In the 2017 and 2019 general elections Labour under Jeremy Corbyn received 11,386,624 and 10,269,051 votes respectively. In the 2024 general election Labour under Keir Starmer received 9,704,655 votes (33.7%). Corbyn and his party’s performance in 2019 was lambasted, one of the worst ever. His policies were derided. Keir Starmer removed Corby’s supporters from positions… Read More »
Governments always claim they have a mandate for their policies as specified in their manifesto. (They will also claim a mandate for policies conjured up subsequently for which they do not have a mandate!)They do have a mandate as seen from definitions in dictionaries, etc. However these mandates are not democratic mandates since a majority… Read More »
The A-level grades at A & A* in England were up 2.5% compared with previous years after the standardization process for grading students. This shows that the process was generous and if ‘unfair’ it was to previous and future cohorts. To be fair to past and future cohorts more than 40% of teacher grades should… Read More »
The initial grading of Scottish students gave grades that were 1% higher than previous years, so fair and slightly generous. The results were particularly criticized for marking down students from deprived areas. However, teacher grades for those areas boosted performance by 20% compared with previous years, presumably because the teachers tried to compensate for the… Read More »
Mid-March my wife & I discussed how the most vulnerable were, (a) People in Care Homes so care workers needed to be tested regularly for COVID-19 and have adequate PPE, (b) Front-line NHS staff in hospitals. The government’s focus just on the latter was a major strategic error which has resulted in the preventable deaths… Read More »
Thomas Colignatus wrote a criticism of the Brexit referendum to remain/leave the European Union demonstrating that it was not a binary choice to remain/leave, it was more complex than that so the questions on the ballot paper did not represent the real situation. There have been articles responding to this. As was clear from the… Read More »
What did the Brexit vote to leave the EU mean? Leave completely? Hard border between UK & EU (including for Northern Ireland), out of Single market (European Economic Area) and Customs Union. The fear was/is that a hard border brings a return to ‘the troubles’. Bombs, death and destruction. I do not remember it being… Read More »
The Labour Party and anti-Semitism is in the news a lot so I thought I would have a look at the ‘international definition of anti-Semitism’ here. I thought this would be generated by an independent organisation such as the UN but it is from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The definition is fine and… Read More »
22 September, Mrs May’s Florence speech – “Still I do not want our partners to fear that they will need to pay more or receive less over the remainder of the current budget plan as a result of our decision to leave. The UK will honour commitments we have made during the period of our… Read More »
Continuing the reasons for not increasing taxes on the wealth from the previous Money Tree blog. Reason 3: It is socially divisive such that the rich resent the poor who are benefiting from their work. However, I would think that the reverse is more pertinent that the poor and middle class resent the rich who… Read More »