It seems sad that BoJo’s Telegraph column is one of the few things I can bear to comment on today. Perhaps the fact that the Left now want people to boycott the Guardian because it isn’t left-wing enough is just too much for me to talk about right now, I don’t know. I suppose Boris […]
Archives for September 2018
The young don’t like socialism because they are “taught to” – and that isn’t the real problem anyway
Toby Young has written an article in the Spectator about how young people get into socialism because the education system at all levels is run by socialists. This is a common trope on the right: that the system is run by people who are socialists, therefore they teach our kids to be little Marxists. On […]
Keir Starmer and his “Remain” comment: what could this mean for Labour and for Brexit?
The line was ad-libbed, apparently. “…and nobody is ruling out Remain as an option.” As anti-Brexit statements go, in the abstract at least, it is comically tame. Yet given the fact that we’ve had a couple of years of Corbyn saying things along the lines of “I hate the capitalist EU and can’t wait to […]
Labour conference Sunday: is this a glimpse into a dystopian future?
Got through the security gates and into Labour conference around 10:30 AM yesterday morning. Went looking for the room my 12:30 event was being held in. Wasn’t immediately apparent, so I asked one of the ushers, “Excuse me, could you direct me to Concourse Room 4?” He shook his head and said “There is no […]
First impressions of Labour conference 2018 – “Love Corbyn, Hate Brexit”
I took the train up from London to Liverpool yesterday afternoon. I felt gloomy about it, which is strange, because I usually look forward to Labour conference each year. A whole big mess that I have no real emotional stake in – plus I get to see a lot of Labour people I like that […]
While Labour’s call for a general election makes political sense, they haven’t bothered to have it make any logical sense whatsoever
A repeated theme from the Labour frontbench for many months now has been that a second referendum on Brexit would be a terrible idea, and that if May crashes and burns on the rocks of the negotiations, we should have a general election instead. The problem is, they really haven’t thought this one through. Like, […]
Could Boris come out for Remain at the last moment?
I will start by saying that I base none of what is to immediately follow on rumours I’ve heard swirling around Westminster, nor some sort of insider’s knowledge regarding what Boris may or may not be planning. I really have no idea what BoJo is thinking or even rumoured heavily to be thinking. I can […]
At Lib Dem conference, Lib Dems vote against……free trade, particularly with developing nations
For the second year in a row, I am not attending Lib Dem conference. I went for ten years straight, but now, I both emotionally can’t face it and also, given the decline in the party’s fortune, I have no real professional reason to go (I’ll be at both Labour and Tory, if any of […]
Why “chuck Chequers, keep May” is logically absurd
Boris, as ever, is leading the charge for the Tory Brexiteers. In doing so, he has explicitly laid out the strategy of trying to destroy the Chequers “agreement” while simultaneously keeping May in Number 10. As he writes in the Daily Telegraph on the matter: “It’s not about the leadership. It’s about the policy. It’s not […]
Why I really doubt there will be a Tory leadership contest before March 2019
Parts of Westminster are aflutter with the notion that we could have a new prime minister soon. I don’t see it. I realise the ERG group and their affiliates are annoyed with May and feel betrayed by her; but the window to get rid of her has very long since passed. Further, their feelings of […]