Britain is in the grip of …
Britain is in the grip of [insert scare story X, preferably utilising words like ‘crisis’ or ‘epidemic’]; one of the things they teach you at journo school is to avoid clichés like the plague, but sadly young hacks today so often fail to adhere to this basic tenet. This is particularly the case at the [...]
Where is Britain going?
Is Britain moving to the right? That’s the question Lindsey German – the Socialist Workers’ Party/Left List contender for mayor of London last month, pictured left – poses in the current edition of Socialist Review. I have pondered this issue myself without reaching a clear-cut conclusion, and Lindsey seems to be having some of the [...]
Do the Tories care about homelessness?
This article appears in the launch edition of 24housing, a new magazine for housing professionals. That’s the cover, pictured on the left: I recently caught Martin Scorcese’s new flick Shine a Light – a straightforward rockumentary treatment of a Rolling Stones gig – at London’s IMAX cinema, which is fitted with the largest screen found [...]
The class politics of abortion rights
A former neighbour of mine gave birth to a baby with Down’s Syndrome. It came as a complete shock to everyone concerned; the scans had offered no hint that anything whatsoever was amiss. Supporters of abortion rights – and let me make it clear from the outset that I am a supporter of abortion rights [...]
Unions and New Labour: the far left case against disaffiliation
Even with New Labour now in urgent need of a major bail-out from the unions simply to stay solvent, Gordon Brown has apparently decided that he has better things to do than attend next week’s GMB conference. Most delegates will privately be relieved not to have to sit through the inert expanse of boilerplate, platitudes [...]
Counter-Terrorism Bill: the case against 42-day detention
Think of a number, treble it, add 12 and then divide by two; that’s as good a methodology as anything New Labour has yet devised to justify the bewildering succession of targets it has advanced for the extension of de facto internment without trial in Britain. The Counter-Terrorism Bill before parliament next week remains wrong [...]
The shape of politics after 2010
Are there any Labour supporters reading this who are not already dreading Election Night Special 2010? Watching the forthcoming Tory landslide is going to be anything other than fun, as safe seat after safe seat turns blue on the television screen, and the arm of the swingometer shifts ever further to the right. The Portillo [...]
Under-age drinking: what’s new?
Back in 1974, I was a boy of fourteen; even more embarrassingly, I looked like a boy of fourteen. My fourth-former mates ‘Chinner’ Underwood and Bob ‘Andy Roo’ Andrews could possibly have passed for being a year or two older, but let’s just say they clearly had not reached the age of majority . That [...]
