Political funding: what is to be done?
Nothing more clearly underlines the essential continuity of the Blairism and the Brown government than the ongoing controversy over donations to New Labour from wealthy businessmen. Sources of financial support symbolise – perhaps more than anything else – the different class bases of what Labour once was, and what it has today become. Historically, few [...]
Paul Foot on Labour and business
Socialist journalist Paul Foot – who died in 2004 – was one of my earliest and strongest political inspirations. If he were still around, I’m sure he would be subjecting the present government to just the same level of scrutiny he exercised with such devastating precision against the Tories. Paul (pictured) was kind enough to [...]
Annapolis: Oslo for slow learners
Israel and the Palestinians – or one faction of the Palestinians, at any rate – have agreed to talks with a view to a peace deal and the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of 2008. But yesterday’s announcement in Annapolis takes up no further forward than we have for at least 15 [...]
David Abrahams: Labour’s friend in the north
The David Abrahams affair marks the third instance in less than 15 years that the Labour has purposely devised a new mechanism for keeping the names of political donors out of the public prints. Anyone would think they had something to hide. The first attempt was the blind trust system of the early 1990s. These [...]
Cathy Come Home meets Las Vegas
On some credible estimates, the subprime crisis could lead to two million repossessions in the United States. Hopefully most of those affected will find somewhere else to stay, even if entire families have to cram into friends’ spare bedrooms; inevitably, many won’t. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of working-class Americans will be out on [...]
The limits of direct action
I remember being slightly shocked when, at one point during the many, many industrial defeats of the Thatcherite eighties, a union activist friend of mind told me that he and his workmates were frustrated with the usual negotiating channels. They’d had enough sitting around the negotiating table and getting nowhere. So they were plotting to [...]
Football and capitalism
Football long ago stopped being primarily a sport and became just another branch of capitalism. Today it is a global $250bn-a-year industry. No surprise, then, that players such as John Terry – salary: £130,000 a bleedin’ week – are paid the same sort of whack as chief executives of FTSE 100 businesses. They are no [...]
New Labour: lost CDs, lost reputation
Taken in isolation, the CDgate affair should not inflict much damage on New Labour. At worst, it should entail no more than a few days of embarrassing headlines and the discrete rolling of heads at HM Revenue & Customs. No more would then be said, and the whole incident would be forgotten quickly enough as [...]
Freedom of religion and freedom of expression
An evangelical group has today launched a High Court bid for the chance to bring a private prosecution against the producers of satirical show ‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’. Michael Gledhill QC – representing Christian Voice – made mention of the violent reaction seen after the publication of cartoons of Mohammed in the Danish press [...]
The environmental policies of Gordon Brown
Brown is the new green. Or at least that’s what New Labour wants us to believe. The prime minister is set to deliver his first major speech on the environment today, with the spin doctors flagging up the likelihood of tougher domestic targets on carbon emissions and probably a doubling of renewable energy targets to [...]
