What was the most surprising political event of 2025?
Gerry Hart
I was skeptical of the attempt to create another parliamentary left party, but still astounded at how poorly the Your Party project was handled. The fallout between Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s camps clearly shows they haven’t broken from Labour’s rotten internal culture. It feels like the British left has been failed by its leaders and an unforgivably squandered opportunity.
Hilary Wainwright
The election of a principled left woman activist, Andrea Egan as leader of UNISON, was on a mandate to democratise and radicalise one of the UK’s two largest unions. This could lead to a shift behind the scenes in the underlying balance of power between left and right in the UK labour movement – including the Labour Party.
Andy Brain
The Chilean general election victory of Kast’s Republican Party shows how easily progress can be lost and history forgotten when a parliament is allowed to fall into gridlock and the left fails to provide a compelling story to rally around. Voting was compulsory, so we can’t blame low turnout. Kast sees himself in the tradition of Pinochet. His his father was a Nazi. It is astonishing that he could ever convince a majority of Chileans to support his regressive vision.
Dave Matthews
My gut feeling was Reform would win the Caerphilly by-election in the Welsh Senedd – the type of traditional working-class constituency Reform has built its strategy on seizing. The fact that Plaid Cymru won so convincingly proved that, despite the media narrative, there is an appetite for an alternative to hatred. An event proving why you shouldn’t trust your gut to do the thinking for you.
Darcy White
The creeping feeling of cognitive dissonance continues to surprise me. Ordinary life continues despite deepening environmental collapse, numerous atrocities committed overseas and at home, and the erosion of democracy. Catching-up with family, friends or neighbours feels deeply troubling when neither the genocide in Gaza, the proscription of Palestine Action nor the fate of their hunger-strikers is even mentioned.
Paula Lacey
Perhaps naive given the direction of travel under this Labour government, but I was very taken aback by the proscription of Palestine Action; such blatant manipulation of legislation and abuse of state power in order to repress protest. It has been exposed as absurd by the thousands of arrests that have followed. I remain surprised that it is yet to be rolled back – though there is hope yet in the legal challenge to it in Scotland.
Tell us about something good from 2025 – any recommendations for readers?
Andy
While it’s easy to get depressed about the decline in traditional local newspapers, I’m following more investigative journalists via Substack. The likes of Somerset Confidential, The Scottish Beacon and London Centric have uncovered important scoops regarding local life and governance in the UK. These dedicated journalists, working on shoestring budgets, could utilise any and all support as they build their capacity to hold power to account.
Dave
Although much maligned by mainstream psychology and unfashionable in recent years, psychoanalysis has always offered an intriguing critical lens through which we can understand how living in a capitalist society shapes who we are and influences our mental health. In A People’s History of Psychoanalysis, Florent Gabarron-Garcia underscores the revolutionary history of psychoanalysis, and the possibilities it still has in a world where mental health is frequently reduced to just biology.
Gerry
I came late to Only Dust Remains by Montreal-based rapper Backxwash, but consider it my album of 2025. It is a devastatingly powerful record, centring on Backxwash’s attempts to contextualise her own anguish in a suffering world, with explicit reference made to Palestine in songs like ‘History of Violence’ (content warning for mention of gender dysphoria and suicidal thoughts).
Hilary
Muv: The Story of the Mitford Girls’ Mother, by Rachel Trethewey, explores the extraordinary and very privileged women who made opposite political choices in response to the economic collapse of the 1930s. Two became notable fascists; one joined the US Communist Party. A gripping and enjoyable biography.
Darcy
Brazillian-produced film I’m Still Here, is a brilliant political drama focussed on Brazil during the country’s military dictatorship. Directed by Walter Salles, with screenplay based on a memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, wife of Rubens Paiva – a ‘disappeared’ dissident politician. I loved its evocation of everyday life, handled through skilful cinematography, against the backdrop of deepening, devastating oppression. A powerful story of courage and persistence.
