Zack Polanski’s ‘guillotine’ retweet has tested the Green Party leader to self-destruction | John Rentoul www.independent.co.uk/voices/zack-...

Zack Polanski’s ‘guillotine’ retweet has tested the Green leader to self-destruction

The Green Party leader hoped to lead a political revolution on the left – but his handling of repeated controversies raises serious questions about whether he has the judgement needed for power, says ...

independent.co.uk

Don’t be sad about the demise of Halifax – it was a truly terrible bank | James Moore www.independent.co.uk/voices/halif...

Don’t be sad about the demise of Halifax – it was a truly terrible bank

After 173 years, Halifax is being wiped from the nation’s high streets. Good, says James Moore – the bank had a chequered history and a rotten reputation among its customers

independent.co.uk

"Lesson two for the BBC: the gimmick worked. I watched a programme I haven’t watched for years – and found it much better than the superficial shouting match that used to put me off," writes @rentouljohn.bsky.social of the BBC's AI #QuestionTime episode www.independent.co.uk/voices/quest...

Is it time to put Question Time out of its misery?

The latest episode of the long-running BBC political debate featured AI-generated guests from history – for which it has been widely ridiculed. But, says John Rentoul, a few more innovations might be ...

independent.co.uk

"Perhaps Starmer should have recalled that his last attempt at an essay, in 2021 – a 14,000-word doorstopper for the Fabian Society called 'The Road Ahead' – was met with a collective raspberry." Andrew Grice on the crisis in Britain's leadership www.independent.co.uk/voices/labou...

Labour is hiding its lack of vision behind an essay crisis

As Keir Starmer publishes a 1,500-word rebuttal to the Labour heavyweights who criticised in writing his government’s failures, Andrew Grice argues that – with Whitehall already engulfed in a blame ga...

independent.co.uk

"The famous 'art of the deal' is, in this case, an 'art of the retreat' proposition," writes Anne McElvoy www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump...

Trump’s fears over the midterms have forced him to do a deal with Iran

The tentative ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran has revealed a belligerent president reduced to bargaining to end the war he started – and it is a measure of how far he is from claimin...

independent.co.uk

The president’s casual menacing of a long-standing Gulf ally may yet be a turning point for US relations with the several Middle East states – including Israel, says Mary Dejevsky (@marydejevsky) www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump...

Is Trump’s threat to ‘blow up’ Oman a sign he regrets his war with Iran?

The president’s casual menacing of a long-standing Gulf ally may yet be a turning point for US relations with the several Middle East states – including Israel, says Mary Dejevsky

independent.co.uk

Tony Blair’s explosive essay on government failings set out the need for a new agenda for Britain, while Alan Milburn sounded an alarm about growing youth unemployment. After two wasted years in office, this administration would now be wise to listen to its elders, says John Rentou

Hugh Jackman’s ex wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, won’t get the ‘closure’ she wants from meeting his new girlfriend | Flic Everett www.independent.co.uk/voices/hugh-...

Hugh Jackman’s ex won’t get ‘closure’ from meeting his new girlfriend

To deal with the end of their 30-year marriage, Deborra-Lee Furness asked to be introduced to Jackman’s glamorous, younger partner. But that’s a one-way ticket to humiliation rather than healing, says...

independent.co.uk

@the-independent.com's agony aunt Victoria Richards offers advice on break-ups and finding love in your thirties

More must be done to help hard-up families and the squeezed middle about to be hit by a tsunami of rising energy, mortgage and food costs – but most of all this country must simply brace for pain

'Students and their families pay attention to the detailed visa rules and policy changes; they also pay attention to tone. They notice when political rhetoric repeatedly suggests they are not really wanted.' – Dr Michael Spence, President & Provost of @ucl.ac.uk www.independent.co.uk/voices/inter...

Westminster is having the wrong fight about international students

Immigration has become a proxy for wider anxieties and, in turn, international students have become a proxy for immigration, writes UCL president Dr Michael Spence. As long as they are caught in the p...

independent.co.uk

"Replacing the licence fee would certainly take some of the wind out of Farage’s sails. And, let’s be honest, it is really a poll tax, because everyone with a TV set is liable to the charge" James Moore for @the-independent.com

"For Burnham, things really have become quite startling in the style department – he’s gone from the mild-mannered, doe-eyelashed dreamboat who once told GQ he wears Armani and Jaeger suits, to King of the North in a pair of Daisy Dukes" - Victoria Richards

"Like his former friend and mentor Peter Mandelson, Streeting has acquired a reputation for Machiavellian cunning and mastery of the dark arts of politics that usefully intimidates his enemies" Sean O'Grady

"This sounds a little like the Pentagon’s version of the AA’s excellent Route Planner, which can also 'guide' you from A to B and avoid the bank holiday jams. Handy, but not really the guarantee of safety that an international shipping company and its crews need." Sean O'Grady

"The dress code is said to encourage guests to think about how they can use their bodies as a blank canvas. In which case, don’t boycott the Met Gala, Zendaya and co. Do the opposite: air your views in front of the paparazzi." | Victoria Richards

"The 77-year-old monarch gave a masterclass in diplomacy and charm that won plaudits round the globe. The good news for William is that the King has showed the monarchy can still be relevant." Simon Walters on the State visit and succession.

