Mind the Gap
I was happily enjoying a solitary lunch in an Italian restaurant the other day (a very nice minestrone as it happens), when my solitude was interrupted by the proprietor wanting to chat – it was a quiet day. Well, you have to be polite so I indulged him even though his English is only marginally better than my Italian. He wanted to talk politics, so having stumbled through Brexit (he’s in favour) and Boris (I’m…
The Nation Waits
Following the first round of the Conservative leadership election, in which Boris Johnson received more votes than the next three most popular candidates put together, Tory leadership hopefuls have refused to step down from the contest so that Boris can be anointed leader, and instead insist on continuing with the protracted process of choosing a new Tory leader, despite it being obvious they have no real prospect of beating Boris and despite it being obvious…
Building from the Bottom Up!
The dust has now settled following the local government elections and the European Union parliamentary elections of last month, but in Britain we are still in a state of political flux: due in part to the impending resignation of Theresa May; the consequent election of her replacement as Tory leader and prime minister, and the looming end date for the Article 50 process by which we are to ostensibly leave the EU. I say ‘ostensibly’…
As May Staggers On – Opportunity Knocks and the Poisoned Chalice Beckons
More than a week after we were supposed to have left the European Union, and more than a week after solicitor Robin Tilbrook, head of the English Democrats Party maintains that legally we did leave the EU, Theresa May is still just about managing to slither over or under, or around all of the obstacles placed in her way, and to stumble on in the insistent and blinkered belief that her Brexit deal is ‘The…
Evil Begets Evil
So who is to blame for the dead of Christchurch? The man who pulled the trigger of course. But apart from him? The media know exactly whom to blame – the “extreme Right” of course ; “neo-Nazi thugs” and White Supremacists involved in some world wide conspiracy of “hate”. The conspiracy of white supremacist hate extends a surprisingly long way – Sky News reports managed to drag in mentions of Tommy Robinson and even Nigel…
Trump, Brexit, Immigration & Genuine, 100%, Copper-bottomed, ‘Fake News’!
In the manner of all good farces and melodramas, these passed ten days have seen Prime Minister Theresa May ambush her cabinet at Chequers in the most Machiavellian fashion, cowing them momentarily with threats of short shrift, sackings and mini-cab rides home if they didn’t submit to coercion over the Brexit deal she has planned, only for a series of high drama resignations to follow, and for her to be wrong-footed by an all guns…
Batten Down the Hatches
Max Musson’s article on the disastrous ineptitude of the Conservative campaign in the recent general election leads me on to explore one or two further implications of the debacle – and it was a debacle no matter how much Mrs. May’s supporters protest that she actually won the election – perhaps she did, technically, but we all know who really won it. In Paul Nuttall’s resignation speech he said that within eighteen months Ukip would be “bigger than ever”…
What Now?
Many of us will have suffered a sense of deja vue as news came through of Ukip’s wipeout in the local elections. Although on a vastly greater scale, the disaster was all too reminiscent of the BNP’s obliteration at the general and local elections of 2010. While we could debate the cause of the BNP’s decline and fall – if it still mattered – there can be no doubt about the cause of Ukip’s eclipse. It is perceived…
Electoral Folly and Corruption in the Potteries
On 13th January this year and following significant policy differences with party leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour MP for the constituency of Stoke-on-Trent Central, Tristram Hunt, resigned his seat and announced that he is to take up the position of Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, thus triggering a by-election to be held on 23rd February. Stoke-on-Trent Central has been a solidly Labour ward throughout the last sixty-years or more and so one might…
The River in Spate
Many little rivulets join to form a stream and many streams join together in a river which, when it floods, will sweep away all in its path. Many of us laboured for many years for the BNP or the NF or other nationalist organisations, leafleting, canvassing, trudging along to ill attended meetings in the back rooms of bleak pubs, willingly paying contributions which sometimes we could little afford. All it seemed for nothing as nationalist movement after…