Paula
The undemocratic monopoly of Big Tech is nothing new, but this year really hammered the point home. It feels more vital than ever that we disentangle our lives from technologies and products that are designed to surveil, isolate and influence us in service of an increasingly far-right and power-hungry industry. The Tech Won’t Save Us podcast offers a critical perspective on tech news. Host Paris Marx’s unpacking of why and how we must reimagine our relationship to digital technologies in 2026 is a must-listen!
What are your predictions for UK politics and society in 2026?
Darcy
That our governments – UK and elsewhere – will continue to fall far short of the urgent need to act on the climate and environmental emergency. They will avoid communicating to the public the real threats that face us, evade the truly urgent need to transition to a sustainable and just economy, and fail to address the high risk of food insecurity. In not acting, politicians will deepen division and tensions in society.
Paula
It pains me to say, but I fear that the upcoming Holyrood elections will see huge wins for Reform, with some polls predicting it will be neck and neck with Labour for second place. It would be a wake up call to those who claim that anti-immigrant sentiment is an English phenomenon, and for everyone who has underestimated the political machine behind the party.
Hilary
Andy Burnham and his centre left allies will utilise the shift to the left in the leadership of the unions to successfully challenge Starmer and Streeting, but won’t have courage to lead with a Mamdani style socialist radicalism and reverse Labour’s decline. Meanwhile voter discontent will grow without an egalitarian transformative political voice.
Andy
Any gains for the UK left will come from voices and movements outside the Labour Party.
Dave
The race to victory in May’s Welsh Senedd elections is a two-horse race between Reform and Plaid Cymru. While the polls are tight, everything currently points to a Plaid Cymru win. Notwithstanding my previous comments about the reliability of your stomach to help you think, with a new proportional representation system being used, my prediction is that the election will result in Wales governed by a left-coalition, with Plaid Cymru as the biggest party and the Greens winning their first seats in Wales since devolution.
Gerry
An assault on Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) provision is on the way. Politicians and rightwing columnists have been insinuating for years that additional support given to disabled and neurodivergent students is an untenable waste of money. This view, coinciding with Wes Streeting’s nasty little inquiry into ‘over diagnosis’ of conditions like autism and ADHD, could find expression in legislation, stripping thousands of young people of their right to education.
What are your broader hopes for the year ahead?
Hilary
That a grass roots eco-socialist left emerges in both society and in politics but driven by a practical belief in building popular power rather than primarily in electoral success.
Paula
April 2025 saw one of the most egregious attacks on trans rights, with the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of woman under the Equality Act. The decision was forced by the strength and influence of the growing gender critical lobby in and beyond Scotland. As the practical implications of an incoherent ruling continue to cause confusion, I hope a strong legal and political challenge to the decision and the lobby behind it will emerge – before these hate-driven groups succeed in their goal of driving trans people out of public life.
Darcy
That pushes for wealth taxes gain traction – and that the false promise of economic growth at all costs becomes a larger part of the political discussion.
Gerry
I hope that resistance to the Trump administration becomes more organised and widespread. Early 2026 has seen the American empire fully shed its mask both at home and abroad yet if I see hope anywhere, it is in ordinary people in Minneapolis screaming their justified rage at their ICE subjugators, or the auto worker who dared insult Trump to his face. A powerful kernel of anger held by millions of ordinary Americans could become something powerful and inspiring – if not suppressed or fed back into a feckless Democratic Party.
Andy
The groundswell of grassroots left support in the UK – a vast, frustrated, untapped resource of people who were clearly more than willing to give Your Party a chance – can still be harnessed. Focusing on localised and decentralised work in our communities may be how. The far-right flourishes when our towns, villages and communities feel neglected and atomised.
Dave
As hopeful as I am that we might see an uplift in the fortunes of left-wing parties globally this year, my real hope is that the movement for grassroots democracy is strengthened. Power should not lie in the hands of elected officials and politicians – despite how well-meaning some might be. Real democracy must be rooted in our communities with the growth of local assemblies, cooperatives, and institutions of solidarity and care.
Red Pepper Media editors Alex Diamond-Rivlin, Kimon Daltas, Rhian E Jones and Siobhán McGuirk were unable to contribute to this article
