29/1/10

When David Cameron opened up the process for selecting Tory Members of Parliament, and invited people who had never before considered going into politics, his intention was to change the image of the  party in order to make it more broadly acceptable to the electorate. By convincing more ordinary people to become Tory MPs, Cameron may well achieve that aim, but he may also find that he ends up getting more than he initially bargained for…[Continue Reading]

09/12/09

It appears that the issue of class is rearing its ugly head once again. Labour just can’t leave the wretched subject alone. They refuse to learn the lessons of their shambolic defeat in the Crewe & Nantwich by-election. As Tallyrand famously said of the restored Bourbon kings: “They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing”. Although it is true to say that the social make-up of David Cameron and the majority of his frontbench team is a significant thorn in the side for the Tories, abusing the Leader of the Opposition during PMQs for his Etonian schooling is not only unedifying, but it is also counterproductive from the Prime Minister’s point of view….[Continue Reading]

Having been out and about campaigning for Labour Party candidates in both Sheffield and Manchester this week, I got a sense of core Labour voters’ attitudes to both the party and the current state of politics…[Continue reading]

 The election of David Cameron as Prime Minister, coupled with his plans to reduce the size of Parliament by 10%, and the pressure on the devolved budgets will all conspire to increase the momentum behind calls from the SNP to hold a referendum on Scottish independence sometime in Spring/Summer 2010. A smaller Parliament in Westminster, and the loss of crucial support in Scotland following a ‘Yes’ vote for independence, could turn Gordon Brown into the last Labour Prime Minister. His only chance to prevent political oblivion is to hold a referendum on electoral reform…[Continue Reading]

The Sun is the UK’s most popular (by circulation) daily newspaper, reaching over three million people each day. Whatever people think of it as a journalistic institution, it is undoubtedly part of the national makeup and it has been suggested that it can even decide the fate of elections.  What does this mean for the general election? and Labour inparticular? …[Continue Reading]