If Sunak had delayed the election by a fortnight then the circumstances of election day may have been different if England had won Euro 2024 both in England and Scotland. I don’t think the outcome of a soccer tournament would have shifted many, if any, votes in England or Scotland. The National’s front page confirms that Scottish Nationalism is nothing but civic and joyous. It’s all moot anyway, as a patriotic Englishman it pains me to say this but Spain…
Are all historians fascists? One might be forgiven for thinking so. Consider the ‘great’ leaders of history. Who comes to mind? (At this point I feel I should apologise to historians for butchering good scholarship to make a rhetorical point, but please bear with me.) On the basis of historical precedent it’s hard to argue that historians looking back on the early 21st century would pick anyone other than Putin as our greatest leader: I hope it doesn’t need to…
TSE
In the early 2000s in Manchester a lot of heterosexual women used to go to The Village in Manchester because it was mostly full of LGBT men and they knew they wouldn’t get hit on. Eventually heterosexual men started to follow and a minority got upset when LGBT men used to hit on them, I mean as a man you go to a gay bar/club you should expect to get chatted up on, so losing your mates and pissing off…
What happened in London at the General Election? As elsewhere, London was a story of Labour success and Conservative disaster. Of the 75 Constituencies, Labour won 59 (+10), the Conservatives 9 (-12), the Liberal Democrats 6 (+3) and the remaining seat was won by Jeremy Corbyn standing as an Independent in Islington North. As for vote share, Labour won 43% (-5), Conservatives 20.5% (-11.5%) and the Liberal Democrats 11% (-4). The Greens won 10%, Reform 9% and the other 6.5%…
When the Welsh Assembly was approved in 1997 by a wafer-thin margin of 50.3% to 49.7%, it was for just 60 members elected by a silly iteration of the D’Hondt top up system.* This was because Wales wasn’t an important place and the Assembly wasn’t an important institution. Blair called it a ‘parish council’ and many parish councils felt slighted at the comparison. The now Senedd Cymru by contrast is a fairly significant law making body with extensive powers over…
In the last few days it appears plenty of Dems are prepared to go on record saying they want Biden to stand down as the nominee, it is expected that number will increase once Biden has completed his duties at the NATO summit. Individual gaffes and poor performances can be dismissed but the cumulative effect of them are excessive and place a supererogatory burden on the Biden’s chances of being the nominee and winning the election in November. With the…
Most of the things that make voters happy or sad, richer or poorer… well… governments have very little power over them. Be in power in a period of peace and prosperity, and the voters thank you and think you a genius (or at least mildly competent). Be there when the Global Financial Crisis comes around, or when Covid hits, or when commodity prices go spiraling up thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine… well, they blame you. Arnie said it best:…