Brexit

Propaganda is everywhere, the thing is we don’t recognise it because it’s not what we expect it to look like. Most peoples’ idea of propaganda dates back to WWII or the Cold War: blatant political messages put out by governments. The propaganda today doesn’t just come from governments and…

On the day the Brexit vote was declared; I remarked to a colleague that we had had an outbreak of national insanity. It was always going to be a bad thing for Britain and worst for the poorest in society who were often the strongest Brexiteers. …

Forget immigration statistics — the true number is much higher The release of immigration numbers by the Office for National Statistics will cause uproar — and quite rightly. However, these numbers only tell part of the story. In 2017 I researched and was the first to break the news about the number of National Insurance numbers that were being issued…

This week, in a characteristically elegantly written and argued piece, Janan Ganesh set out the case in the FT that while the public may be concluding that Brexit was a mistake, the time was unripe for politicians to say so and would not be ripe for some years to come…

Journalist Peter Oborne has been keeping a record of false claims made by Prime Ministers ever since the Iraq War. Recently, he set up a website boris-johnson-lies.com, dedicated to tracking every false utterance made not just by Boris Johnson, but by every Prime Minister, cabinet minister and MP since Johnson’s…

More Britons favour rejoining the EU than those who still support Brexit. — Most Brits have had enough of Brexit and want to rejoin the EU. Polling data shows that there are only two regions in Great Britain where more voters want to stay outside the EU. The rest would rather rejoin. Indeed, a poll of polls published in April 2023 suggested that in a new referendum, nationally, 59% would want to rejoin the EU while…

Current Home Secretary Suella Braverman

All our resentments conveniently expressed in one word — Sexual intercourse began in 1963, between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles’ first LP. If you don’t believe me, you can look up Philip Larkin’s poem Annus Mirabilis, which I’ve just misquoted. I’m talking about the UK, of course. Big events — and big changes in attitudes…

After 3 years, I’m speaking out again, analysing how it happened and where things go from here. — Three and a half years ago, the UK left the European Union. For most of that time, I mostly omitted Brexit when talking with others — even though I never stopped thinking about it. After all, as a globally-minded young person, Brexit has impacted the lives of myself and my…