Although the political media space was too filled with Emily Thornberry’s tweet diverting attention from another UKIP victory via a defecting Tory by-election, there was, as ever, some room left for a bit of Lib Dem bashing. The Indy ran a story with the headline, “Rochester by-election: The Lib Dems knew they would suffer by […]
What next for UKIP? I think Tory MPs will bide their time
Peter Bone has written an editorial for the Guardian (an interesting choice) today in which he announces first and foremost that he will not be quitting the Tories for UKIP. Now that he’s said this, it is hard to believe he’s going to just turn around and defect – yet. That last word there is […]
Labour only win general elections when they have a big, bold offer
In 1945, Labour won their first ever parliamentary majority under the leadership of Clement Atlee. Given the fact that Churchill, the then Tory leader, had just saved Britain in the Second World War, this was no mean feat. It was all down to their offer: that those who had sacrificed during the war would be […]
Could Labour do a deal with the SNP in a Westminster hung parliament?
Nicolas Sturgeon, in her first speech as leader of the Scottish National Party, went in hard on the Auld Enemy. By which I mean, Labour. She said the Labour Party had “lost its soul” by backing a No vote in the Independence Referendum. An interesting take on things; despite its rather liberal, shall we say, […]
The Far-left and the Far-right actually have a lot in common with each other
It is often assumed that the polar opposites on the political spectrum are the Far-right and the Far-left. In my experience, this just isn’t so; those at the political extremes tend to have a lot more in common than you might at first think. Here are the similarities they share. Anger at the world Both […]
Could we see a flood of Tory MPs defect to UKIP post-Rochester and Strood?
November 20th, 2014 will be a dark day for the Conservative and Unionist Party of Great Britain. An Ashcroft poll from yesterday gives UKIP a 12-point lead in the constituency; only some sort of miracle will stop Reckless keeping the seat now. At least with Carswell you could say there was an X factor going […]
The big problem for the main parties is that big tents are quickly becoming a thing of the past
One of the interesting aspects of the faceless “rebellion” against Ed Miliband’s leadership of the Labour Party this past week or so has been that the whole thing stands as the ultimate rebuff of the “35% strategy”. Proof that the idea Labour can sit back, do and say as little as possible during this parliament, […]
The Labour Party either needs to get rid of Miliband or stop talking about the leadership crisis
Lord Kinnock is the latest Labour grandee to leap to the current leader of the party’s defence; all this latest intervention achieves, really, is to keep the “Ed Miliband leadership challenge” story in the news for yet another day. The ex-leader did have a revealing moment when he said the plotters seemed to have a […]
The current fragmenting of British politics might end up benefiting the Lib Dems
February, 2013. Eastleigh. I was knocking on doors in the hopes of helping the Lib Dems hold the seat in the by-election. Apart from meeting a lot of ex-Labour voters who told me they were going to be voting for UKIP and exactly why that was, I also spoke to a lot of people who […]
Recalling that car crash AV referendum moment: Kriss Akabusi Makes it Fifty
The Yes campaign is memorable, to those who wish to indulge in this sort of thing, as an awful one in terms of messaging. For instance, “Make Your MP Work Harder” not only didn’t really resonate with your average Mondeo Man, it had the dual disadvantage of really irritating a good lot of MPs themselves, […]