Why not sell all Labour Party offices, Lord Levy?
‘Wd you like a K or Big P?’. That is the phrase – referring to an a la carte choice of knighthood or peerage – contained in the notebook of biotech boss Sir Christopher Evans, recording a conversation he claims to have had with Labour fundraiser Lord Levy. And would you like fries with that? [...]
Guest post: the Respect manifesto
One of the things I am hoping to do with this blog this year is to develop its role as a forum for strategic debate on the British left. To that end, I’d like to publish a range of guest posts, including both pieces written by socialists and material from non-socialists on questions of interest [...]
Peter Hain deputy leadership bid leak
What purports to be a leaked strategy document from the Peter Hain deputy leadership bid team is doing the rounds. Several blogs are covering the story, including Guido and Luke Akehurst. The pdf can be downloaded here. Very apparent from what is written is that Hain – pictured left – is almost exclusive concentrating on [...]
TGWU calls off cabin crew strike
The TGWU has just called off this week’s planned strike by British Airways cabin crew. Anyone would think that the company has some kind of hold on the union’s negotiating team. Indeed, there’s at least one website firmly of the opinion that Tony Woodley’s bargaining position was severely impaired for that very reason. My sources [...]
Nick Cohen: What’s Left?
In the post this morning comes my review copy of Nick Cohen’s eagerly anticipated new work ‘What’s Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way’. Just for once, I’m going to break with my usual practice in such matters and actually read a book before reviewing it. But the basic thesis – as has been trailed on [...]
A certain arrogance born of correct ideas
We’re right and we know we are right. The Marxist left is uniquely informed by the most advanced philosophy humanity has yet developed. So, necessarily, we can have every confidence that our ideas are correct and that one day the rest of the world will all of a sudden realise this and instantly swing over [...]
Trial by jury: why Falconer and Goldsmith are wrong
Sometimes it almost seems like we are running out of civil liberties for New Labour to crack down on. Last night saw the Fraud (Trials Without a Jury) Bill pass its third reading in the Commons, on a vote of 281 to 246. This is the fifth attempt since 2003 to get this particularly noxious [...]
New Labour and the trade unions
Don’t write them off as Trolley Dollies. British Airways cabin crew – some of them on salaries as lowly as £10,000 – are set to strike next week, in protest at management moves to force them to work when they are sick. Listen up, Willie Walsh. Unilateral attempts to impose major changes in working practices [...]
Housekeeping
I’ve finally got round to updating my links. Please check out the latest recommendations, including my newly adopted son John Angliss’s You See, it is Only a Very Young Boy’s Record, Mike of Team Shiraz’s solo effort Mike’s Little Red Page, and Chris Dillow’s persistently thought provoking Stumbling and Mumbling. And while I’m recommending blogs,Southpaw [...]
Tough on the causes of crime
Britain’s prison crisis keeps on keeping on. With 80,000 inmates banged up, home secretary John Reid has written to judges and magistrates, asking that only the most dangerous and persistent criminals should be locked up. But isn’t that what should be happening anyway? Incarcerating minor offenders and abandoning serious attempts at rehabilitation only makes them [...]
