The Wealth Tax is a Progressive FallacyRecently, I caught self-styled 'Inequality Economist' Gary Stevenson's Documentary, How to Get Filthy Rich on Channel 4; to say it frustrated me would be an understatement. The fundamental thesis of the documentary is that rising inequality is going to leave the grand majority of the population worse off, (which is true) and that the solution to this is a wealth tax. I've explained my concerns with a wealth tax before, but I think I'm going to go into more detail on my problems with it here, not only because it is becoming a thorn in the side of serious Left-wing ... (more) |
The Conservatives are embarking on another purgeWith the Conservatives languishing at 19 per cent in the latest YouGov poll, Kemi Badenoch has decided she knows what her party's problem is. It's appeal is too broad. So, according to both Conservative Home and the Spectator, a new purge of its membership and elected representatives is underway. Oliver Dean writes on Conservative Home:In a move which properly began last Friday, Badenoch announced that only those who back the Conservatives' commitment to scrapping net zero and leaving the ECHR will be approved as parliamentary candidates. Anyone who won't fall in line will be blocked, or have the whip removed ... (more) |
Why don't people use trains more?It is an obvious answer I'm afraid - the service that the train companies provide is awful. In the last 6 days only one of the six long distance trains that I have been on were on time. Three of them were on more than an hour late and two were 25 minutes late. On 7th July I travelled to Bournemouth via London. The London train was slate but not late enough to prevent me going through to Waterloo to catch The Bournemouth train which had been cancelled. After 30 minutes wait, I got a train to Basingstoke where after ... (more) |
Are Plaid Cymru serious about government?The BBC reports that doubts remain over whether the Plaid Cymru Welsh government will be able to get its supplementary budget through the Senedd this week after Labour rejected the offer of a deal on Thursday night. The news site says that at a meeting of the British Irish Council on Guernsey on Friday, Plaid Cymru's First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said it was "Labour's call" and the proposal was "the offer" because ministers were working under tight financial constraints. But is that good enough from a party that has taken on the responsibiity of government? The difference between the ... (more) |
Why stage plays need a character that screenplays don'tAlexander Mackendrick didn't just direct The Man in the White Suit: he wrote the first draft of the screenplay. In his book Lethal Innocence: The Cinema of Alexander Mackendrick, Philip Kemp quotes Mackendrick on the genesis of that screenplay. It began life as an unperformed theatre play by his cousin Roger MacDougall: "I did something really wicked: I took Roger's hero and gave him a minor role, and pivoted the whole story around a secondary character, the one played in the film by Alec Guinness, to make a new story entirely. And Balcon liked it, and approved it. When I ... (more) |
Plans to bring Leicester's Il Rondo back to lifeThe Leicester Mercury has a story, but doesn't know the half of it: New live music venue hopes for former board game cafe in Leicester city centre An empty unit in Leicester city centre could be given a new lease of life as a late-night entertainment venue. Generic Leisure Ltd has lodged an application seeking a licence for indoor sports events, plays, films, and live and recorded music at the site at 22 Silver Street. Former board game cafe be damned. This was once Il Rondo, where some of the top Sixties bands played, naming it as their favourite venue ... (more) |
How many councillors has Reform UK lost since the May 2026 elections?Given how popular (and lengthy!) my list of Reform councillor departures after the May 2025 elections turned out to be, here is a new list, this time for councillors elected under the Reform banner on 7 May 2026, or in by-elections after that date, who have already departed the party for one reason or another. Jay Cooper, Sefton: declared "not welcome" by Nigel Farage following reports of him calling the Holocaust a hoax and then resigned from the party (May 2026). Stuart Prior, Essex: expelled by Reform and resigned as a councillor after "he was accused the week before the ... (more) |
Random thoughtsAndy Burnham I am away on holiday for the next week so shan't be able to comment again before Mr Burnham's accession into the premiership. I wish him all the luck in the world. I've seen him described as having policies not much different from those of Sir Keir Starmer, but being a better communicator. I think that's a bit unfair, and still hope he is secretly negotiating with the Libera Democrats and Greens to beef up his cabinet by bringing some of them into it. Maybe Sir Ed Davey at the Home Office; a Green at Environment, thus releasing ... (more) |
Mathew on Monday: Ann Widdecombe, robust debate and the need to disagree agreeablyI disagreed with Ann Widdecombe on almost everything. Most fundamentally, I profoundly opposed her views anti the rights of LGBT+ people, which I regarded as illiberal and deeply hurtful. Yet politics is rarely as simple as agreement and disagreement. I first interacted with Ann Widdecombe twenty years ago when she was a Tory MP and I was a local radio reporter in the Midlands and I interviewed her down the line about an event she was due to be attending at Coventry Cathedral. More recently, I had the pleasure (and, I'll admit, slight dread) of debating her live on GB ... (more) |
A few thoughts on Ann WiddecombeWilliam Hague and Ann Widdecombe at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool, 1999. (Photo: The Guardian) Like most of you, I did not know Ann Widdecombe personally. That does not, naturally, prevent me from having views on her political legacy. Indeed, I have many. When it was first announced that she had died, I considered writing a few words. They would not have constituted a tribute, but nor would they have been disrespectful. It is perfectly possible to assess someone's political career honestly without either descending into abuse or pretending, simply because they have died, that one never profoundly disagreed ... (more) |