Accessibility helpSkip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footer

Cookies on FT Sites

We use cookies and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to analyse how our Sites are used.

Accept cookies
Manage cookies
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
Open side navigation menuOpen search bar
Financial Times
SubscribeSign InmyFT
  • Home
  • World
    Sections
    • World Home
    • Global Economy
    • UK
    • US
    • China
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Emerging Markets
    • Europe
    • War in Ukraine
    • Americas
    • Middle East & North Africa
    • Australia & NZ
    Most Read
    • US lawmakers pass short-term deal to avoid government shutdown
    • Robert Fico wins Slovakia election with anti-Ukraine stance
    • Serbia will not send military forces into Kosovo, Vučić insists
    • Germans shrug off economic gloom at booming Oktoberfest
    • US on brink of shutdown as Republicans defeat last-minute funding bill
  • US
    Sections
    • US Home
    • US Economy
    • US Companies
    • US Politics & Policy
    Most Read
    • Companies
      Sections
      • Companies Home
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
      Most Read
      • Looney accused of promoting BP women with whom he had undisclosed relationships
      • Revolut attracts UK watchdog scrutiny over red-flag accounts
      • Octopus Energy: the UK start-up outgrowing its roots
      • JPMorgan pursues Sports Direct over commercial property spat
      • EY sets up six-way race to lead firm after break-up failure
    • Tech
    • Markets
      Sections
      • Markets Home
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
      Most Read
      • Revolut attracts UK watchdog scrutiny over red-flag accounts
      • Regulators turn up heat on shadow banks after market blow-ups
      • Afghan currency posts world-beating rally in third quarter
      • BP tells staff top US executive is leaving just weeks after CEO exit
      • Extreme weather hits lovers of sweet treats in the pocket
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      Sections
      • Opinion Home
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
      Most Read
      • Inheritance tax debates overlook the psychology of the thing
      • Hit the snooze button: it’s good for you
      • The price of shoplifting is getting dangerously high
      • Matteo Messina Denaro, Italian mafioso, 1962-2023
      • Maybe politics should be more mindful
    • Work & Careers
      Sections
      • Work & Careers Home
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
      Most Read
      • The ghastly modern office needs a reboot
      • ‘Talk to everyone you can’: Plaid’s Zach Perret on navigating a failed sale and Covid upheaval
      • Success is more complicated than one exceptional individual
      • The activist sued by Elon Musk: ‘We have to show we will not be cowed’
    • Life & Arts
      Sections
      • Life & Arts Home
      • Arts
      • Books
      • Food & Drink
      • FT Magazine
      • House & Home
      • Style
      • Travel
      • FT Globetrotter
      Most Read
      • Japan’s toddler superstar: the baby bringing hope to a ghost village
      • My dad, the demigod
      • Tech entrepreneur Niklas Zennström: ‘Let’s break the Silicon Valley monopoly’
      • The lives politics doesn’t touch
      • Bismarck, Truss and why timing is everything in politics
    • HTSI
    MenuSearch
    • Home
    • World
    • US
    • Companies
    • Tech
    • Markets
    • Climate
    • Opinion
    • Work & Careers
    • Life & Arts
    • HTSI
    Financial Times
    SubscribeSign In

    Philip Stephens

    Contributing editor

    Philip Stephens is a contributing editor. He was also previously associate editor, director of the editorial board and chief political commentator. He writes on global and British affairs.

    Add to myFT Digest

    Add this topic to your myFT Digest for news straight to your inbox

    • 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

      Aerial view of outfall into the River Thames from a Thames Water sewage works
    • 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

      Chris Mullin
    • 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

      Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher presenting the Conservative party manifesto for the general election
    • Monday, 27 February, 2023
      ObituaryBernard Ingham
      Bernard Ingham, No 10 press secretary

      Official spokesman and staunch loyalist of prime minister Margaret Thatcher

      Bernard Ingham was a plain speaker — careless of high Tory political politesse
    • 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

      A depiction of Rishi Sunak proffering a handshake, where his hand is overly large and overlayed with a union jack
    • 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

      Keir Starmer standing at a podium
    • Thursday, 8 December, 2022
      Northern Ireland
      Neuralgia clashes with exceptionalism in Northern Ireland

