You have to admire a certain kind of British wit, that steers a scandal involving a feline, from gaining the suffix “-gate”, becoming instead “catflap”. Guy Rundle reports on the Tory party conference from London.
Tories
Guy Rundle: Rundle: Cameron faces death by ‘shiring’ squad
Mark this week well in your datebook, UK pollie watchers, for history may recall it as the one in which, in the green shires of England, David Cameron’s Con-Lib government condemned itself to a single term.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s British Isles bites: Assange to the Frontline … Labour Lord’s it over Tories … Another Ireland crisis …
Looking hale and hearty from his country estate regime, WikiLeaks star-fleet commander Julian Assange yesterday appeared at London’s Frontline Club.
Coalition strains in the UK
The coalition in the UK between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats struck Richard Farmer as mightily strange from the moment it was formed. It’s like the Australian Democrats supporting the GST — the party never recovered from that.
Encouraging the poor to breed
Howard Flight, a former Tory MP, is in political trouble for saying what no doubt many of his Conservative colleagues believe – the problem with the poor is that they breed, writes Richard Farmer.
Rundle’s UK: student protests peaceful, or piss weak, depending on your politics
Down at Thirty Millbank beside the grey and misty Thames, they’re still cleaning up the glass and metal, sprayed all around by last week’s demonstration against tuition fees.
Political snippets: No boom in Australia as retail figures disappoint
Retail sales figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics this morning show we are far from being in boom times.
That’s not a Great Big New Tax — THIS is a Great Big New Tax
You want a big new tax? The RSPT is just mucking around. The Tories have gone large in their tax increase plans — with plenty of help from their Lib-Dem partners
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: Con Lib-Dems divide up the spoils, dim-sum style
The first meeting of the UK’s coalition cabinet looked about as dignified as one of those casual get-togethers at a Chinese restaurant where everyone brings extra guests, and you’ve got your elbow in ginger beef all evening.
After the Brown-out, just who is David Cameron?
New British Prime Minister David Cameron is most definitely a slick character. Crikey backgrounds the Tory leader, from his beginnings at Oxford’s infamous Bullingdon Club to the most powerful man in the country.
Guy Rundle: UK election: Everyone’s a loser
The UK has no government, collective decision-making seems impossible, radically different agendas are being run, and the man in the street will be the loser.
Tom Nairn: The Wonderland election, as revolution approaches
So the Great British General Election took place and voters woke up in Alice’s Wonderland. A disintegrating evolution has ended by setting the stage for a political revolution, writes Scottish Nationalist Tom Nairn.
I’m 14 and I voted
Who says kids are uninterested in politics? Fourteen year old Alfie McKenzie headed to the UK polling booths dressed up with a posh accent and a trench coat and voted for the Lib Dems. Here’s how — and why — he fooled the electoral system.
leaked UK election: The secret memo threatening a Torie-Lib Dem deal
The draft of a letter revealing Torie leader David Cameron’s strong anti-EU sentiments has been leaked to the Guardian’s Observer. Nick Clegg isn’t going to like this…
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: Fingers crossed for a full-blown constitutional crisis
In 24 hours, David Cameron may be Britian’s Prime Minister presumptive. But millions are hoping that a chaotic and unresolved result will open the space for new possibilities, and fast.
Guy Rundle: 24 hours till polls open, people
A day out from the UK election: Brown has just given his best performance ever, Cameron says he’ll campaign through the night, and Clegg is looking as real as burning plastic.
Tom Nairn: the Toad election
What the U.K. Election debate and its impact have pointed to is surely a need for revolution. The Great-British identity is now more shaky and imponderable than that of Australia or EU nations, writes Tom Nairn.
UK election debate III: Cameron steals the show
UK’s party leaders have had their third and final televised debate, and the pollsters are calling it a win to the Torie’s David Cameron. Check out all the least boring bits.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: Everything would be fine if it weren’t for these immigrants
Has any polity in history ever been more grievously split between its dominant mood, whatever one thinks of it, and its political/admin/media elite?
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: Leeds — the best and worst of new Labour
The Labour guy was good, he was too good, he gave his spiel like he’d done a thousand times before, the Tory kid sounded like he was presenting Q3 figures for the south-east regional health centre, and the Lib Dem, well she tried.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: Nick ‘Jesus’ Clegg, Watford, and waffles
It’s bollocks that Nick Clegg is an Obama figure, even if he did hold his own in the debate.
J.K. Rowling: Why this single mother won’t be supporting the Tories
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling may be rolling in cash now, but she was once a poor, single mother living off benefits. In an op-ed for the Times, she lays into the Conservative Party’s treatment of women like her, and warns they still can’t be trusted.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: The Tories’ 2010 manifesto
The Tories have launched their 2010 manifesto, along with the idea of “Big Society” — the argument that the state and the atomising market have failed, and a third force needs to be revived.
UK Election: Parties make their pitch
The UK Labor and Tory parties have released their manifestos for this year’s election: two very different visions for the future of Britain, with two tellingly different covers.
