Tag Archives: Boris Johnson

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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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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Labour is falling into Johnson’s trap. If only it had backed May’s Brexit deal in January

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Alex Grant

I am writing this as Members of Parliament are gathered in Westminster, on the first Saturday since the Falklands conflict of 1982, for yet another “make or break” day of reckoning on Brexit. MPs have just voted narrowly to pass … Continue reading →

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Does Brexit Mean Brexit?

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Alex Grant

Hours after the EU referendum result came in Boris Johnson stood at a podium stating how much stronger Britain would become, and staked his claim to be Prime Minister. Just a week later, on June 30th, he was gone from … Continue reading →

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The demise of Boris Johnson – the Quintin Hogg of our times – shows that the age of Balliol superiority is now over

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Alex Grant

The spectacular collapse of Boris Johnson’s Prime Ministerial hopes earlier today have a striking historical parallel. Boris is not – and never has been – the Donald Trump or Winston Churchill of contemporary British politics, or even the Falstaff or … Continue reading →

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How working the night shift alongside European migrants made me more determined to vote to stay in the EU, not less

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Alex Grant

For two months in the run-up to Christmas 2015 I worked the night shift at a Royal Mail sorting office in Peterborough. Media commentators are often quick to appoint themselves as experts on the labour market, but most have never … Continue reading →

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A month on, Sadiq Khan’s victory in London no longer looks mould-breaking. In fact it’s a welcome return to politics as usual

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Alex Grant

A month on, how mould-breaking does Sadiq Khan’s election as mayor of London feel? Yes, it was a historic moment: the first time that a Muslim was elected as mayor of a western capital city. The message it sends to … Continue reading →

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Greenwich Peninsula: how a council own-goal took the heat off greedy developers, and the Tories who let them get away with it

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Alex Grant

Hats off to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for its new exposé of what’s been going on at the Greenwich Peninsula: a billionaire developer reducing levels of affordable housing from 35% to just 21%, and the local council’s attempts to … Continue reading →

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The supporters of new roads across the Thames are stuck in the past. Without rail links they’d be a disaster for east London

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Alex Grant

The new road link would, the experts say, create a “corridor of opportunity”. It would “relieve congestion”, “improve accessibility” and “be of inestimable benefit to the capital”. It will, one supporter argues, “take longer-distance traffic off the existing main roads… … Continue reading →

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A Garden Bridge? No thank you, Joanna Lumley: London is ‘Bosky’ enough already

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Alex Grant

What’s not to like about the proposed Garden Bridge across the Thames? It’s designed by Thomas Heatherwick, a walk-on-water design superstar who came up with the Olympic Cauldron as well as the new Routemaster bus. It would, we are told, … Continue reading →

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