Sitemap - 2024 - The Ideas Lab
Goodbye to all that: 2024 in review
"Speed dating": a foray into flash fiction
Sunday round-up 29 December 2024
Reform UK claims larger membership than Conservatives: what now?
'Twas the night before Christmas...
Sunday round-up 22 December 2024
38 Lords (and Ladies) A-leaping: new peers announced
Reflections on politics of the week
Sunday round-up 15 December 2024
Reflections on politics of the week
Alton towers: a new chair for the Joint Committee on Human Rights
Benn in trouble over Northern Ireland legacy and reconciliation
The columnist's art and me: charting history and fostering public debate
Sunday round-up 8 December 2024
Government at the centre: do less, better and empower the Cabinet
Sunday round-up 1 December 2024
Reflections on politics of the week
William Hague becomes Chancellor of Oxford
From assisted dying to Ukraine: don't be fixated on avoiding a specific outcome
Alex Burghart is ready for his close-up: a new face at (Deputy) PMQs
Reflections on politics of the week
Sunday round-up 24 November 2024
Defence in microcosm: the future of the Royal Marines
Reflections on politics of the week
Sunday round-up 17 November 2024
Justin Welby is gone: some initial thoughts
Starmer gives Jonathan Powell a second act
Reflections on politics (and other things) of the week
Sunday round-up 10 November 2024
Churchill's turning point? HM Treasury, 1924-29
Reflections on politics of the week (so far)
Badenoch takes the Conservative helm
Sunday round-up 3 November 2024
The Reeves prescription: Labour's first Budget
Key appointments for the new Conservative leader (3)
Budget leaks and briefings are out of hand
Reflections on politics of the week
Sunday round-up 27 October 2024
Key appointments for the new Conservative leader (2)
Reflections on politics of the week
Sunday round-up 20 October 2024
Key appointments for the new Conservative leader (1)
Select committees begin to take shape (2)
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill: here we go...
Select committees begin to take shape
Loss, ageing and coping with absence
Reflections on politics of the week
Sunday round-up 13 October 2024
McSweeney's brave new world: Downing Street 2.0
It's not unusual: friends-and-relations in politics
Finale: Sue Gray's departure is a symbol of the government's condition
Sunday round-up 6 October 2024
The Chagos Islands agreement: first thoughts
Sorry, not sorry: Schofield is symptomatic
RIP Michael Ancram (1945-2024)
Reflections on politics of the week
It was all right in the 80s: things that were normal but now seem mad
Sunday round-up 29 September 2024
Sue Gray and the future of Downing Street
Gove takes the helm of The Spectator
House of Lords reform: battle is joined again
The West Wing at 25: changing the game
Sunday round-up 22 September 2024
Reflections on politics of the week
The NHS and institutional reform
Merz's Germany? The next Bundestag election and beyond
Sunday round-up 15 September 2024
Reflections on politics of the week
New select committee chairs (2)
New select committee chairs (1)
What is Michel Barnier's plan for France?
Sunday round-up 8 September 2024
In the French style: Macron's hunt for a PM
Observations on the defence review, Sergei Lavrov and possible sleaze
Sunday round-up 1 September 2024
Silly season for cabinet secretary... or not?
What is the national security adviser for?
The 51st state? Why the US has stopped growing
Sunday round-up 25 August 2024
Robert Kennedy Jr pulls out: now what?
The short zenith of Harold Wilson
The lesser of two evils: how much should be expect of Never-Trump Republicans?
Donald Dewar: a reluctant visionary
Sunday round-up 18 August 2024
Your imaginary friend is not the solution to my problems, but thanks
The Conservative Party should ignore public opinion right now
Creating a new international order: some principles
The week in politics: observations in the margins
Sunday round-up 11 August 2024
The imperial presidency: Nixon to Trump
A home on the rolling deep: where are Britain's submarines?
A sunny disposhish: the only way the right will win sustainably
Strengthening America's hand in the Pacific
The nonsense of "guilty pleasures"
Politics away from the streets: observations
Rioting: policy meets policing on the streets
The Conservative revival: party membership
Biden was not selfless, he grudgingly accepted reality
NATO and military assistance to Ukraine
A "national government" to deal with Covid-19: peak centrist mythology
The US presidential race: observations
The end of history: were we all thinking like Fukuyama in the 1990s?
Len Deighton: Britain's most underrated writer?
The limits of debate in the House of Commons
Red princes, hereditary politics and real life
What's Casement Park and why should I care?