      Unionist intransigence over the Irish Sea border rests on insecurity

      Black and white photo from 1922 showing armed troops guarding barricades in Belfast to prevent further rioting
    • 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

      Margaret Thatcher meets Mikhail Gorbachev at Heathrow airport, April 5 1989
    • 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

      Queen Elizabeth II travels towards the Houses of Parliament before addressing the state opening of parliament in 2016
    • 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

      Montage of images of Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and the EU flag
    • 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

      Rishi Sunak speaking at the launch of his campaign to be Conservative party leader and prime minister, at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London this week
    • 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

      Ellie Foreman-Peck illustration for Philip Stephens’ column ‘Becoming ‘normal’ again is going to be hard for Britain’
    • 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

      Efi Chalikopoulou illustration of Philip Stephens column ‘The west is the author of its own weakness’
    • 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

      US President Joe Biden, right, speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron
    • 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

      Boris Johnson and Joe Biden in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, after their meeting ahead of the G7 Summit
    • 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

      German finance minister Olaf Scholz passes by German Chancellor Angela Merkel after delivering a speech during a session of the parliament in Berlin
    • 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

      A group of military families and veterans watch President Joe Biden’s speech on August 31 announcing that all troops are out of Afghanistan
    • Thursday, 26 August, 2021
      UK foreign policy
      Kabul retreat leaves the UK on a bridge to nowhere

      US indifference to its ally’s interests in the Afghan pullout underscores London’s dependence on Washington

      Joe Biden with Boris Johnson in Cornwall, England, in June
    • Thursday, 19 August, 2021
      Afghanistan
      Europe had better face facts about the Biden doctrine

      The retreat from Afghanistan has seen the US draw a much tighter definition of its national interest

      Emmanuel Macron talks to Joe Biden while Mario Draghi and Ursula von der Leyen look on
    • Thursday, 29 July, 2021
      Climate change
      Climate change is a global threat demanding national solutions

      The lofty hopes of the COP26 process will have meaning only if they connect with local politics

      A firefighter passes a burning home surrounded by trees
    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

    Useful links

    Support

    View Site TipsHelp CentreContact UsAbout UsAccessibilitymyFT TourCareers

    Legal & Privacy

    Terms & ConditionsPrivacy PolicyCookiesCopyrightSlavery Statement & Policies

    Services

    Share News Tips SecurelyIndividual SubscriptionsProfessional SubscriptionsRepublishingExecutive Job SearchAdvertise with the FTFollow the FT on XFT ChannelsFT Schools

    Tools

    PortfolioToday’s Newspaper (FT Digital Edition)Alerts HubBusiness School RankingsEnterprise ToolsNews feedNewslettersCurrency Converter

    Community & Events

    FT CommunityFT Live EventsFT ForumsFT Board DirectorBoard Director Programme

    More from the FT Group

    Markets data delayed by at least 15 minutes. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2023. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
    The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice.
    Financial Times

    International Edition

    Subscribe for full access
    • Switch to UK Edition

    Top sections

    • Home
    • World
      • Global Economy
      • UK
      • US
      • China
      • Africa
      • Asia Pacific
      • Emerging Markets
      • Europe
      • War in Ukraine
      • Americas
      • Middle East & North Africa
      • Australia & NZ
    • US
      • US Economy
      • US Companies
      • US Politics & Policy
    • Companies
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
    • Tech
    • Markets
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
    • Work & Careers
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
    • Life & Arts
      • Arts
      • Books
      • Food & Drink
      • FT Magazine
      • House & Home
      • Style
      • Travel
      • FT Globetrotter
    • Personal Finance
      • Property & Mortgages
      • Investments
      • Pensions
      • Tax
      • Banking & Savings
      • Advice & Comment
      • Next Act
    • HTSI
    • Special Reports

    FT recommends

    • Lex
    • Alphaville
    • Lunch with the FT
    • FT Globetrotter
    • #techAsia
    • Moral Money
    • Visual and data journalism
    • Newsletters
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • News feed
    • FT Live Events
    • FT Forums
    • Board Director Programme
    • myFT
    • Portfolio
    • Today’s Newspaper (FT Digital Edition)
    • Crossword
    • Our Apps
    • Help Centre
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In