David Aaronovitch: communists for Cameron
‘I could vote for David Cameron,’ writes David Aaronovitch. And in those six words, the one-time eurocommunist becomes the latest ostensibly radical commentator to come up with a half-arsed justification for voting Tory. It’s not that he’s moved right, of course. No, no, no. Certainly not. What you have to understand is that the very [...]
Workers in uniform?
A group of British military personnel – led by officers – have formed some sort of quasi-union counterpart to the Police Federation: ‘The British Armed Forces Federation’s leadership is meeting in private today in Wiltshire to discuss how to recruit thousands of members across the armed forces. ‘The body will provide legal and moral support [...]
Attack on Alec McFadden
Alec McFadden – one of Britain’s most well-known leftwing union activists, pictured left – has been subjected to a horrific violent attack right on his own doorstep. A report in the Liverpool Echo last Thursday states: ‘A leading trade unionist was slashed in a knife attack in front of his two young daughters in their [...]
Bear with me
Apologies for the lack of posts for the last two days. I’ve been moving into a new flat. Normal blogging will be resumed as soon as possible. Bookmark It
Not the New Statesman heroes list
New Statesman readers have voted for their top 50 ‘heroes of our time’. Frankly, the choices are either safe – Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela at one and two respectively are hardly controversial, are they? – or else … odd. I mean, Thatch? At number five? Let’s be charitable and put that one [...]
Ken Livingstone on the gains of Maoism
The mayor of London offers us his insights into the social gains resulting from Chinese Stalinism: ‘One thing that Chairman Mao did was to end the appalling foot binding of women …That alone justifies the Mao Tse-tung era.’ Er … not really, Ken. While the barbaric practice of foot binding is no more, most women [...]
Amicus chief: New Labour, crap policies
Amicus leader Derek Simpson offers us a frank assessment of the problems facing New Labour: ‘Blair’s lack of policies are in trouble – and it will get worse under Gordon Brown because he will not be able to sell the crap policies. ‘Labour would have difficulty winning next time even if Steven Gerrard were playing [...]
Blair goes nuclear
The Labour left are not best pleased about Blair’s ‘back with a vengeance’ speech about the need to replace Britain’s ageing nuclear reactors. Here’s a press release from the Labour Representation Committee: ‘John McDonnell MP, Chair of the LRC, said: “Labour MPs and party members will be shocked that the Prime Minister has decided to [...]
Girlie girls’ corner
After meeting in the comments box of this very blog, Stroppybird and my old International Socialist Group comrade Louisefeminista have joined forces to launch Stroppyblog. The two of them felt that while there are feminist blogs and socialist blogs, nowhere really serves socialist feminists who insist that the left has to take women’s issues and [...]
Bono: neoliberalism in wrapround shades
OK, hands up. I admit it. I have seen U2 live. My excuse is that it was in 1979, just after the first single came out, and they were on at the Nag’s Head in Woolaston for 50p. I used to go every Sunday, no matter who was on. Who could have predicted that they [...]
