After recent events, we should start by asking how long said era is going to last. The genesis of the Corbyn project has been poorer than what I and many others had expected. From the numerous comms gaffes of the last 48 hours, most notably involving shadow cabinet appointments, to the by all accounts tense […]
Question for Mr Corbyn: no women in the top four jobs? Really?
The most senior positions in the shadow cabinet have been revealed. And in the top four slots – leader, shadow chancellor, shadow Home Secretary, shadow Foriegn Secretary – it’s all men. I will now explain why this is appalling. Usually, the excuse for why there aren’t more jobs given to females in politics is down […]
The first year of the Corbyn era, predicted
Right, so now that Jeremy has won by the flipping great margin we all thought he would, what does the first year of his reign look like? I’m going to try and stick to things I’m pretty sure will happen as opposed to engaging in wild speculation (as tempting as that may be). Like I’ve […]
How much did Sadiq Khan getting the mayoral nomination have to do with Corbynmania?
Most Labour people I know in Westminster have been sure for weeks now that Sadiq was almost certainly going to get the nod to be the party’s mayoral candidate for 2016 – but few saw the margin of victory coming. A whopping 18-point margin over Tessa Jowell – who at one point, let us recall, […]
The person Blairites should feel most annoyed with is Tony Blair himself
T-minus one day until the Corbyn era is set to officially begin. The Blairite wing of the Labour Party, so convinced after the massacre of May 7th that everyone would see that Miliband had been too left-wing and thus the party would revert back to them, lies in tatters. Along the way, calling someone within […]
The problem the moderate centre-left has had for decades comes home to roost
Throughout the Labour leadership contest, one thing has struck me more than any other. It is perhaps the key factor in Corbyn’s rise to become the heir apparent, in fact. It’s that Corbyn’s ideas have been presented over and over again by pretty much every campaign and centre-left voice of any description as mostly being […]
The thing that was going to tear the Tories apart, may ironically rip Labour in half
In the wake of their unexpected, slender majority, the Tories were overly concerned about one thing in May: Europe. It was a topic that had the potential to rip the Conservative Party into pieces, particularly now that Cameron had to hold the referendum he’d pledged to have if he ever found himself in just such […]
What if Cooper or Burnham DID win on Saturday?
To start with, I am in no way wavering in my prediction: Corbyn will be Labour leader in four days time. So the following is simply an academic exercise. Call it a thought process for those moderates in Labour who want to survive the Corbyn era. Saturday, September 12, 2015. The day many of us […]
Why, in retrospect, Corbynism was inevitable
Jeremy Corbyn entered the Labour leadership contest with odds of 200-1 of winning, a number we endlessly hear about these days. However, it’s still worth bringing up as an example of how little anyone saw the whole thing coming. But like so much of life, it all seems obvious in hindsight. Labour conference 2013, Brighton. […]
Go see “Suffragette” when it comes out – it’s a great film
I was lucky to have had an opportunity to see a motion picture that won’t be on general release until October this past Friday night. Given how far away it is from hitting the cinemas, I will be extra careful in terms of not offering spoilers up for “Suffragette”, starring Carey Mulligan, directed by Sarah Gavron, […]