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 »

It was a bill with widespread support in the House, on an issue that virtually no one could object to: a move that would prevent “vulture funds” - i.e. bond speculators who prey on the world’s poor by buying up the debt of foreign countries at a reduced price and then suing the debtor countries [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized, poverty, ukpolitics on March 14th, 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 »

Creative Commons licensed photograph courtesy of Flickr user jgraham.
Even after eleven years, there’s still something a bit shocking about tuition fees. If the vice-chancellors get their way, fees will rise to at least £5000 per student per year. It’s a policy that flaunts its pragmatism on its sleeve. I still think fees defy any principled [...]

Filed under: barackobama, education, jonathanbirch, labour, religion, ukpolitics on March 17th, 2009 | No Comments »

Photograph courtesy of World Economic Forum
Last year I made a fairly failsafe prediction that David Cameron would have a good 2008. Gordon Brown’s contempt for PR was only ever going to boost his public image in the short term: foresaking spin is fine until you have a policy to present or defend (say: a tax [...]

Filed under: jonathanbirch, labour, ukpolitics on September 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »

They always have to go one better, don’t they? The week Europe tries to recreate the Big Bang, America decides to kick off the Big Crunch. In the eye of the storm stands US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson: perhaps the world’s most powerful man, at least for this week. The kind of financial titan we’d [...]

Filed under: gambling, jonathanbirch, labour, ukpolitics, uspolitics on September 16th, 2008 | No Comments »

Photograph courtesy of Flickr user lmg
The messy aftermath of Peter Hain’s resignation will not clear for sometime. Hain has fallen on his sorry sword for not declaring 17 donations in his deputy leadership campaign in time, a feat Gordon Brown disparagingly referred to as “incompetence”. But expect more swords to be self-sharpened in the coming [...]

Filed under: corruption, jackprevezer, labour, ukpolitics on January 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Photograph courtesy of Flickr user *Hiro
Does the West cause Islamic extremism? Is it the war in Iraq what done it, or decades of support for Israel, or centuries of imperialism? In a trivial sense, yes. If we’d done things differently, the consequences would have played out differently. It’s easy to construct stories of how this [...]

Filed under: foreignpolicy, iraq, jonathanbirch, middleeast, ukpolitics on January 24th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

There’s an interesting post over at Marginal Revolution (which is probably the most consistently interesting blog on the planet, so if you don’t read it, start now) about why so many US politicians are lawyers. The phenomenon is not quite as great in the UK though Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Ming Campbell were all [...]

Filed under: education, ideas, ukpolitics on January 24th, 2008 | 1 Comment »