We are down to the last 2 of the Conservative leadership contest: Badenoch and Jenrick. Two authoritarian right wingers, two cosplay Farages in Halloween fancy dress. The most sensible candidate left in the race, James Cleverley, lost out by 2 votes, apparently a cock up by his supporters who thought he was certain of a … Read more
The first person to be sentenced for rioting was sent down this week. All previous convictions were for lesser offences. The recent anti-imigrant riots were born out of frustration, blended with on-line disinformation, inflammatory rhetoric, Islmaphobia, far right activism. One of the most incendiary, yet widespread, claims was that immigrants, particularly asylum seekers, pose a … Read more
No apologies for a boring bit of health policy This week we heard the full extent of the crisis in the NHS. Lord Ara Darzi’s report listed in detail the impact of 14 years of Conservative Secretaries of State for Health. Thousands died waiting for treatment as waiting lists rose. He highlighted lack of money … Read more
The Conservatives are going to force a vote on Labours plans to cut the Winter Fuel Allowance next week. Some Labour MPs are going to rebel. Older voters are furious and some younger ones too. Politically this is terrible so why are Labour cutting the pensioner winter fuel allowance? This looks exactly the wrong policy … Read more
A month on from far right riots and I thought I would check in on Reform/Farage social media and their crazy bad art. Since the riots Reform and Farage social media has become a lot more careful about posting calls for violence or confrontation. They are, however, convinced that the current Government is illegitimate, … Read more
Last weekend rioters tried to burn down a hotel housing asylum seekers in Wath upon Dearne, near Rotherham. One of the first blogs I ever wrote was about Wath upon Dearne, over 7 years ago: sadly I was too optimistic about it’s future. 40 years ago the biggest employer in Wath was Cortonwood colliery. It … Read more
While researching a blog on the rise of Reform I joined several Reform/Nigel Farage web forums and Facebook groups. What I found was a tidal wave of bad fan art. Not since the peak of Donald Trump MAGAmania has there been so much crazy art created (links are at the bottom of the blog) Reform … Read more
This feels like an odd story to write. Some of my friends are big fans of Reform, and don’t understand why there is so much fuss about them. Other friends regard Reform with horror, the modern equivalent of Oswald Moseley’s British Union of Fascists. No other political party is so polarising. Like it or … Read more
With a couple of days to digest we can start and see some trends emerging from the rubble of the Conservative Party Labour were expected to win a landslide with 40%+ of the vote. In the end they won a landslide with a much lower vote share, with other parties also doing incredibly well. … Read more
Are ordinary Brits disadvantaged in the labour market because of immigration? I realise that most of my liberal graduate friends will automatically reject such an idea, in particular because there is an unstated assumption in the question that the ordinary Brits being hard done by are white, and the immigrants being given preferential treatment aren’t. … Read more