Possibly the worst invention of the last 25 years. How else can we describe social media? What was meant to brighten up our lives has made us anxious and at times depressed. So, lets switch the whole thing off and reclaim a simpler more satisfying life. Who’s going to miss it? Maybe some creepy marketing execs who can no longer stalk your every purchase or bombard you with rubbish you don’t need, but the planet will be the better for…
The recent parliamentary by elections will be subject to endless detailed analysis, but they are just two data points. There are many more council by elections, several every week: can they tell us anything about how voters are viewing the parties? Any individual council by election may be subject to local factors; but taken together, a picture may emerge of how a party is performing overall, and how the electorate feel about them. Let’s look at how the Conservatives have…
According to the long list of “inevitable” events this is meant to be China`s century, a century when it overtakes the West and becomes the world’s hegemon. However, as we approach the first quarter things appear to be going seriously off the narrative. No longer is China the world’s most populous state, as we look forward its population is about to fall off a demographic cliff. The current 1.4 billion Chinese will decline to about half that by the end…
Where does time go ? It struck me that the first quarter of this century is just over a year away and what 25 years it has been. We started this century on a high, the world was at peace, the Millenium Bug didn’t kill civilisation, Britannia was still cool. The West was dominant and helping struggling nations get onto the wealth ladder. A young business-like President called Vladimir Putin had just taken his first steps to sorting out the…
Will Labour win a majority at the next election? One potential barrier that has been much cited here is the party’s poor performance in 2019, which means that it faces a steep climb to win a majority. But others have argued that we should be thinking of its challenge not in terms of the additional seats it needs to gain, but the absolute number of seats it needs to win (326, although de facto fewer). To formalise the discussion, suppose…
Best for Britain published the results of another MRP poll on Tuesday, which had the Conservatives winning 129 seats at the next General Election. This was for 28.8% of the vote (excluding don’t knows and non-voters). That MRP poll was a considerable improvement for the Tories compared with the previous one conducted by Focaldata. In the autumn of last year, they found that the Tories would win just 64 seats. This was with the Tories winning 22.7% of the vote. …
Last year a woman in a castle died. Rumors and notes moved to black cloth and whispers and then the word: she had died and was succeeded by her son. She had been appointed when young by God to be Queen and she had been diligent, as the girl became a woman became frail and she and the years wore away. She had died and the duty passed to the man, and a strange period began. Life is a succession…
Division Two Derbyshire Derbyshire did much better than most predicted last year, which was good to see. They may have lost Shan Masood, their leading run scorer in cricket last season, but they have retained Mickey Arthur and brought in an interesting young batsman from his other side (Pakistan) in Haider Ali, who averages 70 in first class cricket, to replace Masood. With Leus du Plooy replacing Godleman as captain the latter will hopefully find a few runs again and…