Coming away from The Sentinel-sponsored by-election hustings at Staffordshire University, I spotted a blood moon hanging low over Stoke. For whom did this augur an ill omen? For Gareth Snell and the Labour Party, or Paul Nuttall and the United Kingdom Independence Party? If what happens at hustings matters, I’d have to say it doesn’t […]
Is the Corbyn moment over?
Feb 15th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.The seisometers are registering something. Is it a tremor triggered by the usual grumbles, or are the plates storing up a major event? This is the problem when it comes to analysing the travails of the Labour leadership. With the irreconcilables tactically and temporarily reconciled to the present state of affairs, the cracks are feeling […]
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On the doors in Stoke Central
Feb 14th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Hoping for another sunny, balmy Saturday was too much to ask for. As Labour’s canvassing teams went door-to-door in the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election last week, it was under clear skies and dry weather. Those same teams today went out in biting cold and a snow so desultory it couldn’t be arsed to leave even a light sprinkling. […]
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What’s the scandal at Surrey County Council?
Feb 10th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Local government finance isn’t the sexiest subject in politics, but it should be right up there. Councils provide the services and maintain the infrastructure all our communities, whether heavily urbanised or scattered across the countryside, depend on. And the demented cuts the government have foisted on councils have stripped services to the bone, and most […]
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Why the Tories’ White Paper will do nothing to solve the housing crisis
Feb 9th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Housing is a major sticking point for the Tories. They know it, we know it, and the public know it too. On their watch, first with their LibDem friends and now alone with a majority thinner than a major donor’s tax return, the bottom fell out of the house building figures. Cash strapped councils made poorer by […]
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Remainers risk being portrayed as enemies of democracy
Feb 7th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Taking a sneaky break from things Stoke-related, it’s time to cast an eye over last night’s Commons vote giving the government permission to trigger Article 50. Annoyingly, it is not the Tories who find themselves poisoned and split over Europe, like the Lexiters promised. It’s Labour. As the government won by 494 to 114, 47 […]
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On the Stoke Central By-Election Candidates
Feb 3rd, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.And so the finalised list of Stoke Central by-election candidates is out, and ten folks fancy their chances. And it’s a circus, albeit one not likely to produce much merriment. Who then are the lions and acrobats? Which of them is the clown? Naturally, Gareth Snell has roared into action. Labour were all over the constituency […]
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The Tories and the Special Relationship
Feb 1st, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Stoke-on-Trent might be the centre of the political universe, but that isn’t to say tumultuous events don’t take place outwith the gilded city limits. And while by-election fever and an altogether unpleasant illness have gripped me, Donald Trump marked his first week in the Oval Office by unleashing a hurricane-level shit storm. His “temporary” travel […]
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Inside the Stoke Central selection meeting
Jan 31st, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Equality House, the base for North Staffordshire’s Racial Equality Council is not an easy place to find. Tucked away down Raymond Street on the outskirts of Hanley, it’s a road unknown to Stoke taxi drivers and SatNav alike. And yet 129 voting members managed to track it down on a cold Wednesday night for Stoke […]
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Paul Nuttall in Stoke
Jan 23rd, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.A scene replaying itself night after night in drinking establishments across the land. A man, in late middle age, sat alone nursing a pint. He wears a creased suit and a defeated expression, and staring into the drink his mind races with what might have been. This was the London Road Ale House on Friday […]
