In 1970, Bob Dylan released an album entitled “Self Portrait”. Previously the darling of the international rock press, Dylan was instantly pilloried for what was seen by many as an intentionally awful record. Greil Marcus famously wrote a four word review of the album – “What is this shit?” – and it caused others to […]
The Scottish Tories should leave the Conservative fold and start their own party
Leaders debates in Scotland are underway. Early noise on them is what you’d expect: Nicola Sturgeon dominant, Kezia trying hard to make Labour still sound relevant to Scots, but not quite making it; the Lib Dems and Greens struggling for relevance as well; Ruth Davidson looking like she should be the leader of the opposition […]
Why Boris Johnson could end up like Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy entered the 1980 Democratic primaries as the favourite to clinch the presidential nomination. Amongst Democrats, he held a 25-point advantage over the sitting president, Jimmy Carter (whose national approval ratings were in the low-20s to high-teens at the time) before the race began. Ted had long been the almost man of Democrat politics […]
The real problem for Corbyn is that he’s mostly Ed Miliband revisited – just even less competent and electorally appealing
Looking at current Labour economic policy is striking – and not in the way that many casual observers might expect. Let’s examine the essence of McDonnell’s “fiscal credibility lock” for instance: “day-to-day spending would not exceed government income although there would be scope for borrowing for capital investment” says the shadow chancellor. Okay, sorry to say this, but that […]
Could Chilcot really stymie the Labour leadership coup?
It’s kind of an open secret in Westminster these days that Labour MPs whom after this week we could slip into the categories labelled “hostile” and “core group negative” (and perhaps those 17 MPs who didn’t even get categorised at all by Corbyn’s crew) are serious about attempting to defenestrate Jeremy after the EU referendum. […]
Does David Cameron have to quit as prime minister after June 23rd – regardless of the result?
Alexander Temerko, a reasonably large Tory donor, has announced to the world – via that well known, right-leaning outlet, The Guardian – that whatever happens in the EU referendum, David Cameron should step down as quickly as possible after June 23rd. “The Conservative party is fracturing following the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith and the […]
Why Boris is starting to remind me of Donald Trump
I have a confession to make: whenever I’m at Tory party conference (I attend all the party conferences every autumn), I try and clear time to see Boris’ speech. There is no equivalent at any other conference – I have never thought “can’t miss Emily Thornberry” while at Labour. To do this isn’t as simple […]
The official opposition suddenly springs to life – in spite of Jeremy Corbyn
At long last! Labour takes advantage of Tory weakness. Stephen Crabb, the new Work and Pensions Secretary, was subjected to the sort of grilling we haven’t seen come from the opposition benches in a good long while. Yvette Cooper and Liam Byrne earn special mention. They ruthlessly went to town on Crabb, asking repeatedly what the […]
Here’s how the next two years of Conservative Party travails will go
I’ll nail my colours to the mast here, straight off: I don’t see how Osborne becomes prime minister from here. A lot of commentators are saying the same thing, but are hedging their bets, saying George has wounded himself, perhaps fatally, but there is probably some way back from this budget. No hedging about it from […]
The way the Right have turned on Osborne is laden with hypocrisy
I know many of you out there reading this have, it is fair to say, never been fans of George Osborne. However, spare a moment to consider how quickly the Right have turned on him – for supposedly moral reasons as well. This excerpt from Janet Daley’s Telegraph article yesterday sums up perfectly this new, […]