There are intense calls to shut down schools in the wake of people being urged to avoid pubs and theatres. If the kids can go to school, why are grown ups being asked to stay away from large groups of people? Schools have another problem in the form of teachers either getting ill or self-isolating. […]
Archives for March 2020
In the face of the Coronavirus crisis, it would be utterly mad for Boris not to extend the transition period with the EU. Utterly mad – and here’s exactly why
We were living in strange times before the Coronavirus struck; they are now surreal beyond the imaginings of an objective viewer from five years ago. Lots of people are politicising the crisis, you know, imagining that what’s happening demonstrates the folly of austerity, or shows us what life would have been like under a Corbyn […]
The local elections being delayed are massively helpful to Keir Starmer and Labour – so everyone should stop talking about government conspiracies
Following the advice of the Electoral Commission, local elections that were to be held in early May are now going to be held a year on. Same goes for the London mayoral elections. While the year delay probably won’t make a difference to who was going be mayor of London, getting to wait until 2021 […]
Why the way the Democratic primaries are unfolding should worry British Tories, never mind Trump
Only a few weeks ago, the Democratic primaries were looking to unfold in such a chaotic way that Donald Trump’s re-election began to look inevitable. The way that Sanders was fighting with not only every other candidate but with the Democratic Party itself seemed designed to help Trump remain in the White House. And yet […]
How the Coronavirus crisis has become a political Rorschach test
When I look at the current Coronavirus crisis through the lens of politics this is what I see: Trump failing and being seen to be failing. The Democratic Party starting to unite around Joe Biden in an effort to beat Trump, something the mishandling of the current crisis makes more likely. America will also see […]
Boris Johnson wants something out of being prime minister that no one comes away with. Here’s how that will affect his time in Number 10
In a clip born to go viral, Prince Harry is seen walking along a line of waiting participants in that way royals do. He skips past Boris, not bothering to shake his hand or say anything to the prime minister, going on to speak warmly to Baroness Scotland who stands to the PM’s direct left. […]
Despite winning the election, conservative ideology is dying – yet so is liberalism at the same time. What is replacing both is scary
There’s a very good article by Ed West on Unherd today called “Why Conservatism is Doomed” which I highly recommend. The thesis of the piece is that despite winning the general election, conservatism is dying as an ideology as liberals take over more and more of the establishment. I agree with some of the points […]
The way the Left attacks Boris isn’t working. There is another way
Two social media items this week reminded me of how badly wrong the Left gets attacks on the prime minister. The first was an exchange between Dawn Butler and Tory MP Laura Trott about Boris Johnson and whether or not he’s a racist. Butler clearly felt she had won the confrontation as she later posted […]
Here are the three strategies the Left keep reaching for that never work
I promise this article won’t be the kind of thing you could read in a right of centre publication that goes something like this: all these liberals being liberal are just so silly. Can’t they see that they have to lie down and accept that the voters are right-wing? This, to be clear again, is […]
Why the Bernie Sanders campaign sucks – and what that means for politics in the US, the UK and around the world
Super Tuesday did not go as planned for Bernie Sanders. The results are still coming in as I write this, but it looks like he’ll only win California, Colorado, Utah and Vermont, with Biden sweeping the rest. It’s still a decent set of results for Sanders in the abstract, but he was looking to emerge […]