Tag Archives: Nick Clegg

Do Young Momentum Enthusiasts Know That Jeremy Corbyn Really Wants Brexit?

Posted on July 1, 2017 by

In the New Statesman of 30 June Stephen Bush tells us that the position of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is of less relevance than (in Stephen’s view) the fact that most Labour MPs are pro-Brexit.   To my mind this … Continue reading →

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Regional pay: how to increase the North-South divide and weaken the ConDem coalition?

Posted on April 21, 2012 by

As anticipated following Chancellor George Osborne’s budget, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has now declared that ‘regional’ pay for health workers is on the agenda. Needless to say, those in the South-East will earn more under this arrangement than colleagues further North.  … Continue reading →

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CSA charges: the ConDems punish women and children, and shield men (again)

Posted on January 26, 2012 by

The ConDem administration doesn’t just disregard women; it evidently wants to put them firmly back under the control, however odious, of men. How else can we explain the intention as an element of the Welfare Reform Bill that single parents … Continue reading →

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Disabling the already disabled: the sham(e) that is the ConDems (& a Petition)

Posted on January 12, 2012 by

If you haven’t experienced serious illness or longer-term disability you really do need to make the effort, right now, to imagine what that might feel like close up.  That’s what I hope to help you do, in this post. Having such … Continue reading →

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Ed hapless; future hopeless; LibDems shameless (unless they cross the floor)?

Posted on December 18, 2011 by

Ed Miliband continues to lack traction with the electorate; Nick Clegg tilts at EU rainbows whilst fully aware that David Cameron, holding the LibDems over a barrel, barely cares; unemployment is approaching 3 million. How much worse can it get? … Continue reading →

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LibDems prop up the Coalition; they don’t protect us from it

Posted on September 10, 2011 by

It takes a special sort of bare-faced nerve to be a LibDem politician right now. Extraordinarily, they ask us to agree that the Coalition is being molded by them in positive ways and would, by inference, be ‘worse’ without them. … Continue reading →

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The Murdock miasma driving Clegg via Cable from Cameron – what next?

Posted on July 10, 2011 by

The extraordinary revelations of the past week, as grim fact upon grim fact is revealed in the News of the World phone-hacking horror story, are we all agree only the beginning. What comes next, we are also all agreed, is … Continue reading →

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AV goes; so will Labour now get going?

Posted on May 4, 2011 by

What will the outcome of the FPTP / AV campaigns tell us? Our main lesson, if we look past the bluster, may be about leadership in a world changing as it never has before, by the day and hour. Tomorrow the … Continue reading →

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A ‘No’ AV outcome could convert LibDem MPs to Labour

Posted on April 19, 2011 by

In the end, and very reluctantly, I’ve gone for ‘No’ on the Alternative Vote.  I truly wanted to be progressive, and it’s really tempting to hit the Tories where it hurts. But over the past few weeks I’ve realised that ‘Yes’ … Continue reading →

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LibDems must cross the floor – before it’s all too late

Posted on February 12, 2011 by

It’s said we in the UK are stuck with the nightmare of Conservative slash-and-burn for a full five years.  The Conservatives’ oh-so-junior partners, the Liberal Democrats, are in this view unwilling and afraid to say Stop. I don’t agree.  It doesn’t have to be … Continue reading →

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Tory ‘dictatorship of the moment’ … LibDems, where are you?

Posted on January 20, 2011 by

There is clear and fundamental purpose behind the apparent chaos of the current Conservative-led ‘reforms’.  The chaos is a cover, whether intentional or not, to distract us whilst a root-and-branch revision of the rules of engagement is being embedded into UK politics. There’s little doubt now … Continue reading →

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Patronising paternalism about parental leave

Posted on January 18, 2011 by

Two articles in today’s Times (18 January 2011) remind me yet again why there is so far still for women in the UK to go.   In one article, ‘Extra paternity pay is needed to free women, says Clegg’, we learn … Continue reading →

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Incompetent Conservative Government… or de-governance?

Posted on January 11, 2011 by

Michael Tomasky of The Guardian, in a recent article entitled ‘Good at theatre, dreadful at governing’, quoted the American scholar Alan Wolfe’s view of conservative (e.g. Republican) politicians: Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday for some; no delivery date for others

Posted on January 8, 2011 by

A story I heard about events which happened yesterday (Friday 7 January) seems to resonate with some current concerns of top people in maternity care. The tale goes that a leading and very large NHS hospital sent at least two expectant mothers home again … Continue reading →

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