One thing everyone can agree on, whether they be dove or hawk, liberal or conservative, is that Syria is a nightmarish mess. Paris and November 13th have brought all that back into focus for the West – even if we thought there was a simple solution to the migration crisis (which there isn’t), no one […]
Archives for November 2015
Why is Ken Livingstone chairing a defence review? And is there more than a hint of sexism in the appointment?
Let us put aside for now Livingstone’s horrible remarks regarding Kevan Jones and his refusal to apologise until everyone in Westminster had a go at him over it, and even then issuing one that was half-assed at best before apologising in earnest – plenty of others have commented aptly on this already. What I want […]
Does Corbyn actually want to lose elections? It’s become a serious question
Much talk since Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party has focused on the sudden ascent of the far-left of the party, and furthermore how this group of people are more interested in being victorious regarding internal battles within Labour rather than winning external elections. I’ve talked about these issues myself. But now I’m actually starting to […]
Although it pains me to say it, the Obama administration’s foreign policy has been pretty bad overall
I was one of those people who shed a little tear when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States of America on November 4th, 2008. There were a lot of reasons the election of the man gave me hope: partly it was that the notion that “anyone” could become president had finally been […]
Corbyn’s will he/won’t he bow to the Queen has been classic Crosby’s dead cat
Lynton Crosby, the architect of the Tories 2015 general election win, is credited with having established a campaigning tactic known simply as “the dead cat”. It’s remarkably straightforward to explain: you plunk a dead cat on the table. Then everyone discusses the dead cat; some say he was alive before he hit the table, others […]
Instead of closing borders, we just need to finish off Daesh once and for all
After the horror of the Paris shootings, social media gave me some idea of people’s initial reactions. There was a lot of Islamophobia as you might expect – and by that I don’t mean Islamophobia in the way people on the Left often use the phrase and which annoys other people since it is supposedly […]
Okay, this is a move by the Lib Dems I can write about
People will ask me sometimes on social media why I don’t seem to write about the Lib Dems, well, pretty much ever these days. The reason isn’t sinister or suspect: there just hasn’t been that much to write about from my angle since May 7th, unfortunately. But there is finally something in the news that […]
Yes, immigration can be a good thing. Say it out loud, it feels good
I was on the Jon Gaunt programme a few mornings ago, discussing why I thought Britain should be in the EU. As you can imagine, Jon and I were on very different sides of the argument. There was one moment where he looked to catch me out, maybe get me mumbling, when he asked if I […]
On the two month anniversary of Corbyn winning the leadership, what does the future look like for Labour?
I take you all the way back to September 12th, 2015, and for those of us who followed the story closely, the inevitable became reality: Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party with 60% of the vote. In the build up to this, I thought Corbyn would experience a sort of honeymoon period […]
Would leaving the EU lead to the troubles in Northern Ireland restarting?
Usually when national polls are done, on either voting or any other topic, Northern Ireland is not included. There are many reasons for this, most notably because Nord Iron’s party political system is very different and so thus asking them whether they want Labour or the Tories to have a majority in the House of […]