In which I skate perilously close to sounding like a Thatcherite, by considering what exactly enabled the electoral success of the Conservatives in the 1980s, and how Trussonomics fails so singularly to connect today… With the government’s fiscal statement last week came the announcement of huge cuts to taxes in the UK, on a scale […]
For many of us, the lockdowns of the past year have not been great for health and fitness. For every person who found lockdown an opportunity to pound the roads and set new highs with their step counter, there are ample more who ate too much, moved too little, and found new highs only when […]
When I woke this morning I did not expect that my name would be spoken in the House of Commons. Nor did I expect an invitation to be interviewed by BBC Newsnight. I was wrong on both counts. Welcome to the increasingly bizarre world of COVID-19, where every day the stakes are raised and the […]
Today is our second day in self-isolation for COVID-19, and as expected the government announced that schools will very soon (from Friday) close for an indefinite period. The signals are that we should expect them to remain closed until the summer. Beyond that, who knows? We’ve decided they’ll study in the mornings – which they’re […]
Today our little family began fourteen days of self-isolation under the coronavirus guidance issued by the government, all of which seems a little bizarre to write. More on that soon, but first a little background. It’s only a few short weeks since the coronavirus seemed very distant; another of those awful problems that happen elsewhere, […]
111 years ago today, in my home town of Stanley, true disaster struck. Within minutes, down the various seams of the Burns Pit, 168 boys and men were dead. It was an explosion fathoms underground which devastated the coal-reliant community above. Many families lost multiple loved ones that day; single terraced streets saw death on […]
Today’s reshuffle of the cabinet by Boris Johnson – his first real opportunity to assert an undeniable authority on his government since coming to power more than six months ago – was much more than the rearranging of deck chairs we’ve become accustomed to with ministerial reshuffles of late. This was phase one of precision surgery which, should things progress as planned for the strategists behind the doors of number 10, will see Whitehall and the country beyond remodelled over the coming five years.
The art of the possible Today is Brexit day. At 11pm this evening Big Ben will still not chime, and the moment will pass without great fanfare. But it will nevertheless mark a hugely historic and important point in the history of the UK. Given that I voted remain and continue to believe that we’re […]
Jeremy Corbyn finds himself this weekend in a position he never expected…and how many times over the past two years have we said that? Nobody (including those at the head of the Labour party) expected to be in this position after the election. With Labour’s massively increased share of the vote and (more importantly) a respectable […]
After a slow start and a few missteps, Jeremy Corbyn has had a positive couple of days as Theresa May and the Tories stumbled over tax pledges and their policy on international aid, with the right wing press preposterously making a populist case against investing in development and British interest abroad. Jeremy the Patriot Labour […]