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Author: David Herdson

Into the political void opened between Brexit Tories and Corbynite Labour there came … no-one

Into the political void opened between Brexit Tories and Corbynite Labour there came … no-one

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What’s happened to the Others? “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government!” David Steel’s rather premature exhortation to his activists at the 1981 Liberal Conference is remembered – to the extent that it’s remembered at all – as a classic example of over-optimism verging into hubris. It shouldn’t be. For a brief moment, there really was a genuine chance that the old Lab-Con dominance had been broken. At the last poll before the conference, the SDP-Liberal Alliance had…

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Playing the long game: what do Labour’s moderates do?

Playing the long game: what do Labour’s moderates do?

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The danger is that the options might be complicity, futility and suicide Keiran Pedley posed a good question on Twitter yesterday, when he asked “I keep seeing people say that Labour moderates should now ‘act’. What does that actually mean?”. The problem is that those demanding action are often demanding the impossible – namely that they remove Corbyn and return Labour to a centre-left social democratic party. The truth that those demanding action won’t face up to is that Corbyn…

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Europe won’t split Labour – but it does present a problem for GE2022

Europe won’t split Labour – but it does present a problem for GE2022

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Can it really hold the Remain vote while ignoring the issue? It’s not true that the Conservatives have been split from top to bottom on the subject of Europe for the last 70 years. Occasionally, peace broke out and something approaching a consensus arose. The first decade of Margaret Thatcher’s leadership was one such, when the Tories were enthusiastic about the EEC and keen to complete the Single Market. Later, under William Hague, the party settled on what amounted to…

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It’s Cold War, Jim: but not as we know it

It’s Cold War, Jim: but not as we know it

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Russia is hostile and aggressive but it’s not a return to pre-1991 Nutcases and tyrants have historically had an easy ride in their own day; their crimes frequently being attributed to the unauthorised actions of ‘evil advisors’ rather than being commissioned from the top. Occasionally, this is true (the Peasant’s Revolt against Richard II might be one example – though Richard was only 14 at the time, and still a duplicitous and cruel character), but generally it isn’t. Time and…

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MPs’ proxy voting can and should go further

MPs’ proxy voting can and should go further

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Catering for extended absences would mean fewer by-elections though Parliament took another small step towards the 21st Century last month, when it voted without opposition to allow MPs who are new parents to nominate a colleague to cast proxy votes on their behalf, meaning that they can more meaningfully take maternity or paternity leave without having to worry too much about the effect that doing so would have on the government’s majority. Some might argue that MPs occupy an unusual…

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Introducing the new Confident Corbyn

Introducing the new Confident Corbyn

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Two-and-a-half years after being elected, he’s finally acting like a leader Something has happened to Jeremy Corbyn; something which few would have thought possible, never mind expected a year ago: he has become comfortable doing the job expected of a party leader. Indeed, more than that: he has become confident in the role. Part of that is, of course, a consequence of the general election – but it’s only a part. Sure, he revelled then in addressing mass rallies, in…

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Hurrah! Our sovereign parliament is taking back control!

Hurrah! Our sovereign parliament is taking back control!

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May should balance one Brexit concession with another This is what Brexit was about: the right of Britain’s democratically elected MPs to take their own decisions free from the interference of Brussels (or, indeed, anybody else). Or perhaps not. Understandably, some pro-Leave MPs are so incandescent at the prospect that the Trade Bill might be amended so as to require “an appropriate authority to take all necessary steps [to conclude a customs union with the EU by Brexit Day]” that…

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Lib Dems can do it on a drizzly Thursday in February – but what about on 3 May?

Lib Dems can do it on a drizzly Thursday in February – but what about on 3 May?

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By-election gains may well be yet another false dawn Up until last year, Sunderland had carved out for itself one, and only one, niche in British political life: it counted its votes at general elections faster than anywhere else. For six successive elections from 1992 to 2015, the southern Sunderland seat was the first to declare in the country. Other than that, the city was politically unremarkable: it’s returned two Labour MPs ever since the 1960s and the Red team…

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