This passage from a Kenan Malik article published earlier this year in the Guardian sums up the weaknesses of Matthew Goodwin's concept of 'the new elite' economically: For Goodwin, though, the new elite are the "people who really run Britain", having largely displaced the old ruling class of "upper-class aristocrats, landowners and industrialists". The idea that Gary Lineker or the US-based British journalist Mehdi Hasan or Sam Freedman, a fellow at the Institute for Government thinktank (all of whom Goodwin has namechecked as key members of the new elite) shape our lives more than Rishi Sunak or Andrew Bailey, the ...
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: Both the standing of Rishi Sunak and of the Conservatives in the polls is bad. Very bad. Regular readers will already know that and be bored by the number of times I've compared the Conservative poll rating with Labour's 1983 result. The Mirror really should dress someone up in a donkey jacket to chase around after Rishi Sunak. All that can get a bit boring to repeat, so let's take a look at what there is in the polls that could worry ...
The wonderful Agnetha Fältskog, without whom ABBA would just have been ABB (or possibly just BBA), was interviewed in Friday's Guardian by Alexis Petridis. I didn't realise what a big star she was in Sweden before ABBA were formed, enjoying a run of hit singles as a teenager: So the Triumph Spitfire-driving Fältskog was young, successful and famous, but she says today that if she could go back and give her advice, it would be "don't be so worried all the time. Try to relax and have fun. You know, I was a little worried person about everything, so that's ...
Ukraine Lest we forget in the turmoil of the Middle East, there is an important war being fought in Eastern Europe. Russia has launched what appears to be a counter to the Ukrainian counter-offensive. Bitter fighting has been reported around the town of Avdiika. Volodomyr Zelensky has said his men are holding their own, but it should be acknowledged that the Ukrainians have suffered heavy losses in their summer counter-offensive. One of Ukraine's biggest concerns is keeping the lights on. The Russian-controlled nuclear power plant at Zaporizhia supplied 48 percent of Ukraine's energy needs. A significant chunk of the remainder ...
After all the revelations about how poorly the government functions at a senior level is it not about time that local government undertook a peer challenge of how parliament and Whitehall function? This time last year I went as part ... Continue reading →
The Independent has an update on the crisis facing the electric car industry, which I last blogged on here. The paper says that industry bosses believe that electric cars will cost British motorists an extra £6,000 if Rishi Sunak fails to strike a post-Brexit deal with the EU on tariffs. They add that UK manufacturers have warned of a "devastating price war" on consumers - threatening both the electric vehicle (EV) market and the UK's climate change commitments - if these tariffs are enforced in January 2024: In the latest major Brexit row, the Sunak government is pushing the European ...
Do you need help getting online, or with your personal devices? At Blackness Library every Tuesday and Thursday between 10am and 12 noon, you can get help from the library's volunteer who specialises in computers. No need to book - all welcome!
