Tim Bale
@timbale
Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London & author of The Conservative Party after Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation (now out in paperback). The bits and pieces I do for websites and newspapers turn up eventually at
Obviously, there are other big stories around today. But, as far as I can make out, the Indy is the only paper that splashes this morning on the Covid Inquiry's tale of billions wasted. Can only imagine the field-day the right-wing press would have had had it happened under a different government.
Possibly one of the first in-terms mentions in the UK of ‘remigration’, albeit spelled differently: Enoch Powell’s largely forgotten follow-up to ‘Rivers of Blood’ in my hometown, Autumn 1968, in which he posits the impossibility of assimilation. (Source: Hansen, 2000: 188).
Finished this last night. Fun if you like 19th century novels - and especially if you know Wellington, NZ. So I was the target audience!
That Dicky (©️ @mrjohncrace.bsky.social) doesn't see the glaring contradiction between banging on about an 'establishment' plot at the same time as bigging up his links with 'a very successful aristocratic family') is truly delicious.
William Hague talking here in Salisbury Cathedral about, among other things, the qualities needed by successful prime ministers, the first of which is a sense of direction.
@rachelsylvester.bsky.social talking a whole lot of sense about how (and how not) to handle Farage and Reform in her excellent @theobserveruk.bsky.social newsletter.
JICYMI - hugely enjoyable interview with the Count himself on the Today Programme this morning: starts at 2hrs54min into the show.
Farage has lost the Telegraph (and even the Mail isn't that impressed). Still got the Express, though, for whatever that's worth nowadays.
Say what you like, but this represents a major comms failure on the part of the Labour government - something Burnham will surely seek to improve upon.
"Economic stagnation is harming our health", Scott Corfe www.scottcorfe.com/post/economi...
This has to be one of the prescient things ever written about the Tory Party: it's Ivor Crewe in the wake of the 2001 General Election.
What on earth is the point of all the praise for AB's social media game when the first reply that comes up on X to the whizzy tweet showing him about to give his speech turns out to be this poisonous crap. Show some guts, Andy, and get off X.