The Claridge hall in Brussels was the third venue the National Conservatives had asked to host their 2024 conference, which took place between 16 and 17 April. The organisers of NatCon said that anti-fascist groups had pressured two other venues to pull out from hosting the event. It was uncertain whether the conference could go ahead at all. By late morning on its first day, the local Socialist Party mayor Emir Kir had prohibited the gathering, declaring the “far right is not welcome”. The Brussels police were on their way. The National Conservative Conference brings together right-wing think ..read more

A variant of the word “nationalisation” appears precisely once in the document outlining Labour’s new rail policy – and it’s to say the party won’t do it. “With ten current rolling stock companies owning and leasing trains and carriages worth billions,” argues Getting Britain Moving: Labour’s Plan To Fix the Railways, “it would not be responsible for the next Labour Government to take on the cost of renationalising rolling stock as part of our urgent programme of reform.” The newly established Great British Railways will instead continue leasing rolling stock but, by allowing different routes ..read more

One thing we can all agree on is that taxes are up. “The people in the engine room of the economy are increasingly prevailed upon to stump up more,” says the Telegraph. The Lib Dems say the middle class are being “squeezed” as “soaring taxes” are “clobbering families”. Even the Guardian is wondering, “What are we paying for?” In this strange new country, “high-tax Britain”, a More in Common poll has found that voters associate the Tories with higher taxes more than Labour. But we must stop agreeing on this, because it isn’t true. Yesterday, the OECD (an intergovernmental organis ..read more

One of the oldest definitions of philosophy is “to learn how to die.” Presupposing no final answer, it captures the essence of philosophy itself. It suggests that the problem of death is the problem to which all problems must ultimately answer. This was true for the writer Elias Canetti, who declared himself “a mortal enemy of death,” and for whom learning how to die meant generating arguments against it. A partisan of the living, the incomprehensibility of non-existence was something he loathed and he appointed himself its chief antagonist. If Socrates went to his death tranquilly, Canetti we ..read more

“Humza the Brief” is Alex Salmond’s brutal epithet for Scotland’s hapless First Minister. Humza Yousaf may not be gone yet – and may still survive a motion of no confidence at Holyrood next week – but he is done. All authority has fled; the mission has failed and needs to be aborted. His senior colleagues in the SNP know this and internal discussions have begun about who should replace him, and when  – either in the coming weeks or after the general election if he can stagger on. Former leadership candidate Kate Forbes is being advised by allies to prepare a smarter campaign than last tim ..read more

Train travel in the UK has become an increasingly painful experience in the past few years. Prices continue to rise at an astonishing rate, meanwhile delays, cancellations and strikes have become the norm. Many have simply given up on this mode of transport. Last night, Labour announced their plan to get Britain’s railways back on track. But what does this mean? And could bringing trains back into public ownership really fix the dire state of rail travel in the UK? Hannah Barnes, associate editor, is joined in the studio by George Eaton, senior editor, and Freddie Hayward, political corre ..read more

In recent years, the mere mention of Britain’s railways has prompted grim laughter. For too many commuters, the simple act of travelling to work has become an arduous odyssey characterised by repeated delays, cancellations and overcrowding. The woman who has vowed to end this farce is Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport secretary. “We know the current model has completely failed,” Haigh said when we met in her parliamentary office in Portcullis House, Westminster. “What we’ve seen from our research with voters, particularly Tory voters or ex-Tory voters, is that they now see it as a symbol ..read more

Labour has announced plans to nationalise the railway operators by folding them into a publicly owned company, Great British Railways, on a rolling basis as the contracts come up for renewal. The idea is that this will allow Labour to take the railways back into public ownership without large compensation bills. As George writes in an excellent interview with Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport secretary: “The Sheffield Heeley MP, 36, who is one of the shadow cabinet’s leading ‘soft left’ members (alongside Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband), is unambiguous about the alternative she would purs ..read more

Earlier this week, questioned about the tottering coalition between the SNP and the Scottish Greens, Humza Yousaf said that he “thoroughly enjoyed” the partnership. “We’ve achieved a lot and I hope the cooperation agreement will continue.” This was consistent with all his utterances on the topic since he became First Minister just over a year ago. Humza loved the deal. By today, under intense pressure from his own MSPs and MPs and with his government in open crisis, he had changed his mind. Following an emergency 8.30am cabinet meeting at Bute House, Yousaf announced that the coalition was ove ..read more

There are few universal rules for what makes good writing, but one has long persisted: kill your darlings. Cut the flourishes that don’t meaningfully add to the greater work, no matter how much you love them, and you’ll be left with a more coherent piece of art. But concision cuts both ways: short works are often cheaper to make and more commercially viable, offering something easily digestible to a wider number of people. In the music industry, short, radio-friendly (and now TikTok-friendly) two-and-a-half-minute songs often dominate the charts. As Beyoncé famously lamented in her 2013 docume ..read more