Something good is going come out of the riots: people care about them. No news event since the 1980s has had people so aroused to read the news and try to really understand what has been happening. The events of recent weeks are a challenge to all traditional partisan narratives, and, to put it simply, [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized, conservatives, davidcameron, labour, spendingcuts, tonyblair, ukpolitics on August 16th, 2011 | No Comments »

The “phone-hacking scandal” needs a good name. “Hackgate” or “Phonegate” just won’t cut it — that nomenclature is for little controversies that one wryly compares to Watergate in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. This one actually is like Watergate, and its consequences could be no less far-reaching.
The one thing the scandal isn’t really about — not [...]

Filed under: conservatives, culture, davidcameron, jonathanbirch, journalism, media, ukpolitics on July 18th, 2011 | No Comments »

I’ve spent the last few days squirming on behalf of India, a country I fell in love with during the four months I spent there in 2008. There have been many stories of India’s apparently imminent failure to deliver a successful Commonwealth Games, stories that I know will provoke utter mortification in that intensely patriotic [...]

Filed under: davidcameron, davidmiliband, foreignpolicy, india, media, sport on September 24th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

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website, an internet forum in which members of the public are invited to discuss the laws they would like to see repealed and the civil liberties they would like to see restored.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 »