With a massive Russian force encircling Ukraine, how should we interpret Putin’s intentions? One key thing to remember is the Russian president’s years as a KGB operative, writes Tom Scott. An adjective that often crops up in discussion of Vladimir Putin is ‘inscrutable’. It’s not just because of the Russian president’s typically stony-faced demeanour and […]
‘He’s not a complete clown’ says PM’s new press chief’. No. Boris Johnson is a completely dangerous clown. Boris Johnson is “not a complete clown”, his new communications director Guto Harri said this month adding, “he’s a very likeable character.” Really? I would say instead that Boris Johnson is a completely dangerous clown, and nothing […]
In 2020, I wrote in The Times that, if the pattern continued of the Johnson government refusing to be held to account, “corruption – both political and financial – will seep into the national bloodstream” Today you can smell corruption in the words and deeds of far too many of the Conservative Party. Not just […]
Our latest edition has a focus on democracy and human rights. What follows is the rationale for putting this front and centre of our efforts to reach beyond the bubble and tell people what the mainstream media will or may not about the relentless undermining of these two vital pillars of a healthy society by […]
The EU referendum was entirely flawed according to criteria set by former Brexit Secretary and ardent Brexiter, David Davis, on how referendums should be “done properly”. In July 2016, Tory MP, Mr Davis, accepted the result of the EU referendum and the dual-role of Brexit Secretary and Chief Brexit Negotiator in Theresa May’s new government. […]
A summary from All the Citizens, a not-for-profit set up in the midst of the global pandemic – with a mission to use impact journalism to hold government and big tech to account. The Judicial Review & Courts Bill went through a 2nd reading in the House of Lords on 7 February. In a powerful […]
Updated below Dear West Country Voices, I have, like many others, just watched Prime Minister’s Questions.Wow! What a farce. Brian Rix (apologies to younger readers) would be turning in his grave. So our PM just happened across a ‘work gathering” in his garden, failed to notice bottles of booze and food laid out and assumed it […]
The dismissal of (eg) John Major’s comments, on the grounds that he is a remainer, is one more reminder of how the shadow of the Brexit vote still casts a shadow over our politics. It hardly needs saying that there are many reasons to be concerned about the Johnson government. They have been obvious for […]
What kind of a country do we live in when, having stripped people of their freedom of movement, the Government sets further arbitrary deadlines that have the potential to devastate the lives of those most directly affected? It’s not just EU nationals affected by these deadlines – it’s UK nationals too. Right now, if UK […]
Perhaps the journalist for Bournemouth Echo had guessed that Jacob Rees-Mogg was about to be handed the ‘exciting’ challenge of proving the advantages of Brexit. None seem to be immediately discernible. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released a report on 9 February, which revealed that “the only detectable impact so far is increased costs, paperwork […]
Well, we all knew Murdoch was the most powerful man in UK politics, so maybe it’s no wonder that Jacob Rees-Mogg has turned to readers of the Sun in a desperate bid to scrape together a few rules and regulations that they have been told get up their noses. I fear he will be inundated […]
Dear Sheryll Finally, Brexit has created a job: quite a pointless and poisoned chalice of a job, Brexit Opportunities minister, due to the fact that there are clearly no benefits, but a job nonetheless. I am sure that will warm the hearts of all of those previously employed people who are on the breadline since […]
On 9 February 2022, the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts published its latest report into the impact of Brexit and the consequent changes to the EU/UK border. It made grim reading. On the same day Johnson, scrabbling around for diversions from #partygate, reorganised the deckchairs on the Torytanic and moved the minister for […]
Dear Conor Burns, Yesterday I was shocked by the footage of Keir Starmer and David Lammy mobbed by hostile far-right thugs quoting Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile smears from Hansard — and that’s saying something, because yesterday was also the day I was told my beloved father only has weeks to live and asked to sign […]
This same letter could be sent to the majority of Conservative MPs in our region who have failed to condemn Johnson’s appalling lie. Ed Dear Sheryll The shocking and disgusting attacks on the leader of the opposition by far right extremists today are the direct result of the widely debunked fake news that our so-called […]
