One of the lesser known parts of a UK General Election are the meetings between the main opposition party and the civil service. In the months approaching a potential change in Government the main opposition party presents it’s programme for government to the civil service. Sometimes, like 1997, this is a detailed programme … Read more
This week saw a new low in the House of Commons. Rishi Sunak, under pressure at Prime Ministers Questions relied on a pre-prepared joke about Labour’s position on Trans people while the mother of murdered Trans teenager Brianna Ghey watched on. The Tory benches honked and sniggered, the opposition looked aghast, realising the crassness of the … Read more
The latest scandal in British politics is the long running tragedy of sub-postmasters. Over the decades the scandal has gone on the number of post offices in the UK has more than halved from 22,500 under Thatcher to around 11,500 now. 99% of all UK post offices are operated by franchise partners or … Read more
Last week I published a very slightly tongue in cheek blog about how the Conservatives might change the outcome of the next election. I hope you don’t mind another one before we get back to serious stuff. On Easter Sunday 2024 The Sunday Telegraph front page has a scoop. Boris Johnson is the new leader of … Read more
I am not a conspiracy theorist, although I love conspiracy theories. Ever since the X Files I have been fascinated by them. I don’t, however, feel the need to believe in them. Except maybe for one political conspiracy theory, about how someone might rig a UK General Election. In 1985 the Representation of the People Act was … Read more
Predictions A Conservative MP will be found guilty of rape/violent sexual assault A Conservative MP will defect to Reform The Conservatives will defend several by-elections and lose all of them (*see below) There will be a UK general election in May. Labour will win with a small, but working majority. There will be widespread Russian … Read more
I started to write this blog when the Government was announcing the financial support package, but developments with Trump over took me. I’m glad I waited until after the mini-budget because the speed of events has meant that anything I had written previously would be out of date by now. Lets go back one … Read more
The tragic death of a boat full of desperate people trying to reach the UK has focused attention on the growing numbers of people crossing the channel in small boats. This has been a problem for months now, and the Governments response has centred on implausible get tough schemes that grab the headlines but which … Read more
The House of Commons is currently pondering whether to start impeachment procedures against Boris Johnson following his disastrous Supreme Court defeat. Ironically Boris Johnson along with George Galloway were behind an attempt to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq War. This attempt failed, but I still get people who tell me that Tony Blair is … Read more