The backlash from within Conservative circles to this week’s budget has really been quite a thing to witness. The right of centre press has been filled with “NI increase for self-employed means communism is here/entrepreneurs will starve/the 2015 manifesto has been torn to shreds,” and has been coupled with Tory backbenchers assurances that they will […]
Archives for March 2017
The budget is the clearest sign yet of how Tory hegemony is going to work
When Tony Blair was prime minister, he used what has infamously (and often pejoratively) become referred to as “triangulation”. What it meant in practice was that Labour could ignore traditional bases of support such as the white northern working-classes, essentially take them for granted, because they “had nowhere else to go”. All of the firepower was […]
Numbers that show Labour members are prepared to support Corbyn, even after he loses in 2020
There is a YouGov poll of Labour members out this week that is very interesting. On the straight up approval rating, the support for Corbyn amongst them is clear cut: 72% approve, 17% disapprove. When you ask if they would vote for Corbyn in a third leadership contest involving him, the numbers get a lot […]
This fight between rival Unite factions highlights the problems of the modern Left perfectly
Yesterday, outside of Unite HQ near Holborn in London, supporters of Len McCluskey and Gerald Coyne had a physical confrontation with each other. I don’t want to go overboard in describing this kerfuffle – it sounds like it was more handbags at midday than a riot – but it still acts as a beautiful illustration of […]
I think I finally get the Tory Brexiteer point of view
For some time, I have listened to the words of many Brexit friendly Tory MPs and wondered precisely where they were coming from. Despite singing the praises of free trade and open markets, what the EU has achieved in this arena is always completely discarded by this group. Likewise, getting something similar in terms of […]
The death of rock and roll, part 1,368: The Donald, Foo Fighters first album, and exceeding expectations
On April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain died. It was a really weird moment to live through if you were in the right age range group at the time – I was in the perfect place to experience this, at twenty-one, when it took place. There was a great deal of speculation at the time as […]
What would a US-UK free trade deal look like? A “2017” excerpt
The following is a small excerpt from my book, “2017”, available now in digital form and paperback. Is a free trade deal between the US and the UK a genuine possibility? The Tories better hope it is. Because from where we currently stand, I see only two ways out of Brexit not being a very […]
The 2020 general election will be about who can hoover up the ex-Labour vote – how well placed are the Lib Dems, really?
One thing is pretty much certain: the Labour vote is going to go down and the Tory vote up from where they both were in the 2015 general election when the next GE comes around. It’s a matter of how much, really. Labour could go down 5% nationally – or 10%, or even more. The […]
When Labour loses the next general election, will Corbyn stay on as leader or step down?
I first thought about making the first word of the headline “if”, but then figured why bother, let’s get real here. I should also confess that the impetus for this article is a conversation I had this week with a friend of mine, Tim Barnes, who I should also by way of disclosure reveal is […]
The Left – or what is left of it (a “2017” excerpt)
The following is a small excerpt from my book, “2017”, available now in digital form and paperback. How much is it the fault of the Left that the rise of the New Right has taken place? In some sense, it is entirely the fault of the Left. After the 2008 crash, the Left became bizarrely […]