The LibDems are noisily declaring that if Labour wins fewer votes nationally than the Tories (and perhaps also than the LibDems) but emerges as the biggest single party in the House of Commons, Labour — or Gordon Brown (the LibDems are confused about which it is) — will have no right to continue in government. [...]
Three days ago I spelled out in detail the implications as I see them of the constitution and the new rules promulgated by the Cabinet Secretary for the rights and duties of an incumbent prime minister after an election has resulted in a hung parliament. The clear message of this analysis was that if there’s [...]
The novelist, poet, playwright and Nottinghamian Alan Sillitoe died, age 82, in the early hours of yesterday morning. I am a second cousin of his wife, now widow, the poet Ruth Fainlight, and my wife J. and I have got to know Alan and Ruth well in recent years: and as the song almost says, [...]
Much of the current speculation about what the LibDems will do if the election on 6 May returns a hung parliament is based on a misunderstanding of how the system now works. There’s particular confusion over which party leader will “be invited to form a government” after the election if Labour winds up with more [...]
The inimitable Guido Fawkes, in a post-Clegg blog post today, describes an election result scenario in which Labour, despite having won a smaller percentage of the national vote than either the Tories or the LibDems, still emerges with a few more seats in the House of Commons than any other single party, although well short [...]
According to a report in the Guardian of 16 April, ‘Gordon Brown apologised for any disruption caused by the eruption [of the Icelandic volcano] but said, “safety is the first and predominant consideration.”‘ A spokesman for David Cameron immediately welcomed this admission by the prime minister of his responsibility for the eruption of the volcano [...]
Instant reaction department: This was a debate between three rival party leaders, not a triathlon. The media insistence that there has to be a “winner” is fundamentally fatuous. It’s not the Grand National nor even a general election. All three (Brown, Cameron, Clegg) performed better than some obervers expected, although as experienced politicians they [...]
This will be an old-fashioned, Old Labour tribal attack on the Conservative Party. (Hell, it’s election time.) If you can’t bear political tribalism, you don’t need to read any further. You may feel happier with Conservative Home. Others can safely read on. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to take the Tory election campaign seriously. A new [...]
On 4 March 2010 I described in a blog post how a misleading radio programme, broadcast that day in the BBC World Service, and the BBC’s even more misleading advance publicity for it, had predictably been almost universally misunderstood by the world’s media as evidence that a huge proportion — 95 per cent was even [...]
