UK

There is a myth promulgated by the establishment that the military is above politics. They refer to it as a ‘constitutional convention’ as if using more syllables made it more true. It is not true, and General Sir Nicholas Houghton blew it out of the water today. On the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning … Read more

A Tory MP has resigned from the Parliamentary watchdog which checks on MP’s expenses – because of his expenses. Geoffrey Cox is MP for Torridge and West Devon. What caught my attention about this story was not the failure to declare income in the register of interests. He forgot. He missed the deadline. Whatever the … Read more

It comes as no surprise to anyone that the British security services serve a higher master than the elected government of the day. Now the judiciary have ruled that it is not illegal for MI5 or MI6 to intercept the emails, correspondence or phone calls of MP’s. The decision was made by the Investigatory Powers … Read more

It is four days since The Sun’s front page excoriated Jeremy Corbyn for his alleged disrespect to the royal family. Jeremy Corbyn did not sing the national anthem. And today the same royalist respecting paper splattered its front page with a picture of the queen’s grand-daughter-in-law, the former Kate Middleton, flashing a bit of thigh … Read more

Last week I drove to Glasgow. There were two of us in the car. I used a tank full of petrol to get there, and a tank full of petrol to get back. The petrol alone cost me about £150. I did not need the car when I got there. We were staying for the … Read more

What is the definition of an opportunist? Someone who has no fixed principles but jumps at every opportunity to make themselves look good. This is a week of opportunism in politics, and it is still only Tuesday. On Sunday Danny Alexander went on the Andrew Marr Show to announce his new principled opposition to tax … Read more

Irony is not Danny Alexander’s strong point. The Treasury Minister who has diligently carried George Osborne’s bag for him over the last 4 years or so, and happily popped up on screen to present the ‘human face’ of the cuts imposed by the Coalition, sprang to the defence of his Lib-Dem leader yesterday. Mr Clegg … Read more

The growth of food banks and reported cases of malnutrition is a scathing indictment of 21st century British capitalism. You do not need to be a socialist to see food poverty as a shameful scourge that must be dealt with as a matter of urgency. And as I was fuming quietly to myself about the … Read more