I’m only a few months away from a birthday cake that’ll need a small hurricane to extinguish so I should probably be more thankful for gainful employment with smart people on interesting client briefs. But get this… I woke up last night thinking about smallholding. The other week it was the unfinished novel and in … Read more
This year, party conferences were all about values. Conferences are the chance for party leaders to speak to their members, as well as the rest of the country. They can lay out the dominant values defining a party, outline a larger vision for the country, or launch big policies – and this often tells us … Read more
Today I’m celebrating Black History Month by highlighting a selection of Black and biracial journalists who are blazing a trail. Deciding who would make the cut from a long list list that includes Edward Enninful, Meena Alexander, Kenya Hunt, Baz Bamigboye, Alicia Adejobi, Funmi Fetto, Natalie Morris, Fayola Douglas and many more was not going … Read more
Both Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson faced a conference first this year. Starmer in his first major public outing since winning the leadership in April last year and Johnson in his first conference since securing a historic 80-seat majority almost two years ago. Both had difficult tasks in front of them. The Labour leader had … Read more
Cast your mind back to March 2020 – a time of at-home workouts, Tiger King and banana bread. One of the big questions at this time, apart from ‘How long will this pandemic thing last?’, was ‘What does this mean for the cinema industry?’. For years, streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and … Read more
‘Black people don’t feel pain’ is a statement that I and many people within the Black community have heard one too many times. This myth has affected our access to care and has systematically contributed to us being undertreated for pain. This stereotype is a hindrance, allowing medical racism to become more systemic. It is a … Read more
Boris Johnson has brought the Tory faithful to their feet as he delivered the high point of the annual Tory ‘cheek-by-jowler’. His enviable ability to turn weaknesses into strengths – petrol shortages into an argument for wage growth and controlled immigration – continues to confound critics who can’t put their finger on whether the man … Read more
Greetings from a wet and windy Manchester and the Conservative Conference. The vibe the organisers are going for is “business as usual” and, on the face of it, it is working. After last year’s virtual conference, the Tory faithful have gathered in person to pledge allegiance to the Prime Minister. Their ranks have been swelled by … Read more
The Conservatives will assemble in Manchester over the weekend for the last of this year’s party conferences. For those not in Manchester, be prepared for a damp squib. More often than not, the pressure is on for the party leadership to have a good conference and ‘reset the narrative’. This year though, the Conservatives will … Read more
The fuel crisis of 2021 is making last year’s loo roll panic-buying fiasco seem quaint. We’ve all seen never-ending queues of motorists outside petrol stations and heard horror stories of ambulances being unable to refuel. As the Government tells the public to calm down, the army has been mobilised and reserve tank drivers are now … Read more
