The allegations flying around regarding a senior Tory activist named Mark Clarke are pretty lurid, so I shan’t repeat them here. What interests me with this article in mind is how he managed to get to such a senior position in the first place – apparently he came with stories about how he could lure thousands […]
Archives for November 2015
The Corbyn delusion: how it has got completely out of hand
Some of you out there will be aware of this; some will be hype-aware of it; others, may be oblivious to it. But you should all know that at present the Guardian runs a semi-daily feature, a cartoon drawn by Steve Bell which depicts a universe in which Jeremy Corbyn is a Jedi knight named […]
Would a Labour free vote on Syria be the worst thing in the world? Probably
Labour are at war over Syria: how much damage is inflicted on them is at least partly down to where they land on the subject. But from where they are, I can’t see any possible good outcome. The best one from their perspective would be a collective vote for the strikes on the proviso that […]
British politics has the quality of a bad dream at the moment
Think about the surrealism of the last week in British politics. A Tory chancellor does a huge U-turn on a large set of cuts, mostly because enough of his own party have turned against him on the issue. He gets up to deliver his Autumn Statement, having to dish this out to the House, and […]
Who really deserves the credit for the tax credit U-turn? Let’s remind ourselves, shall we?
Social media is a wonderful thing if you’re of a sociological bent. As John McDonnell gave his response to the Autumn Statement, Corbynites took to Twitter to declare their man victorious. “McDonnell killing Osborne! What a triumph #spendingreview” was typical. Then you scrolled down into your feed to read the press give their take on […]
Reporting of the turmoil within Labour is a double-edged sword
It’s an obvious thing to say, but I’ll say it anyway: the Labour Party is in the midst of burgeoning civil war. Many figures on the left and right wings of the party would prefer to avoid it, at least for now. But it continues to rear its ugly head. The issue of air strikes […]
What exactly is Ed Miliband doing?
We’ve seen and heard little from Ed Miliband since his regrettable resignation speech the day after the general election. Even when the contest for his successor heated up, and many senior Labour figures were begging Ed to say something, anything that might avoid Corbyn becoming leader, he remained silent. Given the rigours of the election campaign, […]
British political history is predictable – and the centre-left is currently in the bad part of the cycle from their perspective
This weekend I watched “To Play the King”, the sequel to “House of Cards”, which was made in 1993. The reason I mention this is because it was amazing how much of the politics of 2015 seem similar in many respects. This made me think further about British political history and I saw for the […]
The current security situation is where the two sides of the right are now clashing
In the wake of the Paris attacks, the Met have issued strong warnings to the Chancellor around police cuts. Some of the planned cuts to the police have been spelled out by Lord Blair, the former Met commissioner in some pretty stark words: “This is the most perilous terrorist threat in our history. The British […]
Who will be the next Labour leader?
Given the good ship Corbyn is going down in flames, I thought it would be fun to have a stab at who might possibly succeed him as leader of the Labour Party. Bear in mind, it’s possible to see a scenario in which another leadership election happens in a year’s time or less: Labour lose the Oldham West […]