Last week I discussed the long-term trends in party support. This week: the short term—what the coming elections can tell us about what is going on right now. In some ways next week’s contests are a ...

On a balmy afternoon in early April, Sarah Pochin is trying to convince locals in Runcorn to elect her as the Cheshire town’s first non-Labour MP in 52 years. “Runcorn,” Pochin tells me, “has been so ...

Alan and Lionel are asked about Tortoise's imminent takeover of the Observer. The hosts discuss a surprisingly timely encounter, and share some breaking news about Prospect. They also discuss blasting ...

This week on the Prospect Podcast, philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek joins Ellen and Alona. Slavoj discusses fatherhood and Netflix’s Adolescence, as awareness grows around young male ...

In the months after a decisive election, voting intention polls have no predictive value. That is why I have largely ignored them so far. But tracked over time, they do tell us something. That is why ...

Every day of Donald Trump’s second term, it feels as though we have entered a dystopia. Nationalism pervades even geological names; old allies are humiliated in public; economic policy has been ...

Oh, to be a galanthophile. To spend weeks, months and years looking at catalogues, picking out varieties and planting thousands upon thousands of bulbs, all for those few short weeks—from late January ...

It is hard to believe now that David Cameron fought and won the 2010 general election on a slogan of “Vote Blue, Go Green”. When it comes to climate change, the Conservatives have been on a journey.

It is late November and I’ve come back to my grandfather’s house. Most of his belongings are already gone—distributed among family, taken to charity shops, consigned to the skip. The heating in the ...

Many MPs who are in favour of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill are said to be boiling mad at the possible delay in implementation, which they feel may hole the plan below the water line. They’ll ...

Two aphorisms are often used to describe the Conservative party. The first is that its “secret weapon is loyalty”, and the second is William Hague’s description of it as “an absolute monarchy ...

Do you remember Julian Assange’s catchphrase, “Courage is contagious?” I think he may have borrowed it from the old Bible basher Rev Billy Graham, but no matter: it had a catchy ring about it. Sadly, ...