Politics | kieransbrookholmes.claims

Trump’s Taiwan retreat tests his chief China hawk’s influence

Taiwan depends on U.S. arms sales to provide the fire power to deter potential Chinese aggression. AFP via Getty Images By Phelim Kine 09/21/2026 05:00 AM EDT Add POLITICO on Google Share Copy link X Facebook Email…

What’s on at Conference today?

After a three hour lunch break for fringes, there’s a debate on supporting people to age well in England, a keynote speech by Jane Dodds and a motion on stopping violence against women and girls in the digital age from…

How can leaders on the ropes bounce back?

Elsewhere, the prime minister prepares to go to New York for the UN General Assembly, the duo look ahead to his first meeting with Donald Trump – can they find any common ground? Plus, Anne McElvoy – who’s in Germany –…

Paul’s conference diary (3) – frog box interview and my new AI girlfriend

She added that AI2 should be used to support musicians but instead it is being used to rip off composers and musicians. I then went to my go-to quiet spot to write a speech. I have an idea for the strategy debate later.…

What do you think of the MPs’ inquiry into UK Eurovision song contest failure? I give it nul points | Laura Snapes

Digital, culture, media and sport committee chair Caroline Dinenage has announced that MPs will scrutinise the UK's reliable failure in the competition to see where we're going wrong, with a hearing to be held over the…

They aren’t always very democratic or terribly liberal but see themselves as terribly nice – but what are they for?

It’s actually more of a now widespread observation, funny because it’s true. ‘Neil Armstrong was at one point humankind’s most famous man. The second man on the Moon Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin had a nickname that was stuck to…

Matthew Jeffery: Grand Theft Auto VI will be violent – that doesn’t mean its players will be

On 19 November, somewhere in suburban Britain, a tired parent will finally get the children to bed, another will close the laptop after the last email of the evening and millions of otherwise unremarkable adults will…

Gareth Bacon and David Simmonds: From different parts of a great Party and a great city – we’re sure who should be its Mayor

Our two constituencies sit about thirty miles apart. Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner is in the far north west, where the Metropolitan line runs out towards the Chilterns. Orpington is in the far south east, on the Kent…

How the Local Government Association won over Reform UK

It is funded both by central Government grants and membership subscriptions from local authorities. Those two funding sources prompt it to have a combined role. Partly it is what the Institute of Economic Affairs has…

‘SEND Matters: We need reform, but families must have a voice’

This month, I hosted another drop-in event in Parliament with the SEND Matters Coalition, bringing parents, campaigners and parliamentarians together to talk about the future of special educational needs and disabilities…