As we near polling day, Helen Pidd speaks to columnist Marina Hyde and the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer John Crace, who have spent the last six weeks writing about the lowlights and gaffes of the general election campaign. Reflecting on the campaign, Marina wonders if it all ‘could have been done in an email’, and … Read more
In the second episode of a two-part series examining the legacy of 14 years of Conservative rule in the UK, Jonathan Freedland and Helen Pidd lay out the chaos that followed David Cameron’s departure from Downing Street. Cameron’s reign ended abruptly in the summer of 2016, when his gamble to hold a referendum on EU … Read more
Labour’s key housing pledge is to build 1.5m homes if it wins the general election. Its plan includes a promise to build new towns but what would it take to pull it off? “I think the new towns idea is very grabbing,” Robert Booth, the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent, tells Hannah Moore. “To build genuine … Read more
Central to Labour’s campaign over the last few weeks has been one key message: that the party, should it win the election on 4 July, will be a force for stability after years of political turmoil. Keir Starmer’s economic pledges have been aimed to be reassuring and cautious: no big increases in public spending, no … Read more
“A really typical doorstep conservation will involve someone saying: ‘I’m just completely scunnered, can you do what you can to get them out?’” Kirsty McNeill, the Labour candidate for Midlothian, tells the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent Libby Brooks. “Then I’ll have to clarify: ‘Do you mean them up the road or them down the road?’ And … Read more
