All five Labour leadership candidates are interviewed in this Saturday’s Independent. It could almost be a spoof from Tory head office. Ed and David give identical answers more than once: closer to ‘Two Little Boys’ than Cain and Abel. Both of them name their parents as the greatest influence on their political careers. Diane Abbott [...]
Filed under: davidmiliband, edmiliband, labour, ukpolitics on August 30th, 2010 | No Comments »
The serialisation of Lord Mandelson’s memoirs, eerily entitled The Third Man, in The Times has attracted the expected attention of the Westminster world. Despite the enhanced level of detail contained within the dark reaches of Lord Mandelson’s book concerning the Blair-Brown feud—barely scandalous after thirteen years of New Labour—Lord Mandelson’s account of his former government [...]
Filed under: corruption, gordonbrown, ukpolitics on July 14th, 2010 | No Comments »
At 8.05 this morning, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg unveiled his latest pet project: the Your Freedom website, an internet forum in which members of the public are invited to discuss the laws they would like to see repealed and the civil liberties they would like to see restored. At 8.30, I signed up, fearing [...]
Filed under: civilliberties, conservatives, davidcameron, jonathanbirch, ukpolitics on July 1st, 2010 | No Comments »
Before the election, a ministerial post must have seemed a distant pipe dream to Clare Fellow Julian Huppert. Now, a few dramatic weeks later, it still is, but the pipe is considerably shorter.
19 Liberal Democrats have jobs in David Cameron’s government. As the new Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge (and one of four Clareites [...]
Filed under: jonathanbirch, libdems, ukpolitics on June 10th, 2010 | No Comments »
When the exit polls came in on election night I saw the same reaction from everyone watching: total shock. Their astonishment was not at the projected hung Parliament we had all been expecting, or at the Tory lead over Labour, but at the thought that the Lib Dems, whose ascendancy had apparently been the story [...]
Filed under: conservatives, labour, libdems, ukpolitics on May 22nd, 2010 | No Comments »
The Labour Party is at a crossroads. It has lost an election, and lost power, but its position is far from disastrous. Labour has nearly a hundred more MPs than the Tories did in 1997, and its in-fighting over the last few years has been nowhere near as debilitating as Tory civil war was in [...]
Filed under: labour, ukpolitics on May 14th, 2010 | No Comments »
Interesting times. With an extraordinary Con-Lib coalition about to be finalised, David Cameron and Nick Clegg must be all but salivating at the prospect of imminent power as a forlorn Gordon Brown skulks off into obscurity and Labour braces itself for a spell in opposition.
It looks like a catastrophe for the outgoing government. But [...]
Filed under: conservatives, davidcameron, jonathanbirch, labour, ukpolitics on May 11th, 2010 | No 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 »
The surge of support for the Liberal Democrats over the last week is proof of an extraordinary political coup, pulled off by the Labour Party. When people cast their votes on May 6th they will cast them not for or against the government, but for or against the Conservatives. David Cameron is the central figure [...]
Filed under: conservatives, davidcameron, labour, libdems, ukpolitics on April 23rd, 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 »
