Recent articles
April 9, 2026
Why colluding with King Donald’s insanity is the only game in town | John Crace
The madness is contagious – and nowhere has this been more in evidence than in the two-week ceasefire with IranThe Madness of King Donald. Unless you’ve spent most of the last few years on a silent...
www.theguardian.com
April 3, 2026
Digested week: I don’t often feel sorry for Charles, but he must be dreading this US trip
Starmer should just admit we’re being held to ransom by Trump – but instead he’s making the king go on a state visitDonald Trump has suggested that the war with Iran will be over in two to three we...
www.theguardian.com
March 30, 2026
Kemi the attention-seeker somehow always makes two plus two equal five | John Crace
The looming oil crisis caused by the Iran war gives the Conservative leader a platform from which to jump to the wrong conclusions Losing sleep over the war in Iran? Worried sick about the cost of ...
www.theguardian.com
March 26, 2026
Tories are convinced McSweeney’s phone is the only one in London not to have been stolen | John Crace
Having painted London as a crime-ridden no-go zone, you’d have thought the Conservatives might cut McSweeney some slackIn recent years, the Conservatives and the rightwing media have gone to great ...
www.theguardian.com
March 25, 2026
Show of strength by Reform MPs at PMQs turns into a cameo appearance | John Crace
A well-timed jibe by the prime minister at Nigel Farage’s side-hustle seemed to provoke the party leader into staging a mass walkoutMuch of good comedy lies in the timing. We were about halfway thr...
www.theguardian.com
March 24, 2026
Reeves slips into yoga voice to try to soothe fears over costs of Trump’s war | John Crace
The chancellor was meant to set out her contingency plans but it was an announcement without any announcements in itYou have to feel a bit sorry for the chancellor. Roughly four weeks ago, Rachel R...
www.theguardian.com
March 23, 2026
Starmer’s liaison committee jaunt was largely soporific – just as he’d wanted | John Crace
Every PM hopes to emerge having said nothing that makes the news, and with Iran centre-stage Keir played a blinderWhat a difference a week makes. At last week’s prime minister’s questions, Keir Sta...
www.theguardian.com
March 20, 2026
Digested week: Hegseth chides media for focusing on trivial issue of his Iran strategy
Cheerleader-in-chief demands more enthusiasm for US-Israeli assault that is helping Russia pay for its war on UkraineWhen even your mother calls you out as a cheat and a liar, then it’s probably fa...
www.theguardian.com
March 19, 2026
Kemi Badenoch channels her fantasies as she launches the Tories’ local election campaign | John Crace
This wasn’t just a mean-spirited version of Britain, it was also positively derangedAbandon hope all ye who enter here. You’d have thought this would be the very definition of futility. An act of d...
www.theguardian.com
March 18, 2026
Memory loss strikes down Starmer and Badenoch at an infuriating PMQs
PM and Tory leader enter maddening death spiral of dodging respective questions on Peter Mandelson and war in Middle EastThere’s something weird going on in Westminster. A mutant pathogen in the wa...
www.theguardian.com
March 17, 2026
Nige and Honest Bob want to turn politics into a downmarket reality gameshow
But their latest stunt suggests Reform may be hitting the law of diminishing returns with a press conference too farNige and Honest Bob. Honest Bob and Nige. Reform’s answer to the Chuckle Brothers...
www.theguardian.com
March 16, 2026
Starmer speech leaves Reform UK and the Tories playing catch-up | John Crace
The PM’s decision not to sign up the UK to the Middle East conflict reflects the public mood better than Badenoch and Farage’s former gung-ho supportIt was a message that could just as easily have ...
www.theguardian.com
March 12, 2026
Why the hell did Starmer pick Mandelson? The latest mug on the media round had no idea | John Crace
Nick Thomas-Symonds unravelled under barrage of questions – as PM instead bored some mothers and babies in BelfastYou could smell the fear among senior ministers on Wednesday night. No one wanted t...
www.theguardian.com
March 11, 2026
A clever person knows their limitations … Kemi believes she has none | John Crace
There was time for Kemi to embarrass herself again as she explained how we were both at war and not at warTaxi for Kemi. It’s only a matter of time before Tory MPs start thinking the unthinkable an...
www.theguardian.com
March 10, 2026
Farage delivers energy sermon at the pump – just don’t mention the war
Reform leader’s Derbyshire petrol station stunt grinds to halt when questions on Iran leave him short-temperedLet’s try to look on the bright side. At least Nigel Farage wasn’t personally out of po...
