Yesterday concluded a massive public consultation across the whole of France. The French were asking themselves about the privatisation of the postal service, La Poste. When I say “asking themselves” I mean it literally; the whole project was a mock referendum. The mock referendum was designed to show support for a real referendum, which is [...]

Gordon Brown, for all his shortcomings, is an exceptionally fortunate politician. For a while, it seemed as though the Iron Chancellor was invincible; he dealt with floods, terrorists and foot-and-mouth disease all in his first week. More importantly though, unlike throughout the Blair years, media scandals are all speculation with little tribulation; the press has [...]