When I look at the current Coronavirus crisis through the lens of politics this is what I see: Trump failing and being seen to be failing. The Democratic Party starting to unite around Joe Biden in an effort to beat Trump, something the mishandling of the current crisis makes more likely. America will also see […]
Boris Johnson wants something out of being prime minister that no one comes away with. Here’s how that will affect his time in Number 10
In a clip born to go viral, Prince Harry is seen walking along a line of waiting participants in that way royals do. He skips past Boris, not bothering to shake his hand or say anything to the prime minister, going on to speak warmly to Baroness Scotland who stands to the PM’s direct left. […]
Despite winning the election, conservative ideology is dying – yet so is liberalism at the same time. What is replacing both is scary
There’s a very good article by Ed West on Unherd today called “Why Conservatism is Doomed” which I highly recommend. The thesis of the piece is that despite winning the general election, conservatism is dying as an ideology as liberals take over more and more of the establishment. I agree with some of the points […]
The way the Left attacks Boris isn’t working. There is another way
Two social media items this week reminded me of how badly wrong the Left gets attacks on the prime minister. The first was an exchange between Dawn Butler and Tory MP Laura Trott about Boris Johnson and whether or not he’s a racist. Butler clearly felt she had won the confrontation as she later posted […]
Here are the three strategies the Left keep reaching for that never work
I promise this article won’t be the kind of thing you could read in a right of centre publication that goes something like this: all these liberals being liberal are just so silly. Can’t they see that they have to lie down and accept that the voters are right-wing? This, to be clear again, is […]
Sadiq Kahn’s rent control pledge and London NIMBYism – the problems of the metropolitan left
Sadiq Khan has decided to built his entire mayoral campaign on rent controls. I’m not exaggerating for effect: he has declared the upcoming London mayoral contest to be a veritable “referendum on rent controls”. I was wondering whether to vote vote Rory Stewart or Sadiq Khan in May – Sadiq has thankfully made it easy […]
Why the 50,000 customs officers story is so symbolic of these ridiculous times we live in
The most amazing thing about the 50,000 customs officers story is the way that the government subsequently handled it. The Road Haulage Association put out a press release this week detailing that around fifty-thousand more customs officers will be needed to deal with the load of new paperwork post-Brexit. This is because they estimate that […]
Here’s the problem with the Lib Dems trying to convince voters of their “progressive” credentials
I have by chance spoken to a few Lib Dems over the past fortnight about the state of the party and what they see, if any, as the chances of recovery. The answer I got back, in slightly different forms, went something like this: the Lib Dem activists and most of the parliamentary party see […]
How the government is starting to remind me of the Yes to AV campaign – and that certainly isn’t good
Long time readers of this website will have known me to compare things in politics with the Yes to AV campaign a fair few times in the past. All I can say is that the Yes to AV campaign was such a perfect distillation of how not to do politics, that rare example of the […]
Here’s the main problem with all political parties at the moment: the memberships
What has become received wisdom is that modern politics in the West is too removed from people and their every day concerns. That parties have become too remote. While there is truth in this, the solutions all parties have taken on board to combat this problem have been the wrong ones in reaction to this […]