Attempting to salvage the frittered away year and a half of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, and deal an unlikely blow to the Conservatives in next month’s snap election called by Theresa May – has ever a task appeared more hopeless? But to their credit the Labour Party are at least trying, in their own characteristically dishevelled way. And having promised the…
Given that the government’s own representative, Jo Johnson, the younger brother of Boris and the Minister of State for Universities and Science, described it as ‘the most significant legislative reform of the sector for twenty-five years’, you would be forgiven for presuming that the Higher Education and Research Bill just passed by parliament at least possessed some semblance of academic…
The Shimmering Ostrich just a few short months ago went to the awful trouble of putting together a template for any Theresa May speech. While her limited worldview and penchant for repetition shouldn’t have made this an especially onerous task, having to dwell upon and draw out her use of a few broad and middling, yet at the same time…
As Theresa May decided after all to call a snap general election, which will now take place in just seven weeks’ time on 8 June, too few commentators called May out for what amounts to a brazen and deceitful display of political opportunism. Rather than questioning the strength of her leadership or calling her a liar, they simply threw up…
Still without the £100 million royal yacht – presumably with its poop beaten gold and purple sails – which he and Boris Johnson agree would significantly boost the soft power of this country, Liam Fox continued this week on his flabby mission to make Britain a great global trading nation regardless. On a visit to Southeast Asia he stopped by…
Just when everything seemed to be running so smoothly! For months the House of Commons has been more than compliant, after a brief stand on moral grounds the Lords too meekly wilted, and with the claim of the Supreme Court swiftly abated, Article 50 was finally triggered. Brexit was well and truly underway. Theresa May sent her six-page letter to Brussels,…
In reducing a British marine’s murder conviction to manslaughter, allowing him to be released from prison in a matter of weeks, the Court Martial Appeal Court and the guilty party, Alexander Blackman, have ruthlessly dispatched any notion of ethics in war. The incident Blackman was tried for took place in Helmand Province on 15 September 2011, as part of the British…
Before the referendum and after, for those British citizens who in their infinite wisdom wished to see their country wave goodbye to the irksome EU, ‘control’ served as a useful byword for ‘immigration’. It turned a negative into a positive in one fell swoop: for instead of demanding an end to ‘uncontrolled’ immigration, one could assert control as a right,…
Welcome to contemporary British politics! A realm of raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string, and more and all and only your very favourite things; where little shops, china cups, and virginity are each saved and strawberry jam served in all of its varieties; a veritable world…
Theresa May might be about to invoke Article 50, but for better or worse we’ve known it for months. Nicola Sturgeon met with the Prime Minister as May’s whistle-stop tour of the United Kingdom reached Scotland, but with Brexit underway Scottish independence seems inevitable, so let the ladies do their talking and who are we to fuss? Aren’t we all a little…
