Posted by Carl Packman

Can David Cameron ignore the Right of his party for much longer?

A new set of results from a Guardian/ICM poll has found that the Conservatives would be more appealing to the electorate if they took more hardline positions on social affairs, which will come as a great disappointment both to the political left, as well as loyalists to David Cameron who take a more liberal stance on issues such as gay marriage.

By a ratio of 69%-24% those who took part in the poll said that Tories could boost their appeal by supporting the traditional family. 67%, compared with 25%, said that Tories would be more appealing if they took a harder line on Europe, while 88% of Tories and 98% of Ukip voters believe that a harder line towards immigration would help the Conservatives.

This comes after an embarrassing by-election in Eastleigh where the Conservatives finished third behind their unpopular coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, and their close political rivals the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip). Continue reading →

On Eastleigh, or the return of the right wing protest vote

David Cameron, before Michael Gove announced that his brand of liberal Conservatism was not for turning, has been heard saying that the way in which to look at the Eastleigh by-election results is as a protest vote. With this much he is right, but perhaps not in the way he imagines.

Firstly it should be said that, in spite of Gove’s words, the party is turning, probably in reaction to the rise if Ukip. Noting the emerging support for the anti-EU party it was no surprise that Maria Hutchings, herself against the EU and with a raft of other right wing boxes ticked such as opposition to gay marriage and past bigotry on asylum and immigration, was chosen to run. Continue reading →

Remembering ‘The Feminine Mystique’ today

On the 19 February 1963, a book was published that has since been credited with providing the spark for second-wave feminism in the United States. The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan, highlighted what she called “the problem with no name” – that is the unhappiness of women in the 1950s and early 1960s. Why did it have no name? Because it was that unspoken unhappiness, that could creep up upon any woman, despite wealth or none, if she found herself in the “comfortable concentration camp” of the home.

The book, which was originally intended only as an article, started when Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former classmates at their 15th anniversary reunion. On finding so many of her former close friends unhappy with the situations in which they found themselves Friedan was spurred on to start writing. Continue reading →

How relevant is Kropotkin today?

I recall a point in my youth when I took to the streets of London in celebration of May Day. Once the day had started to settle and the Trots entered the pubs, the anarchists started to congregate in the middle of Trafalgar Square.

One very young boy mounted a statue in the square and a police officer walked over to him to tell him to get down for his own safety. The boy replied: “I’m an anarchist, under which law exactly should I get down”? Another anarchist shouted up to him: “the law of you might fall and break your bloody back”. The boy soon got down. Continue reading →

On the “Connected Nation”: Why Ed Miliband’s speech was on message

There has been a lot of chat about Ed Miliband’s speech this morning on the social media networks by people who have not read through or heard the speech, so now I’ve read through the transcript I feel in a better place to add comment.

Firstly, were this really dog whistle politics designed to please the right wing, or the electorate who appeal to populist politics of the sort that the Daily Express and the Daily Mail dine out on, then there are far better ways of doing it that’s for sure. Instead Miliband explained his long held appreciation of a Britain that has enjoyed good deals of immigration – which he himself was the beneficiary of. At no point is there any mention that immigrants are a problem or that the public sector is bursting full of foreigners – as is the standard trope of dog whistle politics. Continue reading →