Talks on Britain’s renegotiation deal with the EU dragged on until 5:30 AM this morning, and yet no deal was agreed by that time. They are apparently up and running again now. If this is all elaborate last minute stage playing of differences, then it is being done with Lawrence Oliver style thespian brilliance by […]
Archives for February 2016
Ken Livingstone reveals the Corbynite bid to take the PLP out of the leadership equation
Ken Livingstone has popped up in the media again, acting as usual these days like the Corbynite’s wandering Id. This time it’s about how (he thinks anyhow) Corbyn and his acolytes plan to bypass the PLP and rule the party forever more. It involves removing the PLP from the nominations process altogether, via the National […]
Prince William and the European Union
There is a kerfuffle involving a royal, and not just any royal but the one who may be the nation’s favourite. Prince William, speaking at an FCO awards ceremony last night said the following: “In an increasingly turbulent world, our ability to unite in common action with other nations is essential. It is the bedrock […]
What is going to happen on Friday?
So we’ve reached crunch time on Cameron’s EU renegotiation project. It appears that a full deal, whatever that entails, will be announced this Friday, along with the final date of the referendum itself (which looks more and more likely to be June 23rd). There’s always room for it to go pear-shaped, but that seems unlikely. […]
How these GMB comments are telling about the relationship between Corbyn and the unions
During the Labour leadership race in the summer, the trade unions as a bloc openly supported Jeremy Corbyn as their preferred candidate. There were probably many easily understandable reasons for this. One of them could have been that they wanted to try and push the other candidates to the left on certain issues, thinking Corbyn […]
Momentum are delegitimising the Left – all of it, not just their bit
An article in the Telegraph today, “Revealed: The radical hard-left Momentum activists mounting a ruthless purge of Labour“, paints a shocking picture of the pressure group Momentum. I was going to put “Labour” into the description of the organisation, but several of the members of Momentum’s steering committee have spent some time in the past […]
Could the unions push for Brexit?
I’ve seen trade unions Euroscepticism up close and personal on more than one occasion. Most of it is the old left suspicion of the whole thing as some sort of capitalist conspiracy, designed to stop the socialist utopia from ever happening. In some senses, their instincts are correct – stealing people’s land and nationalising it […]
Could there be a 2016 or 2017 general election?
The Westminster rumour mill grinds out the possibility of another general election within less than two years time on the basis of Cameron stepping down earlier, his successor calling a general election based on the move, and Labour not being able to possibly stand in the way of it. This scuttlebutt comes via that amazing […]
Could this man be the next leader of the Conservative Party (and thus next prime minister)?
I have speculated in the past about who would succeed David Cameron as Tory leader. I’ve said David Davis; I’ve also intimated that Owen Patterson might be a nailed on certainty. All of these predictions were predicated on certain things happening which in the end did not (such as Cameron failing to get a majority […]
As May 2015 showed, UKIP is not the obvious home for disgruntled Tories – the EU referendum won’t change that
A man many of you will have never heard of by the name of John Strafford has reacted rather badly to David Cameron’s “assault on constituency associations” this week, when the prime minister said that Tory MPs should basically not listen to their Eurosceptic members and instead hop on the Remain coach with the vast […]