Leading the Conservative Party: what qualities do you need to have?
Select committees in the new parliament
The Conservative revival: foundations
NATO, the Washington Summit and Ukraine
The race for the new deputy speakers
The Twelfth: Benn's first NI challenge
The Starmer ministry: some observations
Is Keir Starmer a Northern Ireland Unionist?
In defence of "doctrine": why ideas matter
Will Starmer control cabinet numbers?
A collection of political insults
General Election '24: Northern Ireland (4)
The Democrats have a Biden problem
The Conservatives and Reform UK: future partners? Lessons from history
Vale, Dr Richard Taylor (1934-2024)
As voters we have to pull our weight
The future of the Conservative Party (1)
NATO and European defence: three stories
How will Starmer run his government?
The thought processes of Donald Trump
Does Sinn Féin have a problem?
Curtis Yarvin, pseudo-intellectualism and the use of history in politics
Free speech: has Durham Uni blundered?
General Election '24: Northern Ireland (3)
D-Day 80: commemorating the Normandy landings
The power of words: how prose can hit you
The English character: understatement
General election '24: Northern Ireland (2)
How Labour might fit into government
Counter-factual history: for good and bad
Election '24: observations—29 May
National service: how did we get here?
General election '24: Northern Ireland
Select committees in the 2024 Parliament
Election '24: some observations
David Lammy sets out Labour's foreign policy
From the first to last (1): opening lines
The Netherlands heads for a clash with EU
Labour's plans for law-making and the House of Commons
Some of history's worst predictions
Does the United Nations make sense?
Last-gasp appointments: should Rishi have waited?
The war in Ukraine: some thoughts
'Tis but a scratch! Spinning electoral defeat
California Dreamin': Steve Hilton is back
9/11: a paradigm shift but not a tech shift
England's radical past: the Peasants' Revolt
Law and order and policing in London: a reader
The rise of the unaccountable experts: why do we allow politicians to give away power?
The class of 2024: Labour's new (and old) blood part 2
Predictions and desired outcomes are not the same thing at election time
The class of 2024: Labour's new (and old) blood part 1
Read my stories! And other fiction...
Putting the National Guard on the New York Subway
What does Donald Trump believe? An exercise in political taxonomy
Andrew Mitchell, deputy foreign secretary
Labour's possible civil service picks
The Brexit referendum was the right thing to do
Politics is something you feel as well as measure
First guesses of Starmer's Whitehall
Spring forward! Sunday round-up 31 March 2024 (BST edition)
The c-word: cancer looms large in our lives
The Liberal Democrat triumph-to-disaster: coalition government 2010-15
Sunday round-up: observations and recommendations 24 March 2024
Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act: free speech in danger?
Harry Truman and the atomic bomb
Shattering myths (1): Henry VIII never divorced
Sunday round-up: observations and recommendations 17 March 2024
European heads of government as legislators
Substack on Substacks: what you should read
Boris 2.0? Not impossible, but unlikely
As much of life as the world can show: saving London from itself
The church un-militant: Pope Francis waves a white flag
Sunday round-up: observations and recommendations 10 March 2024
Do you trust Donald Trump? The intelligence agencies don't have a choice
Scotland in NATO: the SNP glosses over reality
Sunday round-up: observations and recommendations
Step into the world of conspiracies
Farage eyes up DC: irregulars as ambassadors
Where does the DUP go from here?
Scotland decides: the general election 2024
Citizens' assemblies: centrism's quest for panacea
Bloody Bonner: history is not a morality tale
The death of Navalny, and other thoughts
Sorry, what sorry? What does it mean to apologise?
Putin takes on history while Carlson watches
February 1974: the general election which changed Northern Ireland politics
Balancing democracy and disagreement
A sense of mission: Fighting the Houthis and Iran
Our political parties shape our identity and their names matter
Conversations with hon. Friends: why parliamentary oratory has changed
"The war on terror": how America framed an unwinnable conflict
Now Brussels wants its own bomb
Defence in an uncertain world: a reader
Don't lie to yourself: why commentators have to be honest
Access and influence in foreign policy: if we make sacrifices to get close, there must be a pay-off
War powers: Parliament can't always be the first to know
America's active seniors: why politicians have a longer shelf life in the US
Nimbys need to take one for the team: how do we make planning decisions for everyone?
Strikes on Yemen: initial thoughts
Fingerspitzengefühl: a natural flair for politics
Women in Labour: what's the problem?
Big beasts in the Westminster jungle: an endangered species?