It was 30 years ago today – 7 February 1992 – that the Treaty of the European Union was signed by 12 EU member states in the Dutch city of Maastricht. The treaty was fully debated and democratically passed by our Parliament in Westminster – as were all the treaties of the EEC/EU during our […]
In a recent edition of Conservative Home, my MP argued that now was not the time for a contest for leadership of the Conservative party, given the various, current national and international crises. “In the last Conservative leadership election, I did not vote for Boris Johnson. He subsequently sacked me from the Cabinet as he […]
I originally posted this rather long thread on Twitter. If you think it too long to read, the summary is that reversing QE could be the recipe for an absolute economic disaster. All the debt issues by the government to pay for Covid – about £450 billion of it – was in effect bought by the […]
In the early 2000s, I was strolling over a zebra crossing near Highbury Corner, in London, on my way home from work when I was almost hit by a bicycle. I immediately recognised the rider: it was Boris Johnson, and he was chatting away on his mobile phone while cycling right at me. Furiously I […]
This week Johnson created a lasting link between Starmer and Jimmy Savile. There’ll be people with no interest in politics whose inner voice, at the next election, will remind them of it. They won’t recall the detail but it will be enough to put them off voting Labour. Even the most fulsome apology from Johnson […]
This is a clear and powerful summary of the ‘levelling down’ of democracy in the proposed Elections Bill from Make Votes Matter, reproduced with their kind permission: What is the Elections Bill and what does it mean for our country? The Elections Bill was introduced to Parliament by the government back in July 2021, and […]
You might remember my articles from last year, when I explained why people don’t want to work as lorry drivers anymore. I came with several reasons why Britain suffers from a driver shortage. Surely now, when we have established that the economy does needs truckers, companies would be doing everything to attract them, right? Surely […]
The two-year anniversary of Brexit day on 31 January, coupled with Johnson’s lamentable popularity ratings (not so much sinking as drowning), have prompted Number 10 to unleash a flurry of misleading pro-Brexit propaganda. The aim appears to be to rally Brexit supporters with images of the Union Jack linked to positive words like “freedom” and […]
I have long been incensed by politicians, particularly members of the current government, claiming they know what the ‘public’ want and the ‘people’ think. The Prime Minister is an expert at this: perhaps the only thing he has expertise in, along with lying and hiding in fridges. I can’t think of one single occasion when […]
George Orwell would have understood the government’s abuse of the English language all too well. Tom Scott draws the parallels. In his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language, George Orwell observes: “The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another […] […]
Today we watched a desperate and despicable display of faux contrition, empty excuses and insultingly evasive answers from Johnson. Sue Gray’s ‘update’ made it crystal clear that rules have been broken which means that Johnson has repeatedly lied to the House and to us. Twelve of the sixteen parties are now under criminal investigation. Twelve. […]
The public has been shocked by the revelation that Liz Truss’s recent trip to Australia is estimated to have cost the UK taxpayer £500,000 for the charter of a private jet alone. That’s the equivalent to the amount of money Rishi Sunak now wishes to save the Treasury by scrapping the paltry allowance of £6 […]
“We witnessed an attempted coup this week. A prime minister, who has very obviously broken the law on many occasions and who holds the people of this country in contempt, sought to stay in power aided and abetted by his party and the police.” Richard Murphy sets out the case for radical reform. The charge […]
Dear West Country Bylines, I have this to say to Sheryll Murray after she stood up to heap praise on Johnson at PMQs: Boris has now said he will stay and “fight on”. Who exactly is be fighting? Is it the bereaved families he laughed in the faces of by holding more parties in lockdown […]
Dear Mr Burns, Hoping this finds you well. I move around a lot in social circles as an ‘after-hours musician’, and whenever I engage in conversation, which is a lot, this particular question goes around like a wildfire all the time: “How long can Boris Johnson cling on to his job?” For us normal people, […]