UK Politics

21.11.2007 UK Politics

During this evening of national crisis, Gordon Brown’s Britishness campaign can come into its own

Not a good few days to be a British football fan. No, make that Scottish, English or Northern Irish football fan. England’s abject 3-2 defeat by Croatia at Wembley this evening meant that none of the 4 UK ‘nations’ has

21.11.2007 UK Politics

European Movement re-launch today

Good news today regarding Britain’s relationship with the European Union (I don’t get to say that very often!) The European Movement is re-launching this afternoon in Westminster, with Charles Kennedy as its new Chair. Whatever Kennedy’s background, it cannot be

13.11.2007 UK Politics

And what good work did the British royals do?

2 Spanish cartoonists have been fined for drawing a cartoon depicting the Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia having sex – see the original cartoon here, and the BBC News article. Make of the cartoon what you want, but

01.11.2007 UK Politics

Labour’s terrible month

Today would have been Election Day. As October is now behind us it would be pleasant to be able to draw a line under what has been an awful month for Labour. Yet try as I might, I find it

29.10.2007 UK Politics

When the devolution supporters bang the nationalist drum

Discussions in the Conservative Party about the creation of an English Grand Committee have been causing a bit of a stir in the last few days. As I’ve argued before, these sorts of issues need to be ironed out, but

25.10.2007 UK Politics

Lib Dem blogger paying for Google Adwords to smear back

Seemingly there’s no limit to the efforts to which ‘Lib Dems are always the nice guys‘ Andy Mayer will go to draw attention to Miranda Grell’s appeal over her conviction for electoral offences – he’s listed his own blog using

14.10.2007 UK Politics

Now’s the time for a British Constitutional Assembly / Convention

I can’t do the complex topic of the British Constitution justice in a swift Sunday night blog post, but plenty of concerns about British constitutional structures have been playing on my mind since the Brown ‘non-election’ furore on 6th October,

25.09.2007 UK Politics

A short note on Miranda’s case

I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake writing this as I’ve been away in Belgium for the last 5 days. Contrary to what I had so much hoped Miranda Grell was found guilty of 2 charges of claiming a

06.09.2007 UK Politics

Labour’s class of 1994 – time for a new generation of MEPs?

How long should elected politicians serve? It’s a perennial issue for all levels of government. I’m not in favour of fixed terms of office – that’s for the individuals concerned and especially for the parties themselves to decide. While the

30.08.2007 UK Politics

Thanks Gordon – tolerate the prisoners because we need to control inflation

UK prison officers staged an unofficial strike yesterday. Today came Brown’s response: keeping public sector pay rises low is essential to keep the lid on inflation. OK, that applies to the entire public sector, but will that reassure the prison

26.08.2007 UK Politics

Will Hutton and degenerate Britain: a manifesto for Brown (fat chance)

Will Hutton has penned what can only be described as an eloquent and rational rant in today’s Observer about the irrationalities of the the world’s financial markets – it’s short and well worth a read. The essence of his argument

22.08.2007 UK Politics

The EU and the fraying of Britain’s democracy

So the ‘debate‘ about whether Britain should hold a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty rumbles on. The Tories snipe from one side that this is indeed the same as the European Constitution, a document Blair was ready to put