The descent into WWI is a 21st Century story Sepia-toned silent images of black-coated or feather-hatted diplomats lend a reassuring distance to the events that plunged the world into war a hundred years ago this week. It looks like a world long since vanished and in one sense, it is. However, like much of that story, it is an illusion; all the more dangerous for the complacency that false reassurance breeds. Far from being a different age, the threats posed…
David Herdson on Cameron’s line-up for GE2015 Squaring circles is part of the business of politics. One such conundrum David Cameron has to face is how to simultaneously make the party he leads more appealing to centrist floating voters while also attracting back those who’ve defected to UKIP. On the face of it, those are two incompatible objectives: how can a party move both left and right at the same time? The simple answer is it can’t; the more complex…
We should thinking more about the range of possibilities I was struck at the politicalbetting meet in Ilkley on Monday how much consensus there was about the likely result of the next election. The great majority expected Labour as the largest party in another hung parliament. That’s the view of the betting markets too: Labour is best priced at 9/10 with bwin to win most seats (more generally 5/6 or 4/5), while the Tories are odds against only with Ladbrokes…
Whatever it is that makes a nation, Yorkshire has it The folk of God’s Own County tend to be a reticent bunch, not much given to singing their own praises (or indeed, anyone else’s), but as cycling’s greatest race speeds spectacularly over the Broad Acres this weekend – an event the locals have greeted with characteristic enthusiasm and humour – it’s a good occasion to ask whether it should be the next nation within the UK to gain devolved powers. I…
For the first time there are now two Kippers for every Lib Dem You might expect that the polls for the first month after the Euro-elections would show a drift of support back to the main three Westminster parties, as UKIP and the minor parties receded in media and campaigning prominence. If so, you’d be wrong. The June figures, with changes on May are: Lab 34.3 (+0.6), Con 31.4 (-0.1), UKIP 15.8 (+0.8), LD 7.9 (-1.5) All three parties are…
The Juncker class are the problem not the solution The nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as next EU Commission President has moved Britain substantially closer to leaving the Union. On the one hand, Britain was marginalised in a process that has traditionally been built on consensus; on the other, the attitude of the Euro-elite – including Juncker – to the European Parliament election results has been to ignore the opposition to the EU direction of travel and carry on as normal….
The World Cup will all be forgotten by September And so England will head home from the World Cup after the first round for the first time since 1958. The result may be disappointing for England fans even if the standard of play – bar a few lapses – was generally better than expected. Lapses, however, count dearly at this level. How the results are seen in other parts of the UK is another matter. In large parts of Wales…
Via BBC politics. Gove and May's show of unity http://t.co/sZ802GkeQE … pic.twitter.com/IZrrhvoodQ — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) June 9, 2014 The reaction to Trojan Horse has major implications for social policy Most of the reaction and comment to the fallout from the Birmingham schools Trojan Horse affair has centred on the spat between Theresa May and Michael Gove (and their respective departments), on what ‘British values’ means, and on to what extent – if they can be defined – they should be…