Cameron, you slag
Remember the derision in which posh Tory Chris Patten was once widely held for his resort to such demotic expressions as ‘gobsmacked’ and ‘porkies’? Now things have got to the point where even posher Tory David Cameron can argue that Gordon Brown ‘bottled it’ in not calling an election, and nobody deems that worthy of [...]
Sunday blogging notes
(1) Bad news for Tan Shwe. Daddy’s Little Princesses have unanimously declared themselves in favour of democracy in Burma. That’s them in the picture, participating in yesterday’s demonstration in London. Oh, the life of a red diaper baby. Incidentally, the turn out from the left was minimal. What’s the matter? Buddhism the wrong religion or [...]
General election: why turn-out will hit an all-time low
General elections are the apogee of the liberal democratic political process. These are the occasions – once every four years or so – that the ordinary subjects of Her Majesty, as a collectivity, are theoretically in the driving seat. For weeks now, the media has been full of speculation over whether or not Gordon Brown [...]
The class struggle at Royal Mail
Something is badly wrong with Britain’s postal services. That much dawned on me when I moved to a new flat in inner London last year, and Royal Mail lost three packages destined for the address in just four months. Any number of visits to the local sorting office, which I could only fit in on [...]
David Cameron: new Conservative Party, new priorities?
The phrase ‘landslide victory’ is one of those tired clichés the journalistic style books advise hacks not to use. But one Daily Telegraph writer yesterday neatly turned it on its head, by proffering the opinion that Cameron’s Conservatives – 11% behind in the polls – face ‘landslide defeat’ at the next election. After an initial [...]
What’s been happening?
I will shortly be boarding the Eurostar back to London, having been out of touch with British politics and business news for over a week. Do me a favour, readers. List the main stories and tell me what I should think about them. Bookmark It
C’est la crise finale du capitalisme!
At last! It’s the final crisis of capitalism! That’s according to the publishers of Revolte Jeune – Toute la Verite, a badly-produced French Trot journal I picked up from a seller outside a metro station on Saturday. It seems that the subprime crisis is about to usher in a period of military dictatorship and fascism, [...]
