Theresa May asked EU leaders for an extension to the exit day of 29th March and was offered a fairly derisory choice: get your deal through Parliament and you have until 22nd May, otherwise you have until 12th April. All that faff and we’ve gained a couple of weeks, with the following suggestions for ways […]
Next leader of the Conservative party
There has been much talk in the last couple of weeks about who could replace Theresa May as leader of the Conservative party, and whether this might happen shortly after Brexit has been ‘delivered’. However, under the current Conservative party leadership rules, leaders who see off an official challenge – as May did in December […]
Jo Swinson as next leader of the Liberal Democrats?
Vince Cable has recently announced that he is planning to step down as leader of the Liberal Democrats in May. This is unsurprising, as he has always struck me as more of an elder statesman, and a safe pair of hands to see the party through a particularly difficult period, rather than a leader to […]
The NHS at 70
This week marked 70 years since the founding of the National Health Service, which provides healthcare largely free at point of use for the majority of people across the UK. It is in all our interests to have a functioning public health service which is free at the point of use. Even if you are […]
Northern Rail failures
A lot of people have asked why Northern Rail has failed so badly (more so than usual) since the Great Timetable Change of May 2018. Until now I’ve been filling people in on the details via Twitter, but that doesn’t scale very well so I thought I would collate everything into a blog post, especially […]
Local elections: Everyone’s a winner, baby
All councils from the recent local elections have now declared their final results and it seems that every party – with the exception perhaps of UKIP – can declare victory in some form or another. Conservatives A net loss of 33 councillors from 1,332 (2.5%) is hardly a disaster in mid-term local elections, which are […]
Budget 2017 thoughts
This coming Wednesday will be the first budget since the Article 50 notification and the Bank of England’s rate rise. What should the Chancellor announce? National Insurance The gap between generations, particularly millennials vs their parents and grandparents, should be a key theme in the budget. One way in which the Chancellor could address this […]
General election predictions vs results
Well, that was unexpected, though Psychic Paul was slightly more foresightful than in 2015. To recap my predictions were: Conservatives: Double-figure majority: Wrong. Gains in Scotland: Right (net gain of 12). Theresa May remains PM: Right (as of time of writing). Labour: Squeezed in Scotland: Wrong (net gain of 6 seats). Corbyn will fare better […]
General election predictions
Back in 2015 I made some predictions which turned out to be completely off the mark when it came to the general election results. This year I am going to stick my neck out again, but in general terms rather than targeting specific numbers. Conservatives: Double-figure majority but not a landslide. Will make gains in […]
Where are the Mayites?
One thing which has struck me during this general election campaign is the lack of an identifiable set of policies from Theresa May. By this I mean I don’t know what she stands for, other than slogans like ‘strong and stable government’ and ‘no Brexit deal is better than a bad Brexit deal’. Whether you […]