Could the Tories get away with it?

Let's take a hypothetical leadership election in the Conservative party. There are five candidates - four are white males, two are brothers and one asked his wife to stand aside. The winning candidate loses the party membership and its elected representatives, but squeaks through on the back of votes from the CBI, Countryside Alliance, Chambers of Commerce and other affiliiated organisations.

Would the blues get treated with the same (relative) equanimity that Labour enjoyed? Not on your life.

Labour and Swing Voters

A bit of light relief. It was such a joy to come across this line, when trawling through Lord Ashcroft's research on Labour's relationship with the electorate, that I burst out laughing and struggled to stop.

The joke probably won't travel unless you go and read the whole thing, but in the words of one swing voter, asked whether Labour should return to its core values to appeal to the middle classes:

“Aren’t their core values aimed at people climbing chimneys?”

Ed Miliband on Labour in Northern Ireland

Firstly, I must apologise for my recent, thankfully short-lived quiet spell - I've been moving into a new house. Nonetheless I'm back and I spent this evening at a Labour event: "In Conversation with Ed Miliband", chaired by Tony Lloyd MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. It was filled with students, and largely full of the usual student questions - pro-Graduate Tax, Green vs. Growth, Electoral Reform. But yours truly got to spring a question on Northern Ireland:

Dil: "Andy Burnham and David have both issued statements indicated a change of attitude towards Northern Ireland, with Mr. Burnham going so far as to state that under his leadership Labour would start to contest elections in the province. Do you support this position?"

Sadly, the answer was a lot less interesting than what one might have hoped for - essentially a lot of stonewalling, talk of being 'open minded' and reference as to how we mustn't disturb the Peace Process. If nothing else, it's evidence that Labour has not yet made up its mind.

The Inclusiveness of 'Britishness'

The Spectator carries an excellent article on the subject. I might do a post about how this relates to liberal unionism if I can do so without simply retreading old ground, but this post is just pointing it out for those who aren't regular Coffee House readers.

The Shadow of Ergenekon

New-Right has a post about the upcoming constitutional referendum in Turkey. Prime Minister Erdogan - is pushing for the reforms apparently to bring Turkey in line with the requirements of the European Union. Although the AKP has a slightly more Islamic character than the opposition" Kemalist" Republican People's Party, it nonetheless appears to be the centre-right, pro-western option (I only hesitate because The Economist sometimes appears to treat the respective policy positions of the main parties as reversed, but I can't find something to back that up right now).

Opinion polls show that the majority of the Turkish electorate is ready to vote for the proposed changes, which is good for both Turkey and the West. But it is worth remembering how fragile Turkish democracy can be. The "deep state", elements of the Turkish state that support nationalist secularism over democracy, have cooperated with the military to successfully overthrow elected governments four times since 1950. The Ergenekon trial, described as the 'trial of the century', is the government's confrontation with these counter-democratic elements. And this plebiscite is their attempt to secure these advances with a popular mandate. There are now civilian organs of state, like the Constitutional Court, which can take over the role of safeguarding secularism that was once the preserve of the army. We have to hope they succeed.

A flag for Northern Ireland?

Sad confession: I'm a bit of a flag geek. So the lack of a flag for Northern Ireland bugs me. This post is basically an excuse for me to share this design I did in a fit of 'putting-off-work' a couple of years ago, but I'll also ask: what do other people think a flag of Northern Ireland should be? If not my design below I'd personally support the plain St. Patrick Saltire - it lacks potentially sectarian imagery like the hand and crown whilst expressing positive unionism via being the flag that represents Ireland on the union jack.

However, combining elements of the old Ulster Banner and the saltire looks quite good, IMO.

EDIT: I submitted this design to a facebook group about the NI flag a couple of years ago, and they made a slightly different version.

What flag for the Queen's Irish visit?

The Times today carried an article by Mary Kenny over the Queen's planned official visit to the Republic. It was an interesting article all round, discussing the attitudes of the Irish to the royal family and ending on the cheery note that there is a 'traditional' fear amongst the harder nationalists that the public might like the Queen more than is good for them.

Once question that came up, though, was what flag the Queen should use. The Union Jack is out, in part due to being linked in the Irish consciousness to hardline loyalism, according to Kenny. On previous visits even the 'popular' Edward VII used his 'racing colours' for his official visit there. So what should our Queen use?

I've always been a fan of St. Patrick's Saltire. It's still used by the Church of Ireland, doesn't have the red-white-blue colour scheme that may cause offence to the more sensitive nationalists in the south. Nonetheless, whilst it might make an excellent flag for Northern Ireland, it nonetheless probably isn't suitable for official use by the Queen.

The Royal Standard? Again, as with the saltire, it bears an explicit acknowledgement of the Queen's Irish territories (the harp). It does have the advantage of being relatively obscure and not in any way a part of the Union flag.

I'd really like to hear if people have better suggestions - and have a newfound sympathy for the poor folk who have to manage the protocol of official visits like these.