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
    • Donald Trump indicted on criminal charges in New York
    • ‘Dare to fight’: Xi Jinping unveils China’s new world order
    • China’s envoy warns EU of ‘peril’ from following US on trade curbs
    • Donald Trump indictment thrusts a divided nation into new chapter of chaos
    • Donald Trump to surrender to New York prosecutors on Tuesday
  • US
    Sections
    • US Home
    • US Economy
    • US Companies
    • US Politics & Policy
    Most Read
    • Companies
      Sections
      • Companies Home
      • Banks in turmoil
      • Energy
      • Financials
      • Health
      • Industrials
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Retail & Consumer
      • Tech Sector
      • Telecoms
      • Transport
      Most Read
      • Colm Kelleher: Irish financial crisis veteran orchestrating Credit Suisse takeover
      • How rising interest rates are exposing bank weaknesses
      • UK is global equity markets ‘backwater’, Nick Train warns
      • Dealmaking at 10-year low in first quarter as bank crisis hits confidence
      • Lawyers for Leon Black accuser seek to quit sexual assault case
    • Tech
    • Markets
      Sections
      • Markets Home
      • Alphaville
      • Markets Data
      • Cryptofinance
      • Capital Markets
      • Commodities
      • Currencies
      • Equities
      • Fund Management
      • Trading
      • Moral Money
      • ETF Hub
      Most Read
      • Prepare for a multipolar currency world
      • Live news: Apple wins appeal against UK’s antitrust watchdog
      • How rising interest rates are exposing bank weaknesses
      • Flood of cash into US money market funds could add to banking strains
      • UK is global equity markets ‘backwater’, Nick Train warns
    • Climate
    • Opinion
      Sections
      • Opinion Home
      • Columnists
      • The FT View
      • Lex
      • Obituaries
      • Letters
      Most Read
      • Prepare for a multipolar currency world
      • Why are Americans dying so young?
      • We are living through a trillion-dollar rebalancing
      • Law versus man: Trump’s courtroom drama begins
      • Multiple red flags are not yet slowing the generative AI train
    • Work & Careers
      Sections
      • Work & Careers Home
      • Business School Rankings
      • Business Education
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Recruitment
      • Business Books
      • Business Travel
      Most Read
      • Boomerang chief executives provide comfort in times of crisis
      • Matthew Desmond: ‘America does so much more to subsidise affluence than alleviate poverty’
    • Life & Arts
      Sections
      • Life & Arts Home
      • Arts
      • Books
      • Food & Drink
      • FT Magazine
      • House & Home
      • Style
      • Travel
      • FT Globetrotter
      Most Read
      • I used AI to bet on horse-racing. Here’s what happened
      • Serhiy Prytula: ‘The defence minister said: “Try to buy a satellite.” I thought he was joking’
      • Gwyneth Paltrow, ‘stealth wealth’ star of the courtroom catwalk
      • It’s morally repugnant, but isolationism on Ukraine makes some sense
      • The big new trends from Watches and Wonders 2023
    • 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

    • 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

    • 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

    • 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

    • 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

    • Thursday, 22 July, 2021
      Brexit
      Boris Johnson has made a Brexit offer the EU can only refuse

      The UK’s latest proposals for the Northern Ireland protocol are an attempt to tear up an international treaty

    • Thursday, 15 July, 2021
      Russian politics
      The brittle facade of Vladimir Putin’s Russia

      Democracies have been bent out of shape by rising populism but autocrats are more likely to crack under pressure

    • Thursday, 8 July, 2021
      Coronavirus pandemic
      The young are pawns in Boris Johnson’s Covid experiment

      The UK government’s plan to lift remaining restrictions will let the virus sweep through the nation’s children

    • Thursday, 1 July, 2021
      Brexit
      The German threat to the UK is indifference

      Boris Johnson’s government is still obsessed with Brexit, but its erstwhile EU partners have other priorities

    • Thursday, 24 June, 2021
      German politics
      After Merkel, Germany must admit the return of history

      Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, an assertive China and revanchist Russia have shattered the nation’s dreams

    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 SubscriptionsGroup SubscriptionsRepublishingExecutive Job SearchAdvertise with the FTFollow the FT on TwitterFT ChannelsSecondary Schools

    Tools

    PortfolioToday's Newspaper (ePaper)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
      • Banks in turmoil
      • 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
    • FTfm
    • Newsletters
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • News feed
    • FT Live Events
    • FT Forums
    • Board Director Programme
    • myFT
    • Portfolio
    • Today's Newspaper (ePaper)
    • Crossword
    • Our Apps
    • Help Centre
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In