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 year’s […]
Posts Tagged ‘Coalition’
Thinking about our (internet) revolution!
Feb 3rd, 2011 by Mark Seddon.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 removed […]
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Demanding councillors not set budgets will weaken the anti-cuts movement
Jan 28th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.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 year, […]
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The Coalition goes nuclear….
Dec 23rd, 2010 by Darrell Goodliffe.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 Telegraph […]
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All to play for in the AV campaign…..
Dec 11th, 2010 by Darrell Goodliffe.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 that […]
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The TUC launches bottom-up grass-roots campaign
Dec 1st, 2010 by Jon Lansman.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 it […]
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Broken windows and broken pledges: tipping point for the Lib Dems
Nov 15th, 2010 by Mark Seddon.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 as […]
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The Tories don’t want to win Oldham
Nov 9th, 2010 by Jon Lansman.ldham East and Saddleworth may be a three-way marginal, as Mark Seddon commented yesterday, but it seems that the Tories — and David Cameron in particular — aren’t too keen on the idea of winning it, even if they have confirmed that they’ll fight it. For so say two leading Tory blogs, Conservative Home and […]
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A Wedge To Crack the Coalition? Anti-Coalition Liberal to stand in Oldham
Nov 8th, 2010 by Mark Seddon.By elections have not only become rarer – Members of Parliament tend to live longer these days, and are younger – but for the past decade have often been quite dull. That may all be set to change in the three-way marginal seat of Oldham East and Saddleworth where Phil Woolas has just been barred […]
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The real failure of the baby boomers
Oct 10th, 2010 by Mark Seddon.We have heard much talk of something called the ‘Big Society’. This in essence is a set of ideas being promulgated by David Cameron and the less hard edged supporters of his Government. As such it is something of an improvement on an infamous intervention by Margaret Thatcher, who said “there is no such a […]
