Tweet Westland didn’t bring down Thatcher, Major took on the Maastricht Bastards and lived. Not even the combination of illegal war against Iraq, the Kelly suicide and cash for peerages was enough to force Blair to quit. Prime ministers, it seems, invariably ride out a little local difficulty. I do not see anything in either [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Coalition’
Three strikes and you’re out, or is it one?
Jun 28th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Tweet Thursday’s strike over Government proposals on public sector pensions will bring to a head simmering tensions on several fronts. Rising anger over the cuts, though the pensions dispute has nothing whatever to do with the budget deficit, will reinforce the resistance, thus far and no further, on an issue where the Government is seen [...]
The debate shouldn’t be whether to resist, but how to resist
Jun 23rd, 2011 by Owen Jones.Tweet In thirty years time, school kids studying history will be asked to answer the following question: “How did the British Conservative Party transform a private sector crisis into a crisis of public spending?” However it is answered, the maddening injustice of what the Tories are trying to pull off will scream through the ages. [...]
Compass have left a vacuum on Labour’s centre-left
Feb 26th, 2011 by Andy Newman.Tweet Mark Ferguson on Labour List very pertinently asks whether Compass have turned their back on Labour. On an admittedly low 13% turn out, the Compass membership has voted more than 2:1 to open their membership out to members of other political parties. Their specific orientation is towards the Liberal Democrats, as their statement on the result of last [...]
Thinking about our (internet) revolution!
Feb 3rd, 2011 by Mark Seddon.Tweet When the late Idi Amin launched a successful coup attempt against the then President of Uganda, Milton Obote, he made sure that the latter was attending Commonwealth Conference, before sending key army units to secure the Presidential Palace, and key of course, the radio station. When years later supporters of Obote returned the favour and [...]
Demanding councillors not set budgets will weaken the anti-cuts movement
Jan 28th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Tweet Refusing to set a cuts budget is a tactic that can work. It did, for Liverpool, in 1984, a fact most commentators choose to ignore because of Militant’s influence on the council at that time but which was noted by a Times leader which began “today in Liverpool municipal militancy is vindicated“. The following [...]
The Coalition goes nuclear….
Dec 23rd, 2010 by Darrell Goodliffe.Tweet Vince Cable certainly got more than he bargained for when he spoke to two Daily Telegraph reporters posing as constituents. He, now infamously, said he had a ‘nuclear option’ which involved walking out of the government and ‘bringing it down’. The first thing that struck me about this story was that even if the Daily [...]
All to play for in the AV campaign…..
Dec 11th, 2010 by Darrell Goodliffe.Tweet Depending on which opinion poll you happen to believe either the No or Yes to AV campaigns are in the lead at the moment. Although criticisms of the YouGov poll (which gave the No campaign the lead) about the nature of the question, which probably did bias Labour supporters against AV, are probably valid [...]
The TUC launches bottom-up grass-roots campaign
Dec 1st, 2010 by Jon Lansman.Tweet Across Europe, public demonstrations against the cuts have been huge, putting Britain to shame, as usual. The effect, however, in Greece and Spain, in France and Ireland, has been negligible, on governments of both Left and Right. If public opposition is to have any effect in Britain, it will depend not on how well [...]
Broken windows and broken pledges: tipping point for the Lib Dems
Nov 15th, 2010 by Mark Seddon.Tweet Since voters long ago stopped believing in ‘promises’ made by parties at election time, politicians now make ‘pledges’. Pledges, as opposed to promises, are made to be kept. Pledges are like principles; firm, non negotiable, inviolable contracts with the people. Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, made a number of pre-election pledges, but none quite [...]
