I don’t normally do this (in fact, I’ve never done this before), but I thought I’d tell you why I think you should vote for Rob Blackie to represent the Lib Dems at next May’s London elections for the London Assembly (obviously this only applies to those who are LD inclined). I guess the reason […]
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 […]
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 […]
When will the polls return? And what will they tell us?
One of the stories of the general election was how wrong all of the polls were during the run in. The day of the election itself had both the Tories and Labour tied; none of them predicted the Tory landslide on the way. Or at least what looked like a landslide after what the polls […]
Andy Burnham’s Observer interview demonstrates why he’d be a terrible Labour leader
Yesterday, The Observer ran an interview with Burnham which beautifully illustrated everything I’ve been saying about the impending disaster of his leadership of the Labour Party. There’s lots to talk about here, so let’s begin. We’ll start with the headline, which often times in a newspaper article is a little unfair on the interviewee since […]
Why the Tories gagging of the civil service is a bad idea
The Tories have introduced some changes to the civil service code this week I have a feeling they rather hoped would fly under the radar. The changes mean that any civil servant who is caught speaking to the press without the written consent of a minister could face the sack. This is very bad for […]
A Charlie Brown Christmas 2: Nativity in Blood
For anyone who had a North American childhood, this time of year calls up memories of the many television specials that dotted the landscape annually. There was “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, a wonderful twenty-minute cartoon in which Boris Karloff voiced a green goblin Scrooge-like creature. This was unfortunately partially ruined by a DNA-changingly awful […]
Yvette Cooper’s speech on immigration: Left and Right reach an illiberal consensus
Yvette Cooper gave a speech on immigration today. It was one of the most disheartening things I’ve encountered this parliament, and that’s amazing given, as Nick Clegg once so beautifully put, it’s a shitty time to be a liberal. I’ll summarise as best I can: according to Yvette, there is a group of “liberal […]
Holiday in Beirut, part two
We headed out of town, south, past the Hezbollah controlled suburbs. Driving past them on the motorway gave me the same feeling previously felt when going past South American shanty towns, or actually come to think of it a bit like scooting past South-Central Los Angeles in the same fashion. These southern suburbs have been […]
What the Polish MEP joining UKIP’s group in Brussels means – and how it isn’t what everyone says it means
UKIP was very recently on the verge of having its grouping in the European Parliament, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy, essentially disbanded. The members of the group would have lost out on what amounts to around a million quid in funding as well as having allotted parliamentary time to make speeches on the […]