Ask us anything

Every few months we offer paying subscribers the chance to ask us questions on any topic you like. Just stick your questions in the comments section of this post.

If you want to ask a question anonymously you can email it to samf@substack.com (but please use the comments otherwise as it’s much easier for us).

We’ll post our responses next week, we can’t promise to answer everything, but we’ll do our best and often questions we don’t answer immediately inspire later posts.

There’s certainly plenty to ask about at the moment, with the government here in the midst of yet another self-imposed crisis and a big round of elections coming soon; a US military build-up around Iran; ongoing discussion about how the rest of the world deals with Trump’s threats; and a bitter winter for Ukrainians.

If you’re a new subscriber do have a look at some of our posts from the last month or so:

• We interviewed Richard Moore, who was Chief of MI6 until last September, in a special two-parter. The first post was on how the intelligence services work with goverment. Part two was on the wider world, and Richard’s view of Putin, Xi, Iran etc

• We also interviewed John Bew, who was foreign policy adviser to the last four Prime Ministers, a post that has been very widely circulated around Whitehall.

Sam has written on:

• Who runs Britain? - why politicians of all parties seem to find it so hard to make anything happen

• Troubleshooting - how the government could build faith in the state by sorting everyday irritations which drive us all mad

• Whether the Greens can surpass Labour in the polls and do to them what Reform has done to the Conservatives

• Understanding Stephen Miller - Trump’s "Prime Minister” - and how he has become the nexus for Trumpism

• How Labour are going to “overshoot” on reducing immigration - causing problems for the economy and elsewhere

• And a preview of politics in 2026.

Lawrence has written on:

• The latest round of Ukraine negotiations and Putin’s ongoing intransigence

• Trump’s Greenland adventure and how Europe should react to his erratic behaviour

• Protests in Iran, and why the regime is in serious long-term trouble

• The capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and whether the US is actually running the country.

Over the coming months Sam will be writing about the ongoing ructions in UK politics (including a post on Sunday); some big policy announcements, assuming the government can hold together long enough to make them; the big round of UK local elections in May; more on the US as we head towards the midterms; and the most important European elections this year in Hungary. Lawrence will be keeping an eye on Ukraine, Iran and other hotspots around the world. And we will be doing more interviews and hosting some fascinating guest posts.

If you’re not signed up as a paid subscriber yet we tend to paywall most of our posts so if you want access to all this sign up below. It’s the price of a coffee a month, or less if you go for an annual subscription. We’re now recommended by 535 other substack writers and have over 83,000 subscribers (free and paid) so we must be doing something useful.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, thanks so much for your support, which allows us to do all this. We’re entirely reliant on word of mouth for marketing so please do share posts and spread the word if you like what we do.