Mr Micawber and the court of Queen Carrie
- 20 Feb 2021
The power dynamics at Number 10 are far more interesting and revealing than the sad mutterings of disgruntled cabinet ministers jockeying for survival. The reshuffle is now rumoured to be in June. But this is idle gossip compared to serious intelligence. The Johnson style of g...
Peter Mandelson has returned from the politically dead. Underestimate him at your peril
- 14 Feb 2021
The real problem for Keir Starmer is that he has never had to be a kick in the groin, gouge out their eye balls and piss the sockets politician. He only entered the Commons in 2015 and found himself catapulted into the seventh circle of hell as a prominent member of Corbyn’s s...
Come on Keir don’t encourage Johnson to tamper with our juries
- 30 Jan 2021
Never mind a week being a long time in politics, a day seems long enough. We started by mourning the one hundred thousand Covid related deaths (yes, Dan Hannan it really does kill you), saw the loonies howling at the full moon over deep state conspiracy theories, looked on in ...
It’s time we had a Secretary of State for Employment again & a law making it a sackable offence to unreasonably refuse to be vaccinated
- 23 Jan 2021
You may not believe this, but every week I really do try and find something pleasant to write about Boris Johnson. Some little piece of empathy he has shown. Some evidence that he has read more than the executive summary of a brief. Some glimmer of leadership. To be fair he ...
Who will be the British Qanon Shaman?
- 10 Jan 2021
Most of us in Britain looked on in horror and disbelief at the news footage of the storming and desecration of the Capitol building with Representatives and Senators cowering in fear amongst the swirling mists of cordite and tear gas. And most of us were not at all surprised a...
The Union has never been in greater peril. Hopefully Johnson has a strategy to save it.
- 29 Dec 2020
Congratulations to David Frost on leading his team of negotiators in an historic diplomatic operation which will give him a well deserved foot note in history. And there is a lesson in government for Boris Johnson too. If you test a policy to destruction before making a decisi...
The Bullingdonian chant of ‘form a square around the Pritster’ sends out a sinister message to those whose lives are being wrecked by bullying
- 21 Nov 2020
It is instructive to read the foreword to the ministerial code. “To fulfil this mission and win back the trust of the British people we must now uphold the very highest standards of propriety, and this code sets it out. Now we must do it. There must be no bullying and no...
It’s time to call for a grown up to restore credibility and competence. Make Brandon Lewis deputy Prime Minister
- 14 Nov 2020
I don’t often give Boris Johnson any credit, but today I doff my cap. Not because he sacked Cain and Cummings, but because of the reason. The full frontal, kick in the bollocks, the cardboard box walk of shame normally reserved for the office sex pest or a sticky finger in th...
Who will be the Modern day Leo Amery? It is inevitable that Boris will go. But when?
- 1 Nov 2020
In 1940, in what has become known as the Norway debate, Tory Grandee Leo Amery rose to his feet and delivered a withering speech which ended with a quote from Oliver Cromwell. ‘You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart I say and let us have done wi...
The Trump illness could plunge America into a constitutional crisis
- 2 Oct 2020
I am not going to write about the political implications of Trump’s illness although they are enormous and looming. I will be concentrating on the legal and constitutional chaos that could paralyse the country. And cheer the enemies of democracy. Let me try and work t...