Joe Egerton

Twelve years ago THINKING FAITH, the online Jesuit journal, published my review of Nigel Farage's autobiography, Substitute "REFORM" for "UKIP" and I think it still reads rather well www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/pur...

Farage now going on the air claiming Raheem Kassam, who called Kemi Badenoch a “Nigerian scammer”, denying he was his head of staff at UKIP, and claiming he is just “someone in America”. Soon he’ll be claiming Donald Trump is someone he just happened to meet in a lift

Well done Rachel

New speculation that Burnham will call an election deserves at least an analysis of pros and cons - and of Callaghan and Macmillan on early elections! jegerton.substack.com/p/will-he-wo...

Five reasons why the prospects of Kemi being PM in 2029 are remote jegerton.substack.com/p/no-road-to...

Without empathy the commandment to love your neighbour as yourself becomes impossible to fulfil so we are looking at a denial of all the Abrahamic religions, not just Christianity. But the Bishops should still firmly denounce this aberration jegerton.substack.com/p/bishops-ne...

Constructive ideas but omits reasonable need of a government to have adequate representation in Lords which is presumably why Starmer created so many peers. Particularly acute if Farage became PM.

This is the first explanation I've seen that actually makes sense.

The Theos data covered in today's Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o... is based on a flawed questionnaire which exaggerates hostility to Islam. jegerton.substack.com/p/theos-rese...

The Conservative Party is organisationally & financially incapable of fighting a general election but most of its members and previous donors are doing FA about this. Ordering a “be prepared” exercise is a way perhaps the only way Kemi can bring this home and shock them into starting to rebuild.

This is good but understates the wickedness and cowardice of Polanski in not speaking strongly for an amendment that upheld the religious freedom of Jewish members of the Green Party.

This is a serious loss to informed discussion. Should not the Commons and Lords libraries takeover the operation and pay @anandmenon.bsky.social and key staff? Can the money not be found from an if need be increased Parliamentary budget?

@robertsaunders.bsky.social is spot on about sloppy Conservative Party research. This did not happen under Heath or Thatcher in opposition because the great Michael Fraser had instilled a culture that valued accuracy into Conservative Research Department. This must now be recovered.

This is an excellent analysis but of an entirely hypothetical situation. The Conservatives lack the organisational structure , the membership and the money to build an organisation capable of winning anything like enough seats at the next election. (Their accounts disguise the financial reality)

A good read but I wish everyone would instead of using “will of the people” point out that less than 40% of the electorate voted Leave. That as Parliament recognised in 1977 when it set a 40% threshold for devolution is not the will of the people.

Absolutely wonderful preview of the by-election by @andrewteale.me.uk: really conveys so much of what makes the seat very unusual and I learnt a lot I didn’t know:

If 2029 produces a hung Parliament and Andy Burnham resigns, as Heath (Feb 1974)and Brown (2010) did, Kemi Badenoch cannot now strike a deal with the ethno-nationalists. If she is defeated on the King's speech a second election is inevitable. jegerton.substack.com/p/kemi-and-a...

Kemi Badenoch - unsurprisingly - won't deal with people who claim she is not English and that her children aren't either. If she gets to be PM of a minority govt she stands to gain by calling a second election if they & LibDems vote together to defeat her. jegerton.substack.com/p/kemi-and-a...

@dylandifford.bsky.social has produced a balanced and very helpful analysis of the progress or lack of progress in mending the Conservative Party image. It is important also to bear in mind the focus of this. The C P is no longer a formidable campaigning machine but ill equipped to win anywhere.

Only the Conservative Party can bury Reform with a stake through its heart. Long way from doing that in Northumberland this week. While the Cs will be miles behind Labour & Green Holborn & St Pancras next week their performance against Reform matters. jegerton.substack.com/p/the-signif...

As Joe points out, "The Conservative Party has become disastrously dependent on the votes of the over 60s." I'm sure they won't make that mistake going forward. Oh, hang on...

Although incumbents have been re-elected no new candidate from a party in government has become either Mayor or leader of the former GLC. Holborn & St Pancras may tell us if Cleverley is really in with a chance or whether Reform has enough traction to stop him jegerton.substack.com/p/the-signif...

As the Labour Conference winds down, our eyes turn to the Holborn & St Pancras byelection. Only the Almighty knows who will win and he does not post; but we can work out the impact of possible scenarios jegerton.substack.com/p/the-signif...

@robertsaunders.bsky.social on the long view excellent and highly informative. Whatever your position on the electoral system very helpful history.

Wilson to cabinet sec on pre publication reading Denning report “Not much in it”. Macmillan in his diary on hearing this “He meant nothing much in it for him”

This is very good indeed. Highly informative and properly researched. Easy and clear English makes it a pleasure to read. It looks as if Russia is now ignoring the 1856 Declaration of Paris which ended privateering. (The USA has never signed the declaration; Russia did.)

This is very good indeed. Highly informative and properly researched. Easy and clear English makes it a pleasure to read. It looks as if Russia is now ignoring the 1856 Declaration of Paris which ended privateering. (The USA has never signed the declaration; Russia did.)

@stephenkb.bsky.social is indeed informative on LibDems. One observation: LibDems very concentrated and in constituencies they hold massively greater resources (money, members, employees) than shattered Conservatives making them very hard to dislodge

Well worth the eye strain to read @timbale.bsky.social review. Although he does not say it I get the impression that he thinks Macmillan’s explanation of Chamberlain’s failure to understand Hitler- “he did not believe in original sin” - applies to Sunak’s early toleration of Braverman and Jenrick.

Had one of those lovely things today where a complete stranger (in this case, an elderly lady) says something so nice that it lifts the whole day. The kindness of strangers is a wonderful thing.

Not just the RNLI at risk, countless other charities, including Jesuit Refugee Services UK. If Kemi Badenoch is tempted to say anything remotely similar she should remember Harold Macmillan: The Cons Party should not take on the Brigade of Guards or the Society of Jesus www.jrsuk.net

This is a wonderfully lucid and elegant essay. Its virtues as history greatly outweigh any vices.

Please repost this!!!!!

Excellent advice from @timbale.bsky.social . I hope the Archbishop of Canterbury will read. There is nothing on her X feed on the siege of Dover in her own diocese by men in balaclavas.

Passport to Pimlico should be peak time viewing…

G K Chesterton: “It is shocking how few politicians are hanged”

Very grateful to Ian Ralby for contributing this authoritative and rather alarming piece on the unfolding crises caused first by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and now the Houthis control over the Bab al-Mandeb (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/houthis-ho...

I have an announcement.

It is really important to notice that Sue is getting information online and acknowledges that she is not relying on official stats or mainstream media. The reduction in numbers of small boats has no effect on people who rely on far right online propaganda as they are not told about it.

Not just Badenoch but the whole front bench. Can you imagine what Hailsham (Hogg) and Macleod would have done to Wilson? Whitelaw, Pym and Heseltine to Callaghan? Hague Pickles and May to Gordon Brown if the organisers of obvious criminality were not on remand in Brixton’s salubrious cells?

This is really worth finding time to listen to

This is an interesting article on Trade Union-Church (RC) relations in the USA. www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-... Can we read anything at all across to scope for recovery under Andy Burnham of Labour's once solid Catholic vote in say West Scotland? Or gaining traction in London?

@joxley.jmoxley.co.uk makes the key point. Reform at the fourth party in the state is very different from Reform as the second party. Their base is not big enough to deliver that and the Conservatives need to see off Reform.