I don’t usually comment on Irish politics.  It is, after all, their country, and they can do whatever they want to it.  But the latest posters for the Lisbon Treaty Referendum, put up by the intensely nasty campaign group Cóir should ensure that this referendum should be as nasty as they are. Let me be [...]

Peter Mandelson, First Secretary of State, Lord of the Realm, used to be much better at the smear-and-run stuff. This week he’s seizing on the opportunity to attack Tory backbench MEP Daniel Hannan as some sort of crypto-racist and crypto-facist. Mandelson, the dark lord, prince of darkness, is wondering out loud if Dan Hannan’s apparent [...]

I’m coming back to the ongoing discussion with Thomas Byrne on the rationale for public funding for education.  He has been responding int he comments to the blog, but I think the points he raises are interesting and level headed, so they deserved a good airing.  He’s in white, I’m in blue (as usual) Who [...]

Libertarian Tory blogger Thomas Byrne makes some arguments recently on his blog, then debated on Twitter, about the desirability or not of state funding of University. I don’t ever do this, but as a fellow Conservative, I am sure he won’t have a problem with a spot of forensic work on his blog post.  I’m in [...]

I think Labour’s brand is irretrievably damaged and they need a cathartic change now if they are to survive the next election without a catastrophic split afterwards. I think the latest piece of evidence, but not the cause, is the latest ComRes Poll (details on the excellent Iain Dale Blog) on peoples’ perceptions of the safety of the NHS.

Savolinna is beautiful at this time of year. He’ll also be entering the printer punting extravaganza.

The NHS, and its sister organisations across the UK, are in dreadful shape. At best, a doctor would prescribe bed rest, at worst amputations. Waiting lists, overstressed doctors, Whitehall setting targets on the basis of focus group findings, and now the appointment of Andy Burnham conspire to load malady after malady on the services. A [...]

A tory council in England is [was vaguely] considering whether it can [could] make arrangements to fund the places in private schools of pupils whose parents might lose their jobs. Labour politicos are trying to use this as a political football.  Let’s be clear where we should stand: The state should not fund private schools.  [...]

Peter ‘Dodgy’ Mandelson’s increasingly bitter and nasty attacks on George Osborne are entirely off script: the timing of his comment that Osborne’s claiming of ‘progressive’ for the conservatives, right at the end of his Today interview with Evan Davis betrays an edge to his commentary we should keep an eye on. The Prince of Darkness [...]

Sorry about the hashtag-as-a-title thing, but it will make Tweeting a lot easier. The media is alight today, as it often is in silly season, with news of Dan Hannan, erstwhile Tory MEP from the South of England calling the NHS a ‘sixty year mistake’ and saying he wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Fact One:  [...]