Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jeremy Hutchinson’s life tells us why civil liberties matter – and how Labour was largely to blame for their erosion

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Alex Grant

Just occasionally, you meet someone with a life story so extraordinary that you pinch yourself as you hear it. Jeremy Hutchinson – one of Britain’s leading criminal barristers throughout the 1960s and 1970s, former chairman of the Tate Gallery, former … Continue reading →

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Greenwich Peninsula: how a council own-goal took the heat off greedy developers, and the Tories who let them get away with it

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Alex Grant

Hats off to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for its new exposé of what’s been going on at the Greenwich Peninsula: a billionaire developer reducing levels of affordable housing from 35% to just 21%, and the local council’s attempts to … Continue reading →

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Another reason why Labour’s 35% strategy was so wrong: the mysterious disappearance of the three-way marginal

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Alex Grant

A lot’s been said in the two weeks since the election about the folly of Labour’s 35% strategy – the theory that cobbling together its core vote plus a few ex-Lib Dems to reach a 35% vote share would be … Continue reading →

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A storm in a teacup: the Guardian misses the point about Charles’ black spider memos

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Alex Grant

Dear Minister, Thank you so much for joining me at the inaugural symposium of my Global Bear Preservation Initiative at Clarence House recently. I know that I will be lampooned by so-called “modernisers” as a inexcusable old stick-in-the mud, but … Continue reading →

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Complacent, patronising and stuck in the past: Labour’s 2015 campaign was doomed from the start

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Alex Grant

A few days before the election I committed what some may consider to be an act of treachery. Without telling anyone I logged on to a gambling website and put £5 on the Tories winning an outright majority. I did … Continue reading →

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In the last days of the election campaign Labour should talk about three things: housing, housing and housing

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Alex Grant

“We are not in principle opposed to right to buy but the Tory plan doesn’t work,” said Ed Miliband at the leaders’ debate on April 15th. “Any plan based on right to buy has to mean there are more houses, … Continue reading →

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Salman Rushdie’s right about Charlie Hebdo. Cowardice in the face of gunmen is one thing. Served up cold, it’s another

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Alex Grant

What is it about some sections of the liberal left and Charlie Hebdo? The decision of six authors to withdraw from PEN’s annual gala, over the organisation’s decision to honour Charlie Hebdo with its ‘Freedom of Expression Courage’ award, is stomach-churning. … Continue reading →

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Eight media myths about the 2015 election – and why they are wrong

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Alex Grant

I missed the start of this campaign: for the first ten days of April I was in France, in a house without Wifi or even a telephone. Coming back to the UK on April 10th I scanned the papers and … Continue reading →

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Oxbridge applicants shouldn’t despair if they did not “get in” this week. For me, Balliol was an academic cul-de-sac

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Alex Grant

Over the next few days thousands of young people will  be watching their doormats, and email inboxes, with dread. From January 7th onwards Cambridge University – and from January 9th onwards Oxford – will be letting applicants know if they … Continue reading →

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So long, Greenwich. I predict that by 2050 you’ll swallow up Lewisham and Bexley. The Thames Barrier will be a boutique hotel. And everyone will be mad as hell about air pollution

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Alex Grant

I’m moving out of London later this week, with my partner and our daughter, after 35 years living in the borough of Greenwich – the last 16 of them as a Labour councillor here. There are few things more boring than ex-councillors … Continue reading →

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