UK Politics and Current Events

This week the French President - Nicolas Sarkozy - was entertained by the Queen at Windsor Castle as part of his 2-day "state visit". Part of this "entertainment" was a banquet in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle attended by the British Prime Minister and other dignitaries (sorry that should have read "...Prime Minister and 149 dignitaries"). It was prior to this banquet that our Prime Minister - Gordon Brown - went missing. Having previously criticised George Bush for not knowing his... Read Full Story

There's much chortling that around a quarter of London's electorate decided to make 'bumbler' Boris their Mayor on St Boris's Day. But how has the blonde bombshell served his Henley constituents and what will they do without him? In the Bulgarian Orthodox church at least, the anniversary of the death in 907 of St Boris is remembered. He was notable for his serenity, aside from a lapse in which he blinded his son to stop him turning to paganism. 'Serene' is not the word to describe Boris... Read Full Story

The London Mayor election was the first UK election where the internet had significant influence. I have written about various aspects of the online campaigns previously and thought I would summarise some of the key developments here. Boris Johnson had the most developed online campaign. Much has been made of his election strategist, Lynton Crosby, employing a “doughnut strategy” of ruthlessly targeting Tory-leaning voters on the edge of the capital (see here for more), but below are 5... Read Full Story

Harriet Harman's blog has been hacked into. Before it gets changed, here is the spoof resignation letter. "Posted by Harriet in Campaigning | April 25th, 2008 To friends, foes and fans, Below is a copy of the resignation letter that landed on Gordon’s desk this morning. I couldn’t be bothered to type a completely new one, seeing as Quentin Davies (LO-SER!) had written a perfectly good one here, I thought I’d just change the relevant sections… a swap for a swap if you like. All opinions... Read Full Story

Oh, dear. It looks like grumpy (except when smiling artificially for the cameras) Gordon Brown has finally broken that magical “moral compass” he has been fiddling with all these months. Remember when his pal, the intellectually-challenged Tony Blair, said that his government was going to be purer than pure? That came back to haunt him when everyone could see it was an administration drowning in the sludge of sleaze. Apparently, Gordon Brown let it be known that his shiny new government was... Read Full Story