Reform | How Right Wing are they?

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

What just happened?

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

Reform | Do ordinary Brits find it too hard to get a job because employers prefer to hire immigrants?

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

Labour and Tory manifestos | Are they really both the same?

There seems little point in reviewing all of the manifestos as most people by now have made up their minds. Instead I want to address a question I heard a few times. “Labour and Tory are they both the same”? Instinctively the answer is no.. Politics has become incredibly polarised and the gap between Labour … Read more

Are Labour planning to privatise the NHS? | More plucky memes

No. Labour aren’t going to privatise the NHS. I have seen multiple claims on social media that Labour will expand privatisation of the NHS if elected.  Mostly these claims come from the Green Party, or from the anti-Labour left. The leader of the Greens made the same claim in the debate last night. This makes … Read more

Are the Tories trying to lose? | Why is their campaign so bad?

Rishi Sunak called a snap General Election to try and catch Labour on the wrong foot. All he managed to do was wrong foot his own party, leaving them totally unprepared for a campaign which Labour were well up for. By any standards this has been a terrible start to a campaign.  Sunak was caught … Read more

Anti-Labour tactical voting | Will it save some Tories?

A small wet man has called a General Election, and lots of people are looking forward to multiple Portillo moments. For those too young to remember the 1997 General Election Michael Portillo was an unpopular cabinet minister who lost his seat to a young Labour candidate.  It came to symbolise the crushing defeat the Tories … Read more

How Conservatives can win again | The great inheritance

Conservatives are in deep trouble. The British Conservatives were  wiped out in the latest local elections, and face a similar fate in at the coming General Election.   In the US the entire conservative movement is a hostage to the fortunes of Donald Trump, slumped in a court room hearing his most sordid actions read … Read more