Jeremy Corbyn, should he become prime minister of Great Britain, wants to re-open the coal mines. Before you rightly point this out as yet another beautiful example of socialism and the green movement coming into conflict with one another uncomfortably for those hoping to pass them off as inexplicably linked, let’s look at how Jezza […]
For once, I agree fully with Lynton Crosby
Lynton Crosby appeared at a speaking engagement in his native land very recently and took aim at political pundits. Fair enough – if I were him, I’d do the same thing. It’s hard not to gloat when a whole contingent of people are shown to be definitively wrong about you (I’m in that category of […]
Burnham’s bid to “scrap” tuition fees smells of extreme desperation
Yesterday, I recall seeing a headline about Andy Burnham pledging to eliminate tuition fees entirely. Bold, I thought, but loony. Burnham must know that’s a fiscal nightmare. Which, as it turns out, he does: he has actually promised to replace the current tuition fees scheme with a “graduate tax”. I laughed out loud – this […]
Wonder why Jeremy Corbyn is the favourite to be next Labour leader? This Jon Cruddas article explains it
Jon Cruddas wrote a great article for Labour List yesterday entitled, “Labour lost because voters believed it was anti-austerity”. The basis for the piece was to share the results of an inquiry into why Labour lost in May that Jon had a major hand in. As you would expect, there was some tough revelations in […]
The real reason Labourites and liberals share such animosity towards each other
I’ve always thought of the split between conservatives and liberals (which I think is the essential divide in all politics, everywhere in the world, regardless of what’s actually on offer) through a simple analogy. Go back to the Palaeolithic era of our development as a species and imagine that there must have been a constant […]
Would a Jeremy Corbyn Labour leadership really be such a disaster?
All but the most left of commentators have declared that if Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership contest, the effect on that particular party will be deleterious. Some of the stuff written about Corbyn, particularly from a centre-left perspective, has been verging on hysterical. I myself have joined in, remarking on many on occasion just […]
Is the Overton Window on state spending in risk of being permanently centre-right?
A quick explanation on what an Overton Window is: it is the range of all policies that will be acceptable to the public at any given time. So to take an easy example, in the late 18th century, slavery as a viable and legal concept was within the Overton Window – these days, it is […]
Is Nicola Sturgeon correct in saying that “no politician” has the right to stand in the way of a second Indy referendum?
After David Cameron ruled out another plebiscite on whether or not Scotland should secede from the United Kingdom before 2020 (which is a pretty reasonably time scale), Nicola Sturgeon predictably went on the offensive. “Two questions I get asked often these days – will there be another independence referendum and, if so, when? My answer […]
The Clarkson-Amazon TV deal brings up questions about what the BBC is actually for
Yesterday it was announced that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May have signed with Amazon TV to do a show that will essentially be “Top Gear” in all but name. The continuity “Top Gear” meanwhile will be hosted by Chris Evans and in competition for viewership with the new Clarkson show, and one has […]
All things considered, this may have been the worst element of Ed Miliband’s leadership
I can already see the reaction from Labour readers – are you kicking the dead man again? This isn’t a vendetta I’ve got against Ed Miliband – he was always too weird to even dislike, thinking back on it – but rather that a). I find what I’m about to write about interesting in a […]