Our top ten picks of the week

Scrap the bureaucracy, save nuclear

Claire Coutinho

“The Conservatives have tabled radical amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to end a system where paperwork is put above the national interest and our need for cheap, reliable energy.”

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“I’m just a soul whose intentions are good…”

Henry Hill

“It is churlish to judge British policymakers by such persnickety standards as whether their policies actually work.”

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What my time at Ebbsfleet taught me about Britain’s broken housing system

Simon Dudley

“When developers put capital on the line to create new homes and communities, they deserve support – not to be blocked by mythical spiders and performative ministers.”

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My new paper offers a practical path to leaving the ECHR

Suella Braverman

“We tackle head-on the myths that have paralysed action for years: that we’d become a pariah state, that we can reform from within, that repealing the Human Rights Act is enough.”

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The group of Tory MPs ahead of Starmer on Palestinian statehood

Tali Fraser

“It effectively removes an incentive for Hamas to return the hostages, where – perversely – preventing a ceasefire becomes a political win for Hamas.”

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We need to crack on with campaigning now for next year’s local elections

Tony Devenish

“We must get on and select Council candidates now. Labour-run Westminster Council is trying to double the service charge on council housing. Crippling households with tens of thousands of pounds of debt.”

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Is Starmer the next Callaghan?

Daniel Dieppe

“The Prime Minister is the personal embodiment of a dying consensus he has neither the imagination nor the courage to salvage.”

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Streeting’s NHS plan offers up a dose of déjà vu

Joe Robertson

“It should be called the 25-year health plan because that is how long it has taken to write. It is simply a rip-off of Tony Blair and Alan Milburn’s year 2000 NHS plan, and with nothing new to say.”

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Badenoch must continue to argue for a politics of imperfection

Andrew Gimson

“Labour believes the state spends our cash better than we can: the Tories must show how to let money fructify in the pockets of the people.”

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What can other parties learn from the remarkable rise of Zohran Mamdani?

Scarlett Maguire

“The youthful outsider has come from nowhere to scoop the Democratic candidacy for the New York mayoral election. Is youth the critical factor – or is he more similar to Trump than either would care to admit?”