Politics

Watch Norman Smith accidentally call Nigel Farage a c**t during a live broadcast on 14/05/2015.

By Max Bluer Thursday evening and the British general election’s exit poll has just been released; it accurately predicts massive gains for the Europhobic Conservative Party and the Scottish Nationalist Party – the driving force behind last year’s referendum on Scottish independence. That noise you heard when the news broke was supporters of the left, of the integrity of the United Kingdom and of the European project banging their collective head against the nearest wall.   David Cameron and his government...

By Pieter Cranenbroek The day after the UK general election, a Dutch journalist commented that ‘as long as the British press is giving out voting advice, you’re better off reading cat blogs.’ Although most European newspapers can be linked to a certain political group, this relationship is rarely as explicit as in the British media. With more flavours on the political menu and a surge in floating voters, it becomes increasingly important for newspapers to hide their political partisanship. There were...

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor   I am too old to be pulling all-nighters. On Thursday evening I returned home with a solid plan; exit polls at 10, bed, up at 6 for a clear indication of the results - and repercussions thereof - then at my desk for results in time for elevenses. GE2015 made a complete hash of that. Like many others, I became engrossed from 10 o clock onwards. Mainly in disbelief. I knew that a Labour...

By Alexander Murtagh A few weeks prior to the election even the most senior of Tory politicians wouldn’t have been arrogant enough to even suggest they were in line to win a majority in the House of Commons, but now they have been elected with just that. We have already seen David Cameron’s glistening ego parade itself in front of the press backed by the knowledge that he has managed to do what all his critics told him he couldn’t,...

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor  When the exit polls were revealed at 10pm last night the entire nation was left scratching their heads. Paddy Ashdown said live on television that he will eat his hat if the poll, which left the Liberal Democrats with a measly ten seats in the House of Commons, was right. The reality is that the party could receive even fewer seats than that. The exit poll gave Conservatives 316 seats, Labour 239, the SNP on 58 and...

By David Binder With the election mere days away, and with all manner of policies, arguments, counter-arguments, slogans, tweets and hashtags swamping us, you could be forgiven for not knowing who to vote for. One way to help navigate this dilemma is to ask ‘what matters to me/my family/my dog/my community/town/country/universe (delete as appropriate), and then look at what each party seems to be saying on that issue/s and proceed on that basis. I’ve written before (here and here on why I believe...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) have created an infographic to demonstrate the role political parties play in enabling a flourishing life. With the impending General Election just two days away, the group of leading academics have completed an audit of the political parties’ manifestos in order to assess their stance on UK and global poverty. The results showed the Green Party goes the furthest in their stand against poverty with a score of 3.9 out of...

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor  Nasal, uncharismatic and incapable of eating a bacon sandwich in public, Ed Miliband has been the target of vitriol personality attacks since winning the Labour party leadership contest against his brother in 2010. One of the lines that has become synonymous with the election is, “I could vote Labour, but not Ed Miliband”. Curious logic given the nature of party politics and, well, democracy, but perhaps not surprising given that political engagement has become about switching...