Whatever some of the Left might tell you, last Thursday was for the most part a very good day for the Tories. They became the official opposition in Scotland, something that would have been totally unthinkable even a couple of years ago. This is one of those achievements that will reverberate through British politics for […]
Thursday’s result was the worst possible one for the Labour Party in a way
The local elections were nowhere near as bad as many (myself included) had predicted for Labour. The 150+ losses never materialised. Labour lost seats in England, but far below anyone’s expectations. Well, except for Jeremy Corbyn who had told the world that the party would lose no seats at all, but he’s usually a special […]
Yesterday’s elections: here’s what we know so far
We’re a long way from knowing the full picture (we will by early tonight), but there a few things that are becoming clearer already regarding yesterday’s elections. Let’s start with Scotland. It looks as though just when you thought Scottish Labour couldn’t fall any further, another negative milestone is reached. The Tories have beaten Labour for […]
Another Corbyn catastrophe in the Commons
I’m getting bored of this myself. Seriously, I am. By this stage, I’m really only cataloguing everything so that one day the centre-left can rebuild – think of these article as breadcrumbs back to sanity then – or failing that, as a document to where the Left finally killed itself in Britain for all time. […]
Corbyn tells the world that tomorrow’s election results essentially don’t matter to him
We live in an age when if someone says to you at the end of a day, “did you hear about the Corbyn thing?”, you can’t be sure that the questioner and you are thinking of the same thing since there will have been “multiple things” to have occurred to the Labour leader over the previous […]
How Labour’s week has been Ionesco-esque
The word “Kafkaesque” gets overused in politics, often by people who have never read a word of the late Czech genius. Looking back over the week the Labour Party has just had, I can see people reaching for the literary comparisons. I think the giant of letters who would have most likely come up with […]
A word about the EU referendum polls at present – if you want to understand them, look back to AV referendum ones from the same period out
I know, I’ve made a lot of comparisons between the current EU referendum campaigns and the ones fought prior to the AV referendum. Some might say I’m simply trying to graft one experience of nationwide referenda onto a completely different situation. I would respond by saying I really, really did expect this all to feel […]
I wish Corbyn could understand what he looks like when he does stuff like this
Yesterday, Corbyn had another one of his now infamous run-ins with the press. A Sky reporter asked him about anti-semitism (what else?) as he was about to enter a building and Jeremy did what he usually does in these kinds of situations: pull a face that is a combination of a deer in the headlights […]
Corbyn insisting that Labour has no problem with anti-semitism is making the problem worse
You know the old adage that says you’ve lost an argument the moment you bring up Adolf Hitler for any reason? Ken Livingstone proved that yesterday rather definitively. He also showed us conclusively that trying to explain something via the author of the Final Solution is a bad idea in politics, period. Particularly when you’re […]
Why 2016 Scottish Labour have become a bit like the 2015 Lib Dems
Scottish Labour are in a wee spot of bother, it is safe to say without controversy. Having been reduced from being the unquestionable top political force in Scotland to facing the prospect of coming third in the fast approaching MSP elections in a still astonishingly brief period of time remains, well, pretty astonishing. Kezia Dugdale is […]