10 things about British Politics as observed by an Irish political anorak.

1. The Lib Dems need to rebrand as “the handbrake party” that keeps the Mr Hyde side of the Tory party at bay. In Tory/Lib Dem marginals, Labour voters need to be made understand that, whilst UKIP leaning voters need to be irritated into wasting their votes.

2. UKIP has the potential to f**k up the Tories for years, potentially even forcing them to learn a lesson from Australia and do a u-turn on AV.

3. The media obsession with political trivia (Did Cameron ride a horse/eat a pasty, and when?) needs to be confronted by politicians. Seriously, would it have killed Cameron to say that he didn’t like pasties?

4. Labour’s client vote (public sector plus welfare reliant) beats worries about Miliband every time. A party does not need a popular leader to win an election. Look at Ted Heath.

5. Conservative Tories banging on about too much govt attention been given to gay marriage are the reason so much attention is being given to gay marriage.

6. Unionism, of the Tory variety, is going to die out much faster than anyone realises as a generation of English Tories no longer see the point of subsidising ungrateful Scots, nor any political gain from it.

7. Given the fact that European Federalism (under a different name) is now back on the agenda, a referendum on British membership of the EU in the next ten years must be inevitable.

8. If House of Lords reform is going to create just another house of party hacks, what’s the point? A more honest reform would be to allow the editors of the Mail, Express and Sun to nominate a cabinet minister each, regardless of who actually wins the election.

9. The Tory/Labour logic that having party funding scandals every six months is less damaging to politics than banning all donations and funding parties from the state coffers is flawed, especially as voters could have the final say on which party gets a donation in their name.

10. People will look on the monarchy differently when Queen Elizabeth II passes away. Charles will come under pressure fairly quickly after assuming the throne to set a date for passing on to his son. The tabloids will demand Queen Kate whilst she is still young. Kate Midleton is the most powerful woman in the Royal Family now, not the queen, in that she can do the most damage to it. 

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