ResPublica? You’re having a laugh.

I have no idea why various policy people get so excited by Philip Blond. Everything he says sends my inner bullshit detector into sirens blaring overload.   Even the title of his new thinktank make’s me think of Johnson from Peepshow.   ResPublico/ResPublicus, anyone?
Anyway, whenever someone perfectly sensible tries to get their head arounds this stuff, they [...]

Skidelsky slams the Tories

(Update -Ugh, what a horrible typo in the headline. Sorry. Fixed now.)
In the course of my day job, I spent much of yesterday listening to the debates in the House of Lords on the Queen’s speech. Yesterday, the Lords discussed economics.
Most of the media attention focussed on Lord Sugar’s maiden speech, which is natural, if [...]

Tories: Green is hard, but Silver stone.

Dept of things that make you go hmmm:
An eagle eyed reader notices this delicious juxtaposition of Tory priorites and principles on their website. 
Monday: “Andrew Mitchell slams Labour for spending money on projects that contribute to global warming”.
Tuesday:  The Tories say – “The Silverstone circuit is vital to the local economy”.
So, when exactly are Northants Tories [...]

PLP: I join the smug prognosticators club.

I propose the setting up of an elite club for commentators and bloggers who have spent some time telling anyone who will listen that something won’t happen,  not been listened to by their fellows, and then been proved absolutely right.
Last week, John Rentoul became the founder member and President Emeritus of the smug prognosticators – [...]

We see the hat, but where’s the rabbit?

If the Tories are elected, we’ll get an emergency Budget. Out of this political hat, the Tories need to pull an enormous rabbit. But what could it possibly be?
This question is raised by the Financial Times leader today. Their leader brings out the essential tension between what the Tories say they want to achieve and what they propose [...]

It takes a train to laugh

Sometimes these nutty libertarian types make me proper laugh they do.
Here’s Paul Staines trying to claim that spending money on railway stations is merely a tool for cynical Labour propaganda designed to save Labour seats. (H/tip Constantly Furious)
Wow. Big train stations are in cities and industrial towns. Cities and industrial towns tend to elect Labour [...]

Random Britney Spears Apostrophe interlude.

When I come into work each day, I wolk past a poster advertising Britney Spears’s greatest hits album. As is the norm, it contains a prominent refereece to her website.
Every time I see it, I think the pop minstrel has developed a second career as a specialist fruiterer.
www.britneyspears.com
 If only you could have apostrophes in URLs, [...]

Revolution No 9 (postponed)

Over the whole summer, we kept hearing about how rebels are gong to challenge Tony Lloyd for the chairmanship of the PLP. It was about the ninth different planned revolt we heard about and got a lot of play.
Lots and lots of stories about it, there were, right up to this Polly Toynbee article on [...]

Fighters and believers

A truly excellent PPB.

I’ve long been an advocate of a “fighting for you” strategy – one that emphasises the choice at the next election, puts plainly whats at stake, and states whose side Labour is, and has always been, and putting that choice at the heart of the election campaign.
Tonights PPB puts [...]

From Sheep to Tigers

The state opening of Parliament is a good chance to point out that commentators who assail our ears with claims that the current crop of Government MPs are a supine and pliable lot compared to their sturdy predecessors are talking palpable rot. 
The excellent political researcher Phil Cowley (of The Rebels fame) has updated his research into the number of [...]