Opinion
Most Brits want to welcome refugees, isn’t it time our government did?
I doubt refugees in Calais know it’s #WorldRefugeeDay, but they have still marked the occasion - Border Force officials tell us that 163 people have arrived on the coast of Kent this month, the largest number in any one month so far. And just like every time we hear a news report about migrants crossing the English Channel, a Home Office spokesman has made the same comment: "It is an established principle that those in need of protection should claim asylum...
Tories wave goodbye to the last honest candidate on the roster
The Conservative’s waved goodbye to Rory Stewart last night, and with it, any hope of realism being part of the Brexit negotiations. The remaining candidates now occupy ground known colloquially as Cloud Cuckoo Land, a state of absurdly unrealistic ideals where people are prone to unsettling visions of grandeur. Jeremy Hunt’s answer to our current political impasse is to renegotiate Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the EU. Michael Gove’s answer is to renegotiate Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the EU....
Debunking the myth that most Labour voters are “working-class Leavers”
“Is Labour’s Brexit dilemma being misunderstood?”, Professor John Curtice wrote ahead of the crucial 2017 by-elections in Copeland and Stoke. The feeling at the time was that areas such as Stoke epitomised what the typical Labour voter wanted. Some 69 per cent of the party’s stronghold seat voted to Leave the European Union in 2016, which by default surely made them a party of “working-class leavers”. As it turned out UKIP party leader Paul Nuttall was defeated by the Labour...
The real problem with British democracy: First-past-the-post
It’s a matter of faith among Brexit supporters that failing to obey the consultative referendum on EU membership is an assault on democracy. MPs who actively campaign to stay in the EU are betraying that democracy. Almost every day a Brexiteer or sympathetic news outlet rages against the ‘anti-democratic’ Remain supporters who want a second vote. Putting the questionable nature of the 2016 vote aside, the UK does indeed have a major democracy problem. It’s called first-past-the-post. Voting rights have...
I never understood the campaign for an independent Scotland…. Until now
Scotland is about to be governed by a Prime Minister elected by 160,000 Tory members, of which only 9,000 are based in Scotland, from a party that hasn’t won a major election in Scotland in 64 years, to deliver a Brexit that 62 per cent of Scotland’s voters rejected.
Remember, remember he’ll fall in November
The prospect of Boris Johnson running the country looks like an all too inevitable possibility following the first round of votes cast yesterday. Bookies now price Johnson at 1/5 to win the leadership race after he scooped 114 votes out of a potential 313, with Jeremy Hunt (43 votes), Michael Gove (37 votes) and Dominic Raab (27 votes) a long way behind. A lot can still happen between now and the final membership vote that will ultimately install the next...
Age-related benefits are outdated – it’s about time we redress the balance
The BBC has come under fire this week for its decision to axe free TV licenses for over-75s. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed a “Save Our Free TV Licence” petition demanding the broadcasting corporation reverses its decision, with Piers Morgan, David Davis and Matt Hancock among the high-profile names backing the campaign. The irony that Tory MPs are among the people most vehemently opposing the move has not escaped everyone. When the agreement that the BBC should fund...
The referendum was won on lies – so too will the Tory party leadership contest
The Withdrawal Agreement is not going to get through Parliament and the UK needs more time to sort out a Brexit deal, Mark Harper announced today in a rare display of realism. Alongside Rory Stewart he is one of the few Conservative leadership candidates campaigning on hard-truths in his bid to become the next Prime Minister, but he stands to be punished as a result. The favourites for the job have advocated proroguing parliament to deliver Brexit as well as...
Tory Leadership? There’s no such thing
The bloated corpse of Theresa May’s premiership is finally floating down the Thames and the political minnows are circling. It will be a leadership race unprecedented in modern times as the Tories compete to see who’s the most buzz-wordy, who can fake compassion for the poor and whose Brexit plan is most like the Siege of Khartoum. In the 100 metre stumble to Downing Street, Esther McVey was one of the first out the gate. McVey was astounded when the...