British parliamentary contests are described as first past the post for a reason, and the reason is that coming second does not get you a seat at Westminster. Yet somehow UKIP is basking in a spectacular degree of favourable publicity through the simple expedient of losing the Eastleigh by-election. One factor at work is that many […]
Posts Tagged ‘David Cameron’
On Eastleigh, or the return of the right wing protest vote
Mar 1st, 2013 by Carl Packman.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 […]
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Cameron’s dilemma on marriage equality
Feb 4th, 2013 by Andy Newman.It is amusing to see the Tories tearing themselves apart over gay marriage. After all this is the party who introduced the homophobic Clause 28, and now Cameron is seeking to drive the agenda despite the Conservative Party not having included gay marriage in their manisfesto. There is a political minefield here for the Tories, where public opinion […]
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Ed Miliband’s brave decisions: Europe is the latest
Jan 25th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Ed Miliband is constantly under-estimated. He is not as charismatic as Blair, but he is principled in a way that Blair was not, and in politics that is priceless. He is also brave while Blair was not. Blair opted to define himself by taking on his own party and by deferentially siding with those with […]
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Cameron has got it wrong on the Algerian massacre
Jan 22nd, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Cameron’s denunciation of the Algerian In Amenas gas plant terrorist attack as a “large and existential threat…which is global and will require a global response that will last decades” totally misunderstands, or totally misportrays, what has happened. It is not an existential threat, though the 3,000-strong jihadist group in Syria and Islamic militancy in Yemen […]
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Leveson: Cameron’s betrayal is not the end of the story
Dec 1st, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Prepare for weeks of vilification of Leveson and the lampooning of his position as the voice of censorship. We are already seeing that when it comes to the struggle for power and the capacity for dominance over the State and its ideology, the methods are ruthless, the lies are vicious, the cries of the victims […]
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Boundary changes for devo max: the Tory-SNP deal that may reshape the UK
Nov 28th, 2012 by Mark Seddon.For all of the miscalculations and cock-ups of the past two-and-a-half years, the Tory party, and David Cameron in particular, are as strategically focused as ever on winning power and holding on to it. Few will be surprised to learn, then, that Cameron is still determined to force through parliamentary boundary changes next year that […]
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Lessons from Obama’s victory
Nov 9th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It’s not simply that Obama won, nor even that he won by a far larger margin than the media (ever eager to exaggerate electoral uncertainty to increase newspaper sales) had predicted. It’s the small print of the election which is so interesting. Social liberalism prevailed over hardline conservatism.
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The left are more realistic about the working class vote than some think
Oct 30th, 2012 by Carl Packman.Since the publication of Progress’ Class edition, and the polling that has been done through YouGov, there seems to be some confusion about how the left perceive the voting behaviour of working class people in Britain. Reading Luke Akehurst’s fair piece on LabourList, aside from the harsh reality-check that working class voters in this country […]
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‘The worst of recession is over’? That will come back to haunt Cameron
Oct 27th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Where did we hear it before? ‘I detect the green shoots of growth’ (Norman Lamont as the economy plunged again) and ‘We’ve ended boom and bust’ (Gordon Brown just before the biggest financial crash for a century). Equally Cameron’s ‘worst of the recession is over’ is a foolish hostage to fortune which he will come […]
