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EXPLAINED: 6 - The Real Truth

The Tories have become too pungent for a country that likes its politics plain

Labour’s unthreatening blandness doesn’t set pulses racing, but it beats a government peddling more rage and division, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Britain is trapped in political purgatory – waiting for its undead government to fall

Policy that can’t work and laws written purely for campaign slogans are clear symptoms of a moribund regime, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Rishi Sunak’s only hope of a legacy is to govern as though he has already lost the election

The Tories have a long road back to being a responsible party of power. Their leader’s job is to start that journey now, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

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The Ukraine war highlights the deep strategic folly of Euroscepticism

Nato and the EU are the twin pillars of European security, but Britain now has to pretend there is only one, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

How can British politics move forward when it’s still haunted by the 2019 election?

Sunak and Starmer are trapped between the need to repudiate their past and reluctance to be honest about what went wrong, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Russia’s power games are a wake-up call for Britain: our democracy is precious – and fragile

The spectacle of Putin versus Prigozhin is a reminder that the UK’s political culture, however frayed its fabric, is worth celebrating, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Sunak had a chance to rise above Johnson’s toxic legacy – and he blew it

A politician who came to office promising integrity and accountability has shown the stupidest kind of cowardice, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

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Boris Johnson is gone, but his toxic Brexit myths will go on poisoning UK politics

A systemic sickness produced the hallucination of merit in the former prime minister, then disgorged him, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Rishi Sunak’s White House jolly can’t mask the fact that Brexit Britain is a fading power

The prime minister arrives in Washington with no real leverage in Europe – and therefore no real leverage with Joe Biden, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

The spectre of price controls is back to spook Sunak – and Thatcherite myths won’t save him

The prime minister is stubbornly attached to an outdated ideology, but has no plan for adapting to volatile times, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Brexit ruined Britain’s appetite for revolution. That makes Starmer’s job harder

It’s not just the NHS where Labour faces an uphill struggle. The party has lost its willingness to confront difficult choices, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

In a contest between Tory MPs and reality, Rishi Sunak is refusing to pick a side

The PM is treading the perilous path of indulging Suella Braverman and her allies on the Conservative hard right, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Politics: A Survivor’s Guide by Rafael Behr review – a plea for sanity from the centre ground

The political commentator is an elegant voice of reason in an often polarised world

The Guardian - UK

After this trouncing, Sunak will need to give people reasons to vote Tory again. Does he have any?

There’s still time for spells of competence from No 10 – but the Tory machine could collapse as the party goes into panic mode, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

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The Guardian - UK

Politics: A Survivor’s Guide by Rafael Behr review – a masterful account of contemporary malaise

A heart attack prompts the Guardian journalist to investigate the underlying causes of our uniquely polarised moment

The Guardian - UK

Contempt for rules is shaking the foundations of British democracy

With its voter ID ruse and a bid to capture the civil service, the government is emulating US Republicans’ winner-takes-all populism, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Antisocial: how putting away my phone helped me recover from a heart attack

After being forced to quit social media, political journalist Rafael Behr was able to see its corrosive influence clearly. How can we repair the damage caused by a system that plays on our worst impulses?

The Guardian - UK

Reality is Sunak’s enemy in this endless Tory campaign to defy political gravity

The PM posed as the leader who would finally tackle the serious issues. Now he is trying to stay in power by denying they exist, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

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The Guardian - UK

Sunak’s wealth isn’t an image problem for voters – except when he refuses to talk about it

Authenticity, not net worth, is the issue when a millionaire prime minister tries too hard to be normal, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

The Good Friday agreement showed how decent British politics can be – but Sunak and Starmer have other plans

Trivia, historical amnesia and dirty tricks have become the new norm. Neither party leader has the courage to buck that trend, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Labour isn’t focused only on ‘hero voters’

Letters: James Valentine and Dr Mark Wilcox respond to Rafael Behr’s analysis of the party’s election strategy

The Guardian - UK

Red wall Brexiters will be the ‘hero voters’ of the next election. The rest of us are just walk-on players

British politics is bent out of shape to accommodate a narrow set of views clustered to one side of a partisan divide, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Western democracy is weaker in this new cold war than it was in the first one

For democrats, a stubborn economic malaise is more existentially threatening than any example set in Moscow or Beijing, says Rafael Behr

The Guardian - UK

Cruel Tory migration bill will erode basic right to seek asylum

Letters: The impact the policy will have across the world can’t be ignored, says Oliver Lough. Plus letters from Derrick Joad, Nigel Griffin and David Duell

The Guardian - UK

‘Stop the boats’ shows how Britain is really being governed: by Tory campaign leaflet

Sunak and Braverman’s cruel migration policy is a stunt to win over voters – but then gimmicks are all they have left to offer, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

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