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Keir Starmer’s Woes and Media Magnification
Few in history can have achieved so much in a negative sense in so short a time. Instead of gloatingly cresting the wave of success after securing British Labour a resounding, decisive victory in July 2024, Sir Keir Starmer is schooling us in precipitous decline. John Gray, that most erratic, protean of prophets, was already […]
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“Straight as a Die”: Giving Starmer a Free Pass
The BBC’s banner headline reporting the UK’s 4 July general election result was clear: ‘Chris Mason: “Starmer tsunami” and civility after brutality’ This alliterated nicely but gave the misleading impression that there had been a massive display of public support for Starmer. Mason’s own analysis pointed elsewhere: ‘The story of this election is one of […]
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In Westminster at Last: The Threat of Nigel Farage
“This is the inflection point,” warned Nigel Farage last month as he assumed the reins of power at the incarnated Reform UK party, standard bearer of the often inchoate group known as the hard right of British politics. “The only wasted vote is a Conservative one. We are the challengers to Labour. We are on […]
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Massacre at the Ballot: The Punishing of the Tories
Few would have staked their political fortune, let alone any other sort of reward, on a return of the British Conservatives on July 4. The polls often lie, but none suggested that outcome. The only question was the extent British voters would lacerate the Tories who have been in office for fourteen years, presiding over […]
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Tory Nightmares: The Return of Nigel Farage
Few have exerted as much influence on the tone, and outcome of elections, as Nigel Farage. Fewer have done so while failing to win office. In seven attempts at standing for a seat in the UK House of Commons between 1994 and 2015, the votes to get him across the line have failed to materialise. […]
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Ming Vase Politics: UK Labour and Purging the Corbynistas
By any reckoning, this was the move of a fool. A fool, it should be said, motivated by spite larded with caution. Evidently playing safe, adopting what has been called a “Ming Vase strategy” (hold it with scrupulous care; avoid danger), the British Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer is already laying its own boobytraps […]
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Soaking Sunak Calls the Sodding Election
It was a pitiful sight. Soaked and literally washed-out, the feeble thin British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, made an announcement that caught many in his party by surprise. On July 4, the United Kingdom will be going to the polls. Necks will find themselves in nooses and placed in the guillotine – metaphorically speaking. The […]
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Trussonomics at CPAC
The silly will make print and leave bursts of digital traces; the idiots will make history, if only in small print. One such figure is the shortest serving UK Prime Minister in living memory, the woeful, joke-packed figure of Liz Truss who lasted a mere 50 disastrous days in office. She was even bettered by […]
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Sunak’s Dad’s Army Option: David Cameron Returns
Openly ignored by his incendiary, now ex-Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was left with few options. Retaining her would continue a process of blighting his already precarious prime ministership, suggesting weakness and a distinct lack of authority. Kicking her off the Cabinet front bench would, while reasserting some measure of control, […]
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Starmer is selling Labour to big business; in power he will do the same
What has happened to Britain’s opposition Labour Party under Keir Starmer? The familiar adage “follow the money” helps make sense of the party’s policy shifts ever further rightwards. Labour plumbed new depths earlier this month when it conceded that, in power, it would maintain the government’s cap on child benefit, restricting financial help to the first […]
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