BY STEWART SLATER Like George Nathaniel Curzon, David Cameron is a most superior person. His face is pink, his hair is sleek. He may even (for all I know) dine at Blenheim once a week. Unlike “Dear George”, Dave became Prime Minister but the former would gain some comfort, I am sure, from having been Viceroy of India and a Marquess rather than having to … Continue reading It’s Dave’s World
BY STEWART SLATER I have a friend. This might be hard for those of you who read my articles to believe, but there you go. People are odd. To spare his blushes, let us call him “Robert”. Robert is, like me, at that stage where others refer to him as middle-aged. He prefers “Late Youth” and expends considerable time and sweat in confirming this (to … Continue reading A Wasted Reshuffle
BY PAUL T HORGAN The return of David Cameron to front-line politics has elicited strong reactions from all areas of the political spectrum. On Sunday it was inconceivable that Cameron would be anything other than a former Prime Minister, travelling the lecture circuit and sitting on the board of numerous organisations while acting as a consultant for others. Elevation to a Knight of the Garter … Continue reading The Return of the King
BY STEWART SLATER Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is no longer a name to conjure with. But, had history worked out just slightly differently, its bearer would bestride the world if not like a colossus, then almost certainly as the German Chancellor. For, at the turn of the last decade, Karl-Theodor was the coming man – German Defence minister, Focus magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 2010 … Continue reading Mistakes Were Made
BY DANIEL JUPP In 1931 fourteen Soviet economists were put on trial. They were accused of trying to form a ‘counter-revolutionary’ political party, and of plotting against the legitimate authority of the Communist Party and its leader, Joseph Stalin. To use a phrase familiar from more recent show trials, these men were accused of being insurrectionists. In dictatorships and regimes, affiliation with any other party … Continue reading The Problem with Being Polite
BY EFFIE DEANS There is probably nowhere in the world which has had such a long and on the whole successful experiment with socialism as Israel. In no other western country that I can think of are there anything like the kibbutzim in Israel. Here are small experiments in socialism which to various degrees put into practice the ideals of shared ownership, collective living and … Continue reading The Left Has Disgraced Itself Over Israel
BY STEWART SLATER We do not live in a Golden Age of political sloganeering. “Long term decisions for a brighter future”, the Conservatives’ current effort is dull, forgettable and a bit silly – who would proclaim their willingness to take short-term decisions for a bleaker future? The Lib Dems effort, “For a Fair Deal” probably sounded ok the first time it was used. By Harry … Continue reading Dreams of Futures Past
BY STEWART SLATER There is something in the air. A steady drumbeat growing steadily louder. What had been a whisper is now a steady chorus. The adults are back. Serious people are on the cusp of retaking politics and doing serious things after that unfortunate interregnum when the children (plebs? There is always an air of class-based sneering about these things) gained control and messed … Continue reading The Populism of Centrists
BY PAUL T HORGAN You read it here first. This is not an exclusive based on any declaration, but on a rational examination of the facts. Jeremy Corbyn will not stand in his Islington North constituency at the next General Election. If Corbyn did, he would probably be re-elected. Corbyn has a massive personal following. But he will not stand. The first, but not most … Continue reading Corbyn Will Not Stand at the Next General Election
BY ALEX STORY “Farage is a pygmy” wrote Will Hutton in a tweet a few days before Dame Alison Rose resigned from her post as CEO of NatWest, the partially state-owned British bank. A few days later, she resigned, admitting she was the source of an inaccurate briefing about Nigel Farage’s finances to the media. Her position was untenable. She broke client confidentiality, smeared one of … Continue reading Double Standards as a Symptom
BY PAUL T HORGAN There have been three by-elections and the spoils have been shared between the three main English parties, one apiece. What is strange is how the results have been reported. Rather than provide both the number of votes of candidates, and also the percentages, major media organisations, and the BBC in particular, have just been providing percentages: There is no good reason … Continue reading BBC, Show Us the Voter Numbers!
BY ALEX STORY Coutts lied. The BBC and the Financial Times, among others, amplified the lie. Nigel Farage’s bank account closure, they had said two weeks ago, was simply down to business. BBC journalists Simon Jack and Daniel Thomas incuriously wrote, “Nigel Farage fell below the financial threshold”. Financial Times correspondents George Parker, Robert Smith and Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan noted that Coutts had financial eligibility criteria. … Continue reading The Lie that Reveals
BY PAUL T HORGAN Not only have the press written off the Conservatives winning the next General Election, it seems that large sections of the Conservative Party have also done so. There are a record number of Conservative MPs standing down at the next General Election. Sir Keir Starmer seems to have succeeded in his aim of creating a tribute act to New Labour. Like … Continue reading The Politics of Freakery
BY PAUL T HORGAN The first Godfather movie in the trilogy is essentially a tale of three betrayals. The first betrayal is by Paulie, a Corleone soldier and the Don’s chauffeur, who calls in sick, and thus leaves the hapless Fredo with escort and driving duties. Don Vito narrowly escapes assassination as he walks to his car, but is instead badly woulded, when, if Paulie … Continue reading Boris’s Banishment & the Business of Betrayal
BY STEWART SLATER Right, deep breath. Firstly, are you OK? It feels strange. I imagine a lot of you have been feeling like I have – shaken, troubled, let down, full of questions. I refer, of course, not to the nation’s favourite silver-haired gopher-botherer (and if you are upset about him, I suggest you grow up), but to its blond-haired feather-ruffler, Boris Johnson. For, as … Continue reading The Once & Future PM?
BY ALEX STORY A few years ago, our leaders had the good taste of lying to our faces and plotting for failure behind our backs. They pretended to care. We believed them. And, as such, given the constant failure to deliver on promises, we called them incompetent. Then, the day after the Brexit referendum, the theatre of politics was revealed. The truth, after years in … Continue reading Failure Turned Policy in the UK
BY EFFIE DEANS It is terribly important both for the world and for Joe Biden that he ceases to be president when his term ends. It is cruel and unusual punishment that a man obviously suffering from dementia should be expected to do any more than relax at home. It is dangerous that such a man is president when the world faces a serious threat … Continue reading No Sex Please, We’re Scottish
BY DANIEL JUPP The EU display drag queen, sado-masochistic bondage fetish ‘artwork’ that includes a Last Supper composed entirely of freaks and a naked black Christ on the Cross entwined with a naked white man. A few points occur to me: First, it’s not so crazy to call these people Satanic. That’s exactly what they are, that’s exactly what they are doing. They are conducting … Continue reading The EU & Moral Relativism
BY STEWART SLATER Dog whistles work because they are inaudible to humans. Accusing a politician, therefore, of using “dog-whistle politics” – couching a (usually controversial) message to their core supporters in terms the general public do not notice – is formally self-refuting for doing so implies that it can be understood not just by the target audience, but also by the opposition. If that is … Continue reading Trumpocalypse Now
BY STEWART SLATER Bill Hamilton and George Price were eccentrics. Hamilton would die after an expedition to the Congo to prove his thesis that HIV arose from the oral polio vaccine, while Price cut through his carotid artery with a pair of nail scissors. However, they were scientists and so eccentricity was no barrier either to pursuing a successful career or to producing important work. … Continue reading Diane Abbott’s Spiteful Victimhood