www.theguardian.com
March 9, 2026
So Badenoch, Farage and Blair think the Iran war is a great idea? Hmm … | John Crace
Kemi may be all in favour, but at least economic realpolitik is forcing her to take a slightly different tackThere have been any number of opportunities for people to decide they wanted no part of ...
www.theguardian.com
March 6, 2026
Digested week: it’s been a rough year – so thank you to our politicians for giving me plenty to write about
I’ve lost count of the number of sketches I wrote from the chemo ward as Jill went through the hell of cancer treatmentIt’s been a while since I last wrote the digested week. Last May, my wife was ...
www.theguardian.com
March 5, 2026
Kemi is wrong about everything. Which is almost an achievement in itself | John Crace
The Tory leader’s appearance on the Today programme was sheer madness – and comedy goldCast your mind forward 10 years or so. Long after Kemi Badenoch has been sacked as Tory party leader without e...
www.theguardian.com
March 4, 2026
Badenoch gives a borderline disgraceful performance at PMQs on Iran | John Crace
At times like this you have to thank your lucky stars that the opposition leader is not in Downing Street On another day it might even have been quite funny. The mismatch between Kemi Badenoch’s se...
www.theguardian.com
March 3, 2026
Reeves’s spring statement? The economy is great, don’t worry about the Middle East
With no spending or fiscal commitments to offer, the chancellor kept it short, sweet and just a little tin-earedWhen your luck is out, your luck is out. Time to accept what the fates have to throw ...
www.theguardian.com
March 2, 2026
After failing to win the peace prize, Trump turns his focus to Nobel prize for war | John Crace
As for Keir Starmer, even when he tries to make a reasonably sound judgment he somehow ends up losing both sides of the argumentMaybe we should have just had done with it back in December. Instead ...
www.theguardian.com
February 27, 2026
Spencer’s victory speech an object lesson in grace while Reform’s man rages | John Crace
Matt Goodwin claimed cheating, Labour’s Gorton candidate quickly fled, Keir was tin-eared and Kemi brought the comedyIt could have been a flash of arrogance. Hubris for the ages. On Thursday mornin...
www.theguardian.com
February 26, 2026
The Your Party committee election was chaos. Why break the habit of a lifetime?
As the results livestream was delayed, voters lamented: ‘Is it too much to ask for competence as well as democracy?’ Start as you mean to go on. Your Party has had a fair few ups and downs in its s...
www.theguardian.com
February 25, 2026
Great Kemi Revival stalls again as student loans debate turns into deranged tirade | John Crace
PMQs was going reasonably well for Tory leader, until she began to find her own argument too worthy, and started hurling insults insteadWe hear a lot about the Keminaissance these days. Not least f...
www.theguardian.com
February 23, 2026
Farage kicks things off before 30 minutes of hate – and has the final word | John Crace
Reform’s ‘shadow home secretary’, Zia Yusuf, launches tirade of misery that sounded more hardline and deranged as it wentIt was only last week that Nigel Farage declared he was no longer a one-man ...
www.theguardian.com
February 17, 2026
Nigel Farage assumes Anne Robinson role in political remake of The Weakest Link
Reform UK leader snaps at reporters as he tries to maintain control over announcement of shadow cabinetUK politics live – latest updatesMeet the Fockers. The shadow cabinet from hell. Rejects, lose...
www.theguardian.com
February 11, 2026
The Real Keir comes out fighting and turns the tables on deluded Kemi | John Crace
The Tory leader thinks she has masterminded the PM’s series of crises. You could put her on a fairground ride and she would still think she was in control of where she was goingUK politics live – l...
www.theguardian.com
February 10, 2026
Steady Ed conjours up a Keir in his own image – complete with fake steering wheel | John Crace
Miliband is one minister who doesn’t want to be PM, and is more than happy to let Starmer think he is still in controlIt was a day for one of the Top Team. The safest of safe hands. A grownup. That...
www.theguardian.com
February 9, 2026
Revisionism the order of Labour’s day as the wagons circle around Starmer | John Crace
The same cabinet ministers who failed to speak up for the PM in the morning were soon offering their undying supportNot another one. On Sunday it was Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff...
www.theguardian.com
February 5, 2026
Mr Rules hits tipping point as Mandelson proves the one mistake that can’t be undone
There is a look of despair in Starmer’s eyes – and a feeling in the room that the endgame has begunIt’s beginning to feel terminal. Not that there hasn’t been talk of Labour MPs wanting to remove K...
www.theguardian.com