I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again

The Who’s lyrics seem especially aposite as the “new politics” starts off by resorting to some very old, 19th century, politics – rigging electoral and political systems to suit those in power. Continue reading “Gerry Mander MP is back in the House” →

As we move into the era of pluralist, multi-party, government it is clear that a lot of people are going to have problems getting used to the new world. Some are deliberately sticking to old formulae, whilst others clearly just haven’t caught up yet. Continue reading “Getting Used to Multi-Party Government is not going to be easy” →

If a minority Tory or Con-Lib dem government comes to power next week the worst possible thing they could do is deploy the infamous “it’s worse than we thought” ploy. Continue reading “Please don’t deploy the “its worse than we thought” ploy” →

When I posted a week ago about the possibility of Alan Johnson as PM in a Lab-Lib coalition, it would have been easy to dismiss it as fantasy. But, a week is a very long time in our current politics. Today’s Guardian headlines Nick Clegg saying:

I could work with Labour, just not Gordon Brown

Continue reading “Prime Minister Johnson edges closer?” →

Is the idea of an IMF intervention in Britain fact or fiction?  Simple answer: fiction, on just about every level. Continue reading “Tories IMF scare: towards a Chancer Chancellor?” →

The idea of a hung parliament is now not only possible but is slipping into being acceptable, at least to some. So far up the agenda has it leapt that the new, more positive, term ‘balanced parliament’ is creeping into widespread use. Continue reading “Time for a Well Hung Parliament?” →

My comments on the Tories efficiency claims have clearly hit a nerve. The Conservative fundamentalist commentator Charles Moore lashed out in the Daily Telegraph:

“The BBC quickly found a man called Professor Colin Talbot, represented as an impartial expert but, in fact, a critic of the Conservatives (study his own website attacks on free markets, if you don’t believe me), to pass judgment. Naturally, he didn’t like the “cut”.” Continue reading “Charles Moore – now I know what it is like to have been ‘savaged by a dead sheep’” →