Politics

39 questions

Politics5 May 2026

Gordon Brown: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the Brown premiership — the man who saved the global banking system, passed the Climate Change Act, and then lost an election he had spent a decade waiting to fight.

Politics5 May 2026

Liz Truss: the honest scorecard

Politics5 May 2026

David Cameron: the honest scorecard

Politics5 May 2026

Theresa May: the honest scorecard

Politics5 May 2026

John Major: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the Major premiership — Black Wednesday, BSE, the cash-for-questions scandal, and quietly laying the groundwork for peace in Northern Ireland. A decent man in a decade that did not reward decency.

Politics5 May 2026

Boris Johnson: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the Johnson premiership — the vaccine rollout, the Brexit deal, Ukraine support, a prorogation ruled unlawful, and Partygate. The record contains both genuine achievement and a systematic relationship with honesty that the office requires.

Politics5 May 2026

Is it time to admit that manifestos are just fiction with better fonts?

Every few years, parties publish detailed plans for governing. Almost none of it happens. At what point do we stop treating this as surprising?

Politics5 May 2026

Tony Blair: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the Blair premiership — the minimum wage, devolution, the Good Friday Agreement, Kosovo, record NHS investment, and Iraq. The record contains both the most significant domestic achievement and the most catastrophic foreign policy decision of the modern era.

Politics5 May 2026

Richard Nixon: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the 37th presidency — the man who opened China, created the EPA, and resigned in disgrace. The record is more contradictory than either his admirers or critics acknowledge.

Politics5 May 2026

What if your country's military swore allegiance to a party, not a constitution?

In some democracies the military answers to an elected leader. In others it answers to something above politics. The difference matters more than it sounds.

Politics5 May 2026

Gerald Ford: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the 38th presidency — the only unelected president, who inherited the wreckage of Watergate and restored basic trust to an office comprehensively destroyed by his predecessor.

Politics5 May 2026

Would the world be better governed by lottery than by election?

Sortition — selecting leaders by random draw — is ancient, occasionally used, and surprisingly hard to argue against.

Politics5 May 2026

Jimmy Carter: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the 39th presidency — a man of exceptional personal character, extraordinary post-presidential achievement, and one of the least politically effective single terms in modern history.

Politics5 May 2026

What if world leaders swapped jobs for a year?

The easiest way to misunderstand a problem is to have only ever seen it from one angle. This is what would actually happen if the people running countries had to run someone else's.

Politics5 May 2026

Do we actually want politicians to be honest, or do we just want to feel like we do?

Honesty in politics is universally praised and consistently punished. That might tell us something.

Politics5 May 2026

Should politicians be required to pass a competency test before standing for election?

We test everyone else who holds power over lives. The one exception is revealing.

Politics5 May 2026

Ronald Reagan: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the 40th presidency — the man who reshaped American politics, accelerated the Cold War's end, remained silent during an epidemic, and presided over Iran-Contra. The record is more contradictory than his admirers or critics acknowledge.

Politics5 May 2026

Is there a meaningful difference between a populist and a demagogue?

Everyone uses these words. Almost no one agrees on what they mean. The distinction matters more than the name.

Politics5 May 2026

George H.W. Bush: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the 41st presidency — the most consistently underrated president of the modern era, who managed the end of the Cold War, German reunification, and the Gulf War with strategic competence his successor could not replicate.

Politics5 May 2026

What if no one could independently define what counts as an emergency?

Emergency powers exist to protect societies in crisis. The question nobody asked: what happens when the person invoking the emergency is the one creating it?

Politics5 May 2026

Bill Clinton: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the 42nd presidency — the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history, a catastrophic personal scandal, a missed decade on terrorism, and a domestic legislative record more complicated than either side acknowledges.

Politics5 May 2026

Should judges be elected, appointed, or neither — and who decides who decides?

How you choose judges reveals what you actually think justice is for. The answer is more revealing than most people expect.

