Tag: Labour

Politics

Starmer’s Process State Is an Escher Universe

BY SEAN WALSH “I am satisfied the relevant processes were followed. The men are ascending and descending at the same time.”— Keir Starmer The English language is pretty useful when it comes to describing things, but it can only do so much. Some things are beyond its scope: the malignant, ordinary-yet-strange quality of the Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, Keir Starmer, for … Continue reading Starmer’s Process State Is an Escher Universe

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Politics

The Sighted Led by the Blind

BY ALEX STORY Rachel Reeves, our Chancellor, has much to ponder ahead of her autumn budget. Larry Summers, an economist, noted a few years ago that the country was “behaving like an emerging market”. He wasn’t talking about rape gangs, shoplifting, or burglaries, though he might have thought it. He was referring specifically to our financial situation. Professor Jagjit Chadha, from the National Institute of Economic and … Continue reading The Sighted Led by the Blind

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Opinion, Politics

Surprising Things

BY ALEX STORY Some things are surprising; others less so. Lord Peter Mandelson spending an inordinate amount of time with the late Jeffrey Epstein, his “best pal”, raises few eyebrows. African leaders asking for “reparations” leaves Britons cold. We have become inured to officialised insanity – dangerously so perhaps. Where once our politicians’ misdemeanours fuelled conversations in pubs across the country, now, in the few … Continue reading Surprising Things

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economy

Quasi Autonomous No Growth Organisations

BY ALEX STORY Ever since the Wall Street Crash of 1929, it has been common for economists to quip that when the United States sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. If it was true then, the opposite must have been as well. If the health of our cousins beyond our shores got ruder, so should our prospects. Whilst the four months old … Continue reading Quasi Autonomous No Growth Organisations

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USA

From a Flat in Pyongyang

BY ALEX STORY Observing Donald Trump’s inauguration as 47th President of the United States from our current ‘United’ Kingdom is like watching Baywatch from a dinky flat in Pyongyang, North Korea’s sorry capital city.   Across the Atlantic is where the fun looks set to be for the next half a decade. Meanwhile, under Starmer’s Titanic captaincy, our decline is assured. It won’t be managed … Continue reading From a Flat in Pyongyang

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Opinion

Awfully Clever

BY STEWART SLATER The Columnists’ Paradox is that the more one writes, the less one need be read. We all have our relatively fixed biases and a reasonably finite store of stories and references, and it does not take too long (longer than my own writing “career” to date though, obviously…) for those to become sufficiently well-known to readers that they can predict with almost … Continue reading Awfully Clever

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Politics

Labour: Can of Nonces

BY NICK PEARCE From scout masters to librarians, the Labour Party has a long and sordid history of councillors getting exposed as paedophiles. With former Labour MP (Former Minister of State for Veterans’ Affairs) Ivor Caplin in the news this weekend for his arrest on suspicion of engaging in sexual communication with a child (see video below), the spotlight has shone once again on Labour’s … Continue reading Labour: Can of Nonces

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Education

The Breakfast Club Dilemma

BY NICK PEARCE In British education, the tug-of-war between governmental initiatives and corporate sponsorship has long been a contentious issue. The recent announcement by the Labour government to delay the rollout of free breakfast clubs in primary schools until at least 2026 is a stark reminder of the complexities and challenges that lie at the intersection of education and corporate influence. The idea of breakfast … Continue reading The Breakfast Club Dilemma

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editorial

The Great Petition

BY THE EDITOR Sir Roger Scruton famously said that the fashion for government by petition is out of step with representative democracy in which representatives are not elected to relay the opinions of their constituents but to represent their interests. Once, on a BBC radio show, he opined that, “The common good, rather than mass sentiment, should be the source of law, and the common … Continue reading The Great Petition

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Social Commentary

Mourning in Silence

BY ALEX STORY In modern day Britain, we are allowed to mourn our murdered children, friends or relatives. We are free to be appalled. We are also permitted to lay flowers by the coagulating blood of our kith and kin, as our political leaders walk solemnly towards the farewell postcards and tear-drenched bouquets for a tight minute of contemplative silence, broken only by the incessant … Continue reading Mourning in Silence

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Education

Sacrificing the Best for Spite

BY JOE NUTT Centuries of Accumulated Soft Power is Being Trashed by a Single Spite-Fuelled Politician. In 1964 a Labour Party minister for education whose name is largely forgotten and truly deserves to be, so he’ll remain nameless here, instructed local education authorities to reorganise secondary schooling along comprehensive lines. Like dutiful sheep, they mostly did. Our current minister for education, Bridget Phillipson, is now … Continue reading Sacrificing the Best for Spite

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Animal Rights

Animal Wrongs

BY JOHN NASH For the benefit of Volk Starmer, the Israel disarmer, and his red (nose) government with the long rubber shoes – what is the difference between human rights and animal rights? That’s easy. Outside the Labour Party, human rights are very, very important, and animal rights do not exist. It’s difficult to explain to politicians using crayons and alphabet blocks, but here goes. … Continue reading Animal Wrongs

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Culture

Don’t Look Back In Anger

BY MAX WALLER After the never-ending demonisation and disregard of the working class by the political class ever since the death of Britpop around 1997, it occurs to me that in Starmer’s Soviet Britain, where he’s promised (paraphrasing ‘New Labour’s’ slogan) that ‘things will only get worse’ and not better, the timing of the ten Oasis concerts spread across London, Manchester, Scotland, and Ireland for … Continue reading Don’t Look Back In Anger

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Politics

The Election of Unelectables

BY NIALL McCRAE The forthcoming general election has had a dire quality of candidates and campaigning – at least from the mainstream parties – but it is also an exciting opportunity to reform British politics. On Wednesday I attended the hustings for the parliamentary seat of Bexhill & Battle, among a group supporting independent candidate Nigel Jacklin. It was both exasperating and enlightening on the … Continue reading The Election of Unelectables

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editorial

The Generally Lacklustre Election, 2024

CSM EDITORIAL Let’s face it, Keir Starmer and his haircut would just about pass muster as transport secretary in Thatcher’s 1987 government. But he’s the only half-competent (whilst dreadfully slippery) player in a side that should have been permanently relegated in 2019. You’ll find more competent characters in the cheap offices in a Slough business park. When Wes ‘Dead-End’ Streeting is Labour’s go-to rescuer, you … Continue reading The Generally Lacklustre Election, 2024

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Politics

The Parties Are Over

BY JOHN DREWRY It’s time to call it a day. The party system has always presented an illusion of democracy, providing an apparent choice between opposing principles, policies and promises. With only a moment’s thought, it is obvious such a system is fatally flawed, at least in the interests of the electorate. Firstly, a party hungers for power rather than office, and will therefore be … Continue reading The Parties Are Over

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countryside

Labour’s Countryside Bunkum

BY SARAH GREENWOOD A response to ‘Labour wants to fully ban fox hunting’ as seen in the newspapers of late. Obviously, the Labour Party hasn’t learned any lessons from its recent history and appears hellbent on making the same mistake that Tony Blair made and came to regret. It appears only Blair regrets anything, because the current wannabe cabinet possesses what they say they don’t … Continue reading Labour’s Countryside Bunkum

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