“First Blood” is a film that was almost made many times throughout the 1970s before finally being produced for release in 1982. Throughout a tortured decade in turnaround, the names attached to play John Rambo, the main character, are striking: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Nick Nolte, Michael Douglas. The […]
The Right is engaging in fantasies normally reserved for the Left
A friend of mine who is a journalist on a right leaning outlet said to me several years ago: “The thing about the Left is, they are always talking about things that either can’t be done or would never be done. Like socialising off licences or abolishing prisons. It’s always fantasy politics which is why […]
I am no closer to understanding what Theresa May is doing on Brexit after Chequers
Big meeting of the cabinet to discuss what Brexit means at Chequers this week. Obviously it means Brexit, but given no one seems able to actually define what “means” means, “Brexit means Brexit” has become a political Mobius strip. How May plans to escape from it is no clearer from what her spokespeople have said this week. “Several cabinet members […]
Labour and the Lib Dems are taking the boundary review a wee bit lightly
For those of you unaware, the Conservative government is bringing in new boundaries in 2018, ones that will form the basis of constituencies for whenever the next general election is held (2020, unless the Fixed Term Parliament Act is got round). It will reduce the number of MPs from the current 650 to 600. In […]
Why Jeremy Corbyn’s “digital revolution” won’t work
For someone who was supposed to represent a new politics shorn of gimmicks, Corbyn sure resorts to a lot of gimmicks. His latest one is a particular portion of today’s “digital democracy” speech. Most of the speech is actually okay, surprisingly enough. He talks about how it is unfair that parts of the country have serviceable access […]
What would have been worse? A Labour conference with a GMB picket or no conference at all?
A group of political friends and I were discussing this yesterday, all of us spread across the party political spectrum. Since, the Labour Party has actually found a security company to do their conference for them. But it was still a fun chat, basically falling into two broad scenarios, which were: Labour conference going ahead […]
In a time of little joy for political moderates, UKIP being rubbish acts as comfort food
For those of you who haven’t seen Nigel Farage speaking at a Republican rally in America in support of Donald Trump – don’t bother, it will only depress you further about the state of the universe. To summarise, Farage tells Americans they can overcome the might of global corporate greed by electing the head of […]
Could the GMB-Unite spat develop into a greater rift in the trade union movement generally?
The Guardian put out an article yesterday highlighting the ongoing security problems Labour conference is still having. In doing so, it revealed just how great the rift between Unite and GMB has become. To summarise a messy situation as best as one can: under Corbyn’s push, the NEC decided to stop using G4S, the company […]
What #traingate really says about Corbyn and the phenomenon around him
For those of you who have been avoiding the news, living in a box, or are reading this in the future, Jeremy Corbyn has caused a social media storm this week with what has been dubbed “Traingate”. Corbyn and his team got on a Virgin train and filmed the Labour leader sat in a corridor, […]
Owen Smith has called for more direct democracy within Labour. It’s a mistake
Owen Smith has decided that under his proposed leadership (looking more distant by the day), the Labour leadership would be completely bound by conference as the decision making centre of the party – even if they formed a majority government. “My promise to the party is that I will not ignore conference. I will bind myself […]