Written by Scott Kelly Monday, 10 May 2010 11:06
After four long weeks of hard slog it’s difficult to admit that the election campaign probably had little impact. The result would have been not much different if we had voted immediately after Gordon Brown visited Buckingham Palace in what seems an age ago. None of the Parties managed to engineer a significant swing in their favour. But there is much to cheer about in this result.
Watching...
Written by Scott Kelly Tuesday, 20 April 2010 13:29
Last week's television debate conclusively demonstrated the truth of Harold Wilson's famous quip that 'a week is a long time in politics.' It's all the more appropriate that Wilson should have said this as he was the last Labour leader to benefit from a hung Parliament.
Even if the extraordinary surge in support for the Lib Dems is short-lived, it looks more than likely that the result of the election will be indecisive....
Written by Scott Kelly Monday, 15 February 2010 14:03
It says much about Labour's incoherent and opportunistic approach to constitutional reform that it has chosen its last few months in office to push for a referendum on adopting the Alternative Vote (AV) as the electoral system.
How you feel about electoral reform usually depends on what you think is most important: a decisive outcome or a proportional result. The current First-Past-The-Post system is favoured by those who see a decisive...
Read more: Is the Alternative Vote a real vote, or just an alternative to voting?
Written by Scott Kelly Tuesday, 22 December 2009 11:34
There are two good reasons for believing Labour’s modest recovery in the polls will stall. The first is the badly misjudged pre-budget report. The second is Gordon Brown’s decision to make class a major theme of the election campaign.
Both the pre-budget report and the new emphasis on class indicate...
Read more: Labour may win a few battles but they will lose this class war
Written by Scott Kelly Monday, 16 November 2009 15:56
In an attack on David Cameron's recent 'big society' speech in the Sunday Mirror Lord Mandelson writes that only 'public services and public investment' can deliver opportunity and end poverty. Mandelson's attack follows several others by leftwing commentators in recent weeks. Common to all has been the belief that big government will solve our social problems.
A few weeks ago in the Times the former Labour adviser Philip Collins used Piccadilly Circus as...
Read more: It's the left that believes 'there is no such thing as society'