Politics5 May 2026

George W. Bush: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the 43rd presidency — one of history's most consequential foreign policy disasters, an inadequate domestic response to Hurricane Katrina, a genuine public health legacy in Africa, and a financial crisis that ended his term in economic freefall.

Politics5 May 2026

What if the person who decides a rebellion is happening is also the person starting it?

The Insurrection Act gives one person the power to invoke military force against citizens — and the same person defines what counts as an insurrection. That's not a gap in the law. It's the law.

Politics5 May 2026

Joe Biden: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the 46th presidency — the largest domestic investment programme since the Great Society, the most consequential climate legislation in American history, NATO united by war in Europe, and a question about transparency that the record cannot avoid.

Politics5 May 2026

Harold Wilson (second term): the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of Wilson's second period in government — a minority administration that delivered the EEC referendum, managed a deeply divided party, and ended with an unexplained voluntary resignation.

Politics5 May 2026

Is voting a civic duty, a waste of time, or both simultaneously?

The mathematical case against voting is sound. The case for it isn't really about maths.

Politics5 May 2026

Rishi Sunak: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the Sunak premiership — market stability restored, inflation reduced, but NHS waiting lists at record levels, net zero commitments rolled back, and a general election defeat of historic scale.

Politics5 May 2026

Has the 24-hour news cycle made politicians worse, or just more visible?

The incentives of continuous coverage may have changed what kind of person succeeds in politics.

Politics5 May 2026

Edward Heath: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the Heath premiership — the man who took Britain into Europe, then lost to the miners twice and left in electoral defeat. His singular achievement outlasted his government by decades.

Politics5 May 2026

What if a president had the loyalty of organised crime and the powers of a state?

Organised crime operates on loyalty, fear, and the suppression of accountability. Democracies are designed to prevent exactly that. This is what happens when those designs fail.

Politics5 May 2026

Margaret Thatcher: the honest scorecard

A structured assessment of the Thatcher premiership — the most consequential British leader since Churchill. She broke the post-war consensus, won the Falklands, helped end the Cold War, and left communities devastated by deindustrialisation. The record divides the country still.

Politics5 May 2026

Gordon Brown: the honest scorecard

Liz Truss: the honest scorecard

David Cameron: the honest scorecard

Theresa May: the honest scorecard

John Major: the honest scorecard

Boris Johnson: the honest scorecard

Is it time to admit that manifestos are just fiction with better fonts?

Tony Blair: the honest scorecard

Richard Nixon: the honest scorecard

What if your country's military swore allegiance to a party, not a constitution?

Gerald Ford: the honest scorecard

Would the world be better governed by lottery than by election?

Jimmy Carter: the honest scorecard

What if world leaders swapped jobs for a year?

Do we actually want politicians to be honest, or do we just want to feel like we do?

Should politicians be required to pass a competency test before standing for election?

Ronald Reagan: the honest scorecard

Is there a meaningful difference between a populist and a demagogue?

George H.W. Bush: the honest scorecard

What if no one could independently define what counts as an emergency?

Bill Clinton: the honest scorecard

Should judges be elected, appointed, or neither — and who decides who decides?

George W. Bush: the honest scorecard

What if the person who decides a rebellion is happening is also the person starting it?

Joe Biden: the honest scorecard

Harold Wilson (second term): the honest scorecard

Is voting a civic duty, a waste of time, or both simultaneously?

Rishi Sunak: the honest scorecard

Has the 24-hour news cycle made politicians worse, or just more visible?

Edward Heath: the honest scorecard

What if a president had the loyalty of organised crime and the powers of a state?

Margaret Thatcher: the honest scorecard

James Callaghan: the honest scorecard

Did you know that 'democracy' began as an insult?

Why do we keep being surprised when powerful people abuse power?

Is there such a thing as a truly independent judiciary?

Is democracy worth saving, or are we just too attached to it?

Donald Trump: first term — the honest scorecard

Barack Obama: the honest scorecard