Author Archives: Gwyn Griffiths

Rees-Moggery, or … well, I never realised that!

You can tell that a general election is coming when William Rees-Mogg starts using his Times column to talk up his various offspring who have been selected as Conservative candidates, linked to reminiscing about his own efforts in the Tory cause – “I recall that when I contested Dunny on the Wold in 1867 Benjamin D. was most generous in his advice and time”.

In past years these columns have entertained us with their somewhat optimistic views of likely familial success – I especially enjoyed his claims of an unsuspected Tory breakthrough in Fife!

This time two of …

Posted in News | Tagged | 5 Comments

Opinion: Doctor Beeching was not to blame for everything!

I caught a fair chunk of the Transport Debate from Conference on Wednesday morning, and generally I found it impressive. But, there are two points I’d like to explore.

First, at least two speakers appeared to claim that government support for the railways has increased a thousand-fold since the days of British Rail. Now, I’m quite happy to accept that there has been a significant increase under privatisation. I also realise that calculating the overall level of support is not easy given the byzantine complexity of the relationship between the various public and private sector entities involved. 

But the estimates I have …

Posted in Conference and Op-eds | 6 Comments

But Mr Gladstone, are you local enough?

It would appear that the ‘local’ credentials of the candidates proved to be something of a talking-point in the recent Henley by-election.

Certainly, in Crewe & Nantwich it was a constant theme in the election literature. The Conservatives went so far as to claim that their man was “the only local candidate” – despite the fact that he lived further from the constituency than his Lib Dem rival, and that one of the ‘fringe’ candidates had lived all his life in Crewe! But, as a rather more experienced campaigner put it to me – with a shrug of his …

Posted in Op-eds and Parliamentary by-elections | 18 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Chloe
    The hubris that was around in 2016 & 2019 is making a comeback. I wonder what's changed for this careerist.... https://x.com/andyburnham/status/806563566...
  • David Evans
    cim, The one thing too many Lib Dems don't understand fully is what is meant by the word balance. That is the key and is the opposite of dogma - which is where...
  • Slamdac
    Sorry I should have said £150,569 after 14 years. It is still a massive amount of taxpayer's money. I think they get paid more than enough. There is only a ...
  • Slamdac
    Any return to Freedom of Movement or the Single Market will require a Referendum of British Citizens, otherwise there is nothing stopping a future Conservative ...
  • Matt (Bristol)
    Oops, Richard Cripps not Roger Billins....