Ahead of the report by the parliamentary commission on banking standards, due to report back this week on the future of RBS, Unite, which represents workers at RBS and 120,000 workers altogether in financial services, has called on the government to commit to the full nationalisation of RBS in which the state currently has an […]
Posts Tagged ‘Ed Balls’
Labour can see the light, so why won’t it act?
Jun 15th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.In the last week Labour has tried valiantly to get across the message that it can be just as tough as the Tories in taking unpopular decisions, but with ingenuity it can be done without causing harm. It is a message that strains credulity, though it has delighted the Blairites. Contrary however to what the […]
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Did the two Eds last week expose Labour’s policy process as a sham?
Jun 10th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Last week the two Eds made speeches which deal with key aspects of Labour’s economic strategy. There may have been differing views within the party of the content of these speeches including on Left Futures, not least because they have been spun in different ways to different audiences. But that isn’t the only aspect which […]
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Abenomics: works in Japan, rejected by Osborne – and now Balls
Jun 8th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Since Shinzo Abe came to power, the Japanese stock market has risen an astonishing 50% in 5 months, and the replacement of the fatalism which has dogged Japan’s economy by a new burst of policy activism has profound implications for the UK. There is another precedent for this policy activism other than the General Theory […]
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Means-testing winter fuel payments is another Labour own goal
Jun 4th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Ed Balls didn’t have to say it. It will save a piffling amount of money relative to the size of the budget deficit which is still plateaued at £122bn. Inasmuch as it’s a Tory-style policy, it’s doing the Tories’ dirty work for them. And it’s another nail (admittedly not the first or the only one) […]
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Labour is failing on tax avoidance
May 29th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.This week’s YouGov poll for the Sunday Times makes it very clear that Labour is failing to get a clear anti-tax avoidance message across to the public. In answer to the question “In general, do you think it is acceptable or unacceptable to LEGALLY avoid paying tax?”, 62% of people (72% of Labour voters) think it […]
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Ed Miliband needs to challenge the UKIP surge
May 3rd, 2013 by Carl Packman.At the time of writing (15:47) UKIP has won 78 seats and is averaging 25% of the vote in the wards where it is standing. That is quite something. Not only is it making the Tories look stupid and the Liberal Democrats look irrelevant, it makes Labour look like they haven’t the nous to be […]
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Dear Ed Balls… why Labour should support my anti-tax avoidance proposals
Apr 17th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Today MICHAEL MEACHER will push again for a stronger anti-tax avoidance regime. Here, he urges the Labour frontbench to support his proposal. Dear Ed, A few months ago I put forward my General Anti-Tax Avoidance Principle Bill (GANTIP) for second reading. As a Private Member’s Bill low in the order it did not make progress, […]
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Don’t be derailed by Progress confrontation
Feb 6th, 2013 by Ben Folley and Calum Sherwood.This week, former General Secretary of the CWU Alan Johnson has issued an unabashed attack on trade union influence within the Labour Party in an interview with Progress, part of an increasingly confrontational and destructive approach to dictating Labour Party policy from the Blairite wing. Jacqui Smith’s now regular articles, including hers on Osborne’s welfare trap before the […]
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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 […]
