Tag Archives: james carville

For World Book Day: What’s your favourite political book?

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 09.39.28Today is World Book Day. I thought it might be fun to have a discussion about our favourite books. We should probably try to stick to books which are vaguely linked to politics, but I’m not going to complain too much if you don’t.

My all-time favourite, after 21 years, remains “All’s Fair: Love, war and running for President” by Mary Matalin and James Carville. The two authors are now married and got together just before both of them took jobs on opposing sides of the 1992 presidential election campaign. Carville was Clinton’s main strategist, Matalin was the Bush campaign’s head of communications.  It is a story of a relationship which crosses campaign boundaries, of late night wine fuelled campaign errors told in hilarious style. It gives an insight into the way US campaigns work and it combines the political and personal in a massively enjoyable and entertaining way. Everyone should read it.

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 31 Comments

Time to throw an anvil at secret courts

Next Tuesday, which is both my nephew’s 14th birthday and the 32nd anniversary of the founding of the SDP, the Justice and Security Bill comes back to the House of Lords for consideration. Now, my esteemed colleague Mr Valladares has given a very helpful account of what the Lords can and can’t do. He goes on to suggest that the Upper House will often back down in the face of pressure from the elected Chamber.

If ever, though, there was a time for the peers to kick off, it is now, when the right to a fair trial remedy for …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 7 Comments
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