The conventional narrative that framed New Labour’s dominance over the party and subsequent election victories went that traditionally left-wing ideas are no longer popular and that votes had to be attracted from the centre and the right. Thus the Labour Party marched ever rightwards, confident in the assumption that its working class and left-wing base […]
Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite, has given the strongest indication yet that his union may consider disaffiliating from Labour. At this stage, it’s not much more than a shot across Miliband’s bow as McCluskey attempts to pull Labour’s lax policymaking leftwards. Unite is highly unlikely to rock the boat before the next election. But
Len McCluskey is right to threaten Miliband with disaffiliation from Labour Read More »
The Tory austerity drive – bound up as it is in the barefaced lie that Britain was brought low in 2008 by benefit scroungers and not reckless bankers – was never about fixing the economy, it is about shrinking the state. As such, it was hardly surprising to see Cameron’s Etonian class warriors lining up
Labour has betrayed its supporters by voting for the welfare cap Read More »
Thousands lined the streets to pay tribute to the late, great Bob Crow on Monday. With even his opponents gushing praise for a trade union leader who fought hard for his members, was resolute in his principles and above all brilliant at his job, it’s hard to imagine that scarcely more than a month ago
Recapturing the spirit of ’45 for the 99% Read More »
Austerity has extracted the last vestiges of “compassion” from conservatism, distilling what remains into policies so poisonously unfair they have led people unable to cope with the bedroom tax to suicide and self-harm, while thousands more are forced to choose between heating and eating. For those who want to see a market-driven economy with a
Let’s stop subsidising big companies to exploit poor people Read More »
The storm has blown away the last of the summer. Winter is on its way. And for Britain’s poorest families, forced by a soaring cost of living and the government’s austerity onslaught to choose between heating and eating, it promises to be a winter of discontent. George Osborne may be cheering the country’s return to
Left Unity will fight for the poor if Labour won’t Read More »
I have a letter in the Evening Standard responding to the policies Labour finally announced at its conference this week and arguing that it must go further if it really wants to address the plight of hard-up people.
Letter in the Evening Standard: Labour is just tinkering around the edges Read More »
It had been almost a decade since I’d last stood in Hyde Park to protest something terrible. On 20 October last year, it was bad to be back, desperately trying to stop another government ruining millions more lives, this time not with bombs but budget cuts. Perhaps the most unusual sight that day was the
Why Miliband’s trade union reforms are good for the left and for democracy Read More »
I was on the Boulton & Co show on Sky News last week, debating the Telegraph’s Dan Hodges on Ed Miliband’s welfare reform plans. Both Hodges and I have traditionally been critical of Miliband, but from opposite directions. Now Hodges appears to be warming up to Miliband as he lurches to the right over welfare,
Appearance on Sky News: Debating Dan Hodges on Miliband’s welfare reform plans Read More »
It was an action-packed day for Ed Miliband last Thursday, ripping up every last shred of hope those of us on the left had that he might provide some principled opposition to Tory-led austerity. And it was an action-packed day for me, with appearances on Sky News and LBC Radio criticising Miliband’s welfare reform plans
Appearance on LBC Radio: Iain Dale interviews me on Miliband’s welfare reform plans Read More »
