London Diary: From Bihar to Britain’s cabinet

Guess who’s been dubbed Britain’s ‘most important minister’ in Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s cabinet?

Well, it isn’t one of the posh white boys from English counties, it’s Kanishka Narayan, an immigrant from Muzaffarpur, Bihar. He holds the portfolio for artificial intelligence — a domain billed as the ‘dawn of a new industrial revolution’.

A virtual unknown until recently, Narayan entered Parliament two years ago and now finds himself at the centre of frontline politics. Naturally, people are curious to know more about him. The way he tells it, his is a classic rags-to-riches story.

When he was eight, his parents made the “crazy, sacrificial” decision to move to Cardiff in Wales. He doesn’t explain his parents’ background, or why they chose Cardiff.

He recalls sleeping on the floor of his family’s one-bedroom home in an unglamorous suburb of Cardiff. He was a good student and a teacher suggested he apply for scholarships at some top schools.

Eton gave him a full bursary. From there, he flew through Oxford, Stanford, banking and the civil service. Britain, he says, is a land of possibility and freedom. “You go from a place where living standards, on a per-capita basis, are comparable to England in the 1600s, to living in London in 2026. You feel like you’ve accelerated 400 years of progress in a lifetime of 36 years,” he gushes.

Britain, he says, offered him “a canvas for painting the kind of progress you can make in life”. AI, he adds, offers similar possibilities for humankind if we get it right.

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Americanisation of football lingo leaves Brits fuming

Forget the backlash against FIFA boss Gianni Infantino’s eccentric antics, in Britain, passions are running high over a linguistic fallout from this year’s World Cup: the Americanisation of football lingo.

Apparently, arguments have broken out in homes with parents shouting at their children for calling their beloved footie ‘soccer’. A survey has found that ‘soccer’ is “second highest on a list of grating Americanisms that make adults shudder”.

The Brits and Yanks have long been divided by a common language, but current fears are that the Americans are winning.

According to a survey of more than 1,500 adults conducted by Preply, a language-learning platform, ‘movies’, ‘awesome’ and ‘ATM’ were among the American English words most commonly used by British children. Leading this shift are TV shows and films, followed by YouTube, TikTok, children’s shows, music, Instagram, online gaming, travel, friends, family and other social media platforms.

In other words, the works. Move over, fish and chips. Soon more than 36 per cent of Britons may be asking for fish and ‘fries’.

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‘Damn democracy,’ say British voters

Disillusionment with the current state of Western democracy has reached a ‘crisis point’ in much of Europe. Research has found that a majority of British voters believe the UK has left its ‘best days’ behind.

Public pessimism in Britain has markedly increased since a similar survey last year, with more voters saying they expected to be worse off in 2026.

Like their European counterparts, Brits largely blamed political leaders for their current financial predicament and the deterioration of public services, rather than external factors such as inflation triggered by higher energy prices and increased government debt resulting from higher spending during Covid. UK voters were particularly concerned that the country was more divided — they felt more disconnected from society.

As many as 40 per cent of all respondents in UK and Europe said they needed a strong leader who was willing to break the rules to get things done. That, to some extent, explains the frightening rise of the far Right.

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Spy versus Spy

Even as Britain struggles to be taken seriously in the arena of international affairs, its MI6 has emerged as Europe’s most powerful foreign intelligence service in a peer review by 60 professionals from 25 countries.

France’s General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) secured second place for its global reach and operational capability while Slovakia’s SIS, which is responsible for both domestic and foreign espionage, was rated the worst in Europe. Ukraine came fourth, respected for ‘innovation, ingenuity and risk-taking’, while Germany’s BND, widely mocked as an unwieldy bureaucracy, managed a modest fifth place.

MI6 won praise for its expertise in recruiting high-level moles and penetrating the ruling elites of Russia, China, Iran and Turkey. Britain was the first to warn Ukraine about the likelihood of a Russian invasion: a fact acknowledged by the CIA.

Robert Gorelick, a former CIA station chief, said, “The United Kingdom has by far the strongest secret services in Europe. MI6 is extraordinary.”

While a former head of the DGSE said: “The British have the ability to play the long game, investing in sources over a ten-year horizon, somewhat like the Russians. And they have a taste for dirty tricks.”

And, finally, Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, took a dig at the fast turnover of prime ministers. He told journalists: “Usually Speakers have trouble remembering the names of all the MPs. I am having trouble remembering the names of all the prime ministers.”