Is this the online election? The AI election? The TikTok election? As somebody who’s been writing about data-driven political campaigning for about a decade, I’m going to stick my neck out and say “no”.
Let’s start with TikTok, which the …
TikTok won’t win the election
Is this the online election? The AI election? The TikTok election? As somebody who’s been writing about data-driven political campaigning for about a decade, I’m going to stick my neck out and say “no”.
Let’s start with TikTok, which the …
Farage’s army is on the march
What a difference a week makes. This time last Saturday, I was watching Nigel Farage’s ragtag rebel army in Great Yarmouth struggling to rouse themselves for one last attack on the fortress of Westminster, somehow knowing in their heart of …
Who won Sunak vs Starmer?
There was one clear winner in last night’s prime ministerial debate on ITV. It was, of course, the moderator. While Kier Starmer droned and Rishi Sunak piped and yapped, Julie Etchingham radiated a sincerity that neither of the men on …
Britain’s golden age of sleaze
For many years now, the gold standard for government sleaze has been John Major’s ill-fated administration between 1992 and 97, but maybe that’s no longer the case. Maybe we’ve just been living through the true golden age. After all, the …
The end of the Conservatives
Protestors brandish Nazi symbols in central London. “A group of people” riots in Sheffield. Rapists cannot be deported because “human rights”. The economy is flatlining. A third of young people would rather swap liberal democracy for a military rule or …
After the election, everything is unknown
Though I am old enough to have voted in general elections since 1983, I cannot recall any time when the result of an election seemed so uncertain. I do not, of course, mean that there is much doubt who is …
What Starmer can learn from George Smiley
For so long Labour had been preparing. “Everything has to be brilliant,” was the motto. There could be no mistakes, no risks, no complacency. The Tories could not be underestimated. And then the Prime Minister walked out of No. 10 …
What Starmer can learn from George Smiley
For so long Labour had been preparing. “Everything has to be brilliant,” was the motto. There could be no mistakes, no risks, no complacency. The Tories could not be underestimated. And then the Prime Minister walked out of No. 10 …
A Euros election is a gift to Starmer
As the Sixties entered its twilight period, Britain was more than ready for change. Beleaguered by inflation, stagnant industrial output and worsening trade-union relations, the Labour Party was on course for a major defeat. By the start of 1970, The …
Welcome to Britain’s most miserable election
As Westminster’s rumour mill thrummed to the possibility of a snap election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak walked into yesterday’s PMQs with a spring in his blue-suited step. High on the falling rate of inflation, it seemed the long overdue summer …
Labour’s lead isn’t what it seems
Within minutes of an election being called yesterday, the question on every broadcaster’s lips wasn’t whether the Conservative Party would lose in July — but how damaging the margin will be.
Labour’s current lead has a very wide range among …
For the Tories, things can only get worse
There is surely only one explanation for Rishi Sunak’s sudden rush to the polls. In stark contrast with the D:Ream anthem that nearly drowned out the Prime Minister’s announcement: things can only get worse.
Regardless of Sunak’s message that the …
How to survive the Tory apocalypse
When Ford Madox Ford died in June 1939, a few weeks before Europe compelled itself once again to go to war, only three people turned up to his funeral. In an obituary, Graham Greene compared his fellow writer’s passing to …
How vice consumed Blackpool
Every online review for one of Blackpool’s brothels tells a sordid story. “I plan to visit nightly,” writes a punter whose wife has just died. “A depressing hovel,” claims another who took a teddy bear with him. A third admits …
