Thank you, Keir, for keeping calm | Brief letters

Let’s praise Keir Starmer (UK will not be drawn into wider war in Middle East, says Keir Starmer, 16 March) for remaining calm and statesmanlike in the face of infantile insults and playground bullying, in order to bring about a cessation of Donald Trump’s recklessness.Martin DattaLincoln Moby (‘The lyrics to Lola by the Kinks are gross – I was really taken aback’: Moby’s honest playlist, 22 March) describes the lyrics of Lola as “gross and transphobic”. He says he was “taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are”. This Kinks’ song came out in 1970, when transitioning wasn’t as openly talked about. Lola was groundbreaking in celebrating a trans character over 50 years ago

What’s at stake for UK in May’s elections: six key questions

On 7 May, three of the UK’s four nations go to the polls in a series of elections with much potential significance, not just for who ends up governing various bodies, but also for the future political direction of the country.Here is what is at stake.In Scotland, voters will select 129 members of the country’s parliament, via a mix of first-past-the-post constituency voting and proportional regional voting. In Wales, a revised proportional system will pick 96 members of an expanded Senedd.In England, there are first-past-the-post votes for members of more than 130 councils of various types – metropolitan, unitary, county, district and 32 London boroughs – as well as for six mayors

‘Unprecedented territory’: are UK polls as volatile as they seem? – in charts

Cabinet reshuffles, party infighting, policy reversals, byelections, defections and apparently huge swings in support – the UK’s political news cycle feels especially relentless at the moment.But if you look closely at the polls since last year’s local elections, remarkably little has changed.While there have been some noticeable individual polls, most movements have been limited to a small number of percentage points. The big parties are roughly where they were. Reform has had a comfortable lead for almost a year

‘Anyone but Labour’ or ‘anyone but Reform’? Clash of animosities likely to define May local elections

Local elections are often regarded as a referendum on the sitting government, with many previous administrations taking a bloody nose from the electorate but successfully fighting back by the next general election.Senior Labour figures have taken to reeling off a list of midterm results – 1999, 2003, 2012 – to prove that point. “As we get closer to the general election, it will be less about people’s view of the parties generally and more about the actual choice in front of them,” one said.But even against that backdrop, this May’s local and devolved elections look to be a uniquely negative series of contests, in part because Nigel Farage now generates as much ill feeling across the country as Keir Starmer.Some voters are urgently hoping to teach the government a lesson, but others want just as strongly to keep Reform UK out of power

The trope of ‘choosing pets over people’ is not new | Letter

Jonn Elledge (What’s worth more: Churchill or a woke badger? Welcome to Britain’s banknote culture war, 16 March) is right that the debate over whether wildlife might replace figures such as Winston Churchill on Bank of England banknotes has become another front in Britain’s culture wars. As he notes, proposals to feature animals are neither unprecedented nor unpopular, with public consultation showing majority support for nature-themed designs.But the backlash relies on a familiar claim: that attention to wildlife represents a misplaced priority – “the definition of woke”, as Nigel Farage put it. This framing is not new. During the 2021 evacuation efforts of animal charity Nowzad in Kabul, the story was reduced to “pets over people”, despite the fact that both animals and staff were saved

James Cleverly says he disagrees with Nick Timothy about Islamic public prayer

James Cleverly has said he disagrees with his Conservative frontbench colleague Nick Timothy’s assertion that public Muslim prayers are an act of domination, as another senior Tory called for the party to respect the right to worship.Kemi Badenoch has defended Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, after he posted images of mass prayer at a Ramadan event on Monday evening in Trafalgar Square, calling it “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.His remarks sparked significant condemnation, with Keir Starmer calling for Badenoch to sack Timothy; while Richard Hermer, the attorney general, has challenged the Conservative leader to say whether she would object to Jewish prayer in public.In the most open criticism of Timothy by a senior Tory so far, Emma Best, the party’s deputy leader on the London assembly, said prayer was “a fundamental right of every UK citizen” and that if people did not like this, it was their problem.Speaking on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Cleverly, the shadow communities secretary, said Timothy had been correct to begin a debate about Monday’s “Open Iftar”, the last of 18 such public events at which anyone can join the breaking of the Ramadan fast at dusk