I’ve written already about how flat and small Labour conference was this year and how massive Tory conference seems in comparison. But put this into the mix: I had way more fun at Labour conference than I did here in Birmingham. Partly this may have to do with the fact that I know more Labour […]

After attending the both the smallest Lib Dem conference and the smallest Labour conference I have ever been to, I was preparing myself for a mammoth Conservative Party conference – all of the corporate interests and political energy has to have somewhere to go, right? But I still wasn’t ready for what I’ve found here […]

As Tory conference kicks off while I still feel hungover from the Labour shindig, I thought it might be worth some time to consider the top five folks who ruined the party of the British left; those most responsible for reducing it to where it is at present – a weird cult – than anyone else. […]

During the summer, a rumour floated around Westminster that Paul Mason was going to try and become the Labour by-election candidate in Leigh (thus, the next MP for Leigh almost guaranteed) once Andy Burnham steps down (after he becomes the next mayor of Manchester; again, pretty much guaranteed). It hit Guido; Mason denied it. However, […]

As witnessed in Liverpool over the weekend, Labour moderates are floundering in the face of Corbyn’s even bigger win amongst the membership, not ready to split but not sure what the other options really entail. They are trying a few things out, experimenting. One trend we’re seeing a bit of now is trying to re-pitch […]

As I sat in a reception last night, the endless affairs one goes to at any political conference, I thought: so this is how the Left dies; not with a bang but a whimper. Like before last year’s Labour conference in Brighton we heard all about how the party’s divisions were going to be on […]

I arrived in Liverpool late yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but what I found was definitely not it. Instead of open civil war, a strange placidity has set in, like one imagines a city after a nuclear bomb attack. The remnants of a once great society are all that’s left, and […]

“We want politicians who are neither populists like Farage, or “born to rule” types like Cameron…..we want politicians who are more like every day people.” I am paraphrasing above something I once heard in a focus group discussion several years ago. You hear similar things all the time from people when asked about the current […]

At the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton last weekend, I spoke at an event about Lib Dem campaigning. Now, the Lib Dems are an optimistic (some meaner people might use the word delusional) bunch when it comes to the future of their party, so I think I ruffled some feathers with what I had to […]

Margaret Beckett famously described herself as a “moron” in regards to her decision to nominate Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the Labour Party. Yet she also can’t bring herself to say anything truly bad about him either. She even once described him in an interview, post-2015 leadership election I hasten to add, as a saint. This is a […]