At the beginning she looked so purposeful and powerful. Not any more. Veteran Tory grandee Ken Clarke has described Theresa May’s regime at Number Ten as ‘a government without policies’ and ‘not having a clue’ over what to do about Brexit. There is mounting anxiety internationally about where GB is trying to go. Nissan has announced postponement of its […]
Regular readers will know that I have little time for the political centre as an end in itself because, without opposites, it ceases to be the centre of anything and becomes sterile of meaning. It is unable to implement whatever plans it has through lack of interest and support. The political conversation detaches from the voters, […]
There is general agreement among pundits, commentators and early polls that Clinton won the first Presidential Debate. The problem for her is that winning the debate no longer offers the key to the White House. That is because this is an election like no other and the pundits have been wrong on every prediction and […]
This blog, lately as readers know quite sympathetic to Labour, vehemently opposes the shadow energy minster’s declaration that it will ban fracking. This is a pitiful example when idealism clashes with ambition to guarantee disappointment on both fronts. Labour calls for a return to socialism with re-industrialization importing jobs back to the UK. A condition of that […]
While everyone’s attention is focused on exciting times in Labour, something it not right with the government. May seemed to get off to a flying start, firing people right left and centre, particularly soft centre, and then showing imagination in appointing a Brexit Trio to take charge of how we actually get out of Europe […]
Civil wars are perhaps the most brutal. They cause humanitarian suffering on a grand scale. They start with an argument and gradually escalate to a fight. In due course the fighting takes on a life of its own with multiple factions and threads, but always with the non-combatant civilians as the victims. In Aleppo now […]
Not only has Jeremy Corbyn won, as widely predicted, but he has broadened his reach, increased the party membership, enhanced his standing and increased his share of the vote to over 60%. As the BBC man said, he is now bomb proof until after the next election. For the Parliamentary Labour Party this is a humiliation […]
The sudden upsurge in the attacks on Aleppo by joint Assad and Russian forces suggest that an end game plan is unfolding. One dare not think of the suffering beneath these bombardments nor of the humanitarian disaster it all represents. Yet there is a temptation to feel that any ending is better than waiting for […]
It is very welcome that at last the authorities are beginning a conversation about NHS consultants moonlighting in private practice. This blog has been calling for change for years. However we do not want another disputed contact nor a fudge which does not deal with this issue once and for all and without ambiguity. Thus […]
It is difficult to be sure what is happening, because there are gaps between what is said to be happening and what is truly happening. The accidental targeting (was it really an accident with all that technology?) of Syrian government forces and the killing of loads of Assad’s soldiers by the US led coalition will have […]