ONLINE ONLY: Send in the Clowns

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:45:35 +0100

Author:Kenneth Minogue

Nigel Farage: The victor in last week's local elections

When in the May local government elections, a party of "clowns" and "fruitcakes" got about a quarter of the vote, commentators went giddy with polling projections in search of what such voting would mean for the main political parties. They were missing the point. Here was a mass expression of derision for the whole British political establishment. In a small democratic way, it was nothing less than a revolution against the "soft despotism" that has prevailed in British politics for more than a generation.

The Lady Was For Leaving

Frances Weaver — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:27:25 +0100

Author:Gerald Frost

Following David Cameron's long-awaited "big speech" on Europe of January 23, the Conservative press office told journalists that it went considerably further in its Euroscepticism than Mrs Thatcher's 1988 Bruges speech.

Cameron, it should be remembered, had explained his failure to live up to his "copper-bottomed guarantee" to offer a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty by explaining that a great deal of water had passed under the bridge between the time of his promise in 2007 and the 2010 election campaign. His press spokesmen appear to have forgotten the much greater volume that has passed under the bridge during the quarter of a century since Mrs Thatcher's landmark speech.

EU

ONLINE ONLY: Send in the Clowns

The Lady Was For Leaving