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Welcome to The Best for Britain Wire’s Best of 2025.
We hope this email finds you scoffing leftovers, squabbling over a family game of Scrabble, or at least enjoying a something of a break from the daily grind - whatever that looks like.
We all know it’s been a long year. From political turmoil on both sides of the Atlantic, to conflicts across the globe, we don’t need to remind you of the doom and gloom.
However, at Best for Britain HQ, one of our highlights of the past twelve months has been our launch on Substack. It’s been a genuine joy to share fantastic articles by everyone from our brilliant CEO Naomi Smith [ [link removed] ], to Green Party leader Zack Polanski [ [link removed] ] - and we wanted to take this opportunity to share some of our favourites with you.
But before we get to the festive selection box, we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s written for The Best for Britain Wire since we went live in September, shared our content with friends and followers - but most importantly, to you.
Whether you’re a paid subscriber, or a regular Weekend Wire reader, we truly appreciate all your support, and the kind, positive feedback we’ve had so far. We’d love to know what you’d like to see more of on The Best for Britain Wire in 2026 - please let us know in the comments!
Wishing you all a joyful rest of the festive season and [please, PLEASE!] a lighter and brighter 2026.
Flags, faith and the far right
Starting off strong, we wanted to share this excellent piece by Alex Andreou, who explored the topic of flags and the far right following the summer of St George’s crosses appearing on lampposts and roundabouts up and down the UK.
On a similar theme, priest Ryan Rodrigues shared his thoughtful view on the role of faith in politics, and what it means for Christianity to be “used as a dog-whistle”.
“When faith is conflated with national identity, to dissent is to be a heretic, and democracy itself weakens.” - Ryan Rodrigues
In praise of the NHS
But as our regular readers will know, it’s not all flags all the time.
Editor of The Best for Britain Wire, Niall McGourty, wrote this personal, and darkly funny, account of waking up the week before his wedding with facial paralysis. Also known as Bell’s Palsy, or - as he put it - an “inconsiderate name… as Bs and Ps are difficult letters to pronounce when half your mouth can’t move”.
Niall also used his experience to mount a defence of our NHS and its “diligent, competent and friendly staff… people who really care about what they do and come from all over the world to do it here”.
If you missed it the first time, it’s well worth a read.
Politics… but not as we know it
We’re also lucky at Best for Britain to have a whole host of experts to call on.
From former Observer political editor Toby Helm’s razor sharp analysis [ [link removed] ] of Starmer’s government, to ex-diplomat Arthur Snell’s insights on Russia [ [link removed] ], we’re always aiming to keep you well-informed, as well as entertained.
Why not have a re-read of former US ambassador Lord Darroch’s fascinating exploration of whether the Trump era represents an end to normality as we know it?
“Remember how New Labour appeared to start from an acceptance of some of the principles of Thatcherism? Will Trumpism leave a similar permanent mark on America?” - Kim Darroch
Antisocial media?
Finally we wanted to share a couple more recent ‘in case you missed it’ pieces.
Firstly, from our social media manager, Laurena Rodrigues, who investigated the prevalence of extreme right content on TikTok - and even advised Prime Minister Keir Starmer to join the platform, rather than “abandon” space to opponents.
And our content officer, Josh Edwicker, who shared his thoughts on why the pressures - economic, social, and cultural - facing young men are proving “fertile ground for radicalisation”.
Thanks for reading - and stay tuned for our next round-up email, sharing some of The Best for Britain Wire pieces which went under the radar this year.
Take care,
Jessica Frank-Keyes
Senior Press Officer
Best for Britain
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