Throughout the prolonged and ultimately ugly Labour leadership contest, a line in the sand was crossed that will be difficult to roll back from again. Those on the left of the party went beyond using the word “Blairite” in a pejorative sense for those on the right they disagreed with and began using the “T” […]
What is the future of political parties?
Last night at 6:15, I chaired an event at Lib Dem conference with Tim Bale, Paul Webb, Mark Pack and Tessa Munt on the topic of political party membership as it stands and where it looks like it’s headed. We learned a lot of interesting facts (UKIP voters see themselves as less right-wing on a […]
How will Ashcroft’s book affect the rest of Cameron’s premiership?
If you are involved in politics at all, then you will have spent some part of your waking life over the last few days on social media either reading or inventing ham and bacon related puns and/or general gags. My favourite so far has been the infamous Ed Miliband bacon sandwich picture accompanied by the […]
The left of Labour will already be planning for the post-Corbyn era
The spotlight moves a little away from Jeremy Corbyn this week as a result of Lib Dem conference and Ashcroft’s allegation concerning the prime minister’s pig related activities – but Labour conference starts in Brighton five days from now resulting in more coverage of Corbyn than ever. He’s turned down Marr twice now – no mass […]
The Lib Dems can capitalise on the Corbyn era – but it will be hard work
Yesterday was Day One of Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth. The weather was pleasant; always quite key in terms of setting the mood, particularly when a conference is set by the seaside. There is an upbeat feeling in the air here now that Labour has elected Jeremy Corbyn as their leader. But I need to […]
Jeremy Corbyn’s first week: compromise is a huge part of politics, as it turns out
I knew Corbyn’s first week as leader of the opposition would be tricky, but at times I’m not sure Jeremy himself saw it all coming. To go from having to shout to be heard even a little bit on anything to suddenly having your every single word and facial gesture endlessly poured over must be […]
What I most fear about the politics of the age that we live in
I wrote on Wednesday about why it was probably a good idea for Jeremy Corbyn to have sung the national anthem at the Battle of Britain memorial service. I got a lot of grief on social media, of the sort I could have predicted beforehand, about how it was his personal choice, etc. The whole thing […]
Yesterday’s PMQs: was Corbyn good or bad?
We saw the first instalment of Corbyn v Cameron in the Commons yesterday. The right-wing press likened Corbyn’s “consensual” approach, crowd sourcing the questions, to reducing Prime Minister’s Questions to a phone-in radio programme. A lot of the left-wing press engaged in the “oh didn’t he do ever so well” thing so reminiscent of the […]
Should Corbyn have sung “God Save the Queen”?
Yesterday, at the Battle of Britain memorial service, Jeremy Corbyn stood in tight lipped silence through the national anthem. I haven’t bothered to look at the right-wing tabloids yet this morning, but I can pretty much guarantee every one of them will have a picture of Corbyn looking as sullen as possible (they having gone […]
What effect will the Corbyn era have on the Tories?
After recent events, we should start by asking how long said era is going to last. The genesis of the Corbyn project has been poorer than what I and many others had expected. From the numerous comms gaffes of the last 48 hours, most notably involving shadow cabinet appointments, to the by all accounts tense […]