Tree of Knowledge

Josh Marshall writes at TPM today on the implications of McCain’s posturing on Georgia:

But think for a moment where we’d be if this man were president right now, as he may well be in six months. This man takes the counsel of the people who got us into the Iraq War. On foreign policy, he […]

Andrew Landeryou quotes from a recent FT article about the strong yoof presence in the Tories grass roots campaigning, especially in London:

The Independent newspaper asked recently whether Cameron had made it “cool to be a Conservative” again. On the evidence of my travels, the “decontamination of the Tory brand” is working. It’s hard to imagine […]

But I’m linking to a Polly Toynbee article:
Meanwhile, listen to the silence from the cabinet: no volunteers step up to back their leader, only those under the duress of a microphone under their nose. Listen to the laughter as deputy whip Nick Brown can only find two of the most disreputably disloyal rebel MPs to […]

THIS is an interesting op-ed.
In the context of Labour’s tanking electoral support and growing voices for a leadership change, an op-ed from one of the people who is frequently bandied about as a potential leadership replacement about how to revive the party was always going to cause a stir.
Miliband does a good job of articulating […]

Further to my earlier brief post on the fate of Labourhome, certain readers at ToKblog should definitely give the whole post at Newer Labour a read. You know who you are…
See here and here for further context.

Some people will never learn.
While the UK Labour Party is indisputably stuffed at the moment and most definitely needs to address its utter lack of direction and message, it is beyond my comprehension why so many progressives over here want to model a new electoral strategy based on the Labour Party of 1983, rather than […]

I’m still amused at the angst in Australia over Gippsland and associated by-elections, but my judgement is probably clouded by a constant barrage of results like this over here:
Gordon Brown’s worst nightmare was realised early today as the Scottish National Party triumphed by taking Glasgow East, one of Labour’s safest seats.
The hopes of Labour strategists […]

Noted:
Tom Miller’s Newer Labour has the exclusive confirming that LabourHome has been bought by Mike Danson, the new owner of the New Statesman. Newer Labour
reports that it went for a “high five figure sum… with some of the existing editors, like Alex Hilton, one of the foremost Labour bloggers and co-founder, Jag Singh, staying on […]

A recent event in the London, hosted by LiberalConspiracy (the largest ‘left-wing’ blog in the UK blogosphere) and titled “How can liberal-left bloggers affect national politics” has triggered a bit of self reflection about the intersection between blogging and political influence in the UK.
For Australian readers, this debate occurs in the context of the […]

Well it seems that the Coalition have managed to do the inevitable and actually win the un-loseable (by any realistic standard) by-election in Gippsland.
So being judged against this impossibly low standard, Brendan Nelson will live to ‘lead’ another day.
But before the equally inevitable flood of news stories about this being a ‘blow’ to the government […]