It is true that “Len McCluskey does not speak for the Labour Party” as Ed Miliband’s spokesperson put it last night. Nor (anymore) do Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, Alan Milburn, David Blunkett, John Reid, or Tessa Jowell, who have between them been subjecting Ed to persistent attacks, without regard to the impending local elections. But the unnamed shadow [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Alternative Economic Strategy’
Ed needs to work out where disunity comes from, and let the party decide its direction
Apr 25th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.
Killing a few less and doing it in a slower and more kindly fashion is no answer
Mar 1st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Eastleigh was never going to be a Labour win, but it would have done a good deal better if people knew what Labour really stood for compared to the other parties, particularly on the economy. The one central issue on which all others turn is how to handle the deficit, yet here Labour continues to represent merely [...]
Jean-Luc Mélenchon: for an alternative to austerity in Europe
Feb 23rd, 2013 by Newsdesk.Jean-Luc Mélenchon was recently in London and spoke to a packed hall at UCL, comprising not only many members of the Front de Gauche living in London but quite a few Labour Party members and others from the British left. For those who weren’t there, and for those who were but whose understanding was not [...]
Ed’s speech and the elephant in the audience
Feb 14th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Ed Miliband’s speech today is absolutely right to place the emphasis on living standards. The economy is central both to Britain’s recovery and Labour’s political strategy, and it is in their living standards that our people are feeling the impact of the failures of neoliberalism and austerity. The restoration of the 10p tax rate and imposition of [...]
Britain needs a pay rise to kickstart growth
Feb 13th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.On the day when Ed Miliband put the prime minister under severe pressure about declining living standards, newly published figures show that, since the onset of recession in 2008, the real value of wages has fallen by 7%, or more than £50 billion a year. In the same period there’s been a real drop in consumer [...]
If the god Janus were an economist, he would work for the IMF
Feb 12th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.In July 2010, Prof Victoria Chick and I said: “fiscal consolidation does not ‘slash’ the debt, but contributes to it.” Last month, the IMF said: “we find that forecasters significantly underestimated the increase in unemployment and the decline in private consumption and investment associated with fiscal consolidation.” In our report (The economic consequences of Mr Osborne), [...]
When will Labour force a crisis vote on the economy in the Commons?
Jan 28th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.It seems almost unbelievable that the UK economy is still 3.5% below its level 5 years after the financial crisis began, when the US, Germany, France and almost all other major countries are now well above their pre-recession level, and that the UK economy has now contracted in 4 of the last 5 quarters and [...]
The class politics of CLASS
Nov 8th, 2012 by David Osler.After decades in which the very word ‘class’ has been virtually unmentionable in polite Labour Party circles, the symbolism behind the acronym that arises from launching a body under the name of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies is entirely obvious. Even some of those sympathetic to its birth argue privately that the title [...]
We won’t win with more of the same
Sep 29th, 2012 by Ben Folley.Ahead of Labour’s conference, interventions by Polly Toynbee and Ed Balls today offer confused and dangerous strategies if Labour is planning to win in 2015. To do so, it must challenge both parties of government on their economic record and, having done so, be confident in breaking the austerity consensus and offering an alternative vision. [...]
The UK’s budget deficit is rising not falling
Jul 24th, 2012 by Michael Burke.The latest public sector borrowing data shows that the UK budget deficit is widening once more. Indeed despite a series of accounting adjustments which obscure the true picture, it is clear that the underlying trend is also towards rising, not falling deficits. Bookmarks Hide Sites
