Tax cuts for the better off, isn’t that the kind of thing associated with the Conservatives? Blair-era Labour? Not of the present radicalparty leadership, surely. What with their desire to nationalise afternoon tea and issue pig iron production edicts. And yet, in 2016’s tradition of politics taking unexpected turns, that is exactly what’s happened. Has the party […]
After Donald Trump, Corbynism?
Nov 16th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.You know that dark cloud shading into fascist brown accumulating above the White House? It’s pretty frightening, so it’s entirely normal and expected for some to (desperately?) discern a silver tinge its edges. One of them is superstar economist Yanis Varoufakis, who suggests Trump’s election signals a new wave of change. Coming from a similar, but […]
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Why was a fascist on the Andrew Marr Show?
Nov 15th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.When it comes to fascists and the far right, giving them air time is a decision that should not be made lightly. If they are to appear, they should be rigorously challenged and forced to defend themselves. Anything less just gives them an opportunity to push their propaganda. When I learned that Andrew Marr was […]
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Why did we get the US election wrong?
Nov 14th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Some didn’t. No doubt they’re feeling smug as others flail around in horror. But for the bulk of “us”, the commentariat people spanning the academic pundits specialising in voting behaviour, the professional commentators paid for their opinion-forming opinions, and neither forgetting those weirdos who write about politics because they want to, Tuesday represented a unanimity […]
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Race, class and Donald Trump
Nov 10th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.How did the unthinkable happen? If only a short blog post hours after the biggest upset in world politics since the Soviet Bloc went under could provide the answers. Hot takes rarely do. Usually we have to wait months – years for perspective to form, and see an event in its singular aspect. Unfortunately, we […]
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How likely is a General Election?
Nov 7th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.If you were feeling nostalgic for this summer’s Brexit chaos, the last couple of days should have provided you a fix. The High Court judgement that – rightly – stipulated the requirement for Article 50 to come to the Commons before its trigger threw the government into a panic. It also reminded us of the […]
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The Importance of arguing honestly
Nov 4th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.There’s an interesting article in the latest edition of Progress Magazine. Crowded Ground by Robert Philpot takes a brief survey of the political scene before identifying emerging territory vacated, he claims, by ourselves and our Conservative opponents. He makes some interesting points about May’s flirtation with populism, another thing she borrowed from Ed Miliband. Yes, who knew? But it […]
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Should Labour stand against Zac Goldsmith?
Oct 28th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Labour is standing in the Richmond Park by-election. But should it? At the 2015 general election, Zac Goldsmith romped home with 58% of the vote. The Liberal Democrat runner up mustered 19% while Labour languished on 12%. The highest proportion we ever managed was at the 1997 high watermark, and then it was a measly twelve-and-a-half per cent. […]
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Theresa May and Thatcherism
Oct 27th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.There is a touch of confusion about Theresa May’s political posturing. The apparent lurch ‘to the left’ signified by her abandonment of Osbornomics (and, of course, Osborne himself) for soft Keynesianism sits uneasily with a commitment to hard Brexit. The homage paid to official anti-racism is at odds with her immigrant bashing. And her fabled competence, her ‘no […]
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What can we learn from the by-elections in Witney and Batley and Spen?
Oct 25th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Is the new normal the same as the old normal? As previously argued, the 2012 Corby by-election called so former Tory MP Louise Mensch could spend more time trolling 17 year olds on Twitter was the last political contest in England and Wales where UKIP wasn’t a factor. For every parliamentary by-election after, they were. They […]
