It’s easy to be seduced by the prospect of change and fairness. After all, who wouldn’t say “Yes to Fairer Votes”, as supporters of the Alternative Vote arrogantly exhort us to do? Are we really expected to believe that all supporters of First Past the Post are deliberately resisting greater fairness? Fairness, of course, depends [...]
Filed under: constitution, democracy, electoralreform, ukpolitics on May 4th, 2011 | No Comments »
We all love to hate bakers - in fact, we hate bankers more than we hate politicians, which is saying something. This will not, I promise, be an attempt to defend the risky, arrogant and immoral behaviour exemplified by the city’s best in the last few years. I, like most people, would love to see [...]
Filed under: business, deficit reduction, global financial crisis on January 28th, 2011 | 2 Comments »
No matter how hard I try, I can’t help defending the Liberal Democrats, a party for which I have no political affection. But, as students gather for more protests today, they once again need a reality check.
No single party won the general election, and the formation of a coalition government means that no party can [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized, electoralreform, libdems, tuitionfees on November 24th, 2010 | No Comments »
New Labour was pronounced dead on Saturday as Ed Miliband professed his desire to take the party in a different direction. The era of Blair, Brown, and Miliband senior is over, and so now seems the perfect opportunity to reflect on its record, beginning with the election of Tony Blair as Labour leader in 1994, and [...]
Filed under: crime, defence, education, gordonbrown, health, labour, tonyblair on September 30th, 2010 | No Comments »
After the thrill of the election campaign and the euphoria of the first TV debate came the disappointment of election night for the Lib Dems as they lost seats and failed to make great inroads into the vote share. Given that they now sit in government, with five ministers around the cabinet table and (at [...]
Filed under: conservatives, libdems, nickclegg on September 22nd, 2010 | 2 Comments »
An inseparable novelty duo, embraced by an adoring nation in the wake of 90 minutes of TV, and propelled from being rank outsiders to serious contenders. If this election campaign really is the start of “X-Factor politics”, then enter Jedward. Nick Clegg and Vince Cable find themselves and their party at the front of the [...]
Filed under: libdems, nickclegg, ukpolitics on April 30th, 2010 | No Comments »
Yes, it was original, yes, it was interesting, but did it tell me anything new? Absolutely not. The UK’s very first leaders’ TV debate was, for me at least, something of a flop and I cannot understand the great enthusiasm it seems to have generated, particularly in favour of Nick Clegg. If the debate served [...]
Filed under: davidcameron, democracy, gordonbrown, nickclegg, ukpolitics on April 16th, 2010 | No Comments »
