The Sutton Trust, Britain’s foremost education think tank, released a paper at the end of this week exploring what effect free tuition has had on Scottish universities and their socioeconomic profile. Given free tuition is a shibboleth of the Left, the findings make for interesting reading. Kids from disadvantaged backgrounds in England are 2.4 times […]
Why the Diane James argument on immigration and the EU doesn’t work
Last night was the first TV debate on the EU referendum. It was held in Glasgow, but the only nod to Scotland on the panel was the inclusion of Salmond (to be fair, there are no major figures in Scottish politics who are pro-Brexit, unless you count Galloway). Diane James has come in for some […]
How becoming a mayor is the new black
Even though he’s already put his foot in it enough to amuse us all, Andy Burnham wishing to become mayor of Manchester in the first place is interesting in and of itself. He’s shadow home secretary for a start, albeit within an opposition that is going nowhere fast. But in the wake of Sadiq Khan […]
It is time for Vote Leave to admit that Boris has been a disaster for them
Two things inspired me to write this article, although the basic idea behind it has been swirling around subconsciously for a couple of weeks now. One was another of Boris’ innumerable, inane, Leave orientated stunts last week. He was in a car with “Vote Leave” on the side of it; while the driver of the […]
Leave.EU are seemingly on a mission to destroy Euroscepticism in Britain forever
On the Yes to AV campaign, we spent a massive amount of time firefighting against a small but vocal section of our own support. People who wanted to burn their MP in effigy, or have a rally in the centre of their town while likening First Past the Post to the horrors of Nazi Germany; […]
Inviting Ed Miliband to join the shadow cabinet would be another Corbyn unforced error
The Times reports today that Jeremy Corbyn may be about to invite Ed Miliband to take up a shadow cabinet role. Although no sources are directly named, this looks like an officially sanctioned leak, one that was meant to hit the papers. Some of those quoted off the record were less than pleased about this […]
This could be Cameron’s final move in the EU referendum to ensure a Remain vote
Although nothing can be taken for granted, the polls are starting to move towards Remain. Given you’d expect a push of three to five points for the status quo option on polling day, even if the two sides were polling neck in neck, this bodes badly for Leave. Still, if you look at the Scottish […]
We now get to see how deep dislike of immigration runs in Britain
Yesterday, the previously mostly cerebral Gove decided to go a bit Boris Johnson on us. I figured Gove would almost certainly have to give in to the immigration beast at some point in the campaign, but I didn’t think he’d ever go in this hard: “Boris Johnson and I will use all our influence with […]
Five questions the Remain campaign need to answer – so I’ve answered them
On Twitter, I’ve been feeling the heat from the Leavers of late. Despite being a passionate Europhile, I have a lot of sympathy for these people. They are exactly where I and many people I worked with on the Yes to AV campaign were five years ago. “It’s all unfair”, “the other guys are nasty […]
Iain Duncan Smith seems to have thrown in the towel on Leave winning the EU referendum
Yesterday was the Queen’s Speech, the kick off of another glorious session of parliament. It was understandably an understated slate of legislation put forth. Some Tories didn’t see it that way, the understandable part of it I mean, namely one former DWP Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. “Whether it is the Trade Union Bill or the […]