An electoral pact to achieve PR?

It is beginning to look inevitable that the Labour Party will split - at least in the sense that the majority of the PLP will separate themselves from the mainstream of the Party. Assuming that Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected, this could happen either by Labour MPs resigning the Labour whip, or having the whip withdrawn (but who will control the whip?), or by just being deselected. In either case they could not then stand as Labour candidates in the next election. They could then either start a new party (SDP2), or join the LibDems.

If this happens then the Conservatives will undoubtedly win the next election (presumably in 2020) - unless.......

Immigration scaremongering

(Originally written in May 2016)

The Brexit camp claim that the UK has lost control of its borders and is being swamped by undesirable immigrants.  They say they only way to stem the tide is to leave the EU.  Anti-EU newspapers have helped to spread these scares. 

So what are the true facts¹?

What do I think of the EU?

(This piece was originally written in February 2016 and republished in June.

Some months ago my sister asked me for guidance on the EU as she was undecided.  To help clarify my own thoughts I wrote this little essay.  I don't know whether it helped my sister, but anyway here it is).

Plenty of clever people have written detailed histories and analyses of the EU, backed up by tomes of evidence and statistics, and have come to opposite or conflicting conclusions.  I can’t really add anything worthwhile to those essays, but these are my own personal thoughts.