Reasserting liberalism: Wera Hobhouse’s agenda to revive Liberal values

With the Labour Party leadership election continuing to drag on – longer than Götterdämmerung but likely to bring much the same outcome for that benighted party – little attention has been given to the other British political leadership that will take place later this year – that for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats. It’s […]

A C Grayling on rejoining the EU: a rational case in a time of unreason?

I spent yesterday evening listening to a speech by the philosopher A C Grayling at a meeting in Bath, organised by Bath for Europe, on the subject of rejoining the EU (unfortunately I had to leave before the Q and A in order to stand a fighting chance of getting a train back to Cardiff). […]

It’s our money: HS2, the Barnett formula, and the threat to Welsh democracy

Yesterday’s announcement from Whitehall that HS2 would proceed – at an estimated cost now of £100bn, a figure that seems likely to rise substantially – has opened a wide fault-line about the future of Wales and Welsh devolution. As Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards argues persuasively in a piece in Nation Cymru, the issues for […]

Why electing Jess Phillips – or anyone else – won’t save the Labour Party.

Leaving the Labour Party is not easy; nearly a year after the event, you still follow the debates, discuss things with your former comrades, still feel a certain emotional pull. The Labour Party is far too much like a family – admittedly one, to misquote Orwell, with the wrong members in control – for its […]

Early days of a better nation: why progressive politics and Welsh independence are now inseparably linked.

Among the twenty-four inscriptions that line the walls of the Scottish Parliament, one – attributed to Alasdair Gray but, as he freely admitted, borrowed from the Canadian poet Dennis Lee, seems hugely apposite to the position of we in Wales who still have faith in progressive politics: “Work as if you live in the early […]

We Remainers built a huge mass movement. Where do we go now?

For those of us in the movement to remain in the EU, this has been a grim few days. It appears inevitable that we will leave the EU on 31st January – and lose our freedom of movement, so many of our rights as citizens, our jobs and services. But, along the way, we did […]

Tactical voting is not enough. To stop Brexit – and save democracy – we need a Coupon Election.

The General Election that will take place on 12th December is the most important in modern British history. It is an election that will decide not just whether the UK leaves the European Union – and hence whether the Brexit project, a project of the far Right that aims to embed austerity, succeds: it is […]

A question of balance: on what basis was last night’s Question Time audience selected?

Last night, the BBC’s Question Time was broadcast from Cardiff. Events leading up to the programme – as well as the programme itself – give rise to further questions about audience selection; an issue that has given rise to considerable concern over a long period. Inevitably, Brexit and the prorogation of Parliament were issues on […]

Why Welsh Labour’s commitment to Remain is meaningless

After yesterday’s controversial – and disputed – Labour Conference vote not to back remaining in the EU, numerous figures from Welsh Labour, including its leader Mark Drakeford, reminded us that Welsh Labour and the Government it forms are committed to campaigning to remain in the EU However, there are a number of reasons why that […]

Liberal Democrats and Article 50: a revealing window on the state of British democracy

The Liberal Democrats’ conference decision to campaign for the revocation of the UK’s notification under Article 50 of its intention to leave the EU has caused something of a storm. Obviously there is a debate to be had among Remainers as to what is the best strategy to achieve that goal, but this goes much […]