Electoral system “bust” in most unrepresentative election to date June 1, 2015 Westminster's voting system is "bust" following the result of the General Election, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) has said. In a report entitled "The 2015 General Election: A voting system in crisis", the ERS argued that the case for electoral reform was undeniable, following the "most disproportionate [result] in British history". Read more: General election [...]
Forgetting Ed Miliband: Internet trumps Milifandom and the bacon sandwich with a rom-com starring former Labour leader and Russell Brand June 1, 2015 After those crazy, heady days of Milifandom – and before that, the meme that was bacon sandwich – it was only a matter of time before the internet turned its hand to Ed Miliband's defeat and his unlikely love-in with Russell Brand. Brand fell so hard he called for viewers of The Trews [...]
Parties enjoy record levels of funding as Tories top political donations May 28, 2015 The UK's political parties received record levels of funding in the run-up to the General Election, as the 10 parties accepted more than £30.6m in the first quarter of 2015. That was an increase of more than £10m reported than in the last quarter of 2014, according to figures published by the Electoral Commission. On [...]
Queen’s Speech 2015: Anti-austerity protest targets Downing Street May 27, 2015 The Queen's Speech has come and gone but even after the debates in parliament this afternoon, Downing Street will still be a hive of activity. An anti-austerity protest has been organised to coincide with the Queen's Speech, with campaigners targeting Downing Street shortly after the official state opening of parliament. The People's Assembly [...]
Sir Malcolm Bruce: House of Commons would be cleared “very fast” if you got rid of all liars May 26, 2015 If we wanted to get rid of every MP who had ever told a porkie, "we'd clear out the House of Commons very fast", the former deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats admitted this morning. Sir Malcolm Bruce, who stepped down at the General Election, was attempting to defend Alistair Carmichael – the only [...]
Survation finds minority voters backed Tories in record numbers May 25, 2015 The Conservatives won over an unprecedented number of ethnic minority voters in the General Election, according to a new survey from Survation. In a poll conducted for the non-partisan British Future think tank, Survation found that while Labour remains dominant among minority voters with 52 per cent of the vote share, the gap between the [...]
General Election 2015: Has Nigel Farage damaged “brand Ukip”? May 22, 2015 Nigel Farage was one of the founding members and leader of Ukip in 2006, but it wasn’t until he returned as leader in 2010 that he began to inject a modicum of acceptability into the party. Prior to that Ukip was so right-wing that it was considered by many to be a party of [...]
Scottish Labour leader to resign next month despite surviving no confidence vote May 16, 2015 Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has said he will put his resignation to the party next month despite surviving a no confidence vote during a meeting of the party's executive. It follows his party's widespread defeat at the general election when they lost 40 seats to its rival the Scottish National Party (SNP), leaving them with [...]
Nigel Farage’s unresignation, Mayoral candidates and the Avon lady’s funny turn: Here’s what got us talking this week May 15, 2015 It was the week we dealt with the fallout of the election – including the coining of the phrase “doing a Farage” (aka “taking an extra day off to prolong the weekend”). What got us talking this week 1. Barage of Farage Some called it Ukip’s Easter (“on the third day, he rose again”), [...]
It’s baffling that Labour didn’t make more of QE in its election campaign May 15, 2015 George Osborne's management of the economy has been credited with winning the Conservatives the election. Despite repeated criticism and warnings of the dire economic consequences of his austerity policies from adversaries, he continued on. The Labour leadership majored on this theme in the first few years in opposition. In the early days of the [...]