John Harris

1. Article · Sep 27, 2026 · John Harris

   Labour is nostalgic for two-party politics. That cosy, simple time is over – let it go | John Harris (opens the original)

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   Our fragmented political model will endure for the foreseeable future – and Reform will benefit from it until Burnham learns that cooperation is key As I wrote last week, whatever its current troubles, Reform UK has hardly disappeared. Meanwhile, those black-clad quasi-paramilitaries may well be another augury of a frightening immediate future. One more English settlement – the town of Barnham, in Norfolk – is seemingly poised to stage a pretend independence referendum in protest at plans

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2. Article · Sep 17, 2026 · John Harris

   It’s going to be a blast: why 100 tubas are heading for a garden in Haddington (opens the original)

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   Faced with a new concert venue – a vast and beautiful walled garden – John Harris and the Lammermuir festival had to decide how to fill it with sound. Anthony Braxton’s colossal composition was the irresistible solution. Working in contemporary music, I am used to eyebrows being raised by friends and family when I answer their seemingly innocent dinnertime question, “What are you up to at the moment?”. My responses over the years have ranged from “staging an opera about alien abducti

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3. Article · Sep 13, 2026 · John Harris

   Warning: our democracy won’t survive the death of reading. Read on if you still can | John Harris (opens the original)

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   While fascists protest in UK ports and purvey nonsense and poison online, ever fewer people have the perspective or analytical tools to challenge them Imagine this. Quite by chance, your TikTok feed presents you with footage of the fascists who recently took part in highly organised shows of strength in Dover and Portsmouth (and, on Wednesday, outside the London offices of the Daily Mail, demanding a new house for the mother of their leader, Daniel “Tommo” Thomas). For as long as the images

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4. Article · Sep 6, 2026 · John Harris

   It felt as if the world had tired of rock music, yet Geese are the perfect soundtrack for this age of disquiet | John Harris (opens the original)

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   This young American band, led by Cameron Winter, make music for a generation on the edge “If you want me to pay my taxes,” sang the 23-year-old man on the stage, loudly accompanied by the thousands in front of him, “You better come over with a crucifix/ You’re gonna have to nail me down.” Last Thursday night, I stood in a field in Dorset, and watched the headlining attraction on the first night of the End of the Road festival. Geese are a rock group from New York, led by the extremely talented C

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5. Article · Aug 30, 2026 · John Harris

   Cities are the big winners in Burnham’s devolution drive. But what happens to the rest of England? | John Harris (opens the original)

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   Labour has promised a ‘fundamental rewiring’ of power. But some areas are years into their devolution journey while others scramble to get started Apart from the joyous hyperactivity that comes with suddenly making it to No 10, there are good reasons why Andy Burnham seems to be a prime minister in a hurry. If he decides that his first term is going to run to its maximum length, he has three years, which is a maddening time-frame: too long for him to just tinker here and there, set out his l

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