Politics

The Lord Sewel scandal makes me feel proud to be British. For here, thanks to some glorious John Wilkes-style dirt-digging by the Sun — in your face, Leveson! — we have a proper political scandal. This ain’t no yawn-fest about MPs claiming the cost of a Kit-Kat or accidentally favouriting a gay-porn tweet: sad little pseudo-scandals which in recent years have tainted the good name of ignominy. No, the fall of Sewel is a full-on, drugged-up, peer-and-prostitutes scandal, of the kind Britain used to be pretty good at before the square Blairites and cautious Cameroons took over. The disgracing of Sewel is a reminder of British politics at its saucy

He once said that the independence referendum was a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity but Alex Salmond has brushed aside any illusions that the SNP are not desperately hoping, and planning, for a second vote. On the Andrew Marr Show, Salmond said that another referendum is ‘inevitable’ and the only question is of timing — something he said is ‘very much in the hands of Nicola Sturgeon’. Salmond went on to explain three criteria that could be used to show ‘material change in circumstances’ for Scotland and thus trigger another referendum: ‘I can see three issues which are moving things towards a second referendum on a timescale yet to be determined. One is

What does John Major have in common with Nancy Dell’Olio? Click on the image to read in full. Clearly, a love of speech-writer-style paragraphing, sans-serif fonts, and free drinks. (I’m sure Major’s a lot of fun – he’s always been my favourite prime minister – but would he really have put those words in bold?) The best thing about no longer being a parliamentary candidate is that my inbox has been liberated from its endless national campaign spam. ‘Support us!’ they cried, ‘Then, support us some more!’ Even though I already was. It was inexhaustible briefcase verbiage – written either by someone who hadn’t thought about it all, or, sadly,

No one can deny that the SNP has made Westminster pay more attention to Scotland. Five years ago, it was surprising—and, in many ways, shocking—how uninformed most MPs were of what was happening in Scottish politics. That is one of the reasons why the independence referendum was treated as a second-order issue – until people realised quite how close it was going to be. But that has all changed now with the 56 SNP MPs making their presence felt in the Chamber. This is particularly true of Downing Street because with Angus Robertson having two questions at PMQs each week, David Cameron—who prepares assiduously for these sessions—needs to know what is

When I heard John Prescott was going on the Today programme, I must admit that I expected him to urge Labour members to be sensible — and stop this damaging flirtation with Jeremy Corbyn and his hard-left views. But he didn’t. Instead, Prescott attacked those attacking Corbyn — including his old boss Tony Blair — and said it wouldn’t be a disaster if Labour did elect Corbyn. It was a bizarre performance and a missed opportunity. For there is an urgent, and increasingly desperate, need for someone who is trusted by Labour grassroots to explain to them just how damaging it would be for the party and its prospects to