I’m breaking that rule, again. You know, the one forbidding ventures into the realm of political predictions. Perhaps the recent foray into long range forecasting has empowered me to speak about matters in the nearer term. So here it is: the redrawing of constituency boundaries isn’t going to happen. Okay, let me rephrase that, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that […]
Posts under ‘Conservatives’
The Audacity of Osborne
Mar 20th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.I hear tell of George Osborne applying for the Evening Standard vacancy only after other people came to him for advice on their applications. What a charmer. Still, his landing the editorship of London’s biggest free sheet is as shocking as it is audacious. How is it someone barely able to string a sentence together, […]
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Hammond’s National Insurance Nightmare
Mar 10th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.George Osborne may have been the worst chancellor of modern times, but he understood one thing. Subordinating the national interest, i.e. those of British business-in-general to the narrow concerns of the Conservative Party, allowed for good press and the accumulation of political capital. It didn’t matter if these actions weakened the economy or made life worse […]
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Meet the next Tory leader
Mar 9th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Let’s leave behind the argy-bargy and speculations surrounding Jeremy Corbyn and his leadership, and turn our attention to the Conservatives and who will succeed Theresa May. It’s not exciting anyone at the moment because the issue is beyond settled. May convincingly took the farce of the Tory party leadership contest and now rides high in […]
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The by-election results and what they tell us
Mar 1st, 2017 by Peter Rowlands.In a previous article I looked at the polls during Corbyn’s period as leader, noting the deterioration in the period post the referendum/coup compared to that preceding it. I also noted that actual election results up to and including May 2016 were not bad, and for the parliamentary by-elections and mayoral elections were very good. […]
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What’s the scandal at Surrey County Council?
Feb 10th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Local government finance isn’t the sexiest subject in politics, but it should be right up there. Councils provide the services and maintain the infrastructure all our communities, whether heavily urbanised or scattered across the countryside, depend on. And the demented cuts the government have foisted on councils have stripped services to the bone, and most […]
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Why the Tories’ White Paper will do nothing to solve the housing crisis
Feb 9th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Housing is a major sticking point for the Tories. They know it, we know it, and the public know it too. On their watch, first with their LibDem friends and now alone with a majority thinner than a major donor’s tax return, the bottom fell out of the house building figures. Cash strapped councils made poorer by […]
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On the Stoke Central By-Election Candidates
Feb 3rd, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.And so the finalised list of Stoke Central by-election candidates is out, and ten folks fancy their chances. And it’s a circus, albeit one not likely to produce much merriment. Who then are the lions and acrobats? Which of them is the clown? Naturally, Gareth Snell has roared into action. Labour were all over the constituency […]
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The Tories and the Special Relationship
Feb 1st, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Stoke-on-Trent might be the centre of the political universe, but that isn’t to say tumultuous events don’t take place outwith the gilded city limits. And while by-election fever and an altogether unpleasant illness have gripped me, Donald Trump marked his first week in the Oval Office by unleashing a hurricane-level shit storm. His “temporary” travel […]
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Trump exempts British citizens from “Muslim ban” after pressure from UK
Jan 30th, 2017 by Newsdesk.Donald Trump conceded ground to opposition last night by exempting British dual citizens from his Executive Order, dubbed by many as a ‘Muslim ban’, which prohibits any entry to the United States from seven majority-muslim countries, namely, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya. After Theresa May instructed Amber Rudd and Boris Johnson to lobby their US […]
