On migrants and marriage

Have very belatedly added Left Foot Forward to my blogroll. It’s a very smart site by Will Straw and Shamik Das (met them both at Conference, scared ‘em silly) and I’ve only just got around to looking at it properly; there are a couple of pieces on there today which caught my eye, and both [...]

Why don’t Tories get it about Thatcher?

At the weekend I reluctantly agreed to take part in a panel debate at the annual conference of student group People and Planet. I was a last-minute addition to the panel, opposite Green MEP Jean Lambert, Cllr Mark Ramsbottom for the Liberal Democrats and Stuart Penketh, Tory PPC for Ellesmore Port and Neston.
I’ve had a [...]

We won’t pay, we won’t pay ya, no wa-a-a-ay

Seems to be a slow day for Swinton South Lib Dems, who’ve been reduced to trying to think up a campaign song for the Tory PPC for Worsley & Eccles South.
Regular visitors to this blog will know said PPC as my token Tory friend, so don’t expect any sniping from me.
However, while thinking about songs [...]

Tories: We’re the progressive party…well, not him. Or him. Or him.

Lots of noise yesterday about George Osbourne’s claim that the Tories are carrying the ‘torch of progressive politics‘.
I’ve actually never been a big fan of the word ‘progressive’. I think it tends to be used in the Labour Party by people who don’t want to use the word ’socialist’. But what does it mean to [...]

Our doctors and nurses: an electoral bloc, says Hannan

Dan Hannan’s still off on his badmouthing-the-NHS-around-the-world tour, this time telling the Army & Navy Club in Washington that free healthcare (like what we’ve got) represents a ‘huge power grab by the state machine’. Someone give the boy a biscuit.
Hannan obviously departed this planet for MiltonFreedmanWorld long ago. Making sick people better, for no cost at the [...]

Afternoon pop pickers…

Someone from Blackburn Labour told me that all right-thinking bloggers were ignoring the silly Total Politics poll, so I didn’t vote.
Then all the other bloggers and Tweeters started listing the blogs they were voting for (ignoring Iain Dale’s instructions that we are not supposed to do this), and Tom Harris put Blackburn Labour at the [...]

As promised!

Sorry, this post is going to be a bit massive. Like I said I’ve been meaning to do this for ages, and since I started it I’ve been delayed by swine flu and #freeBevaniteEllie and stuff.
In the couple of months since I was last regularly blogging, I have…
- been listening to a lot of Lily [...]

I’m still here!

Sorry, loyal readership – this full-time-job lark doesn’t half take it out of my blogging time. Also I was in Edinburgh from Saturday to Monday (incidentally, Blackford Park/Blackford Hill is an AMAZING place to walk a dog. I don’t have a dog. But a lot of people there did and now I’m thinking of getting [...]

Blogger wars

I said this yesterday and I’m going to keep saying it: you know it’s a slow news weekend when ‘Damian McBride doesn’t like Tories, and Paul Staines doesn’t like Derek Draper‘ is on the front page of BBC News.
Just in case you’ve not been following this one (hi Mom), here’s the short version. In January, [...]

Turning the clock back with the Tories

Go to Blackburn Labour for this week’s edition of Tory-mocking fun.