Margaret Colley on the Finest Traditions of Managed Failure and What Comes Next The Labour Party’s Most Successful Year Let me congratulate the Labour Party. This takes courage. This is a party that, having finally achieved what it claimed to have been trying to achieve for over a decade —…

On the comedy of grand plans, the cost of good intentions, and satire that stays fair It is my cheerful duty to mock the government, which I do with the affection of a person who wants the country to do better, and I sharpen my pen by reading widely, including…

Margaret Colley on the duty of scrutiny and the art of the well-aimed critique I am a critic of the government, professionally and by temperament, and I make no apology for it, believing as I do that holding power to account is the highest duty of the political writer, and…

Margaret Colley examines the perennial distance between what governments say and do The eternal subject of the political critic is the gap between promise and delivery, the distance between what governments say they will do and what they actually achieve, and I have been thinking, this week, about this gap,…

Margaret Colley reflects on the constructive role of principled criticism I am a critic, but a loyal one, opposing the government from within a shared commitment to the democratic system, and I have been thinking, this week, about the loyal opposition, about the constructive purpose of principled criticism, about the…

Margaret Colley on the teen phone ban, the comedy of a state surprised by teenage wit, and the easy gesture that fooled nobody. The government has discovered that teenagers are sarcastic, a finding it appears to regard with the stunned solemnity of a research team encountering a new element, and…

On how the demand for instant opinion crowds out genuine reflection Reporting brought to you by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The Pressure To Have An Opinion Immediately Is The Enemy Of Having A Good One Dear diary, I have been reflecting on a feature of modern political commentary…

Margaret Colley on the City of London duck, the comedy of accidental disruption, and what a waterfowl achieved that the political class could not. The most effective opposition figure in Britain this week was not a politician, not a journalist, not a campaigner, but a duck, and as a satirist…

Margaret Colley on the seventh Europe reset, the comedy of a government allergic to commitment, and the gift the Front Bench gives a satirist. There are weeks when a political satirist must labour for her material, squeezing comedy from a dry news cycle like the last of the toothpaste, and…