Philip Stephens

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Friday, 2 February, 2024

Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland revisits the success of ‘constructive ambiguity’
Politics in the province cannot be forced into straight lines — this week’s deal follows the lessons of its history
Tuesday, 26 December, 2023

Northern Ireland
What unionists could learn from Ireland’s nationalists
They should give up abstentionism and try persuasion instead
Friday, 20 October, 2023

Israel-Hamas war
The Israel-Hamas war has held up a mirror to European powerlessness
EU governments could once claim to be players in the Middle East — no longer
Thursday, 17 August, 2023

Brexit
The EU is doing more — lots more
Contrary to some expectations, the forces of change in Europe have been centripetal rather than centrifugal
Monday, 14 August, 2023

ReviewNon-Fiction
Ancestral Voices in Irish Politics — the architects of nationalism
An intricate account brings out the contrasts and commonalities in the lives of John Dillon and Charles Stewart Parnell
Sunday, 6 August, 2023

UK privatisation
What Britain can learn from its polluted waterways
The legacy of privatisation reaches way beyond the water industry. Now, a rebalancing of market and state is needed
Thursday, 27 July, 2023

ReviewNon-Fiction
Didn’t You Use to Be Chris Mullin? — genteel gardens and gentle polemics
The fourth volume of the former Labour politician’s diaries skilfully weaves the personal with the political
Monday, 8 May, 2023

UK general election
The path to UK election victory still lies through the middle ground
Recent history demonstrates the need for Sunak’s Conservatives to rediscover moderation in time for polling day
Monday, 27 February, 2023

ObituaryBernard Ingham
Bernard Ingham, No 10 press secretary
Official spokesman and staunch loyalist of prime minister Margaret Thatcher
Saturday, 11 February, 2023

UK foreign policy
Sunak’s global search for friends and influence
The prime minister must refurbish damaged relations with Britain’s allies — including opponents in the Brexit wrangles
Wednesday, 25 January, 2023

ReviewFT Books Essay
How America picks its battles
Isolationist superpower or still ‘the world’s policeman’? Two books explore the competing impulses in US politics
Thursday, 29 December, 2022

Brexit
Keir Starmer’s caution fits Europe’s political reality
The UK’s record means Labour’s leader is right not to seek a fast track back to the EU
Thursday, 8 December, 2022

Northern Ireland
Neuralgia clashes with exceptionalism in Northern Ireland
Unionist intransigence over the Irish Sea border rests on insecurity
Friday, 16 September, 2022

FT Books Essay
Do ‘great men’ shape the course of world history?
Ian Kershaw’s essays explore whether 20th-century leaders seized power through sheer force of personality or were mere opportunists
Thursday, 8 September, 2022

Queen Elizabeth II
A monarch who spoke for her kingdom
As political leaders came and went, the Queen held the nation together
Monday, 1 August, 2022

Brexit
After Brexit the Tories still cannot escape EU red tape
The uncomfortable truth is that Britain is now a rule-taker, not a rule-maker
Wednesday, 13 July, 2022

Conservative Party UK
Conservatives must rediscover their instinctive pragmatism
Ideological obsessions with Brexit and low tax are dragging the leadership hopefuls away from successful traditions
Friday, 13 May, 2022

Ireland
Dublin can no longer treat Irish unity as a distant aspiration
Sinn Féin’s victory in Northern Ireland changes the political dynamic
Wednesday, 30 March, 2022

Brexit
Becoming ‘normal’ again is going to be hard for Britain
The country’s friends hope the dismal state of its politics is a temporary condition that will pass
Wednesday, 23 February, 2022

FT Books Essay
An Irish future — and the weight of history
Three new books examine the violently fraught ties between England and its island neighbour and the prospects of unification
Thursday, 30 September, 2021

Geopolitics
The west is the author of its own weakness
China presents a threat to the liberal global order but the bigger danger lies in the discrediting of democracy
Thursday, 23 September, 2021

Geopolitics
The French are right about the Americans
Washington has always been careless of its allies in the pursuit of the US national interest
Thursday, 16 September, 2021

Boris Johnson
What Joe Biden should tell Boris Johnson about Northern Ireland
The US president could be a candid friend to the UK and urge the prime minister to honour his post-Brexit Irish trade deal
Thursday, 9 September, 2021

German politics
Europe does not need four more years of ‘Merkelism’
Germany must shoulder more of the burden of defending an open international system
Thursday, 2 September, 2021

US foreign policy
The US will not find security behind its borders
Joe Biden has declared the end of America’s efforts at nation building, but the world is no safer for his retreat