Gordon Brown and global poverty
Gordon Brown has told an invited audience at the United Nations that there needs to be greater efforts to tackle world poverty. That’s hardly courting controversy.
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a safer topic. Talking a good game on development issues is the easy option for any politician who wants to wear his conscience ostentatiously [...]
Graham Brady on the appeal of David Cameron
Conservative backbencher Graham Brady – the man who quit as Europe spokesman last May because he opposed party policy on grammar schools – reckons that his party’s leader isn’t going down well in Middle England. Brady argues:
“The changes David Cameron has made in the Conservative Party have been very successful in some places, and have [...]
The Liberal Democrats and poverty
They talk of Lorenz curves, Gini coefficients and 90/10 ratios. But strip away the jargon economists use to discuss income distribution in Britain today, and the message is clear. The UK has become a dramatically more unequal society since 1979.
Even after a decade of New Labour, that trends continues unabated. But at least it has [...]
Scottish independence and the English left
The reasons why the Scottish National Party are so often derided as Tartan Tories continue to escape me. I’ve always found it more analytically useful to consider them as some species of social democrats.
Let’s put it like this: since Alex Salmond took over at Holyrood last May, I have read nothing to suggest that that [...]
Far left returns to the electoral commission
Hours of sectarian fun are to be had at Electoral Commission website, examining the financial accounts produced by all parties that stand in UK elections.
I haven’t had time to digest all the goodies yet. But even from a cursory glance, I can assure readers that this is a goldmine for leftist trainspotters.
Thus I can tell [...]
Lost in the flood
The current UK floods may or may not be a direct result of climate change. It’s always impossible to attribute any given ‘extreme weather event’ – as politicians euphemistically dub flooding and the like – directly to global warming.
Certainly, there are precedents. In a single day in July 1955, a full 12 inches of rain [...]
Majority opinion and the left
Attitudes horribly reminiscent of class politics remain rather more widespread than the Financial Times would like, a new international opinion poll reveals:
Large majorities of people in the US and in Europe want higher taxation for the rich and even pay caps for corporate executives to counter what they believe are unjustified rewards and the negative [...]
Cash for honours: no charges
Finally we reach the conclusion of the cash for honours affair. And, in the immortal words of the country and western song, there’s no charge.
New Labour is going to claim that 16-month investigation by Scotland Yard exonerates Levy, Turner, and Evans. It doesn’t. It simply means that there is insufficient evidence to take things further.
Let’s [...]
New Labour, Russia and the Litvinenko case
At certain stages in the 1990s, many informed commentators canvassed the prospect of Russia returning to dictatorship. And they weren’t talking about a reversion to Stalinism, either.
The usual model advanced was late seventies Chile without the sunshine: an authoritarian government, perhaps headed up by a military strongman, overseeing an ultra free market economy.
What we got [...]
Labour, the Tories and Cannabis
Few things in life are safe for all of the people, all of the time. Even traces of nuts in a restaurant meal can kill those unfortunate enough to suffer from certain allergies.
And sure, cannabis is a mind-altering substance. Some medical studies reportedly show that prolonged heavy use can result in psychosis. With no relevant [...]
