They certainly didn’t win the election; even if they had most votes and seats, they didn’t make a majority in the Commons. Now, we retain a majoritarian system, so a small shift in vote should produce something more impressive in terms of seats. Labour have been in government for thirteen years, we’ve had two unpopular [...]

Remember the Tatler Ten? No? Let me refresh your memory. Tatler profiled ten up and coming young Tories, pictured at the Evening Standard. They were high-flyers set for rapid promotion to the Cabinet. Let’s see how they did in their various elections. Shaun Bailey (Hammersmith) lost Mark Clarke (Tooting) lost Joanne Cash (Westminster North) lost [...]

David Cameron has ‘appealed to people with “idealism and progressive ideals hardwired into their DNA” to vote Conservative’ (Guardian). What about Chris Grayling? What about the marriage tax break? What about gearing up the press to attack Nick Clegg? What about cutting school funding so the middle classes can set up free schools? What about [...]

It’s lunchtime and I couldn’t resist myself… TwitPic link TwitPic link TwitPic link TwitPic link TwitPic link TwitPic link TwitPic link I dislike political billboards. You cannot distil a programme for governing a country of sixty-one millions for five years into a slogan and to attempt to do so cheapens the whole process. I am [...]

Now, it is entirely possible for someone’s political views to change dramatically over time. Certainly, mine have changed over the past few years. However, I think it is reasonable for someone who contests public office to be expected to give an account of such dramatic changes in political position. Dr John Marek left the Labour [...]

The Conservative version: H/T NS. My version: xD.

There is a debate about whether the BNP are left wing or right wing. I think it’s a sterile and pointless debate and don’t like the terms left and right anyway (and certainly don’t think that it makes sense to see the BNP as an extrapolation of ‘the left’ or ‘the right’). Nevertheless, people generally [...]

There’s a storm brewing over the political positions of Michal Kaminski, particularly regarding his relations to the National Revival of Poland, aka NOP, and the Committee to Defend the Good Name of Jedwabne. The NOP is now regarded by just about everyone as a nasty bunch of anti-Semites (their manifesto includes a line from Mein [...]

Donal Blaney writes about a sort of division within the Conservative Party. In short, Mr Blaney objects to a large part of David Cameron’s repositioning of his party as progressive conservatives. The bulk of his argument is that liberalism and fascism both descend from progressivism, and so are alike. I may well pick up a [...]

I wonder if Dan Hannan’s posturing over the NHS might end up being the Tories’ undoing. The #welovetheNHS hashtag on Twitter and equivalents on other social media thingummies suggest not only that the NHS, for all its problems, is popular but also that the NHS forms part of our national identity. I know that this [...]