There are several important implications in Hollande’s convincing victory over bling-bling Sarkozy. It’s not just the first Socialist presidential win for 31 years, even more significantly it clearly marks a turning point in European politics, though a lot still depends on how forcefully and skilfully this wedge against the dominant Right is used. But the [...]
Posts under ‘Labour’
Hollande’s message for Labour: focus on jobs, growth and an end to austerity
May 7th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.
A tribute to Ken
May 5th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Enoch Powell (who thanks to a recent revelation and in part to Ken may now be described as a onetime member of the LGBT community) said “all political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure“. Ken’s career may have ended in defeat yesterday, but it was no [...]
The question now is not will we win with Ed, but how we win with Ed
May 4th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Who says we cannot win with Ed Miliband as Leader? It was only in January that a meeting of leading Progress MPs decided not to challenge him this side of a general election — not because they really back him but because they couldn’t bring themselves to back Balls or Cooper, and they didn’t have a [...]
Election day: get out the vote
May 3rd, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Left Futures staff will not be posting again until after the close of poll. We’re concentrating on getting out every last vote we can for Ken Livingstone and every other candidate standing today. We hope you are too. Bookmarks Hide Sites
The Blairite who cares about values… he’s gone (to join the Lib Dems)
Apr 30th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Never mind that Jeremy Hunt. The real news of the day is about that fine young Blairite who cares about his values, Tristan Pithers. This morning we reported on his agonies: “I no longer feel that the Labour Party represents me, represents the values I hold or the ideas I believe in,” was his cry. [...]
Blairite considers defection to Lib Dems…. should he stay or should he go?
Apr 30th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.I’d never heard of Tristan Pithers before I’d read of his impending defection. But the fact that he’s only 21 and still a student diminishes his importance not a jot. Young activists are worth many more years than former ministers after all. And reading about his dilemma, I knew exactly how he felt: “I no [...]
GMB Congress to consider investigating party-within-a-party “Progress”
Apr 24th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.The preliminary agenda for the GMB Congress, due to start in Brighton on 10 June, is now available on its internal website. The agenda reveals significant disaffection with the stance taken earlier this year by Ed Balls on public service cuts and pay, with motions from seven out of nine regions, some of which also [...]
Ed, it’s time to apply the lessons of Bradford to the East End
Apr 23rd, 2012 by Rainsborough.Labour leader, Ed Miliband, recently took himself back to Bradford to ‘listen’, as he had promised to do, to local people. He said he wanted to learn the lessons for Labour’s monumental drubbing at the hands of George Galloway and his ‘Respect Party’. The lessons have of course been writ large for years. Bradford was [...]
The politics of hate in Tower Hamlets
Apr 20th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Tower Hamlets Labour Party is like nowhere else. Throughout London, every constituency party campaign team is doing its best to get the vote out for Ken. They recognise that for the party nationally and in London, that is Labour’s political priority. But here the local vendetta takes priority. Against Lutfur Rahman, independent Mayor overwhelmingly selected [...]
Why a Blairite party-within-a-party is a structural obstacle to Labour’s revival
Apr 17th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.In the face of defeat in Bradford, Ed Miliband has recognised that Labour needs “real, deep, genuine change” to reconnect with the 5 million voters lost under New Labour. At the same time, Labour right-wingers like Luke Akehurst express “disgust“ that other Labour members can put aside loyalty to their party to express solidarity not [...]
