Parliament remains in recess for Easter but with local elections on the horizon, politics is going into overdrive. Rishi Sunak is headed to Peterborough and York to campaign, while the media is filled with Labour attack stories and the government reannouncing the same ideas. If the run-up to the poll in May feels more intense than most local elections, it's because both parties know a general election is not far away: this is a dry run for the main event. And it is underlining the weaknesses in both the main parties. The Conservatives cannot escape their long record in power. Be it because of the sewage scandal, potholes and strikes, or the grind of the cost-of-living crisis, few of the problems facing the ...

Last December, today's local elections were being viewed as a potential fuse for a revolt against Rishi Sunak. That’s no longer on the cards. The PM’s grip on the parliamentary party has tightened as Tory MPs have realised that this close to a general election, Sunak is their best bet to hold onto their seats. The fact remains, however, that the local elections will be judged through the prism of Westminster. Whether that depresses you or not – given how important local government is in its own right – it’s the reality of a political system where most of the power is handed out every five years or so, and the political media revolves around Westminster. (For why that should change, read this post from John Oxley). Before the media coverage of the data-id="https://eurotelegraph.eu/long-reads/2023/05/lies-beneath-crown-royal-family-history-britain-romania-traditionalism" data-type="URL" ...

Almost 20 years ago, in an influential essay for Prospect magazine entitled “Too Diverse”, David Goodhart argued that, with around 9 per cent of the population from an ethnic minority background, immigration was eroding our common culture and the mutual solidarity that underpinned the welfare state: “To put it bluntly – most of us prefer our own kind.” Earlier this week at the Policy Exchange think tank, where Goodhart is head of demography, immigration and integration, the immigration minister Robert Jenrick said that those crossing the Channel “tend to have completely different lifestyles and values to those in the UK and tend to settle in already hyper-diverse areas, undermining the cultural cohesiveness that binds diverse groups together”. The claim that immigration and diversity is bad for “social cohesion” has become received wisdom among right-wing ...

Next year is the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Scottish Parliament. By now, Holyrood only counts as a new legislature in relative terms – it is well established, plays a dominant role in Scottish life, and its key people are significant national figures. The laws it passes make a difference to the way we live. The vast majority of Scots support devolution, and many continue to see it as a process rather than a destination – some would like full independence, others a more federal UK. There are few, Lord Frost and his small band of acolytes aside, who want to see it put into reverse, and for powers to be returned to Westminster. This does not mean that Holyrood should be ...

When I think about HMV, I remember the “two for £10” CD offer that I’d often share with my Dad when I was a pre-teen. I would search for an album by an artist I was keen on at the time – typically a debut by a female singer-songwriter such as Gabriella Cilmi or Amy Macdonald – and he’d find something like an early Bob Dylan album that had previously only been available on vinyl. We would go to the till together and each walk out clutching a brand-new disc for our collections. Particular branches of HMV bring back specific memories. It was in the Bluewater branch, Kent, that I bought Emmy the Great’s second record Virtue (2011), kickstarting my love ...

Erotic thrillers should be – stay with me here – erotic. The genre was ubiquitous in the late Eighties and Nineties, with high-budget sleaze in Fatal Attraction (1987) and Basic Instinct (1992) and a lucrative side-Hollywood of direct-to-video productions such as Night Eyes (1990) and Animal Instincts (1992) that were cheaper, quicker and only one step removed from softcore porn. These films were steamy, but not obscene. They traded on pleasure and danger, revolving around illicit affairs, dangerous individuals, the possibility of prison or death not too far away from the best sex you’ve ever had. Recently there has been a considered re-evaluation of the genre, the context of its production, and its legacy, through Karina Longworth’s "Erotic Nineties" season of her acclaimed podcast You Must Remember This. This critical revival goes hand in ...

The government is looking to resurrect the Help to Buy scheme for first-time homebuyers, according to the Times. The scheme, which was George Osborne’s creation and enabled first-time buyers to get a house with a 5 per cent deposit, ended in March. Reports suggest the government is ready to revive it, in some form, as part of a pitch to an electorate cramped in small and expensive housing. The government has a long way to go to regain credibility on the issue of housing. Housebuilding has collapsed in the past year. Since Rishi Sunak gave in to backbench pressure to scrap compulsory housing targets in December, 55 local authorities have dropped their targets. Increasing demand, as Help to Buy and two stamp duty cuts in recent years have done, ...

As I write this, a small bird – perhaps a spotted flycatcher or a turtle dove – is somewhere on its long journey from Africa to breed in a British woodland, park or garden near you. Many will not make it through the Sahara desert’s searing heat, or even that of Spain, which, ravaged by drought, is bracing for record-high temperatures. So surely the least we can do is ensure this epic traveller has a green and nourishing place to rest on final arrival – one where the grass has been left to grow long enough to support the fast-disappearing insects on which our birds depend? That can’t happen, however, if our lawns are made of plastic. Which is why I cannot agree with my colleague Will Dunn, ...