The traditional wisdom about the left-right axis in western politics is that people feel that the Left’s heart is in the right place, but that they often lack the competence to govern effectively; while the Right are grumpy bastards who may have impure intent, but at least they know how to keep things running properly. […]
Archives for May 2017
How this American football match reminds me of Corbyn’s Labour
Drawing on American football annals for an analogy that works for British politics may seem a stretch for some of you, but stay with me here. In 1916, Georgia Tech faced a college from Tennessee called Cumberland in a football match that lives on in infamy. It will become clear why this is. Cumberland had […]
What Emmanuel Macron becoming president of France means for Britain
In my book, “2017”, I predicted a Le Pen victory yesterday. When I wrote it, Macron had not yet emerged as one of the main contenders. It is amazing for me to think just how much the new president’s election win came from nowhere. Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way: the idea […]
Ignore the hype: yesterday’s result shows a massive Tory landslide is on its way come June 8th
I am far from someone who makes a habit of complaining about the machinations of the Murdoch press swaying elections. But yesterday, Sky News made a projection based on the local election results which have the Tories ending up with 349 seats and Labour 215. In other words, the Conservatives will supposedly take less than […]
What the local election results tell us so far
Even for someone like me who was expecting the locals to go very, very well for the Tories and very, very, very badly for Labour, the picture that is emerging exceeds even my expectations. As of this second, the Conservatives have gained 163 seats overall, Labour have lost 127 (!), the Lib Dems have lost […]
Everyone compares the current era to the 1930s. But it’s more like the 1920s and here’s how
The 1920s are often thought of historically as the calm between two storms; the jazz era that was a brief flicker of stability between the First World War and the Great Depression. However, in Britain it was a very politically turbulent time, with three general elections being called in the space of two years. The […]
This is the critical element that will determine how well the Lib Dems do on June 8th
At this stage, I expected three things to be happening in regards to the general election campaigns and polling. One, we would see UKIP’s polling numbers deflate and going to the Tories. Two, Labour’s campaign would be a gaffe prone nightmare, seeing their numbers dip into the early twenties and possibly the teens. Three, a […]
Why the Left’s strategy over the past few years is a bit like the Iraq invasion
The decision for the then Labour government to join the US in invading Iraq in 2003 is pivitol for the Left; it was the moment when New Labour joined the ranks of the scorned, the unforgivable. When “Blairite” became pejorative. That’s why it’s ironic that the way the “coalition of the willing” went wrong in […]
The “progressive alliance” is a real gift to Theresa May
Labour are now standing aside for the Greens in Brighton Pavillion having worked out almost certainly correctly that the Tories would have taken it otherwise. The Greens are in turn standing aside in – wait, where are the Greens standing aside for their progressive brethren again? I can’t keep track. The “progressive alliance” idea is […]