Britain’s not racist but…
29 May 2014Rightly or wrongly, most in Britain do not regard a wish to reduce immigration as an expression of racial prejudice.
The Blog
Labour are forgetting why they lost the election and are now being punished for it
28 May 2014Disaffection is becoming this year’s word in politics (put it into any newspaper’s online search and count the hits); perhaps inevitably given that last year’s word was omni-shambles. As Sunday’s results unequivocally demonstrated, frustration with our political patricians is fast giving way to complete antipathy. How much of Ukip’s success last week can be attributed… [Read More]
EU elections: feminists, indignados and communists triumph
27 May 2014Unless you’ve been under a wireless-impermeable rock, you will know the headline European Parliamentary election results. You’ll have heard plenty about Ukip’s rise, and endless speculation over the old parties’ reaction. You probably absorbed some comparisons with France’s Front National, which did similarly well, or Holland’s Partij voor de Vrijheid, which did terribly. The French… [Read More]
Divide and rule – how were both free market Tories and the Labour movement seduced by the EU?
Ukip’s victory in the European Parliament elections has sent shockwaves through the political establishment. As both the Labour and Conservative parties begin to realise that their support for the European Union is growing increasingly out of step with the opinions of the electorate, it is worth considering how the mainstream Westminster leaders came to this… [Read More]
Ukip succeed at local elections despite negative media attention
23 May 2014Ukip has done well in the local elections, gaining scores of seats (so far – many counts are still going) from both the Tories and Labour. Headlines today are reporting ‘the first tremors’ of Farage’s promised political earthquake and predict that Ukip will secure a seat in Westminster at next year’s general elections. Their performance… [Read More]
Where have all the Liberal Democrats gone?
22 May 2014Liberal Democrat prospects may be bad but with Alternative Voting they could have been even worse.
Ukip only remains front and centre as long as the European elections do
21 May 2014Perspective is in limited supply when it comes to any election outside of general elections. By-elections, local elections, and European elections: they are always pitched as a trial run for choosing the next government. The BBC for example calls tomorrow’s vote ‘the most significant test of public opinion before next year’s general election’. But with a… [Read More]
Will last-minute media attacks hurt Ukip?
19 May 2014The EU elections are on Thursday. This is the most attention they have ever got, and the so called ‘fringe’ parties are likely to take unprecedented levels of the vote, far more than minor rebellions against Blairite foreign policy did. For years the media’s promoted Nigel Farage, perhaps because he’s a genuine, charismatic individual with… [Read More]
The ECJ backs ‘right to be forgotten’ in surprise ruling against Google
16 May 2014This week, the European Court of Justice ruled that Google must amend its search results at the request of people who wish to erase outdated and irrelevant information about themselves on the internet. A Spanish man named Mario Costeja Gonzalez initiated the landmark case when he did a Google search for his name and found… [Read More]
Feared flood of Bulgarian and Romanian workers failed to materialise
15 May 2014How can the fall in Bulgarian and Romanian workers be explained at a time of record increases from eight other accession countries?