hamas is a consequence of Elon Musk’s actions
The social network has been reprogrammed in a way that seems to encourage disinformation
Read the full article11 October 2023
Our justice system is criminal
Britain’s political class is locked in a cycle of consensus on law and order that costs a lot and delivers little
Read the full article09 October 2023
The Tory cock-up that has given Keir Starmer a free ride this week
Letting Labour hold their conference last is another Conservative blunder
Read the full article04 October 2023
Sunak’s conference of chaos should spell the end of the Tories
Four days of shame in Manchester from the party of short-termism and moral bankruptcy
Read the full article04 October 2023
The costly rise of the high street casino
An 89-year-old German is bringing 24-hour gambling to Britain’s town centres. Can he be stopped?
Read the full article04 October 2023
It’s time to bulldoze Westminster… literally
Parliament is falling apart and will cost billions to patch up. We should just flatten it and start again
Read the full article13 September 2023
Our water is full of crap… remind you of anyone?
Michael Gove’s planned changes to rules for housebuilders could cause even more pollution in Britain’s waterways
Read the full article13 September 2023
The EU’s weird war on big tech
The need to tackle the likes of Google and Facebook is obvious. But is Brussels fighting the right battles?
Read the full article30 August 2023
Can Chris Bryant clean up politics?
Fresh from a spat with Nadine Dorries, the chair of the Commons Committee on Standards says Westminster is on trial... but radical change isn’t quite his cup of tea
Read the full article22 August 2023
The baroness, the PPE cash and the slow death of trust
This scandal may have disappeared from the headlines, but it remains corrosive to public faith in British politics
Read the full article16 August 2023
The return of Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s Rasputin
The former prime minister’s right-hand man was blamed for losing the 2017 election. So why is his stock rising?
Read the full article02 August 2023
Welcome to the land of no hope or glory
The Tories look exhausted. But Labour seems out of ideas, too. Are we headed for the most depressing election campaign ever?
Read the full article26 July 2023
The climate bomb ticks on
Severe weather events show that our house is on fire. Yet we continue to dither over a plan to save the planet
Read the full article19 July 2023
A digital virus is running free
The QAnon cult is spreading – with deadly consequences. How can we stop it and its successors?
Read the full article