On January 23, 2013, David Cameron gave a speech at the Bloomberg London office on the future of the UK’s place in the European Union. In it, as I’m sure you all remember, he pledged to hold an In/Out referendum in 2017 should the Conservative Party win a majority at the general election in 2015. […]
Archives for February 2014
PMQS ON FEBRUARY 26TH – REVIEW
Verdict: Miliband wins, just, by default Review: Miliband decided to ask all of his questions on this occasion around the topic of climate change, leading with a few about how much the government had spent on flood defences in this parliament. Miliband was clearly trying conflate austerity and the cuts with the recent flood devastation. […]
WHAT’S PUTIN’S NEXT MOVE?
For the time being, the reformers seem to have won in Ukraine. Yanukovych has fled Kiev and the parliament has deposed him in his absence; a warrant has been put out for the ex-president’s arrest. A new presidential election for May 25th has been called. So far, the only response from Russia has been to […]
GEORGE ORWELL REVIEW, PART 2: KEEP THE APIDISTRA FLYING, ROAD TO WIGAN PIER, AND HOMAGE TO CATALONIA
Orwell’s third novel, Keep the Apidistra Flying (1936), goes deeper into the world of poverty than any of Orwell’s previous long works by making explicit the protagonist’s clear minded choice of accepting poverty when the option of a bourgeois lifestyle is open to him. Despite Orwell’s denunciation of the work (like A Clergyman’s Daughter […]
WHAT NEXT AFTER SOCHI?
At the start of the Winter Olympics, I had thought that both Russia and the Ukraine would be seas of calm, all the necessary battles being postponed until Putin felt safe in the knowledge that the world wasn’t looking any longer. On this, how wrong I was. This morning, the police in Kiev have had […]
HOW THE CONSERVATIVES CAN WIN BACK THE UKIP VOTE
UKIP announced the day before last that their membership swelled by over 2,000 in January, bringing the total number of official ‘Kippers to 34,000 – only 10,000 behind the Liberal Democrats. While this leaves Britain’s “fourth party” still a long way behind the Conservatives in terms of membership (which is around 100,000 or so – the Tories […]
ED MILIBAND WILL DO WHAT HE HAS TO COME MAY 8th, 2015
Nick Clegg revealed in a very recent BBC documentary that he would be open to working with Labour in a coalition should the electoral maths point in this direction. On the surface of it, this doesn’t even technically qualify as news. Clegg has said many times that he wishes to keep his party equidistant […]
“STAR WARS, EPISODE I” RE-IMAGINED
I recall vividly the first time I ever saw Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope, or Star Wars as it was simply known then. I was four years old and it was on its original cinematic release. I loved it. So much so that I wet myself. Literally. I didn’t want to leave […]
WITH OSBOURNE’S ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE POUND, THE SCOTTISH REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN IS NOW OFFICIALLY OVER
As someone who himself has taken part in a Yes campaign in a national referendum, I can guess what those battling on the side of Scottish independence are thinking and feeling this morning after the three main British parties united to scupper the idea that an independent Scotland could simply expect to continue using the […]
THE CRISIS IN ITALIAN POLITICS AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR REFORMERS IN BRITAIN
Italy and its failing political system remains an albatross for British electoral reformers. I don’t know how many times I have heard from politicians who are not particularly inclined to support any change to a voting system within the United Kingdom say something along the lines of: “Just look at the Italians. We wouldn’t […]