The moment some thought wouldn’t happen has arrived: an early general election. I myself put the likelihood of this happening in 2017 at a mere 20% in my book, so I am as stunned as anyone. Unless somehow Labour whips a vote against (and Corbyn has already publicly said Labour will vote for it tomorrow) […]
Archives for April 2017
Why this talk from Tories about Cornish flags on licences could lead somewhere unintended
I know some of my readers will have been kept up nights of late worrying about the real problem of our age: what do we replace the EU flag with on UK driving licences once Brexit is complete? Of course, I could churlishly chime in here that we could just redesign the licences any way […]
I’m not a huge fan of Boris, but the latest criticism of him is just weird
Tim Farron came out in suppport of the US airstrikes inn Syria. Yet when Boris, the UK foreign secretary lest we forget, backed this up by walking away from talks with Lavrov, Farron said that Boris had made a mistake; even been played for a fool. I don’t understand this position at all. Look, as […]
UKIP may be dying – but could a viable opposition party emerge to the right of the Tories?
Douglas Carswell wrote in the Guardian yesterday about a party of opposition emerging to take the place of Labour – one that would ideologically be positioned to the right of the Conservatives. Of course, this being Douglas, the whole thing sounds like another libertarian fantasy; that the Left will suddenly collectively think somehow that socialism […]
A week in the life of Labour demonstrates exactly why they’re on course to lose hundreds of seats next month
I spent most of yesterday in the town of Budva, on a beach that in high season hosts wealthy Russians but in April we had mostly to ourselves. From the view in Montenegro, the machinations of the Labour Party look even more ridiculous than they do from my usual ringside seat in Westminster. John McDonnell […]
The Left’s need to side with Assad sees it reach new lows
This isn’t about whether you support America’s airstrikes on Syria or not. I personally find the need to protest every time America does something militarily, yet turn a total blind eye to when Russia does the same hypocritical and morally questionable at the very least. But I do not wish to get hung up on […]
I don’t understand why Mark Reckless is staying in politics
I recall vividly the first day of the 2014 Tory conference in Birmingham. As an aside, every Tory conference for the last 87 years has been in either Brum or Manchester. Anyhow, what was memorable about the first day of 2014 Tory conference was that Mark Reckless, until earlier that very morning a Conservative MP, […]
What the Island of Brac in Croatia taught me about EU regulation
Yesterday afternoon, my family and I took a trip to a beach called Zlatni Rat on the island of Brac. It’s a Croatian island, an hour’s ferry journey from Split. Anyhow, since we’d come one certain wway from where we’re staying on the north side of the island to get to the beach, we figured […]
Spain saying they won’t block an independent Scotland from joining the EU is monumental
I’m abroad at present – Croatia – so forgive me if Jonathan Freedland or somebody has already written a comment piece saying what I’m about to say. But that stuff Spain has said about not vetoing an independent Scotland from joining the EU is bigger news than it appears to be being treated in the […]