A note to politicians hoping to emulate Mamdani’s social media strategy: without the right policies, it’s pointless | Rohan Sathyamoorthy

While there are many reasons for Zohran Mamdani’s success, the New York City mayor-elect’s meteoric rise was in no small part down to his campaign’s blazing social media game. Across TikTok, Instagram and X, his ads have racked up tens of millions of views, turning his charismatic potential into an electoral earthquake that has shaken…

Read More

Tory patience wears thin as Badenoch’s critics count down to May elections | Conservatives

At an opulent speakeasy-style event at the Raffles hotel on Whitehall this week, the great and the good of what is left of the Conservative party marked the Spectator’s parliamentarian of the year awards. With the magazine’s editorial line still just about backing the Tories, despite the party facing an existential crisis from Reform UK,…

Read More

Reform UK, the Russian spy and rolls of Kremlin cash: the inside story of Nathan Gill | Reform UK

The first thing most people recall about Nathan Gill is his imposing height. At 193cm (6ft 4in), the one-time Reform UK leader in Wales towered over colleagues and opponents – and he was taller still in his favourite cowboy boots. Other than that, the softly-spoken 52-year-old was a largely unremarkable presence among the more colourful…

Read More

‘Out of reach’: stalled newbuilds leave Labour’s social housing targets in tatters | Social housing

The stats are stark: families on Bath and North East Somerset council’s social housing list face a 200-year wait for a four-bedroom property and the latest available figures show England is building just a little over 10,000 social homes a year. Tackling this crisis was a key element of Labour’s election promise to build 1.5m…

Read More

Ministers can raise taxes if they come out fighting. But no one in this cowardly Labour government seems able | Aditya Chakrabortty

Scroll back three years. The person sitting opposite me is yet to take their place at the top of Keir Starmer’s government. Instead, they are a star of the Labour opposition, for whom power advances or recedes with every poll and front page. They have just done a spot of electoral marketing, a photo op…

Read More