Best for Britain's Blog

The last time I attended the Labour Party’s annual conference in a rain lashed Brighton, the general mood matched the weather. Two years later and everything has changed, changed utterly.

Both Manning and Farage demonstrate how our current “winner takes all” system can be used by the far right to spook moderate conservatives into normalising fringe views. If Labour wins the next election, it should take a look at the last 70 years of UK politics, 46 of which have had Conservative governments elected on a minority of votes, and weigh up if proportional representation may not serve both them and the country better.

For those watching Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party conference speech on Wednesday, you might have been surprised by his jubilant tone and overt confidence.

Green Party conference is different from that of the other main parties. Not in a logistical sense; it uses the same Brighton Centre that hosts the others. But in the way that it feels: it feels like true people-centred politics.

All called upon the current leadership to be bolder in their defence of shared values with Europe. Our audience applauded the video, some shed a tear, and many questioned why a speech like that made by Charles Kennedy wasn’t being made on the main stage at this conference

No matter what happens on Sunday, let’s enjoy this victory because off the pitch our record against Australia is less impressive. In the ongoing contest of attracting and retaining the next generation of young workers, we’re in the middle of a  3-0 drubbing.

Good morning, and if you are just waking up to the results of last night’s three by-elections, we can bring you happy news that Labour have won in Selby &...

Hot on the heels of their agreement with the Kiwis, the long anticipated EU-Australia trade deal was due to be announced this week but reports suggest that agriculture is proving the stubborn, if expected, sticking point. 

On the 20th of June at Birmingham NEC, Best for Britain brought hundreds of businesses and policymakers together to discuss what the future of trade policy must look like. It was the first national conference that empowered businesses of all sizes from all parts of the economy and all corners of the country to speak directly to decision makers through real time polling and consultation. 

In the world of horses, first past the post (FPTP) means just that. Getting to within a furlong of the finish and then expiring counts for nowt, even if you were the last gelding standing. Politics, of course, purloined FPTP from the racing fraternity and applied it to the outdated electoral system which still blights general elections in Britain, among other places.

Our businesses remain hamstrung by stubbornly high inflation (not least wage inflation), interest rates that don’t know how to fall, and an employment market crippled by a lack of both labour and skills. And all the while, the trade barriers we erected around our economy on exiting the EU are a daily reminder to British exporters just how badly Britain has damaged its trading abilities in recent years.

If you’re looking for signs that our scandal-pocked Government has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana skin, you should be anticipating the Thursday’s English local elections with glee. But here’s why it won’t necessarily be a rip-roaring night for Labour.

As we bid a not-so-fond farewell to Dominic Raab, join us as we recount some of the highlights (and more of the lowlights) of his misadventures in Government

What was the purpose of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland and the Republic this week? To rational observers, Biden stopped in Belfast to celebrate the Good Friday Agreement, highlight the vital role of international cooperation in brokering the deal, and encourage Northern Ireland’s political leaders to return to power-sharing. The Windsor Framework, as Biden rightly pointed out, can be a continuation of this collaborative spirit.

Over the last 12 months, it seems like every international organisation worth its salt has had to condemn the UK Government’s latest cruel, authoritarian, or simply wrongheaded action. From supranational bodies to think tanks, charities and even organised religion, the Tories have provided each sound-minded and morally-unblinkered body with plenty to object to. Let’s have a look back at the 8 of these high profile interventions into UK politics that this Government has provoked in the past year.

Ask someone on the street about the biggest news story of the past week, and you’ll likely hear one name: Gary Lineker. The football legend’s suspension and now un-suspension from the BBC has dominated the airwaves and splashed tabloids and broadsheets alike. But if you asked the same person exactly what Lineker was objecting to in the tweet that sparked the controversy, you’d likely get a much larger range of answers–and probably some blank stares.

Beyond its practical benefits for Northern Ireland and the whole UK economy, Monday’s announcement of the Windsor Framework looked like a tentative return to grown-up Government. While the Tories have a long and storied history of U-turns, this could be the start of a new era in which the UK works smarter and more collaboratively with our closest neighbours. If they’re serious about this new pragmatic approach, here are the next five steps they should take.

Now under pressure from the ERG and DUP, Sunak could be tempted to follow through with his threat to withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights Convention to provide a rare point of unity for his Vote Leave Government. Despite the Attorney General’s pledge to address small boats “within” the ECHR this week, Deputy PM Dominic Raab on the same day said that the Government would ‘not rule out’ this withdrawal. If they do, eight decades of international cooperation on safeguarding our liberties could be lost–and the Good Friday Agreement with them.

Last Thursday, Yvette Cooper said what anyone who’s paid attention in the past 13 years could tell you: the Tories have fallen down on the job of keeping the UK safe. The Shadow Home Secretary’s address to the Institute for Government pledged that Labour would hire 13,000 new police officers, commit to rebuilding relationships between police forces and communities, put cops back on neighbourhood beats, and swiftly act on allegations of misconduct against officers.

An absolute back to basics, jargon-free, beginners guide to the NI Protocol. We’ll go through everything you NEED to know to understand the developments of the coming days.