Category: Politics

  • Pandemic and the Limits of Entrepreneurial Government

    Once again the government has used a high-profile announcement of an apparent technological breakthrough (the “game-changer” this time is the promise of ninety-minute diagnostic tests) to try to distract from their general failure to effectively address the pandemic (and, in this particular case, to grab front pages from the embarrassing story of a former minister […]

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  • IT IS STILL BOLLOCKS TO BREXIT – LEFT OR RIGHT

    The way in which Corbyn and his mates have been using the issue of Brexit as a weapon in their desperate attempts to retain control of the Labour Party is, I think, revealing. The most common criticism of the Labour Party they inherited was that it wasn’t ideologically pure enough. That it was too concerned […]

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  • REVIEW: CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BY THOMAS PIKETTY

    I was just reminded of this after a random comment on Twitter (hi @redrichie). I wrote this review back in 2014 for Arcfinity. The row over inequality hasn’t moved on much and, reading it back, I think some of the things I said are still relevant – we are certainly no closer to a political […]

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  • SOME REASONS TO BE SCEPTICAL OF THE HYPE ABOUT CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA (PART ONE)

    Like lots of people, I’ve been thinking about the current row about Cambridge Analytica and their supposed influencing of the US election and Brexit and possibly other elections around the world. I understand people’s anger and I understand the degree of fear that comes with the idea that we (or, more usually, some other group: […]

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  • LOOKING FOR CORBYN’S MAGIC MONEY TREE

    Jeremy Corbyn set out his 10 point policy plan today – with lots of good intentions in it, though it didn’t quite address the concerns I have about Corbyn offering actual detailed policies – it remained a bit vague. In a speech full of non-specific hand-waving the biggest blur was how it was all to […]

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  • IT’S ALL JUST A CASE OF (LABOUR’S) HISTORY REPEATING

      This is why Miliband prized unity in 2010. Hoped to break post-defeat cycle. Split merely deferred. — George Eaton (@georgeeaton) July 31, 2016 George Eaton’s Tweets (above) made me think about the pattern of Labour history and how the current mess is part of a cycle that goes right back to the very first […]

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  • THE POINTLESSNESS OF COMRADE CORBYN

    So, today, Jeremy Corbyn launched his leadership campaign. It was the opportunity for him to make the case that he was the genuine radical that his supporters have been claiming. To put his case that “Corbynism” was the revolutionary (perhaps that’s too charged a word) change that some see as inevitable if he is re-elected. […]

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  • WHO WILL REPRESENT THE FORTY-EIGHT PERCENT?

    THERE IS LIKELY TO BE A GENERAL ELECTION BEFORE THE TURN OF THE YEAR AND IT IS ALREADY CLEAR THAT THE THREE MOST POPULAR POLITICAL PARTIES – LABOUR, TORY AND UKIP – WILL BE PUTTING FORWARD POLICIES THAT ACCEPT THE UK’S DEPARTURE FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION. WHO WILL REPRESENT THE FORTY-EIGHT PER CENT WHO VOTED […]

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  • ELECTIONS, APPLES, ORANGES, MISINFORMATION AND SIDES

    A quick follow up to my last post. I’ve had people insist to me that it is perfectly valid to compare the latest local election results with the 2015 elections. So I want to make clear why this simply isn’t true. Here are the results from the latest local elections presented in a map (see […]

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  • HURRAH! ANOTHER BLOODY ELECTION OPINION PIECE

    I don’t want to be one of those people in the Labour Party who constantly moans about the leadership. My natural instinct is to loyalty. I want Labour to do well because I believe the people I care about do better when Labour is in power and I think that constant infighting is, literally, self-defeating. […]

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