BY TOBY YOUNG I was in the green room at ITN’s Gray’s Inn Road headquarters on the night of the 2017 General Election and I wasn’t enjoying myself, not least because Owen Jones was there, whooping with delight every time a constituency was called for Labour. After it became obvious Read more…
BY JIM BARRINGTON One of the banners raised by Animal Rebellion at their demonstration at Smithfield meat market last week stated that the “No. 1 cause of climate change is animal agriculture”. It was pointed out in a tweet by environmental journalist, Charlie Pye-Smith, that according to the Intergovernmental Panel Read more…
BY TIM MAYER I don’t know about you, but I’m getting rather tired of the lectures and disruption caused by lefty, beardy-weirdy, tree-huggers, telling us that our leaders have failed and that Government must act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025. As free marketeers, we Read more…
Julian Dutton is a writer, actor and comedian. His writing credits include The Big Impression, Scoop, Pompidou (which he co-created), and many radio series such as The Harpoon, Truly Madly Bletchley, The Secret World etc. On television, he has appeared in The Big Impression, Scoop, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Time Read more…
BY TIM DAWSON Go home British politics, you’re drunk. Hippies on yoga mats blocking London Bridge. A giant puppet octopus being ‘kettled’. John Bercow speaking to the EU on behalf of Remain. It’s like something from a 1970s apocalyptic novella. Or Monty Python. But, no – this is British politics, Read more…
BY JAMES BICKERTON It is no exaggeration to say Extinction Rebellion has the potential to become one of the deadliest political movements in human history. Should their policy programme be applied across the globe I am confident that millions, in all probability tens of millions, would die. Famine, preventable disease Read more…
BY SAM WHITE British politics, a place of stirring oratory, robust cut and thrust, and an effectively adversarial tradition, between politicians, parties, and the public they serve. Or at least, that was British politics until about five minutes ago. Suddenly though, the political arena is highly strung and in a Read more…
BY CHARLOTTE GILL A few weeks ago on Twitter, I had to do a double take. Tom Watson had posted that an organisation employing Johnny Mercer needed “investigating” – as it had received government funding while hiring the Tory MP. The intricacies of what this company did weren’t what shocked Read more…
BY MO METCALF-FISHER Thursday saw yet more drama in Westminster. This time though, it didn’t come from the chamber of the House of Commons. The hard-line environmental group, Extinction Rebellion (XR), found themselves at the centre of a humiliating PR disaster. Likely one that will haunt them indefinitely. Bungling activists Read more…
BY TOBY YOUNG The Labour Party’s manifesto in 1983, when Michael Foot was leader, was famously described as “the longest suicide note in history”. But the next one looks to be an even bigger exercise in self-harm, judging from the last week’s conference. The flurry of policy announcements was hard Read more…
BY TIM DAWSON The protesters decided to stay at home. And who can blame them? Overthrowing capitalism is important work, but not as important as keeping toasty and updating your showreel. I salute the few Revolutionaries and Remainsessives who made it out. There were a couple of Socialist Worker-types in Read more…
BY CHARLOTTE GILL Not even Shakespeare could have written a revenge tragedy to rival the scenes coming out of the Labour Party Conference. It’s not only the backstabbing and Brexit lies that have been theatrical, but the spectacle of Angela Rayner yesterday, laying out her plans for education. Rayner is Read more…
BY SAM WHITE You have to hand it to the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, they are utterly unfazed by things like public opinion, winning general elections, or even, for that matter, holding general elections. Certainly, it struck many as odd that they chose to prevent Boris Johnson from going Read more…
BY MOLLY GILES There is no point berating the Supreme Court for its decision or attempting to discern the supposed political leanings of the Judges of the Supreme Court. The decision was entirely within the reasonable ambit of what it had been asked to decide. However it is imperative that Read more…
BY MO METCALF-FISHER In his speech to the extremist animal rights group Viva! – who brand dairy farmers as rapists, Michael Mansfield QC has suggested that eating meat could be made illegal, with offenders having to do jail time. Whether you eat meat or not, no rational person should be Read more…
BY JAMES BICKERTON ‘Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state’. That phrase, a cry for the dissolution of human liberty, was first issued by Benito Mussolini in 1928. Yet it could very well have been tagged onto one of the motions passed over the weekend Read more…
Simon Evans is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. Hi, Simon. First of all, thanks for talking to us. We love your work – and particularly enjoyed your new radio special, Simon Evans is Right (thoroughly recommended; available here). You touch upon several themes in the programme, including what it Read more…
BY JIM BARRINGTON Sue Hayman, Labour’s shadow environment minister, recently announced the party’s 50 point animal welfare plan. While many of these policies make sense and would indeed improve animal welfare, others showed signs of prejudice or ignorance. One point covered wild animals, saying that a Labour government would remove Read more…
BY DARREN GRIMES “The true “will of the people” looks considerably more questionable if it turns out to be the will of dead people – not the will of those who have the most life ahead of them to face the consequences,” wrote Guardian columnist Polly Tonybee earlier this year. Read more…
BY JAMES BICKERTON There is little to be said in defence of John McDonnell, the man Labour wants to run the British economy, but he does have a certain honesty. Many extremists keep their darkest desires and most authoritarian leanings secret, at least until they achieve power. McDonnell on the Read more…