When one examines the Conservative Party’s internecine divisions and all out obsessions regarding the European Union down through the years, it is worth noting that a great deal of them make no sense. Lest you think this is going to be some Remainer diatribe, allow me to elaborate. Some Brexit positions on the Right at […]
Archives for September 2016
Labour will look back very soon on the whole Owen Smith saga with deep regret
“Definitely…I’m unashamedly a socialist. I’m unashamedly an idealist.” – Owen Smith, summer of 2016 If Labour is indeed unable to pull itself out of its current woes and what we are witnessing now are its death throes, many historians will look back with confusion on why the Labour right chose as its potential saviour a […]
The Lucy Frazer “Basic Instinct” moment should be beneath us all
Yesterday, a “social media storm” was created when a female MP who was sat at an unfortunate angle behind the prime minister crossed her legs while wearing a skirt. Seriously, that was all that was required to create such a frenzy in 2016. The mainstream press picked it up (the tabloids anyhow) and ran with it, using a “Basic […]
Another terrible Corbyn moment in the House of Commons was witnessed yesterday
Particularly after David Davis’ waffle from the dispatch box on what Brexit might mean earlier this week, Corbyn was presented with a golden opportunity to expose Theresa May and the Tories’ weak spot yesterday at PMQs. As usual, he declined the invitation. The Corbynistas like to talk about how the Guardian is a Blairite mouthpiece […]
Do we need a new Clause IV moment? Why socialism is the elephant in the centre-left room
Many on the left of Labour still take pleasure in decrying Blair’s altering of Clause IV of the party’s constitution, citing it as definitive proof that the former Labour leader never cared about his own party’s ideological core. Yet what I’ve always found interesting about that “moment” at the special Easter conference in 1995 is […]
What did we learn from David Davis yesterday?
It has become a cliché to mention that you couldn’t make the Thick of It these days because actual politics has become so ridiculous. Yet it is difficult to avoid bringing it up after a day like yesterday. David Davis addressed the House for the first time from the dispatch box since becoming Minister for […]
May’s pledge not to hold a general election until 2020 should be a massive help to the centre-left – but it probably won’t be
I have wondered for some time whether Theresa May’s promise not to try for an early general election was a ploy. The thinking goes like this: you say you won’t hold one so that you don’t fall into the speculation trap Gordon Brown did nearly a decade ago – yet it is always there if you […]
How the Rambo series of movies plays the Kubler-Ross grief cycle in reverse
“First Blood” is a film that was almost made many times throughout the 1970s before finally being produced for release in 1982. Throughout a tortured decade in turnaround, the names attached to play John Rambo, the main character, are striking: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Nick Nolte, Michael Douglas. The […]
The Right is engaging in fantasies normally reserved for the Left
A friend of mine who is a journalist on a right leaning outlet said to me several years ago: “The thing about the Left is, they are always talking about things that either can’t be done or would never be done. Like socialising off licences or abolishing prisons. It’s always fantasy politics which is why […]
I am no closer to understanding what Theresa May is doing on Brexit after Chequers
Big meeting of the cabinet to discuss what Brexit means at Chequers this week. Obviously it means Brexit, but given no one seems able to actually define what “means” means, “Brexit means Brexit” has become a political Mobius strip. How May plans to escape from it is no clearer from what her spokespeople have said this week. “Several cabinet members […]