Back in April when he was first elected, I wondered how Keir Starmer – an essentially normal politician – would manage as leader of the UK Labour Party in extraordinary political times. Now we are starting to find out, and the picture is a mixed one. At one level all […]
A Minister who had presided over a fiasco as major as Gavin Williamson has with the A-Level results algorithm problems would – in normal times – have either resigned or been sacked. A Special Adviser who had admitted a major breach of lockdown rules would – in normal times – […]
So the UK Government is at it again. Sunak has announced a “world-leading £1.57 billion rescue package to help cultural, arts and heritage institutions” The show must go on. We’re introducing a world-leading £1.57 billion rescue package to help cultural, arts and heritage institutions weather the impact of coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/J3KXUOxJEE […]
I read this tweet earlier: Hearing rumours that Dominic Cummings will get a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. — Christopher Snowdon (@cjsnowdon) June 5, 2020 It had a hundred odd retweets then, and more than a thousand now at the time of writing. It has to be a […]
On BBC Breakfast this morning, recounted by The Guardian here, Robert Jenrick (Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government) said the following: [Dominic Cummings] has given his explanation to the prime minister, who listened and concluded that he’d acted reasonably and legally. The prime minister then asked him to give […]
“Germany’s daily coronavirus cases nearly TRIPLE – states bring back tougher measures” screamed The Express last night. Even some normally level headed friends of mine had fallen for it and shared the piece on Facebook. As I have been in Berlin throughout the lockdown, and follow the news here pretty […]
A 57 year old straight white man, an ex-lawyer and ex-Director of Public Prosecutions, has been elected as leader of the Labour Party. He is married with two children. He is himself one of five, his father was a toolmaker, and he worked his way up the legal profession, and […]
“He doesn’t like not being liked,” said Katie Perrior of Boris Johnson in this 2016 of the then outgoing Mayor of London in this 2016 essay by Jeremy Cliffe. Those words have stuck with me since reading that essay back then, and today it is perhaps time to revisit those […]
⚠️ This is Version 8 of this post, re-written to make it all clearer to read. For the sake of transparency the older Version 3, Version 4, Version 5 and Version 6 of the post can be found here. NOTE the major Best for Britain data update 27 November is now […]
Back a decade ago when I was building websites for politicians as a job, one of my clients wrote the following: I was born in a council house in Kendray, a district of Barnsley, on the 9th April 1955. Apart from my time at university I have always lived in […]
What makes good politics? It has been a sort of obsession of mine over the years, although I have never actually written the question in that way before. On this blog I have looked at the fortunes of the Yes Campaign in Scotland, the Brexit referendum, the Catalan independence movement. […]
At 2251 on 17.10.2017, Jeremy Cliffe tweeted this: Remotely interested in a possible new anti-Brexit party with transformative social-liberal policies? Email "I'm in" to: radicalsuk {at} gmail(.)com — Jeremy Cliffe (@JeremyCliffe) October 17, 2017 At 2316 the Twitter name @RadicalsUK was secured by me, and then I messaged Jeremy. The […]