Category Archives: Uncategorized

Why has Starmer gone? Four reasons why he has accepted the inevitable – and why he didn’t do so sooner

Posted on June 22, 2026 by Alex Grant

1 It’s the geography, stupid: the nation simply no longer wants a London lawyer at the helm Labour has never had a leader from the north of England since Harold Wilson stepped down as prime minister in 1976. James Callaghan … Continue reading →

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Five years on from Covid we should bury lockdowns, not praise them

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Alex Grant

Modern Britain is full of anniversaries (many say it is too full). Few anniversaries are as grim as the fifth anniversary of the first Covid lockdown, memorably announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on live TV on March 23rd 2020, … Continue reading →

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Jim Scouse: how a mysterious housemaster embodied good diplomacy

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Alex Grant

The International Centre, Sevenoaks School, in autumn 1990 (above) and autumn 1991 (below). In both photos Jim Scouse (in glasses) is in the front row, just to the right of the Winter family, and yours truly is in the middle … Continue reading →

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The forgotten casualties of this election? The LGBT+ MPs who won’t be coming back

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Alex Grant

Who knows what will happen at tomorrow’s election. Labour is, as always, wary of predictions of a huge landslide. Many Tory candidates seeking re-election are clinging to the hope that their incumbency, and a swing to Labour and Lib Dems … Continue reading →

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Baby Boomers are reaching the end of their lifespans. Watch out, Gen Xers: we’re next

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Alex Grant

This blog took a sabbatical in 2023 (during which I was fully occupied writing my new book about the 1960s spy John Vassall), but normal service now resumes, with my thoughts on all those we have lost in the last … Continue reading →

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Now the mourning rituals are over, it’s time for what the monarchy does best: inventing new traditions

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Alex Grant

For once, politicians started the hagiography and the media followed, not the other way around. Queen Elizabeth II was “one of the greatest leaders the world has even known”, said Liz Truss, as she led tributes to the late sovereign in the Commons. John … Continue reading →

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Liz Truss can be beaten. I should know: I’ve defeated her twice

Posted on July 13, 2022 by Alex Grant

As I write, the field of candidates is being whittled down. It is Rishi Sunak’s contest to lose, and the best-placed “Stop Rishi” candidates, according to Westminster consensus, are Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss. Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch have caught … Continue reading →

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Inside the echo chamber: the nasty side of Facebook’s traffic jam groups

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Alex Grant

In 2019 the New Statesman reported how local history groups on Facebook – normally innocent networks where older people swap yellowing photographs and reminiscence about the good old days – have a darker side, sometimes acting as a magnet for … Continue reading →

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Why ‘One Too Many’ is 2020’s worst buzzword

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Alex Grant

“Every death of someone sleeping rough on our streets is one too many”, says a spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. “One person dying or getting Covid in a care home is one too many”, says … Continue reading →

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Amidst Coronavirus, Keir Starmer is finding his feet. Let’s just hope that second best is good enough

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Alex Grant

Never, since Iain Duncan Smith became Conservative leader two days after 9/11, has the election of a new Leader of the Opposition been so overshadowed by events. Coronavirus meant there was even less attention paid to Keir Starmer’s arrival than … Continue reading →

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