Thursday, 19th November 2009

The Battle Against the Extremists in East London

10:33pm

I have written about the battle against the neo-Nazis and radical Islam in this week's Jewish Chronicle. This is such an important issue that I am cross-posting the two pieces.

The JC's splash this week is the news that Barking and Dagenham Council could fall to the BNP next year. This follows the news that the party's leader will take on Margaret Hodge at the next general election.

I also wrote a comment piece arguing that there should be a new anti-fascist alliance in east London to tackle the twin threat of the Islamist extreme right and the BNP.

We already have Britain's...

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Tuesday, 17th November 2009

Are Big Ideas Back?

12:08am

I can't quite decide whether there really is a return of ideas to British politics or whether the political columnists have just grown tired of writing yet another piece about just how bad things are for the Prime Minister this week.

Jackie Ashley's column in today's Guardian complements Janet Daley's in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday. From opposing political perspectives they say the same thing: the two major parties are beginning to develop distinct political visions, which will allow the British public to make a genuine choice at next year's general election. Ashley suggests that David Cameron's speech on the...

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Thursday, 12th November 2009

Bright's Blog: The Comeback

10:32pm

Apologies that the blog hasn't been as regular as it should have been recently. The Jewish Chronicle has worked me hard in my first few weeks and I have been unable to keep posting as often as I would have liked.

I have now decided to blog at regular times during the week.

I therefore intend to begin the week with a political round-up after the Sunday papers. I will post again on Tuesday and Thursday with updates on the crisis on the left as I perceive it. I reserve the right to comment on other aspects of politics (or indeed other...

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Thursday, 5th November 2009

Is it Possible to Have a Twit-Scoop?

10:07am

I was interested to see the Observer story at the weekend about Lord Ashcroft accompanying William Hague to Washington.

I tweeted this on October 23rd. I even teased Iain Dale and Tim Montgomerie about Ashcroft now dominating Tory foreign policy as well as domestic policy.

Does this count as a micro-scoop?

...

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Tuesday, 3rd November 2009

The Tories' Euro Curse

10:28pm

I happened to be on the phone to the Foreign Office press office late this afternoon when I heard a huge cheer go up. The press officer I was speaking to laughed nervously. "The Lisbon Treaty has been signed", she said. So who was cheering? It surely can't have been independent civil servants. I guess it must have been a large group of ministers and special advisers who just happened to be walking past the press officer at just that moment.

Whoever it was, they were cheering at the expense of David Cameron. The Tory leader's twin strategy for appeasing the...

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Half Term Nostalgia

9:30pm

I've been away for the half-term break. Sorry not to have blogged, but I needed a break from all the constructive criticism of my regular commenters.

i always get soppy about this first half term of the school year. It takes me right back to my west country primary school in the 1970s, kicking through the autumn leaves as the nights drew in. The excitement of the new term has gone and the long winter lies ahead. (You can already feel this small-scale sense of dread on Westminster).

This first half-term always reminds of one of my classmates. He was not...

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