In the history of the Brexit debacle, one period really stands out for me. It was December 2017. I remember being confused about the relaxed mode the political media were in given it seemed to me like the Conservative party must be about to explode. Theresa May was on the verge of agreeing the parameters […]
As their conference is about to begin, the Labour Party is at the crossroads
I’m heading to Brighton for Labour conference on Sunday. It is my tenth in a row. Despite having never been a member or even seriously considered becoming one, I always enjoy Labour conference, every year. It is younger and cooler than any of the other conferences – even the if politics and the policy ideas […]
The Lib Dems revoke Article 50 policy has already paid off by causing Caroline Lucas to make an unforced error
Beyond anything else, the Lib Dems switching to a policy to revoke Article 50 if a majority is achieved has meant that the party has been the centre of the political conversation for the past week in a way I can’t remember them being since the 2015 general election came and went. For the Lib […]
Why the Lib Dems need to target Corbyn’s seat, hard – and how best to do it
I got back from Lib Dem conference yesterday – it was my first Lib Dem autumn conference for three years. I enjoyed it. The party was upbeat – mind you, the Lib Dems would be upbeat if parliament could somehow find a way for a party to have negative seats in it, so when there […]
Boris Johnson has made a People’s Vote more likely than ever – is it deliberate?
Several Tory rebels, from those 21 MPs who had the whip removed, have publicly stated that another EU referendum might be a way out of the current Brexit predicament. Behind closed doors, several are privately considering backing a referendum. This is what was always likely to happen when Johnson kicked them out of the Conservative […]
How this one move could finish off Boris Johnson and his party – and it will be self-inflicted
Everyone in Westminster is trying to work out how Boris Johnson wriggles out of the cage he put himself in. He says he won’t ask for an extension, yet will obey the law. This appears to be impossible to achieve. There is one way he can do it, of course: get a withdrawal agreement through […]
The lessons of the general election of 2017 have been weirdly forgotten, by Johnson, Cummings and the political media. Here’s why that matters
Do you remember “crush the saboteurs”? Recall when Theresa May’s Tories had a double digit lead over Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party? How in the May 2017 local elections, the Conservative party gained 563 seats and Labour lost almost 400? How all of this led to political pundits – including yours truly – to predict a […]
Why I think Boris Johnson has put himself into an impossible position
The right-wing newspapers still crow about how brilliantly Boris Johnson is doing; yes, it may look to the casual observer as if he’s lost every vote since becoming PM and seems to be visibly disintegrating in the chamber, but no. It’s all part of an ingenious plan to crush the saboteurs. Back in reality, I […]
Here’s why I think Boris Johnson miscalculated yesterday, potentially very badly
Yesterday was a bad day for Boris Johnson. In the chamber, he looked and sounded terrible; a performance that could be described as sub-May, and I didn’t even think that could be a thing 24 hours ago. I liken it to a rap battle in which MCs like Dominic Grieve and Yvette Cooper were spitting […]
This is what I took away from Boris Johnson’s “speech” yesterday evening
The political media like to converge on a consensus of events and to do so very quickly after something has taken place. Yesterday’s Boris Johnson rambling into a microphone for six minutes is no exception. What had been briefed heavily beforehand was that unless MPs give up on their quest to get legislation through the […]