Yesterday it was announced that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May have signed with Amazon TV to do a show that will essentially be “Top Gear” in all but name. The continuity “Top Gear” meanwhile will be hosted by Chris Evans and in competition for viewership with the new Clarkson show, and one has […]
Archives for July 2015
All things considered, this may have been the worst element of Ed Miliband’s leadership
I can already see the reaction from Labour readers – are you kicking the dead man again? This isn’t a vendetta I’ve got against Ed Miliband – he was always too weird to even dislike, thinking back on it – but rather that a). I find what I’m about to write about interesting in a […]
The massive disconnect between Eurosceptic Tories and the Tory hero of the day
It is fair and even obvious to say that George Osborne is the Conservative paladin of the moment. The unexpected majority he was a major part of achieving, followed by a budget that got hearts racing on the Right, means Osborne has become the prime minister heir apparent. All of which makes the fact that […]
Why do the Lib Dems do so badly in London?
I’ll get this out of the way first: all of the Lib Dem London activists, candidates and assorted leafletters can calm down. The facts are on my side. In the 2015 general election, the party got 8% in London; same as it did nationwide. In 2010, the party did slightly worse in the capital than […]
If Jeremy Corbyn becomes Labour leader, would a coup be a good idea?
It is fair to say that many within the Labour Party are a tad stressed this summer. Given they might be on the verge of being led by an unelectable (other than by the Labour membership and assorted hanger-ons, some of whom may or may not be Tories, that is) far-leftist, that’s understandable. This has […]
What would actual Cultural Marxism look like?
Debating “Cultural Marxism” is all the rage intellectually these days. Viewpoints range from it being so obvious a concept no one need explain it to denial of its very existence. Any attempt to deconstruct the concept is resisted by both the Left and the Right; the Left because to them it’s a concept entirely invented […]
Amber Rudd has a real point about the climate change cause being tainted by excessive leftism
The new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Amber Rudd, certainly wasn’t messing about in her first major speech, delivered yesterday. “It cannot be left to one part of the political spectrum to dictate the solution – and some of the loudest voices have approached the issue from a left-wing perspective. So I […]
When will Tony Blair realise that he’s not helping the right of the Labour Party?
He’s at it again. I wondered how long into the Labour leadership contest we would have to get before Blair made some grandstanding speech about it all. Obviously, the poll putting Jeremy Corbyn in the lead has spooked him. Of course it did: his view of what the Labour Party should be is the polar […]
The Corbyn conundrum points out a huge problem for political parties – their membership numbers are too small
“My name is Bob, I’ve been a councillor in Nottinghamshire for twenty years, and I’m to the right of Genghis Khan.” This was uttered into a microphone at a Q&A – to great applause from those around him – following a fringe event at Tory conference in Birmingham several years ago. In the interests of […]
People are comparing Corbyn to Michael Foot. Thing is, Foot was actually much more centrist and reasonable
On April 3, 1982, the then leader of the opposition, Michael Foot, gave what has been rightly identified as one of the great speeches in the House of Commons during the last century. “I must tell the House that the Falkland Islands and their dependencies remain British territory. No aggression and no invasion can alter […]