In a world of so much ridiculous news, for instance when the leader of the Labour Party thinks it’s a good idea after a fight with his own MPs to make a video in which he makes light of the incident, a piece of visual entertainment in which he also says that Labour MPs shouldn’t […]
Archives for March 2017
How the Momentum-Unite coalition could mean not only the end of Labour, but the end of the organised Left in Britain
Tom Watson was on the Today programme today, trying to walk his usual tightrope. The hard left had done something stupid, and Tom had to show he understood how bad it was without either going overboard and doing more damage to the Labour brand, or laying the blame at Jeremy Corbyn’s door. He was on […]
The Dutch elections do not mean we’re out of the wilderness yet. France could be very different
In the wake of Geert Wilders relatively disappointing election showing this week, many pundits are quick to declare the populist wave over in Europe. They have extrapolated from the Dutch result that France will not become the domain of Marine Le Pen after the first week in May. I would advise a lot more caution […]
The real official opposition to May’s government, in descending order
Preface: the Labour Party does not make this list, or indeed, even come close to doing so. At present, they do not constitute an opposition of any description. Yet politics abhors a vacuum, so other forces have inevitably filled the void, albeit not as well as a unified, real official opposition would do. The SNP […]
The Right is using the budget hiccup to lay Brexit’s problems at May and her chancellor’s doors alone
The mostly commonly cited trope in Westminster these days goes along the lines of “Queen May”. The prime minister is so in command of all she surveys that she is becoming infallible. This ignores the problems coming her way in regards to the Union, but unlike what some pundits are saying, I don’t that even […]
My two pence about the #toryelectionfraud thing
For some time now, readers of mine on social media have overwhelmingly requested I write about one particular topic, that being the story around the Conservative Party having possibly overspent in certain places during the 2015 general election campaign. Today, I’ve relented and here is the result. Two things to say off the bat. One, […]
It’s been a weirdly depressing week for both May and Corbyn already…..and for democracy admirers as well
Yesterday should have been a triumphant one for Theresa May, given the Brexit Bill passed without a single amendment – but she bizarrely decided to give it a downbeat twist. Free to trigger Article 50 this week, she has decided to hold off until the end of the month for no clear reason. The only […]
Corbyn screws up in Scotland, big time…..yet again
Remember back in those halcyon days of ’15, when Jeremy Corbyn was being touted as the Labour leader who would bring Scotland back into the party’s orbit; the guy who would vanquish the SNP, leaving Labour to gleefully take the Scots for granted again, once more able to use the seats as a convenient place to dump […]
If the Left wants to regain power, it needs to be a lot more honest with itself and others
Over the last almost seven years since Labour left government, there has been no shortage of figures from that party writing long theses on how the Left can turn itself around and gain the upper hand once again. The thing is, pretty much every single one of them rings totally hollow. And as much as they […]
How extreme Brexiteering weirdly feels a lot like Marxism in one particular way
There are people who voted to leave the European Union who are glad they did so but nervous about what’s to come; there are others who seem to be getting in their excuses early lest Brexit be bumpier than they thought pre-June 23rd; there are other Leavers, like Michael Gove, who are so convinced that […]