BY PAUL T HORGAN Rishi Sunak. Remember him? It may be the relentless pace of news, replacing the legacy analogue cycle of four discrete opportunities for the average person to catch up on the news, that makes it seem that Mr Sunak was Prime Minister a eon ago. It was only 14 months ago that he lost the General Election. Sunak went into the polls … Continue reading Did Sunak Throw the 2024 General Election?
BY STEWART SLATER It has not been an edifying experience. As the country’s carnival of democracy slouches towards its inevitable ending, it is hard to say that it is much better for it. We have learned nothing to make us think well of the political class; they appear, given the amount of obfuscation from both sides, not to think well of the electorate. Britain looks … Continue reading A Foolish Consistency
BY ALEX STORY Sunak was the first man who lost his way to Downing Street. He won’t be the last one to lose his way out, thankfully. The end game in politics for the current Prime Minister is approaching fast. The poison which set the Tory party on the path to self-destruction was injected by Osborne, Hague and Cameron in the body of this ancient … Continue reading Between a Rock and a Hard Place
BY EFFIE DEANS I have not been following the election campaign closely. This is partly because I no longer watch television. You should try it. Like giving up sugar in tea after a while you no longer miss it. But mainly it is hard to get interested in a contest that is over before it starts. Also, I have more important things to do. At … Continue reading Are We There Yet?
Gareth Wyn Jones is the nation’s favourite farmer. Born in the beautiful Carneddau mountains in North Wales, he has lived all his life at Ty’n Llwyfan, the windswept slopes where his family have farmed for 350 years. Today he lives there with his wife and three kids. Gareth’s YouTube videos are well known – he has 2.1 million followers on the channel. This year Gareth … Continue reading The Gareth Wyn Jones Interview
BY KEER LONSDALE While watching a heated debate on GB News about the future of the Elgin Marbles, full of narrow thinking on both sides, I found myself slipping into the soft embrace of sleep. And as I slept, a vision presented itself before me. A dream, so life-like and memorable, that it still makes my head reel to recall it. In my dream a … Continue reading The Elgin Marbles: A Solution
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 ALEX STORY A picture, as the saying goes, is worth a thousand words. A few months ago, one was taken in Yorkshire, in Rishi Sunak’s constituency. In it, the Prime Minister stands in the middle of a courtyard. Around him are a handful of conservative activists. He looks desperate for attention and affection, a cramped half smile frozen on his melancholy face – to … Continue reading Certain Defeat Over Potential Defeat
Dear Mr Sunak, The totemic issue of our times is freedom. All political nostra come down to this: Freedom to do what we want – so long as our actions do not physically harm anyone else. The freedom of the individual should be sacrosanct. Yet the freedom to travel, raise a family, start a business, publish and broadcast, to live unfettered is all under threat. … Continue reading Letter from the Countryside
BY ALEX STORY The sirens are calling us to surrender territory for peace. The Windsor Framework rips the United Kingdom apart and robs us of our sovereign dignity. Northern Ireland is to be thrown to the European Union wolves and subjected to rule by diktat. The United Kingdom will have to consult the European Union if it wishes to pass a law that might lead … Continue reading The Constant Lie
BY ALEX STORY As Mr Sunak and Mrs Van Der Leyen shook hands on a “historic deal” that will still keep Northern Ireland in the European Union’s regulatory orbit and strip the United Kingdom of her territorial integrity, the facts are now beyond dispute. Our politicians and bureaucrats, the former’s puppet masters, do not work for our common good. In their minds, as we know … Continue reading Wishful Thinking
BY STEWART SLATER Money is, according to those sage observers of the public finances Simply Red, too tight to mention. Inflation stalks the land, the tax take is at multi-decade highs and the public debt is, more or less, enough to buy the entire annual output of India, the world’s fifth biggest economy. It was, therefore, odd for the Prime Minister, never slow to flaunt … Continue reading Rishesse Oblige
BY IAN MITCHELL Readers wondering in amazement that Nicola Sturgeon has again put forward a measure which she must have known was going to be knocked back by the United Kingdom government need to understand her background and political personality. Her tactics with the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which was vetoed on Monday night by the British government, have caused surprise. To me, as … Continue reading Gender Recognition Stooshie
BY ALEX STORY We live in the era of revelation. In earlier times, politicians hid their scorn from us, the people, behind smiles, heartfelt assurances and thick curtains. Betraying your country was, whilst par for the course, something that needed to be done discreetly. On the 13th December 2007, for instance, Gordon Brown, signed the Lisbon Treaty, the revamped and rejected European Constitution, alone and … Continue reading The Era of Revelation
THE CITY GRUMP In keeping with the spirit of the times, here is a warning: Some Readers may find some of the following content upsetting and the characters portrayed, disturbing. Having read this article, those readers may wish to seek help but I am unable to say where they may go for such. After the swift ejection of the Truss/ Kwarteng combo, the general consensus … Continue reading The Castration of Capitalism
BY EFFIE DEANS Politics is partly about opinions and persuading others to vote for those opinions, but it is much more about truth. In an election we are faced with a choice between Labour and the Conservative parties. Each puts forward a set of policies and personalities and the voters choose between them. It’s partly a matter of taste. Do you prefer the Left to … Continue reading In Liz We Trust
BY PAUL NEWALL If you watched Andrew Neil’s interview with the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, last week you will have seen Neil ask how much current net zero plans would cost. Apparently it’s circa £1 trillion. I think that is quite a chunk of change. But is this the only cost ? The current population of the earth is around 7 billion. The way that the … Continue reading The Green Massacre?
THE CITY GRUMP “Current existing systems massively reward high status well connected people” As usual Dominic Cummings hit the nail on the head when answering a question on checks and balances in front of the Science and Technology Committee last week (I sometimes fantasise over what could have been achieved if the Blessed Margaret had worked with Cummings instead of our current dissembling PM). I … Continue reading What’s Eating British Capitalism?
THE CITY GRUMP In 2008, the central bankers grew the Magic Money Tree, technically known as Quantitative Easing (QE). It is their opioid “gift” to all of us and most of the Western World has been hooked on it ever since. For a while it looked as if we could kick the habit but then along came the pain of the pandemic, brought to us … Continue reading Cutting Down The Magic Money Tree
