Sadiq Khan has been given the task of winning over “Green strays” and getting them to vote Labour “again”. I put the words I did in quotations to reflect the way Labour tends to see this stuff; these are people who they should without doubt be winning over, in the collective mind of the party. […]
A farewell to Godfrey Bloom
My favourite Godfrey Bloom moment of all time, before today’s announcement that he has stepped down as UKIP’s whatever-the-hell-he-was-it’s-not-important-enough-to-bother-googling, was an appearance he made on BBC’s Have I Got News For You. A sort of “Godfrey’s greatest hits” reel was playing as part of a bit, you know all the classics: Bongo Bongo Land, the […]
The Tories really, really have to stop trying to out-UKIP UKIP
Over the last few days, in reaction to Carswell winning UKIP’s first democratically earned seat in parliament, the Tories have been going slightly apeshit, falling over themselves to seem more electable to the very people they described as loonies and fruitcakes not all that long ago. Those being people who are seriously considering voting UKIP […]
The London Excel Centre as existential hell: The final AV referendum count, revisited
The day of reckoning for Yes to AV was upon us. We faced it with weary resignation, made even more jaded by the fact we were all hung-over to the gills. For those of us who didn’t need to be on the ground, May 5th 2011 was mostly a pretty calm day. At around five […]
Anarcho-Syndicalism Exposed
What you are about to read comes from something I wrote for a prospective book on the AV referendum that I’ve decided not to publish. But some bits of it are helpful to those who might think about trying to run a national referendum anytime in the near furture. Or if you just think arcane […]
Heywood and Middleton by-election result demonstrates UKIP’s threat to Labour once and for all
Heywood and Middleton is, by any reasonable standard, a safe Labour seat. But perhaps for not much longer – perhaps not even in 2015. Labour held the seat yesterday, but only by just over six hundred votes. In the 2010 general election UKIP gained 1,215 votes there, not even enough to keep their deposit. Yesterday, they […]
Last thoughts on the Clacton by-election
As voters take to the polls in the Essex seaside town that is the possible birthplace of a new chapter in British 21st century politics, the result is a foregone conclusion. Douglas Carswell will remain MP for Clacton after tomorrow, swapping his blue rosette for a purple one. A few weeks ago, before the date […]
The Lib Dems cannot pledge to hold In/Out EU referendum – or give one away lightly
Today, at 1 PM, in the Crown Plaza room Argyll 1, Iain Dale, Peter Kellner and Tim Farron will be giving their predictions for how the Lib Dems will do in the 2015 general election. I’m plugging this, not just because I’ve organised it, but because it sheds light on the fact that the party […]
From Glasgow: conference season so far – and what’s with the Tories and Human Rights anyhow?
Normally, as you all know, Lib Dem conference comes before Labour and Tory conferences. But this year, due to the timing of the Scottish independence referendum, Lib Dem conference, which kicked off yesterday, is the last one up. This means that for those of us who luckily (or unluckily, depending on your point of view) […]
In search of the Daily Telegraph reception
Man, am I ever hungover. I sit in a hotel room in Birmingham feeling like I got into an ill-advised scrap with a giant. It is, of course, entirely my fault; I was seduced by that great Tory conference temptation, free champagne. And there is a whole day and a half of conference still left […]