Conference, Today, Europe celebrates the 10th Annual European Day of Languages, a European Union initiative to appreciate linguistic diversity in Europe and promote language learning. You might think it a bit of an anorak subject, and perhaps it is, but as a trainee interpreter of French and Spanish, it’s my anorak subject. Britain cannot afford [...]

Ed Balls, one of the Labour Leadership contenders, has published an article on his website (here) in which he talks about a few traps the Labour Party should avoid. A week is a long time in politics, apparently long enough to forget my Countering the Coalition series. Obviously, I’m not claiming to have a monopoly [...]

This is without doubt a new era in politics. The end of a Labour decade, the Liberals are back in government, and of course the start of a coalition. The Education Secretary’s disastrous mishandling over the Building Schools for the Future program posed the question of how long the government’s honeymoon will last and there [...]

In the days following the General Election, the Liberal Democrat Party changed drastically. In Part Four, I looked at how Labour should treat the Lib Dems in a temporary coalition, now in Part five I intend to look at the party in the longer term. In a Politics Show debate between the three prospective chancellors, [...]

At the start of the hung parliament, our instincts told us that the coalition would be unstable and probably break down within a year or two. Be it out of No Confidence from parliament or confidence that the Tories could win a majority alone, as Harold Wilson did in 1964. On the contrary, everything we [...]

I have written a series of six articles under the theme “Countering the Coalition.” Having discussed the issue with everyone from grassroots members to civil servants to parliamentarians, I hope that my proposals and conclusions we be of use to the Labour Party, as we learn to adjust to our new role in Opposition against an unknown enemy.

A simple little dictionary with the hot topics in politics at the moment, so beginners can look slightly more informed. This could be an updated yearly thing, so enjoy it. If you can think of better ones, please post them in the comments! A is for… Afghanistan NATO forces are fighting insurgents in Afghanistan with [...]