Iain Macwhirter
general election
A Very Civil Partnership.
It was like a crazy dream, a comic fantasy. Nick and Dave hugging on the doorstep of Number Ten. Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the UK. As the day wore on my fingers were numb from pinching myself. There they stood among the foliage of the Downing St rose garden, joking … Continue reading
Don’t hold your nose on election day. Vote for fair votes.
When things go wrong in British politics they don’t half go wrong. The collision near the launch of Labour’s final poster campaign on Friday was a headline-writers gift: The Car Crash Election. The final mishap in the worst Labour election campaign since 1983, when the late Michael Foot – a man of great intellect but little … Continue reading
Clegg: The knives are out.
I don’t know – you turn your back for a few weeks and what happens? they go and break the mould of British politics. Again. It sometimes feels like I went to sleep and woke up in 1983, the last time the Liberal Democrats – or rather the SDP-Liberal Alliance – were in mould-breaking form. … Continue reading
Why is unemployment not an election issue?
On Wednesday I was sitting staring into space, wondering what I was going to write about this week. The press were preoccupied with mounting debt, and the creeps at Strathclyde Passenger Transport circumnavigating the globe at our expense. Then my phone rang. It was a BBC producer wondering if I would come and talk about … Continue reading
Toryota Camron – Total Product Recall
There are renewed fears for the future of the Toryota firm this week as further flaws have been discovered in the company’s leading models. The brand image of Toryota has been seerious damaged by the mass recall of thousands of policies over the last few weeks. Their once top selling model, the Camron – supposedly … Continue reading
Midwinter mutiny leaves Brown dead in water, Miliband overboard.
The best thing to be said about the latest tragicomic episode in the decline and fall of New Labour, was that the latest coup attempt was at least quickly over. In fact, it was over almost before it began, on Wednesday lunchtime when the Labour former cabinet ministers, Patricia Hewitt and Geof Hoon launched their … Continue reading
Imagine: an X Factor Election.
Simon Cowell, the evil genius behind the Prime Minister’s favourite programme “The X Factor” has made clear that he’d like to extend the franchise to politics. The talent show mogul is offering to stage high octane debates on key issues during the general election campaign. But why stop there….? Brash music. Stars. A giant … Continue reading
Could Labour win?
A nagging worry is keeping Labour MPs and ministers awake at night. It’s not the expenses row – they’ve gone through the pain barrier on that already. It’s not the prospect of a hung parliament and having to do a deal with the Liberal Democrats – they could live with that – or even the … Continue reading
SNP ‘turkeys voting for an early bath’ in TV debate storm.
It’s the great unmentionable that everyone’s talking about. The Scottish National Party’s desperate bid to get a platform on the English premier league. The Scottish squad has made repeated attempts to get equal treatment with the English teams during the BBC coverage of next year’s finals. They’re hoping that their midfield miracle worker, Alex Salmond, … Continue reading
Alex Salmond will "hang Westminster from a Scottish rope"
SORRY, FOR SOME REASON THE SEVEN COMMENTS ON THIS PAGE GOT LOST IN EDITING. DIDN’T DELETE THEM. When it comes to attention-seeking, no one does it better than Alex Salmond. The SNP leader’s pre-conference interview with the Tory-leaning Daily Telegraph at the weekend was a classic of its kind . “There’s a vast overwhelming majority of … Continue reading
Iain Macwhirter 