Everyone is saying that Labour now urgently needs two or three key themes which will resonate with the electorate and will be recognised by everyone as the party’s distinctive goals. I believe those three key themes should be (i) reversing austerity by kickstarting the economy and putting a million or more unemployed back to work [...]
Posts under ‘Politics’
Economic expansion & jobs, NHS, housing must be Labour’s key themes
May 22nd, 2013 by Michael Meacher.
Investment not cuts – Labour needs to deliver a decisive break from austerity
May 20th, 2013 by Ben Folley.Ed Miliband has a significant opportunity to decidedly shift the terms of the debate on the economy, but to do so he will have to turn Labour policy on its head. The austerity agenda which has dominated the UK’s economic debate since 2010 is increasingly seen as inseparable from a stagnant economy and growing poverty [...]
Why is Labour so reticent about spelling out the true position on debt?
May 20th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.debtIf there’s one thing that haunts Labour, however much the Tories are determined to commit hara kiri, it is the accusation that ‘Labour was responsible for all this mess in the first place’ by gross over-spending. Since this is not true, why doesn’t Labour refute it at every opportunity? Just before the crash in 2007-8, [...]
The death agony of British Toryism
May 19th, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Whether Andrew Feldman really called Tory party activists “mad, swivel-eyed loons” matters not. For the repugnant and reactionary in the increasingly depleted Tory associations, it sums up the contempt they feel Dithering Dave and his increasingly dysfunctional leadership has for the troops. The hard right hyperbole around Dave’s supposed social democratic agenda is politically illiterate, [...]
Eight things IDS didn’t tell you about Universal Credit
May 19th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.One: Universal Credit (UC) was officially launched, on a very small scale, at the end of last month in Ashton-under-Lyne. It merges several benefits and tax credits into 1 monthly pay-out, not let it be noted weekly. IDS is keen to tell the public that 3 million people will gain, though for some reason he [...]
How does Cameron get away with his lying pretences?
May 17th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Banging his fist with the smack of firm government, Cameron warned the energy companies yesterday that those who engaged in oil price-fixing will face the “full force of the law”. Oh yeah? They must be quaking in their boots. Just 4 months ago when there was a huge public outcry at the surge in petrol [...]
Do Labour whips really want to run its conference too?
May 16th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.The election for the two constituency party representatives on Labour’s conference arrangements committee (CAC) is hotting up. After the local elections, the two candidates backed by the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance Katy Clark MP and Pete Willsman began campaigning in earnest. Katy has been MP for North Ayrshire and Arran since 2005 and Pete is [...]
UKIP and masculinity
May 16th, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.This morning, Diane Abbott gave a heavily trailed speech on the crisis of masculinity. Simplifying her argument somewhat, cultural change and the restructuring of the jobs market has thrown young men into a state of anomie. In one direction they’re being flattered as gendered consumers into clothes, gadgets, cars, booze and footy. From another comes [...]
The recession is a really good time to increase profits?
May 16th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Lord Young, one of Thatcher’s Business ministers, got himself sacked 10 years ago when he made a deeply callous and insensitive remark. He has obviously not lost the knack because he’s just been reported making comments again of similar ilk. Reminiscent of Jo Moore sending round an email on the day of 9/11 which said [...]
Countering lies of immigrant scapegoating
May 16th, 2013 by Callum Smith.What do we talk about when we talk about immigration? Better yet, how should we talk about immigration with voters in the run up to the 2015 election? At a recent Next Generation Labour event, titled ‘Challenging the Tory scapegoating of immigrants’ there seemed to be a great deal of consensus around the need to [...]
