In amongst all of the elections going on the North East is electing 2 new Mayors in May. On Teesside Ben “Porkbarrel” Houchen, the Conservative incumbent has a fight on with Labour’s Chris “honest and sensible” McKewan. No guessing how I would be voting for, if I still lived down there. The rest of the … Read more
Britain never really loved the EU. We didn’t join the Common Market because we loved Europe or bought into a pan European vision, We signed up because we were in the doledrums as a nation. We had lost an Empire, and not really worked out a role in the world. The excitement of the 60s … Read more
This week Rachel Reeves delivered the Mais lecture, setting out Labour’s economic policy. For those who don’t follow such things the Mais lecture takes place at the Bayes business school in London, and for a future Chancellor of the Exchequer this is a big thing. This is where Nigel Lawson explained Thatcherism, Gordon Brown … Read more
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