Newark by-election results

Yesterday voters in the Nottinghamshire constituency of Newark went to the polls in a by-election caused by the resignation of the former Conservative MP Patrick Mercer. This was considered a traditional Conservative seat – though it did switch to Labour for one term in 1997 – and with a majority of 16,000 the party was […]

Why Nick Clegg will survive

The whispering campaign against Nick Clegg took a new twist this week when it was revealed – to the surprise of no one with more than a vague interest in politics – that Lord Oakeshott was the man responsible for commissioning the opinion polls which suggested that Clegg would lose his Sheffield Hallam seat and […]

European election results 2014

After hanging around whilst the Western Isles completed their counting,  we now have all the results for the European elections. As with the locals, the broad result was a transfer of votes and seats from the governing parties to Labour, UKIP and others, though in a more spectacular fashion. UKIP The clear winners of the […]

External commentary on the EU elections

After posting my thoughts on the European election results, I felt it would be a good idea to collate some of the articles I came across whilst scanning the headlines. These articles are listed in no particular order, I’ve tried to include as a wide a range of sources as possible, and a link doesn’t imply endorsement […]

Local election results 2014

With two full days having passed since the local elections, the results are now in for all councils except Tower Hamlets.  It’s a mixed bag of results across the country, but broadly speaking the two governing parties have lost seats to a combination of Labour and other parties (including UKIP) in a roughly 50:50 split. […]

Budget 2014 review

On Wednesday, George Osborne stood up in the House of Commons and gave us a status update on Project Protect Pensioners (public codename: Budget 2014). You can view the full details on gov.uk, and I have extracted and commented on some of the more prominent measures below. Individual Saving Accounts Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) are undergoing […]

Thoughts on US politics

Normally I pay little attention to the internal mechanisms of US politics – I have even less influence over them than my ‘once every five years’ vote to decide which politician represents my area in Parliament. However, recently I have found myself taking a greater interest in politics across the pond, for two reasons. First […]

Fortunate in her enemies

For some time now I’ve had an idea for a book bouncing around in my head and, after a trip to Bolton Library to gather some initial source material, I’ve started putting together the basic structure. The provisional title for the book is ‘Fortunate in her enemies’, based on an oft-repeated quote about Margaret Thatcher. […]