Clayton's Political View

If our new Prime Minister Mr. Johnson was hoping for a political honeymoon then he must be surely disappointed. The Prime Ministerial Jaguar's engine wasn't even switched off and Mr Johnson had barely got out before loud boos and heckling were heard throughout  Whitehall and Downing Street as he gave his first address to the nation on the 24th of July Most of the time the hand over of power from an out going leader to the successor is a very ceremonial and often drama free affair. The outgoing Prime Minister will make a speech outside of No. 10 then will be driven a few minutes drive up the Mall to Buckingham Palace where they will tender their resignation to the Queen. The successor will then follow on half an hour to an hour later, interestingly in that time Britain will albeit very briefly be an absolute monarchy. However the transfer of power was less than smooth last week. Theresa May's final speech was interrupted by protesters and her convoy was blocked goin...

In 1962 the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan set about stripping his cabinet of his detractors and critics it was at the time the bloodiest cabinet reshuffle of all time and was called 'the night of the long knives' in reference to the move carried out by Adolf Hitler when he killed critics in Nazi Germany.  Since then there have been numerous cabinet changes and reshuffles, however the cabinet reshuffle that happened last night under the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson has echoes of Macmillan's night of long knives in spades. Johnson has culled most of the cabinet that served under Theresa May. Even before we had the new cabinet a string of Secretary's resigned Phillip Hammond, David Gauke and Rory Stewart were high profile MP's who left before the incoming Prime Minister had even walked through the doors at No. 10.  So who are the new Secretary's of state that are going to be running our country? This is the most right wing cabinet I can recall an...

As I write Boris Johnson has just been made Prime Minister Elect by the Conservative party after 46 days of campaigning around the country and multiple hustings carried out on a turn of 87.4%. Mr Johnson has claimed victory with 92,153 votes to his name. Mr Johnson has lead a dire campaign from the very start, not even a day into it police were called to the Prime Minister Elects house in London after a disturbance was reported by neighbors. After which the aforementioned neighbors sustained days of abuse from right wing tabloids. To dampen speculation of a rift between Mr. Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds posed for an awkward intimate photo in the country slide. So what manner of man is our new Prime MInister? Just who is going to be our First Lord Of the Treasury. The Prime Minister elect has enjoyed over the past few years an almost cult like celebrity status both in print and TV he has hosted Have I got News For You, has been a journalist for The Times and The ...

The last three years in British politics have been very paradoxical and counter intuitive at the very least. The whole concept of parliament has been brought into disrepute because of Brexit. This referendum has from the very start been very toxic and very contentious. The whole fact that a referendum was called in the first place is very bizarre and nonsensical.  Why is it nonsensical you ask? Well there are a few reasons why. In our country we have parliamentary sovereignty which means that we elect six hundred and fifty members of parliament every five years it used to be four but it was changed to a fixed term of five years back in 2010 by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition.  To put it simply we send them to parliament to represent us. This is why having referenda is a hypocrisy of that system. However the Conservatives are obsessed by them. We have had three major referendums in this country over the past ten years.  We have had th...

As Theresa May gets ready to depart 10 Downing street for the last time as Prime Minister in a few short weeks what will her legacy be? When she won the top prize in politics that of leader she stood in front of the black door and she spoke about fixing society's injustices and ills but would the vicars daughter and MP for Maidenhead make good on her pledges? Well not really, after being in office for three years knife crime is spiralling out of control, the toxic legacy of austerity is still being felt and will be felt for generations to come and the country is more divided than ever before. When Theresa May cut short her own career she made an emotional speech where she almost broke into tears was she emotional about not being able to get a commons majority on her deal? The strain after three years of being battered by leaver and remainers? Or was it that she would be the first Prime Minister to not have a legacy? In her three year tenure as the First Lord Of The Tresury M...