Some readers will tie themselves up in knots over the title of this article. “Aren’t the Tories and the government basically the same thing, and you’re just making a semantic argument?” No they aren’t, and no I’m not. The Tories are the Conservative Party, formed in 1678, 1834, or 1912, depending on how you read […]
Ashcroft poll that has good news for Lib Dems, particularly in Lab-Lib marginal seats
Lord Ashcroft’s latest poll has some interesting findings in regards to Lib Dem marginal seats. First off, let’s look at Lib-Con marginals. There’s some potentially bad news here, with Nick Harvey predicted by the polling to lose his seat – but only by one point, so with swing-back Sir Nick should probably be fine. Portsmouth […]
More sense on immigration: welcome words from Shadow Minister for Europe, Pat McFadden
In an interview for Progress Magazine, excerpts of which were re-reported in the Guardian yesterday, Pat McFadden, who became opposition Europe portfolio holder a little over a month ago, described the way immigration is being discussed in the UK at present “as if it is some kind of disease that needs to be treated, rather […]
In ten years time, the present day debate about immigration will seem weird and archaic
The Daily Telegraph has a feature on today about what the world will look like in ten years time, as seen through the lens of Cameron’s immigration speech. As even the Telegraph had to admit, the tone of the debate at present will seem completely bizarre in a decade’s time for several reasons. In 2024, […]
David Cameron’s immigration speech was a lot better than I’d feared
David Cameron gave a hotly anticipated speech on immigration yesterday (well, hotly anticipated if you’re a politics geek anyhow). Some hoped/feared it would be staunchly anti-EU, and possibly in a worst/best case scenario (depending on your point of view) would set the stage for a Brexit. Thankfully (from my perspective anyhow), it didn’t do that. […]
The now infamous UKIP “Westminster mosque” tweet: the day the mask slipped
At 2:02 PM this Tuesday just gone, UKIP’s South Thanet branch tweeted: “Perfect place to hold vote in front of a mosque in London. The BBC’s random means selective”. This was in response to the Daily Politics having conducted a survey as to whether or not Nigel Farage would make a good Prime Minister. They […]
What the current state of the Labour Party proves: standing still doesn’t work in politics
When the dust settled after the 2010 general election, and Britain ended up with its first coalition government since the Second World War, the Labour Party was faced with a fork in the road. Either try and define social democracy for a post-2008 world (no mean feat, admittedly) or look at what had just taken […]
How Cleggmania was a lot like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Early-autumn, 1991. Little had changed on the popular music front since the late-80’s, at least if you were living in a semi-post-apocalyptic part of North America at the time. Hair metal and bad synth pop dominated AM radio. It felt like it was going to go on forever, as if pop culture had lost the […]
Why are the two main parties seemingly trying to lose the next election?
The Prime Minister is due to give a speech this week on immigration and the European Union. In terms of what constitutes sensitive fault lines within the Tory brand, it would be hard to get touchier than these two topics (unless of course, UKIP style, you wish to roll them into one). And yet, former […]
Farage has fallen into a trap, one straight out of Westminster
“If you are a Conservative MP sitting on a small majority against the Labour party, and the further north of London you go the bigger problem this becomes, you know you’ve lost next year. The Conservative party is literally dying in the urban north, the way it has in Scotland. It is for you to […]