Exclusive: Lynne Jones quits
Lynne Jones – leftwing Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, pictured left – will tomorrow announce her decision to stand down from parliament, largely because of her ‘disappointment in a leadership that has been so timid in applying our socialist principles … yet so reckless in taking us into war in Iraq and laying the [...]
Explaining politics to kids
Daddy’s Little Princess senior – she’s six – has just started to read. And read she does. The backs of cereal packets. Shop signs. Whenever and wherever she sees a string of letters, she has a go at pronouncing it, just because she can. Last night she was staying over at my place. She walked [...]
Marxism and the Middle East
In Marxist terms, the Middle East is an extreme example of the law of combined and uneven development. Enclaves of advanced industry sit side by side with social formations that are not only pre-capitalist but to some extent even pre-class. As in tsarist Russia, the bourgeoisie is weak. But there are few signs of even [...]
Iraq and the ‘special relationship’
Five years ago, Tony Blair famously agreed with one interviewer that Britain should be ready to ‘pay the blood price’ to secure its so-called ‘special relationship’ with the US. The blood in question is always that of ordinary servicemen and servicewomen. They are rarely the sons and daughters of prominent politicians, of course. But there [...]
The rate of exploitation
Over at the International Monetary Fund’s website, you can download a working paper titled ‘Effects of Globalization on Labor’s Share in National Income’ by Anastasi Guscina. But don’t bother ploughing your way through the damn thing. Let’s cut to the chase. Summary: The past two decades have seen a decline in labor’s share of national [...]
Ruth Kelly ‘to switch seats’
Estelle Morris resigned as education secretary because she knew she wasn’t up to the task. Ruth Kelly – pictured – simply hung on in there until she got another job. I am not sur ewhether she was in charge of state schools or of equality issues when she chose to send her son to an [...]
Reasons to be cheerful
The Financial Times recently hailed the return of Marxism. Sadly, I suspect that Britain’s only serious paper was having a bit of a laugh. You would have to go back beyond the birth of the First International 140 years ago to find the Marxist project in worse organisational shape than today. The historic experience of [...]
Surge strategy: why it is time to leave Iraq
They call it the ‘surge strategy’. George Bush is widely expected to announce on Wednesday that at least 10,000 – and possibly more – more US troops will be sent to Iraq, on top of the 132,000 already in place. What on earth can he be thinking of? On the face of it, the move [...]
Labour MP ‘to defect to Scottish National Party’
A sitting Labour MP – unhappy with the government’s stance on Iraq and Trident, apparently – is about to sign up with the SNP instead, according to a report in the Glasgow-based Sunday Herald today. The news comes at a time when New Labour are lagging behind the Nats in the opinion polls. Some Scottish [...]
Sinn Féin and the Police Service of Northern Ireland
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was institutionally sectarian, in much the same sense that the Met is institutionally racist. The Police Service of Northern Ireland is supposed to represent a complete break with a bigoted past. According to its own website, indeed, it is ‘the most accountable police service in the world’. It operates a positive [...]
