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Author: CycleFree

The British Trump – the similarities between the President and the Leader of the Opposition

The British Trump – the similarities between the President and the Leader of the Opposition

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On the eve of the 2016 US Presidential election Charlie Falconer, in Italy giving a tour d’horizon of politics to a group of distinguished lawyers, said he thought that Trump would win – it felt a lot like Brexit. He was resigned to it. And right. Farage wasted no time in getting himself photographed with Trump boasting about his special relationship with him. Yet, 3 years on, arguably it is another British politician who has a better claim to be the…

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What can we expect from the planned Brexit inquiry

What can we expect from the planned Brexit inquiry

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A look at what’s happened before In January 2004 the Hutton report into Dr David Kelly’s death was awaited with anticipation. The hearings had put the actions of politicians, civil servants, journalists, senior BBC management under a forensic scrutiny they would not normally expect. The Iraq war – the inquiry’s bloody context – had turned into a desperate civil war. No WMD had been found. The sad story of a respected scientist apparently bullied to his death as part of a greater…

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The “Very British Populism” of Theresa May

The “Very British Populism” of Theresa May

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May is (at least at the time of writing) our first populist PM. Whaaaat?!?!? A woman about whom it might be said that far from lighting up a room when she enters it, she trails gloom behind her, a populist? She has no charisma, no wit, no ability to charm or work a crowd, no followers, no chanting fans. She cannot speak – sometimes literally. She asserts, she repeats, she reprimands. She cannot persuade. In what sense then is she…

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Rendering unto Caesar

Rendering unto Caesar

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Picture credit: Rights Info At a recent IQ² debate on Brexit, Ian Paisley Jr MP, explained why the DUP was so against the backstop. He was a British citizen entitled to the same rights as all British citizens. This brought the inevitable retort from a certain Jess Phillips about Northern Irish women and gays not having the same rights as other British citizens. Paisley’s answer smoothly placed the blame elsewhere: Westminster had devolved certain social matters to Stormont and therefore accepted…

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Britain has deceived itself about the EU for decades and is doing so again

Britain has deceived itself about the EU for decades and is doing so again

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“Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive.” Britain has deceived itself about the EU for decades. A list of all its self-deceptions would be interminable but here are some:- The Common Market will never get off the ground / be important. We can set up or belong to a rival organisation. We don’t need to belong. We do need to belong and they will be desperate to have us. We are joining a market…

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Has the ERG won?

Has the ERG won?

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The sight of long-standing opponents of the EU voting on Tuesday against leaving the EU because May’s Withdrawal Agreement was not “proper Brexit” must have infuriated those MPs who voted for the deal despite not wishing to leave the EU. Ken Clarke, for instance. What a “proper Brexit” is will probably end up being the Schleswig-Holstein question of our time. (“The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it. One was Prince Albert, who…

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What might the Tories learn from Labour

What might the Tories learn from Labour

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The Tories might well look at Labour’s current travails over anti-Semitism and sigh with relief. “At least we’re not as bad as that.” They would be wise not to be so complacent. Anti-Semitism is not  confined to Corbyn’s Labour or to the Left in general. The attacks on Soros by some Tory-leaning papers, even Mrs May’s “citizens of nowhere” speech, echoed some pretty standard tropes about rootless disloyal cosmopolitan people somehow undermining good old native British culture.  And there have been enough…

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Hobson’s choice – the issues facing unhappy LAB MPs

Hobson’s choice – the issues facing unhappy LAB MPs

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How far does loyalty stretch? How far should it stretch? Loyalty to persons who have behaved wrongly is misplaced loyalty but is more common than it should be. Still, even in the absence of misbehaviour there is no one easy answer to this, especially for anyone who has voluntarily joined a group because they believed in its mission, in what it was trying to do. The question is even more difficult for members of political parties given that these are,…

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