Opinion
Theresa May’s election performance made Anthony Eden look good
By Daniel Khalili-Tari What happened? According to the polls the Conservatives had a lead in the double digits. How could Theresa May, who only in April earlier this year was the most popular politician in the UK, now be having to form a minority government? How could the Prime Minister once praised for her political acuity now be squatting in Downing Street, while Jeremy Corbyn appears on the Andrew Marr show victorious? What happened to her ‘strong and stable’ leadership? How...
How Corbyn went from the worst leader since Michael Foot to the best since Clement Attlee
When Jeremy Corbyn was first elected as Labour leader in 2015 those old enough were quick to ring the alarm bells. "This is Michael Foot all over again" they prophesied, warning how his left-leaning leadership and strongly socialist tone was about to throw the party into political wilderness. Less than two years later results from the General Election show he has increased Labour's vote share by more than any leader since Clement Attlee in '45. A remarkable turnaround, but how was it achieved?...
Forget the papers, this will be remembered as the people’s election
There once was a time when rich newspaper moguls ruled Britain's political scene and pandering to their needs was a sure-fire way of securing a tasty majority in parliament. But on Thursday evening, as the exit polls came in showing that Labour would win 261 seats in the General Election, Rupert Murdoch stormed out of The Times' election party. The days of the "Murdoch machine" reigning supreme, it seems, were over. For the most part coverage of Jeremy Corbyn's campaign this...
In defence of Caitlin Moran: don’t be a c**t
As people queued up to vote yesterday, The Times columnist Caitlin Moran sent Twitter into a mini meltdown by tweeting: “Obviously there’s a more nuanced take on this, but, broadly, voting for Labour = not being a cunt.” As many of her followers retweeted her election day exhortation, others predictably chose to put their noses out of joint on the spikey comment she has since deleted and started tweeting angrily about being #Caitlinscunts. https://twitter.com/SteveJenks63/status/872724089659686912 Other rightwing commentators chose to grab the moral high ground...
Volunteer at homeless shelters, donate to food banks. “Say Chrissy sent you”
On Saturday night, Christine Archibald, a young woman who had given her life to help others, was murdered whilst visiting London from the Calgary homeless project she had worked with; a centre and a city that has been devastated by her loss. Christine Archibald was one of the first victims to be named and, as I read more about her and her work and discovered the news that she had died in the arms of the man she loved on...
Britain has become a nation of two halves
Of all the pictures to emerge from last night's election coverage perhaps the most poignant was one of Theresa May stood next to a black knight as she awaited her constituency results in Maidenhead. For fans of Monty Python she had become the embodiment of the knight who stands legless and armless and insists it "tis but a scratch". The election which was meant to return a comfortable majority for her had failed to return a majority at all, with...
Some Dos And Don’ts If The Tories Win The General Election
@BenGelblum Every time I think of Neil Kinnock’s famous eve of election speech before Margaret Thatcher’s landslide victory in the 1983 General Election it sends a shiver down my spine. Warning of the callous Thatcherism that Britain would suffer if she won, Kinnock’s voice hoarse from campaigning uttered his most famous lines: "I warn you not to be ordinary, I warn you not to be young, I warn you not to fall ill, and I warn you not to grow old." I was...
How will fracking, climate, pollution affect my constituency?
This interactive map below features the climate, fracking and environmental issues in your constituency with a breakdown below of where candidates stand on these issues. With the general election upon us, these are the constituencies where candidates’ positions on fracking, energy, air pollution, airport expansion and climate change issues could be decisive if you are looking for an MP who shares your concerns. Research by Mat Hope ,Deputy Editor of Desmog UK. (View the full interactive map on Google Maps (please note: the link may not...
Could little Britain be about to change the world?
By Nicholas Figgis Over the past few years the World has taken an unnerving shift to the right. The Brexit vote echoed nationalistic populism not seen since the World Wars and across the pond America voted in a President on the back of promises to build walls, spark wars and eschew crucial environmental deals in order to save low-paid jobs. Russia's President Vladimir Putin recently came to blows with France's newly-elected President Emmanuel Macron over gay rights, chemical weapons and alleged cyberattacks. The...