Back in March of this year, an online petition went up on the parliament.uk website. Online petitions rarely gather that many signatures, partly because they often cover obscure topics, but also because most people have cottoned onto the fact that they are never taken seriously by parliament regardless of the numbers they attract. The one […]
How Brexit created the demise (for now, at least) of British conservatism
Writing in the foreword of the 1946 edition of his own novel from 15 years previous, “Brave New World”, Aldous Huxley said this: “For the last 30 years there have been no conservatives; there have only been nationalistic radicals of the right and nationalistic radicals of the left.” Huxley saw the First World War – […]
Johnson proroguing parliament is a gigantic dare to Remainers. Here’s where I think it takes us
The big news yesterday was that the opposition leaders had managed to have a productive meeting about what do to try and prevent a no deal Brexit. Even Corbyn had been brought on side with a plan to attempt to halt it through legislation. Given the number of Tory MPs who would be willing to […]
Why revocation of Article 50 is a much larger possibility than is being talked about at the moment
The “national unity” government idea continues to hog breathing space in Westminster gossip columns. Funny, I was the one talking about it years ago as a possibility when no one thought it could ever be a thing; now I really don’t see it happening. It’s too big a leap for too many MPs to take […]
Why the polling on a government of national unity should actually give Remainers hope and urgency
The pro-Brexit portion of the print media has been talking up a YouGov poll this week, done on the topic of what the public thinks about a government of national unity to halt no deal Brexit. It found that 44% oppose the idea of bringing down Boris Johnson’s government and temporarily replacing it with a […]
Lessons from Brecon and Radnorshire
The Lib Dems did it. In what may turn out to be an era defining by-election, the Liberal Democrats took back Brecon and Radnorshire yesterday. Here are my main takeaways: The Lib Dem surge is real. But it is still fragile at this point Some pundits are pointing to the fact that this was a […]
Why the Lib Dems need to attack Labour if they want to win big – and how they can do that effectively
One thing Jo Swinson got very right when she became leader of the Liberal Democrats was saying that, while she was more than willing to work with pro-Remain Labour MPs, she would not prop up a Jeremy Corbyn premiership. This is a key message for several reasons, not least of which is that taking Labour […]
A look at Boris Johnson’s policy announcements thus far – and what that tells us about what he’s planning
Whatever you want to say about Johnson as PM, he’s certainly not wasting any time. He’s come out with several big policies already. One is 20,000 more police officers on the street. Another is a high speed Manchester to Leeds railway line. More money for social care and schools has been pledged. These are all […]
Boris Johnson is way less likely to win an autumn general election than most people are telling you. Here’s why
At the very end of Theresa May’s premiership, a certain sobriety started to finally creep into Westminster punditry. Some started to reflect a little on past assumptions made about what the EU would and would not do at long last. Some even went as far as googling what the Irish backstop might be. With the […]
Here’s an important myth we need to nip in the bud here and now, as Johnson’s premiership begins
Boris Johnson anointed his cabinet yesterday, clearing out half of what was already there. I could say a lot about this – Patel as Home Secretary and Raab as FCO are both truly horrific appointments – but I’ll leave most of that to others. I’m more confused about what Johnson thinks he’s going to do […]