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website, an internet forum in which members of the public are invited to discuss the laws they would like to see repealed and the civil liberties they would like to see restored.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 »
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 »
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 »
An aide to the Prime Minister spreads some nasty gossip in a private email to a blogger. The blogger’s emails are hacked, the emails are leaked to another blog, and the aide resigns. It’s a juicy and very modern tale of a spin doctor getting a taste of his own medicine. But is it really [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized, bbc, conservatives, davidcameron, jonathanbirch, journalism, labour, ukpolitics on April 12th, 2009 | No Comments »
This is absolutely brilliant. Not because I feel the country is necessarily crying out for a constitution, nor because I feel it would be particularly beneficial, but because the hand-over programme appears to finally be unfolding with consummate political skill. A discrete day for the retrospectives of Blair’s term in office (which are generally far [...]
Filed under: constitution, davidcameron, democracy, gordonbrown, labour, ukpolitics on May 12th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
In recent posts I’ve been sceptical about an anyone-but-Gordon succession for Labour after Blair. However, this book review by David Miliband on Anthony Gidden’s new book is well worth reading.
I’m very impressed by Miliband’s diagnosis of New Labour’s failings. My concern about Miliband has been that I couldn’t see what he had to offer [...]
Filed under: davidcameron, davidmiliband, gordonbrown, labour, ukpolitics on March 26th, 2007 | No Comments »
The Independent on Sunday ran with this article leading, at least in the rural village where I obtained a copy. If you can’t be bothered to read it all (and I don’t blame you) it is an apology for a cannabis legalisation campaign that the Independent ran in the 1990s, which retracts the earlier position, [...]
Filed under: crime, davidcameron, health on March 19th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
To be fair, David Cameron would annoy me simply by being a Tory. But his pronouncements on family life last week managed to up the ante somewhat.
According to Cameron’s measured analysis, families are in ‘deep trouble’. . Luckily, he wants to help. Not for nothing is Cameron an ex-PR man. [...]
Filed under: davidcameron, ukpolitics on February 26th, 2007 | 16 Comments »
I imagine David Cameron is secretly rather pleased that his cannabis smoking at Eton has come out. While he may have shocked some of the Tory old guard, he will be counting on gaining credibility with the people he’s really trying to impress – younger, floating voters who probably smoke the odd illicit spliff [...]
Filed under: davidcameron, gender, health, religion on February 11th, 2007 | No Comments »
