Author: robert.marchant

Catalan flag, with the “independence” star In between the petty spats of the Tory conference this week or the surreal cult of Labour’s gathering last week, there was a potentially seismic political event for Europe (and Britain) a thousand miles away: Sunday’s referendum for Catalan independence. It is big news: while a major general election… Continue reading Letter from Barcelona: Labour’s Spanish lessons

“Dennis Skinner…votes with Tories” ran the headline. But the truth is that Dennis Skinner actually voted for what he believes in: that Britain is better-off outside the EU. He only did what Jeremy Corbyn had already done hundreds of times (about five hundred, reportedly): vote with the Tories against his own party. As did six… Continue reading The real story of the Commons Brexit vote was the leadership’s disingenuous positioning

It does not take a Nostradamus to predict that this year’s will have to be the craziest Labour conference since 1985 or, quite possibly, ever. On the one hand you will have hubris: bright-eyed young Corbynite new recruits, feeling buoyed and excited by the party’s “success” in the general election (i.e. we did not lose… Continue reading Labour’s life-support conference approaches

It is not for months but, in fact, years that some of us have tried to draw attention to the pathological infatuation of Labour’s hard left (and even some of the soft left) to the Venezuelan regime of Hugo Chávez. The attraction was straightforward: a kind of “Cuba-lite”, where in contrast defenders could always point… Continue reading Venezuela: a Corbynite touchstone. An unmitigated human and democratic disaster

The madness that is British politics in 2017 this week continued apace. While Tories continued to flounder in their Brexit negotiations and, Trump-like, blame the media for their self-inflicted disasters, we finally arrived at the point of disarray where the half-bonkers Jacob Rees-Mogg, a throwback, cartoon Tory backbencher, is considered 2nd favourite to be the… Continue reading To those who voted for Labour as a pro-Remain party: you’ve been suckered

Last week Luciana Berger, prominent centrist, Jewish MP and Corbyn critic, underwent a coup on her local party’s Executive Committee, with nine out of ten places going to Momentum members. Shortly afterwards, one of said members, Roy Bentham, demanded a pledge of allegiance to the leadership from her, the implication being that, if she did… Continue reading Those who think the Corbyn leadership can change are dreaming. Appeasement will only strengthen the hard left’s hand

Two weeks ago it was announced that Progress, the centre-left pressure group within the Labour party, would cease to be funded by its patron for over a decade, Lord Sainsbury. Progress has always been the part of the party most in tune with the British public, rather than Labour members or supporters, and has been… Continue reading Progress has been a force for good and the party needs it

For some MPs and commentators, suddenly everything has changed about Labour’s situation. But what, exactly? Did we win, as Emily Thornberry thought we did? Has Jeremy Corbyn now become the nation’s best choice for prime minister? Is it just “one more heave”? Hmm. Not really. In fact, dig a bit deeper and we might observe… Continue reading Reality check: a winning party needs to win, you know, seats

Yes, yes, I know I was predicting that Labour would do much worse than they actually did. And it seems Corbyn did enthuse the young and get them to the polling station. But it’s not so simple as that. And since they are not forming a government, any sense of achievement is relative; relative to the… Continue reading How on earth did Labour get this FEW seats?

I have voted Labour (actually about 10 days ago, by post) and, for the first time in my life, with no enthusiasm whatsoever. I voted for the party under Ed Miliband, knowing he was unlikely to win but at least thinking he was a vaguely decent human being, who might just be able to learn… Continue reading Self-indulgence has led Britain to this dismal point