John Harris

We don’t have to accept an archaic, hateful vision of our country. Let’s build on the diverse, multiracial place it actually is
In his first speech as prime minister in the House of Commons, Boris Johnson said that securing Brexit was a way of “uniting and re-energising our great United Kingdom and making this country the greatest place on Earth”. A few months later, he addressed the Conservative conference, and told his audience…

Britain will only be revived post-coronavirus if we all sit up and take notice of what’s happening around us
Last week I came to the end of 10 days of work focused on the north-eastern town of Middlesbrough. Drawn by the fact that it had one of the highest Covid-19 infection rates in the country, the team behind the Guardian’s Anywhere but Westminster video series had decided to talk to as many local…

Councils are supposed to play a big role in the coronavirus strategy, but do they have the means to do so?

Coronavirus – latest updates
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Just under a fortnight ago, council leaders across England received an email containing three attachments. It had been sent on behalf of Nadine Dorries, the health minister and former I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! contestant.
Official material related to…

The Anywhere But Westminster team return to the north-east town of Middlesbrough, which has had one of the highest infection rates in the UK. Far away from ministerial briefings and political intrigue, Covid-19 has worsened already ingrained problems: biting hardship, precarious work and the feeling that government has left people to sink or swim. There is hope and energy at the grassroots but can things really change?

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Councils have been kept in the dark and starved of funds as coronavirus has spread. Power must be dispersed

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Coronavirus – latest updates

And so it is that we reach a watershed point in the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, manifested in a tangle of stories all unified by vivid themes: power concentrated at the centre, a lack of meaningful checks and balances, and the exposure by…