Imagine Davies, Bercow and Mercer’s Sunday breakfast

As Quentin Davies, John Bercow and Patrick Mercer MPs fumble, bleary-eyed for the Sunday morning box of Fruit n’ Fibre this morning, they may be reflecting painfully on the issue of timing. Opportunism fine, guys. But get the timing right, yeah? 
Phillip Oppenheim

Reasons to vote for and against Bojo, Ken – and the other guy

It says something about the people’s confidence in the body politic that we have a mayoral election for one of the world’s great cities, with two over-the-top celeb-politicians and a gay ex-police chief - and yet the public’s interest hovers somewhere below the result of The Apprentice.
In my travels in the capital I have seen [...]

April 23rd, St George and all that jazz…

I have always been of the view that St George’s Day should be a public holiday here in England. Well I would say that of course wouldn’t I, as its my birthday. So today I shall be celebrating turning 33, and may wear an England rugby top to celebrate my Englishness.  But is that all [...]

Things can only get better…no wonder more old Prezza tried to eat himself to death!

Here’s a fact: inequalities in income under this government have got worse, both before and after tax. To put matters more brutally: the rich have got richer under Labour – relatively, while the poor have got poorer. And after the abolition of the 10p tax bands, things will get worse.
Delve into the more arcane recesses [...]

Ethical foreign policy and that damn torch!

Ethical foreign policy and that damn torch!
The desperate spectacle of the Olympic torch being paraded in a scrum of police and track-suited Chinese security thugs through closed-off London streets did not reflect well on anyone – least of all our prime minister, who was pictured cowering outside No 10 behind said Chinese thugs.
It is, [...]

Too much info, Nick!

There comes a point where it becomes painfully apparent that someone who seemed a splendidly clever sort of chap as an MP or on a front bench just isn’t up to the big job being a party leader.
Nick Clegg had all the qualifications for membership of the new politocracy – a career spent in the [...]

But who would be left to iron my Lord’s ermine?

The Daily Mail warmly grasped to its prim and powdered bosom the Lord’s Economic Affairs Committee report’s headline conclusion that recent immigration had harmed, rather than benefited the British economy. So did the Tories, which is a shame, because the detail of the report was more measured, saying there had been winners and losers and [...]

Let the shareholders decide!

I remember in the 97 election the one good thing the Referendum Party came up with, was its slogan “Let the People Decide”. So much so, that more than one party has used it for its own end in recent years.
Today I have been reading the latest list of EDMs (not yet published online) and [...]

How big is our Willie?

Obviously Willie Walsh’s British Airways PR people – sorry, make that ‘corporate communications’ – have told their boss to keep appearing before the cameras to take full responsibility for the wreckage of BA’s reputations which is Terminal 5.
They are wrong. The right line to take would be: “I take full responsibility - and I will [...]

Breathtaking hypocrisy

Phillip makes some interesting points about the post office. But what really intrigues me is how these days it appears that Ministers seem perfectly willing to campaign against a policy that their own Government supports.
Even more perverse is that they think it is perfectly compatible for them to do so, as they use the argument [...]