I tuned in to Thursday njght’s Question Time for additional reasons to usual last week, with Burnley FC defender and Professional Footballer’s Association chairman Clarke Carlisle amongst the panellists. Carlisle’s performance was assured if unremarkable on the show, where most heated debate amongst audience and panellists was over the Con-Dem government’s recently announced NHS reforms.… [Read more…]
October 11, 2010
The leadership of the Liberal Democrats must surely be bracing themselves for what promises to be a difficult few days. With Lord Browne’s review of higher education funding set to be unveiled tomorrow, it seems most people already know what he is set to propose. And these proposals look set to divide the Liberal Democrats,… [Read more…]
September 15, 2010
The drawn-out process of selecting a new leader of the Labour Party is almost at an end. Voting finishes a week today, and the new leader of the party will be announced at the party’s conference in Manchester on 25 September. The contest, which has gone on this long so as to allow for proper… [Read more…]
June 7, 2010
“What there will be at some point, absolutely inevitably, is a fightback.” Ian Page sounds like he has never been more certain of anything in his life. “From the trade unions, from the communities. Because up to now, figures are just figures, and they’re bandied around by politicians. But when those massive cuts become reality,… [Read more…]
February 3, 2010
Anti-war protestors gathered outside the Chilcot inquiry to voice their displeasure at former Prime Minister Tony Blair on the day that he gave his evidence. The protests were less vociferous and less well-attended than in the past, however, with those bearing placards and chanting anti-Blair slogans heavily outnumbered by police and journalists. Those that were… [Read more…]
January 4, 2010
Anti-war protestors gathered outside the Chilcot inquiry to voice their displeasure at former Prime Minister Tony Blair on the day that he gave his evidence. The protests were less vociferous and less well-attended than in the past, however, with those bearing placards and chanting anti-Blair slogans heavily outnumbered by police and journalists. Those that were… [Read more…]
January 2, 2010
The vast expanse of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire means millions of people across the world are reliant on it for their news, yet this responsibility is not one that Murdoch has ever taken seriously. My view is that the provision of news is crucial to any democracy, and therefore that the it should not be… [Read more…]
December 9, 2009
Predictably, the Chilcot inquiry has descended into a farcical escapade where everybody blames everybody else for the disaster that was the war in Iraq. Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Viggers has called the people running the war ‘amateurs’, appparently oblivious to the fact that he was, erm, one of them. It doesn’t take a genius to… [Read more…]
November 14, 2009
Taxation has been, and will continue to be, a major topic of discussion for politicians and commentators in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Wall Street Crash of 1929. With a huge budget deficit and a general election looming, the case for increased taxation will be debated by the two major parties… [Read more…]
October 29, 2009
Lots of people have plenty to say about the prospective EU Presidency of Tony Blair, the one-time golden boy of British politics (c. 1997) turned villain of the piece. That is, everyone but Blair himself. The warmongerer remains noticeably quiet while the rest of the continent whips itself up into a frenzy (well, almost) over… [Read more…]
September 30, 2009
Most people of a political persuasion will remember, or at least be aware of, the 1992 claim that it was the Sun ‘what won’ the 1992 election for John Major’s Conservative Party. The campaign against Neil Kinnock is as infamous as it was vindictive, though I have my doubts whether or not a newspaper, even… [Read more…]
January 23, 2011
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