This is one of the best analyses of Labour’s current situation that I’ve seen, from comedian Richard Herring:
What does Gordon Brown really have to lose at this point? If he said “David Milliband is a scary eyed Brutus trying to stab me in the back and Ruth Kelly is a stupid Christian twat. I’m in [...]

So Labour have lost the Crewe and Natwich election, the Tories winning their first by-election in 26 years. Huzzah.
At last Labour seem to be getting the kind of kicking they’ve long deserved - a kicking I’m hoping might finally shake them out of the complacency that’s seen a supposedly left-wing, pro-EU government with no viable [...]

To be on Incapacity Benefit you have to have been deemed unfit for work by your GP. Then, after several months on Income Support, you move on to Incapacity Benefit.
In case anyone needs reminding, your GP is a qualified doctor with your full medical history in front of them. Hard to think of anyone better [...]

Kinnell. Cameron’s Tories are really going for the unexpected candidates. I thought it was far out when they got Zac Goldsmith, editor of The Ecologist and one of the consistent frontrunners for most hated Tory on hatemytory.com, to stand for MP.
But now they’re ditching Steve Norris as their attempt at London Mayor. Good. People made [...]

I didn’t get to hear the John Humphreys interview with the Prime Minister when it was broadcast on Friday. Happily, it’s archived on the Today site. The interview itself is available in Real Media format. BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson analyses in Real Media. Most newspapers commented on Saturday; the BBC summarised the interview as [...]

The rising prison population isn’t only a British concern; it also makes the news in Italy. However, the comparison with Britain breaks down on at least two counts: firstly, because the size of the prison population is considerably smaller (in both absolute and relative terms); secondly, because the Italian government has taken the novel step [...]

Did you know that intermittently brilliant comic Lenny Henry won New Faces? We’ll come back to this.
The paper I like to call tehgrauniad explains: Brown outlines his vision for an ‘X Factor’ Britain. No, really, I’m glad that Gordon has such up-to-the-minute advisors; otherwise he’d be telling us how he was ‘down with the kids’ [...]

Noone’s going to like me for saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway:
The Democrats will lose the midterms. And that’s probably all they deserve.
Don’t get me wrong – that’s not what I want to happen. What I want is for the Republicans to be thrown out on to the street, and for the [...]

Politics is a beautiful and comic thing. Unfortunately, it’s ruined by the people that think it’s something worth giving a crap about, whether they’re ambitious and able enough to get involved properly, or whether they have to settle for doing dumb things like writing a blog about it instead.

After this year’s party conference season, David Cameron must think he’s got the next election in the bag. Blair’s emotional farewell was very nice if you like that sort of thing (Goodnight, and I love you all!), but it inevitably left both of the frontrunners to succeed him looking even more dour and forbidding than [...]

It’s now a few days after Lords Reform Day and Paul has already written another, well-worth-a-look piece here, which makes this attempt to fulfill my pledge by writing a related article a little late. Still, hopefully it’s of some relevance and interest…
The idea behind Lords Reform Day and its sponsor organisation, the Elect The Lords [...]

Sort of; though, for what it’s worth, he does not appear to have committed any great crime over the Dome. Nor did he commit any great crime with his secretary; nor did he commit any great crime by playing croquet.

“Le refus des louanges est un désir d’être loué deux fois.“ (The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice.) —François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, le Prince de Marcillac, Maxim 149
Disparate though we as a species indubitably are, there is one trait that unites every human being on the planet, from [...]

David Cameron’s speech at the Business in the Community Forum has caused a bit of a stir. The tradecraft seems to be pretty obvious. Vague mutterings about Tesco and inappropriate knickers for girls connects young smoothiechops with the concerns of middle class women in marginal seats. He chats their chat. He gripes their gripe. And [...]