Since the last world war, now 70 years ago, there have been only two seismic events in the West which have changed the course of politics. One was the counter-revolution at the end of the 1970s against Keynesian economics and social democracy, and that ushered in the free market fundamentalism that dominated the Western economies […]
Posts Tagged ‘Alternative Economic Strategy’
What’s Labour’s answer to the Tory line of attack?
Sep 16th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.“Labour left behind a dreadful economic mess; it’s been painful for everyone the way we had to deal with it; but the policy’s working and we’ve turned the corner; so do we really want back the people who caused it in the first place?” It’s clear that’s going to be the Tory mantra right up […]
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Labour leaders and intellectual self-confidence
Aug 18th, 2013 by Bryan Gould.The outstanding feature of the political scene over recent decades has been the catastrophic loss of the left’s intellectual self-confidence. It has been particularly marked in the UK and reached its most extreme form with New Labour; as I observed at the time, the short three-letter word with a capital ‘N’ was meant to convey […]
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Two Eds and the fallacy of being “tough” – even if it costs more
Jun 26th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.This is Ed Miliband’s speech to Labour’s national policy forum in Birmingham on Saturday. You can also read it here. The tough message is because when George Osborne stands up next week and announces his cuts in day to day spending, we won’t be able to promise now to reverse them because we can only […]
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Why do we have ‘austerity’ and what is the alternative?
Jun 25th, 2013 by Michael Burke.The national launch of the People’s Assembly Against Austerity is a very welcome development. It brings together a number of the largest unions, anti-cuts group and political forces both inside and outside the Labour Party in opposition to austerity policies. Many will have been drawn into active opposition to government policies because a single aspect of them, […]
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Ed needs to work out where disunity comes from, and let the party decide its direction
Apr 25th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
