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UK Politics

We Should Be So Lucky!

We Should Be So Lucky!

A few years ago I took part in an online discussion with various political junkies, mostly psephologists from British universities including a couple of well known ‘election experts’ from Nuffield College, Oxford, and I gained a certain reputation when I pointed out where they were mistaken. Typically for left wingers

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Joe Sniffs a Weird One

Joe Sniffs a Weird One

Given the obvious state of Joe Biden’s permanent rinse-cycle brain, perhaps he thought he was at one of Hunter’s meth’n’hooker parties when he hosted a man in a dress at the White House. The only thing that probably puzzled him was that this one was

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Can They Appoint Sunak without an Election?

Can They Appoint Sunak without an Election?

Stephen Clear Bangor University Originally from London, Stephen has been teaching at Bangor University Law School in North Wales, United Kingdom, since 2011. His research interests are in the areas of constitutional and administrative law, public procurement, mooting and legal education. It is only right to explain why I’m

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Sunak Gets the Job

October 25th 2022. The situation in the UK makes me more incredulous by the day. Rishi Sunak was crowned leader of the Conservative party by the MPs. This was caused by there being no other candidate left standing at the deadline of 2 pm on Monday 24th October. According to

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What Rishi Sunak Must Tackle as PM

What Rishi Sunak Must Tackle as PM

Alan Shipman The Open University Alan Shipman is a senior lecturer in economics at the Open University. He returned to research and teaching on the economy after it crashed in 2008, having (mis)spent years as an emerging-markets analyst, consultant and business journalist. As the incoming UK prime minister,

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How Did He End up with the Top Job in British Politics?
NZ

How Did He End up with the Top Job in British Politics?

Victoria Honeyman University of Leeds Since completing her PhD at the University of Leeds in 2005, Victoria Honeyman has taught on a wide range of modules. Her primary specialism is British Politics, with a particular specialism in British foreign policy. When Rishi Sunak lost to Liz Truss in the first

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The UK’s ‘Noah’s Ark’ Period Draws to a Close

Information Opinion As the “Noah’s Ark” period of Liz Truss’s UK Prime Ministership (hint: “reigned” for 40 days and 40 nights) draws to its humiliating close, the big question is whether Rishi Sunak is the rainbow: God promising never to do it again. The odds do favour nobody

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Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep

Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep

Guy Hatchard GLOBE.GLOBAL hatchardreport.com Information Opinion The UK Times runs a story “After centuries of cut, burn and poison, could a jab cure cancer?” by Tom Whipple. 11,000 miles away the same story appears in Stuff newspaper. This is one of those ‘isn’t it wonderful?’ reassuring

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Chaotic Leadership in New Zealand? (Updated)
NZ

Chaotic Leadership in New Zealand? (Updated)

Michael Bassett bassettbrashandhide.com Political historian Michael Bassett CNZM is the author of 15 books, was a regular columnist for the Fairfax newspapers and a former minister in the 1984-1990 governments When Liz Truss announced her resignation as British Prime Minister some wag observed that she’d achieved a

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Government Has More Tax, but Worse Outcomes

Stuart Smith National MP Kaikoura Below is Stuart Smith’s response. The cost of living crisis is affecting every New Zealander, whether it be at the supermarket, increases in rent or paying off your mortgage – high prices are biting and making it tougher for Kiwis to get ahead. This month,

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A Pub Quiz Question in Perpetuity

A Pub Quiz Question in Perpetuity

The classic movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore has an amusing opening scene: the boy is lying on the floor listening to All The Way From Memphis and the eponymous Alice asks, “Why do we need to listen to Mott The Hoople 24 hours per day. Can you tell

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The Trans Tide Turns at Last?

As Orwell described it in 1984, the Memory Hole was the means by which The Party controlled the past, the present and the future. When history was only ever what The Party said it was, the present was only ever what the Party said it was. Oceania is at war

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The Lesson Learnt from Liz Truss’s Downfall

The Lesson Learnt from Liz Truss’s Downfall

David Seymour ACT Party Leader It’s important that any lessons taken from Liz Truss’s downfall are based on actual data. The risk is New Zealand takes the wrong lesson from lazy analysis, particularly those on the political left who bleat on like the sheep in Animal Farm: tax

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Two Letters from the North

October 19th 2022. If a writer was to pitch the current events to a BBC commissioning editor as political mystery series it would be given short shrift as it possessing not a shred of reality. Today saw the “resignation” of the Home Secretary Suella Braverman after a mere 40 days

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