Andrew Sparrow from the Guardian quoted my New Statesman article yesterday, picking up on a growing movement behind a new party of the left. Interestingly, he drew parallels between this trend and Len McLuskey giving his strongest hint yet that he is questioning Unite’s link with Labour. Sparrow writes: In the light of Shaheen’s article […]
Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow spies worrying signs for Labour Read More »
“There is a spectre haunting Britain,” Ken Loach warned a packed conference hall at the first national meeting of a political movement in its genesis. “It’s called Nigel Farage.” There will be few more haunted by the spectre of Farage’s UKIP than David Cameron as he heads into conference season. With the European Parliament elections
Why Left Unity could become Labour’s UKIP Read More »
Round 3 with Iain Dale on his drive time LBC Radio show. This time, as Labour’s poll ratings are falling, I made the case that the public want to see a genuine alternative to austerity and that if Labour won’t provide that, we in Left Unity will. I’m beginning to enjoy being Dale’s token lefty
Appearance on LBC Radio: Iain Dale interviews me on Left Unity Read More »
Ed Miliband’s summer of silence has been criticised from the left as the perception grows that Labour has failed to provide a coherent and effective alternative to austerity. The standard riposte to those who claim there is little that now separates Labour from the Tories is to say look at the party’s achievements in government:
Working tax credits subsidise big corporations to exploit poor people Read More »
Managed to get this letter into the Guardian today, signed by director Ken Loach, Only Fools and Horses actor Roger Lloyd Pack, former Children’s laureate Michael Rosen and a number of other famous writers, academics, activists and musicians supporting Left Unity. This summer will be remembered for Labour‘s final betrayal of the working-class people it
Letter in the Guardian: Left Unity ready to offer an alternative Read More »
With the People’s Assembly falling on the day Ed Miliband announced he would be sticking to Conservative spending plans, there was much talk last week of Labour abandoning the working classes. It’s not exactly news. Labour gave up on the working class two decades ago. But now I’m helping to build a new party of
Chavs author, Independent writer and Labour activist Owen Jones talked to Salman Shaheen about the People’s Assembly and the prospects for resistance to austerity If the People’s Assembly could be summarised in a word, it would be optimism. From the opening speeches it crackled, infusing enthused activists with the idea that austerity – a failure
Owen Jones calls on the left to unite against austerity 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 »
Margaret Thatcher died today. They say you should not speak ill of the dead, so I shan’t be writing any long obituaries. Thatcher was my ideological opposite, after all. Born in the year of the miner’s strike, I was too young to remember much of her time in power, but looking back on her record,
Margaret Thatcher’s death is nothing to celebrate, her legacy lives on Read More »
Ed Miliband says that British politics will be a “poorer place” now that his brother David is stepping down as an MP to run the International Rescue Committee. This is likely to be a contentious point for many on the Labour left who will be keen to see the party cleansed of Blairite clones like
David Miliband’s departure shows Ed is set to be the next Prime Minister Read More »
