It's the (whatever it happens to be in this case), stupid!
Kier Starmer has rejected an increased Labour vote share in the general election (now looking pretty likely) as a step forward for Labour, saying “The vote share has to be compared with the vote share of a rival party and therefore establishing a reasonable vote share if your rival gets much more of a vote share just doesn’t do it.”. Starmer made his view of political success very clear when he said “Winning elections is all I’m here for, that’s why I came into it”. In reject
Labour & Security - A Sympathetic Realist Critique
We hope to come back to Labour's Manifesto commitments on international relations, defence and security later. These issues have been pushed to the end of a Manifesto heavily focused on domestic socio-economic issues. This, scarcely commented on in the media, is remarkable in itself because it cuts across an establishment narrative that constantly looks outwards towards counter-terrorism, state security and maintaining foreign alliance as second only to economic viability in
A response to the Labour Party 2017 manifesto: Education policy
The manifesto’s focus on education is preoccupied with the need to increase education spending and to make education affordable for all learners (such as through the abolition of university tuition fees and reintroduction of the Educational Maintenance Allowance). These are apparently laudable ambitions, but their value relies on the truth of two assumptions; educational achievement is strongly dependent on education spending and educational opportunities available are of hig
Optimism and pessimism
Douglas Carswell has made a You Tube film which argues that the most important political difference that divides people is ultimately between optimists and pessimists. While this may seem to be a reference to a Brexit leaver-remainer distinction, it in fact refers to a larger issue. Carswell is an advocate of the almost complete elimination of the powers of states; he is a true believer in the power of free markets to bring about the best of all possible worlds. Carswell
