Five Most Popular Posts in May

What a big month that was, but what did the business on this here blog?

1. Stitching Up Wakefield
2. Keir Starmer's BeerGate Gamble
3. Labour's Electoral Discomfort
4. Three Points on New Labour
5. The Tory Politics of the Civil Service Cull

Labour politics captured the imagination of this blog's viewing public yet again. The shenanigans surrounding the Wakefield by-election was top of the pops. I don't know, a high profile must-win by-election for the opposing sides, forgive me for thinking that trampling over local candidates and preferences is neither smart nor "grown-up" politics. Moving on to BeerGate and Keir Starmer's pledge to resign if he's issued a fixed penalty notice, obviously he wouldn't have made the pledge if there was a good chance of his getting fined. You don't need a conspiracy theory that suggests Cumbria police never issue them (they did) or some such - it's a matter of probabilities. In third place is a consideration of the main parties' electoral performance at the local elections. In hindsight, though Labour didn't do very well the bigger story is the danger to the Conservatives. Read it to find out why! Then the blog took a brief trip down memory lane to reflect on the New Labour years. Nostalgia gets short shrift round these parts, so it's short but sharp. And last of all, at last a piece on the Tories! If you want to understand the politics behind the latest round of ruinous cuts, read no further.

Getting the last month's second chance is a toss up between this on the formation of Tory character, which turned out to be much longer than first conceived. Ooops. And the other are some reflections on the Australian elections. The similarity of the dynamics between the politics Down Under and here are quite remarkable. Okay, one more. Because we passed the 4,000 post milestone, it's worthwhile marking the occasion again.

Next month? There are several things to look forward to. Four days off for the royal cringefest, loud conversations about a no confidence vote in Boris Johnson, the two by-elections and, what I'm really looking forward to, Tony Blair's centrist conference. We all need our jollies. And if you haven't already, don't forget to follow the weekly newsletter, and if you like what I do (and you're not skint), you can help support the blog too!

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