There have been several party leadership contests in the UK since June 23rd, all vying for the title of greatest shit show ever, but I think the prize has to go to UKIP. Following the vote to leave the European Union and Nigel Farage’s resignation as leader of the party (third time and counting), UKIP […]
Archives for August 2016
A look at Trump’s seven point foreign policy plan tells you a lot about a possible future
Donald Trump has announced his foreign policy plans. It boils down to seven points; let us look at them before going any further: withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. appoint the toughest and smartest trade negotiators to fight on behalf of American workers. direct the Secretary of Commerce to identify every violation of […]
Fox v BoJo: what it tells us about Brexit
So the handbags between Boris Johnson and Liam Fox have begun sooner than most expected. Fox, predictably, is trying to grab some FCO land, claiming that he needs it in order to do his job properly (which may actually have a scintilla of truth about it), while Boris Johnson, equally predictably, is resisting all attempts […]
Who will win the Premier League this year? My cynical take on this nagging question
I have something to confess, straight off: I hardly ever watch football these days. I tuned in a bit last Spring when it really looked like Leicester City were going to do it, but that was the first English league football I’d watched in several years. So take what I’m about to say with that […]
Is it possible for Labour to “re-unify” after the leadership contest?
Charlie Falconer has said on the BBC that Labour must unify in late-September, whatever the result of the Labour leadership contest is. “We’ve got to have the leadership election, we’ll get a result in the leadership election, then we as a party have got to unify. There’s more speculation about an early election. We as […]
If Theresa May doesn’t call a general election in the next twelve months, she’ll regret it
Keen watchers of British politics need no reminding that Gordon Brown almost called an election after he became prime minister in 2007, then didn’t, then regretted it deeply. It is one of the great what-ifs of the 21st century. Almost everything that fills out the political landscape today in the UK would be different. There […]
The NEC elections could mark the real beginning of the end for Labour
As it stands, Labour MPs are desperate not to leave their party, even after everything that has happened in the past year. They cling to the hope that Smith will win, somehow. That from there normalcy can slowly but surely be restored. But it is now becoming about more than just Corbyn’s leadership – the […]
Of course Corbyn would hang on as leader if Labour lost a general election
One of the things that has stymied Labour moderates thus far (and looks set to continue) is that they are still trying to fight conventional warfare while Corbyn goes guerrilla style. Take the mass resignations from the front benches – the idea was that he couldn’t possibly hang on if they did so. Yet here […]
Why Sadiq Khan is the most effective politician in Britain at the moment
Across the western world, iconoclastic supposed “outsiders” are taking over politics. Trump and his total disregard to the generally accepted rules about what politicians can and cannot say; Corbyn’s total disinterest in the conventions of Westminster politics, to the point of thinking his entire parliamentary party is an irrelevance; the Vote Leave campaign’s lack of […]
Let’s examine Jeremy Corbyn’s policies then, in as much detail as we can all handle
When Owen Smith came out with his policy pledges, I can’t say I was blown away. Of the twenty on offer, I think four were really good, four were really terrible and the rest very mediocre. Saying that, at least there were some ideas there. What has Corbyn offered? And instead of asking that question rhetorically, […]