BY PAUL R BRIAN Much has been made of the urban-rural split and the vote breakdown for Brexit. Broadly speaking: many Londoners and urbanites wanted to remain in the EU, while many country-dwellers and small city folks wanted to leave. Plenty of convincing analyses have been made of the socioeconomic reasons for this, but one aspect which hasn’t been focused on is the success of … Continue reading Performative Politics
BY EFFIE DEANS France is a rather odd place. It is not merely the chunk of the European continent across the Channel. It also includes two islands in the Caribbean, Guadeloupe and Martinique, a little bit of South America, French Guiana, and two islands in the Indian Ocean, Réunion and Mayotte. These are part of France in just the same way as Picardy and Normandy. … Continue reading Macron’s Geography Lesson
BY STEWART SLATER How do you solve a problem like Sir Keir? With an approval rating of –48% in the latest Yougov poll, something needs to be done, but what? Perhaps he needs more policies – there is a plethora of think tanks which can supply those. Perhaps he needs to appear a bit less stiff – there are plenty of left-leaning comedians happy to … Continue reading Labour’s Poshness Paradox
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN There are people who are always wrong – Carole Cadwalladr, Owen Jones, Peter Jukes, Polly Toynbee, Marina Hyde – and they serve a useful purpose in life in that you can set truth by their polar opposite. The dangerous people are the ones who are right only some of the time – the “almost right” – who lull you into trusting them … Continue reading Blair Forever Almost Right
BY ALEXIA JAMES Last week’s election results were a shot in the arm for the Conservative Party. Hartlepool was a great success while gaining Northumberland Council was also a positive step forward – in 2017, the Tories had lost overall control of the council. Glen Sanderson, Conservative leader of Northumberland County Council, said he believed the party had “steady” and “solid” leadership following a turbulent … Continue reading Tory Recruitment Deficiencies Laid Bare
BY PAUL NEWALL I don’t know about you, but I was quite disappointed at the Tory landslide victory on the 6th of May, not because I’ve returned to my Bolshevik roots, more that for the first time in over 20 years we have no meaningful opposition and that isn’t healthy for our democracy. In 1997, Tony Blair found himself standing on a Labour landslide with … Continue reading Election Blues
BY JON ALEXANDER The last few days have shown us that the country still doesn’t have an appetite for the Labour Party, Boris and his Conservatives are still popular and again we are going to be treated to another Labour civil war. You will read numerous analyses from across the political spectrum about the problems the Labour Party has and why it’s struggling, everything from … Continue reading Left in Pieces
The Labour Party was formed to support the working classes, not the upper-middle-dinner-party-chattering classes of North London. The people aren’t terribly impressed with your work at the CPS, ignoring calls to charge Jimmy Savile, suppressing prosecutions of organised mass paedophilic rape gangs and representing various criminals in expensive cases against the British government and people over the years. We’re also not awfully impressed at your ‘taking … Continue reading Message for Keith
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The countryside versus the town is a phony battle that has been conjured repeatedly over the ages, mostly as an excuse by opportunist charlatans and self-preservers who generally had a foot in both. Nonetheless, there is something increasingly perverse about those who rarely leave the perimeter of the M25 casting judgement on those distant swathes of green where their crops are grown, … Continue reading The New Countryside Roar
Political betting might seem like a novelty, but it actually has a long history dating back to 18th-century Britain. Back then, it was a way to make the election process more inclusive for the people and their communities. Now, it is part of the sports betting category, which has experienced tremendous growth due to technological developments, while also being a leisure activity and possibly a … Continue reading A Short Insight into Brits and Political Betting
BY EMILY SMITH An unnamed police officer with 20 years of service has talked about why they have decided to quit the job after two decades of serving the public. Generally, morale in the police is low. Officers are having to endure policing the pandemic against a backdrop of never-ending overtly biased negative media coverage. These factors, combined with a dramatic rise in the number … Continue reading I’m Done
BY JAMES BEMBRIDGE Haunting the Prime Minister throughout the corona crisis have been the ghosts of crises past: Blair, Brown and May. Voices one would only risk hearing at after dinner speeches were it not for a media all too ready to resurrect them. We could add Major to this list, but it seems he is watching the cricket more nowadays – his carping from … Continue reading Backseat Drivers
BY EFFIE DEANS My initial reaction to Alex Salmond’s revelations was to be underwhelmed. The rather long, boring legalistic text that he intends to submit to the Inquiry has nothing juicy. We don’t find out that Nicola Sturgeon knew about Alex Salmond’s behaviour in 2014. We don’t find out that she has been leading a rather scandalous double life. We don’t find out that she … Continue reading Salmond V Sturgeon
THE CITY GRUMP I am not a fan of Donald Trump. It has been evident for years now that he is immature, narcissistic and obsessed by power, which is of course why his foreign policy has been such a great success. It takes one to know one and the autocracies of China, Iran, North Korea, etc certainly met their match in him. Accordingly when the … Continue reading The Rattled West
BY PAUL T HORGAN Of course this is not the first time that the US Congress building has been successfully stormed by a hostile force. Back in 1814 the British Army mounted a raid on the American capital as part of the clearly incorrectly-named War of 1812. While the Redcoats respected the property of private individuals, no such mercy was shown to federal buildings, which … Continue reading Westminster Must Not Fall
