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Author: TSE

The sick rose. The disease in the English hard right and the failure of the rest of the right to confront it

The sick rose. The disease in the English hard right and the failure of the rest of the right to confront it

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Picture Credit: Wikimedia Commons On 16 June 2016, Thomas Mair fired a gun at Jo Cox MP, shouting “Britain first, this is for Britain. Britain will always come first. We are British independence. Make Britain independent.”  He then attacked her with a knife, shot at her again and again shouted “Britain first”. Sentencing him for murder, Mr Justice Wilkie, said to him: “You affect to be a patriot. The words you uttered repeatedly when you killed her give lip service…

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Three Score and Ten? Has the NHS reached the end of its natural life?

Three Score and Ten? Has the NHS reached the end of its natural life?

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On July 5th the NHS marks its 70th birthday, and the occasion will be marked by a significant financial injection as a means of life support by the Conservative government. This should keep it breathing for a while yet, but like any ageing process we should consider whether the condition is terminal, and what the objective of continued treatment is. Is the NHS a model of health care fit for the 2020’s or are there better ways of organising it…

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Fighting the last but one war. The final Brexit battle approaches

Fighting the last but one war. The final Brexit battle approaches

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=8JOpPNra4bw That didn’t take long.  As soon as the Germans were eliminated, it suddenly occurred to the entire British media that “VAR” could, if you squinted at it hard enough, be read as if it were a German pronunciation of the word “war”.  Amazing, I know.  So “Don’t mention the VAR” made its way through the lower reaches of the press and swam upstream as far as the Times and the Telegraph.  Could you have imagined such wit?  The nation…

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NEW PB/Polling Matters: Pollsters. hedge funds, Heathrow and why is Blair so noisy and Cameron so quiet?

NEW PB/Polling Matters: Pollsters. hedge funds, Heathrow and why is Blair so noisy and Cameron so quiet?

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On this week’s PB / Polling Matters podcast, Keiran Pedley and Leo Barasi look at a recent Bloomberg story investigating links between hedge funds and pollsters on the day of the EU referendum, public opinion on Heathrow and the environment and ask what Blair hopes to achieve with his latest intervention (and why David Cameron seems to be so quiet). Follow this week’s guests Follow @KeiranPedley Follow @LeoBarasi Tweet

A little local difficulty. A forgotten part of English democracy

A little local difficulty. A forgotten part of English democracy

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I’m a dutiful son and I visit my parents regularly. They live in Hadleigh, a quiet market town in south Suffolk. Hadleigh has never quite made it onto the tourist trail. This is a little odd because Kersey, a couple of miles away, is a staple of Christmas cards and meerkat adverts and Lavenham, a few miles further away, is besieged with visitors. Hadleigh has a magnificent guildhall and deanery tower and charming medieval buildings in abundance, many of which…

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Confessions of a door to door fireplace salesman

Confessions of a door to door fireplace salesman

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MAIL On Sunday: “Give Me £20bn Or I’ll Bring You Down” #bbcpapers #tomorrowspaperstoday pic.twitter.com/s8dmSEroe8 — Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) June 23, 2018 The former fireplace salesman becomes another Tory making plans to oust Mrs May. Today’s Mail on Sunday reports that Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has threatened to sweep Theresa May from power in a bitter Cabinet row over military cuts. Furious Mr Williamson warned the Prime Minister that if she did not commit an extra £20 billion to the Ministry of Defence…

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Speaker cornered. Time for John Bercow to stand down as Speaker

Speaker cornered. Time for John Bercow to stand down as Speaker

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I have a soft spot for John Bercow, located somewhere around my wallet.  Over the years he has been a steady source of income for me as he has survived in office as Speaker, despite the noises off that regularly come from Conservative backwoodsmen harrumphing about his supposed rudeness and perceived unConservativeness.  Despite abundant evidence that only a small minority were willing to put their heads above the parapet, enough Bercowphobes were regularly willing to put money on the proposition…

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NEW PB/Polling Matters podcast: NHS funding, ‘Brexit dividends’ and UK drugs policy

NEW PB/Polling Matters podcast: NHS funding, ‘Brexit dividends’ and UK drugs policy

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On this week’s PB / Polling Matters podcast, Keiran Pedley and Leo Barasi look at public opinion on the NHS as it hits 70 years old in light of the government’s promise to pump in extra cash. Keiran takes us through what the public think of the policy and whether they would accept tax rises to pay for it alongside data on how perceptions of the quality of care provided by the NHS have changed over time. Later in the…

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