When Margaret Thatcher took on the unions she saw it as more than an industrial relations dispute. In part she saw it as an essential way of unlocking the UK’s economic potential, but more than that it was about democracy. For her the unions represented the unaccountable power of the most militant workers. Closed shops restricted the freedom of others to work outside union parameters. The lack of secret ballots opened the door to intimidation and denied workers an equal say in their practices. Secondary picketing allowed disputes to spiral into broader political fights. For Thatcher the battle against the unions was in the same spirit as her deregulation of the City. It was about breaking up cartels which could control ...

As Nicola Sturgeon delivered her emergency briefing on the calamitous state of the Scottish NHS yesterday (9 January), it wasn’t at first clear that Humza Yousaf had even been allowed into the room. The TV cameras were focused tightly on the First Minister, and it was only ten minutes in, when she dismissively waved a hand to the side, that it became evident her hapless health secretary was standing beside her rather than languishing in a cupboard somewhere. At her side but thoroughly sidelined, Yousaf had the haunted eyes of a man just given some very bad news by a consultant. “How long have I got, doc?” “In this job? I’d say about a fortnight.” He cut a crushed figure when ...

The images that spread across the TV networks and social media on Sunday 8 January seemed to confirm the worst fears, that a coup could really happen in Brazil. Thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right former president, broke through a security cordon around the country’s seat of government in Brasília; an army in yellow and green footballs shirts marching up the elegant ramp of the parliament building and swarming through the Oscar Niemeyer-designed modernist complex, first into Congress and getting as far as the Supreme Court and the presidential palace, smashing and looting art and furniture along the way.  Yet while the scene was dramatic, this was a cosplay coup. The invaders were eight days too late: Bolsonaro’s successor, the ...

As a person who lives at the top of a very steep hill and who will, in the next four months or so, be rejoining the pram-pusher brigade, I’m not going to pretend that the idea of a self-driving buggy isn’t extremely intriguing. Sadly though, at a cost of £2,700, the “hands-free” Ella smart-stroller, premiered at this weekend’s CES technology show in Las Vegas, will have to be consigned to my fantasy parenting equipment list – along with the Snoo, the £1,200 bassinet that calls itself a “virtual babysitter” and can soothe your baby to sleep by gently rocking it and playing white noise. Hang on, though – the Ella also includes safety features other buggies don’t: it has an automatic ...

As the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches, Western unity on the fundamental issues of the war remains impressively firm. Yes, there have been differences of degree and tone in Nato states’ provision of military aid to Ukraine, but with the partial exception of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary they are agreed that Vladimir Putin’s forces must not prevail and that Ukraine must be supported to retake territory seized by Russia from 24 February 2022 onwards. That common baseline has been reinforced in recent days by a new wave of weapons-export announcements. France, Germany and the US will send Ukraine what are essentially light tanks. That raises the prospect of them soon delivering heavier battle tanks, too, like the Challenger ...

Last Thursday (5 January), Keir Starmer took control of the slogan “take back control”, as the catchy title for Labour’s plan for devolution. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that journalists reacted as if this was all about Brexit. But politics did not start in 2016. This move was effective long before Dominic Cummings boiled it down to those three notorious words. It neatly puts an insurgent party on the side of the "British people" against a small, over-dominant group who are holding the country back and who need to be dethroned. In 1945, the Labour manifesto railed against the force of finance which had "control of the government… the banks, the mines, the big industries". Labour invited voters to take back ...

Amid the long list of perceived slights, wrongs and injustices that Prince Harry complains about in his memoir, Spare, one revelation is especially jarring: his assertion that as an Apache helicopter pilot on tour in Afghanistan in 2012-13 he killed 25 Taliban fighters. Throughout the rest of the book, and in his seemingly endless stream of media appearances, this privileged young émigré to one of California’s most elite enclaves portrays himself as the emotionally literate victim of an emotionally repressed and repressive family. He professes to be deeply upset by a bout of ill-tempered fisticuffs with his brother; or by his father jokingly calling him the “spare”; or by an unnamed royal speculating on the colour of his and Meghan’s children; ...

In extracts leaked from his autobiography, Spare, Prince Harry reminds his readers that when his mother was killed in a car crash he was in a different country and only twelve years old. How was the young prince supposed to react? He saw his grief twisted into pageantry, which was a form of silence. Instead of saying anything, he became part of the spectacle. Well, he’s saying something now. Traditionally, the infantilised British royal family is supposed to be seen and not heard. In response to the now almost hourly outbreaks of Harry-shaped information, Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have “declined to comment”. They maintain a silence that is implicitly considered dignified. Silence is thought to suit the royal family because for ...