Just to get started here, I am not going to predict the outcome in full. That would be a fool’s errand. There are way too many variables to even begin to pull together something that anyone in their right mind could psephologically feel confident about. However, I think there are three broad ways it could go on Thursday and what I do feel more confident predicting is what happens in each scenario in terms of their effect on British politics. The first one goes like this: Labour does solidly but nothing mind-blowing – a gain of somewhere around 100 seats net, maybe slightly less. The Tories rem ..read more

In the summer of 2014, Boris Johnson announced he would be running at the next general election to become the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, having been selected by the constituency association to do so. This was significant for several reasons, not least being the fact that the then London mayor had promised several times during his campaign to be re-elected in 2012 that he wouldn’t attempt to run for parliament during his second term. So much for Boris Johnson and campaign promises – although this almost certainly wasn’t the first example of him trying to have his cake and eat it too. I ..read more

In amongst the “It’s all a Remainer plot” and “They all thought it was a work function” excuses being trotted out by those desperate to keep Boris Johnson in Number 10, we also have the old “He just needs better people around him” chestnut making the rounds. Yes, this is the notion that if only Johnson had a better team in Number 10, he’d be an amazing prime minister. Of course he would, yeah, sure thing. Beyond the mere ridiculousness of the premise here, namely that someone who is supposed to be politically leading the country would somehow get magically better at this job for which he is ev ..read more

I’ve wanted to write this one for a while, mainly because it seems like in our polarised age everyone has a view on the mainstream media or legacy media or “the dreaded MSM” depending on who you are, ones that are rarely in tune with reality. Either the MSM is warping all of our minds or it’s perfect the way it is or it’s too left/right-wing – very rarely is it talked about as it actually is, with some attempt at objectivity. I’m going to give that a go here. I think I’m a reasonably good person to attempt this because a). I have written for several mainstream publications as a journalist and ..read more

Before we start in earnest here, I want to say right off the bat that what follows is not a prediction. We live in completely bonkers times and I am not about to tell you what will happen at the next election because I really have no idea. In fact, all I’m going to do is lay out the hard evidence that exists about what the country currently thinks about the prime minister and his party, try and map it onto basic politics and in turn, political history, all in order to demonstrate that the Conservative party and a lot of the Westminster bubble are sizeably underestimating the amount of electora ..read more

I’ll preface this article by saying I’ve been thinking about writing it for a while now. I wanted to have it go out in a mainstream outlet, but it turns out none of them want this article particularly badly enough. The centre-right outlets I can understand, but it’s the rejection by the centre-left ones I find most interesting – do they not want Starmer to do well? Have they all but given up on the man completely already? Or is it me? It’s me, isn’t it. Anyhow, that out of the way, I’ll start with the background before coming onto my thesis. I myself have complained about Starmer a lot in vari ..read more

All right, perhaps a slight exaggeration in the title – without wishing to give out spoilers already, yesterday’s speech by Liz Truss was of her usual standard, ie appallingly abysmal, and going over every single line might kill me. Besides, the Gov.uk website from which I’m pulling the text has about half the speech removed for political content anyhow, so how about this: I’ll cover the most important bits. I’ll decode it all so you know what this government is really thinking about trade at this moment in time. For make no mistake, this was an important speech from the International Trade Se ..read more

A common complaint across all non-Tory politics at present is this: why can’t anyone mount an effective opposition against this shambles of a Conservative government? A lot of fire is directed at Keir Starmer, so let’s start with him and his party as to why it seems almost impossible to put up any kind of effective opposition to Boris Johnson and his crew. Starmer has two issues as I see it. One, he is inexperienced. He only came into the Commons in 2015 and wasn’t really involved in party politics at all, at least as far as I’m aware, before he stood for parliament. At least, this is how I’m ..read more

There is a myth that circulates currently on the western right that goes like this: while the left is close-minded, wrapped up in cancel culture and identity politics, the right have become the custodians of tolerance. While the left no-platforms those it disagrees with, the right will talk with anyone and everyone. So long as you disagree with the woke folk’s shibboleths, you can come and join the centre-right, as they are waiting for you with open arms. Like any myth there is some truth buried in there. The left has become almost hilariously intolerant over the last few years, with any trans ..read more

I have a new book out called “The Patient”. I’m now in that stage of having to talk about it all the time – to keep the publisher happy, to give myself a chance of selling enough copies to be able to publish another one – which I don’t really relish. But there is something interesting I can talk about with this one and the run in to its publication as it relates to the wider universe. It has to do with fiction in the current age and how certain assumptions are creeping in that will make it very hard for challenging fiction of any description to continue being produced. When you get published b ..read more