"It’s not always politicians’ favourite answer, but the honest truth is that we don’t fully know what is driving the rising demand for mental health services or how best to meet it." Wes Streeting on the mental health crisis – and how to address it.

"This has not only begun to profoundly change what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century but will come to change Western culture." – @benjudah.bsky.social on the return of antisemitism

"For all its capacity for grabbing the headlines, assassination is a dead end compared to campaigning for votes." America’s divisions see it teetering on the edge of anarchy | Mark Almond www.independent.co.uk/voices/ameri...

America’s divisions see it teetering on the edge of anarchy

Recent political leaders have largely been spared from the gun violence plaguing America, writes Mark Almond, but history shows a return to the economic rage that plagued the 1890s and which ultimatel...

independent.co.uk

"As panic about UK inflation "soaring" may leave you crying into your cornflakes, know this about the Argentinians. They’ve lived with the world’s highest inflation for decades, and still choose resilience and hedonism over weariness." – @garynunn.bsky.social www.independent.co.uk/voices/infla...

Don’t panic about inflation! I lived in a country which hit 193%

Inflation rises in the UK may be troubling, but I saw for myself how the Argentinians still managed to enjoy life while in thrall to triple digit rises, writes Gary Nunn

independent.co.uk

The Strait of Hormuz fiasco is sparking a global food crisis | Jean-Martin Bauer www.independent.co.uk/voices/strai...

The Strait of Hormuz fiasco is sparking a global food crisis

With the UK approaching its lowest real-terms aid spending since 1970 and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz preventing food and fertiliser from getting to its recipients, it has rarely looked more b...

independent.co.uk

"As thousands of Britons check their trainers ready for today’s London Marathon, for those of us watching, it’s like an annual exhale that dispels bad memories of school PE lessons" – @katbrownwrites.com www.independent.co.uk/voices/londo...

The joy of the London Marathon shows it’s possible to outrun the memory of school PE

The Marathon is an inspiring reminder that the only right way to exercise is to be determined enough to do so, writes Kat Brown

independent.co.uk

"Politics is a long haul, and it is hard for new parties to establish themselves in the British system. Especially if the old parties refuse to lie down and die. Polanski and Farage have more in common than either would like to admit." – @rentouljohn.bsky.social www.independent.co.uk/voices/green...

The air will come out of the Green balloon just as it did Reform’s

Zack Polanski’s party will make stunning gains in the English local elections next month, writes John Rentoul, but it will then face many of the same problems afflicting Nigel Farage and Reform

independent.co.uk

"There are valuable lessons to be learned, such as children should not be left alone with a weird superstar for sleepovers where they share his bed. If the thought of that gives you the ick, then listening to his music should, too." – Charlotte Cripps www.independent.co.uk/voices/micha...

If a Michael Jackson song plays, it’s time to get off the dancefloor

Michael Jackson should have been cancelled long ago, writes Charlotte Cripps. The new biopic is only sanitising his reputation – and if no one else will boycott his music, I will

independent.co.uk

"Spell 'false economy', because it’s not just shoplifting that the damnable things are encouraging." Supermarket self-checkouts have turned us into a nation of shoplifters | James Moore www.independent.co.uk/voices/marks...

Supermarket self-checkouts have turned us into a nation of shoplifters

Marks & Spencer’s chairman has laid the blame for an epidemic of middle-class shoplifting on breaking the ‘human link’ between shops and customers – and he’s got a point, says James Moore

independent.co.uk

"What was it all for if somebody 44 years later can bring all that back? Everything that, and all my injured colleagues, all the Argentinians who needlessly died, the three civilians who died. What was that for?" | Simon Weston www.independent.co.uk/voices/donal...

I fought in one Falklands War. Now I fear Trump could spark another

The US president is making a mockery of everything we fought to protect, says veteran Simon Weston

independent.co.uk

"The timing, as they politely put it in diplomatic circles, is sub-optimal." The Independent View: Donald Trump must think again over his misguided Falklands threat www.independent.co.uk/voices/edito...

Donald Trump must think again over his misguided Falklands threat

Editorial: It would be horrifying – and self-defeating – if the Americans were to help the Argentinians plot another attempt at forcibly acquiring the islands. We must hope that next week’s royal visi...

independent.co.uk

"None of that should lead us to siding with the ayatollahs and wanting Iran to win. That would be perverse and stupid. It is a tragedy that Trump’s bombastic blunder has turned decent people into hoping America gets humiliated" – Sean O'Grady www.independent.co.uk/voices/alex-...

Loathe Trump if you want, but if he loses to Iran it will be a catastrophe

The sheer stupidity of the president’s bombastic blunder is clouding his critics’ judgment on what his coming off worse in this war would mean for the rest of us, writes Sean O’Grady

independent.co.uk

"Indeed if the high street is to have any hope of reviving its fortunes – and it’s quite possible to doubt that – Primark will have to be involved." Read James Moore on Primark's demerger.