Sometimes I suspect that not a syllable escapes the lips of Rachel Reeves unless it somehow encapsulates the pitch for the latest Channel Four eat the poor documentary while simultaneously disgusting a sizeable chunk of Labour activists. Most recently, her declamation that Labour is not the party of the welfare state and doesn’t represent those out […]
Posts Tagged ‘Welfare State’
Does the party of the welfare state talk tough because it doesn’t know where the centre ground is?
Mar 29th, 2015 by David Osland.
Labour HQ censors 91-year old veteran’s reference to welfare cuts and austerity
Sep 30th, 2014 by Jon Lansman.Yesterday, I received an email appearing to come from Andy Burnham about what I’m sure he did describe as “one of the most moving speeches I’ve ever heard“. It deserved strong praise — that’s why we featured 91-year old Harry Leslie Smith’s demand for David Cameron to “keep his mitts off my NHS” on Left Futures last week. It received […]
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“Mr Cameron, keep your mitts off my NHS”
Sep 26th, 2014 by Jon Lansman.Unfortunately, I missed Harry Leslie Smith speaking at the Labour Party conference but the truth and the electricity survive in this recording. The words which perhaps have almost more importance as a warning for Labour Party members than for the Tories are these: As I stand here today, my heart is with all of those people from […]
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Aspiration Nation: where the young don’t even have a safety net
Oct 5th, 2013 by Holly Ashby.There are 1.09 million people between the ages of 16 to 24 who are neither earning nor learning. They can’t find jobs, but are unwilling to retrain. There are some who have, since leaving school, actively refused to improve themselves through the dignifying act of work and plan to live, forever, on jobseekers’ allowance. This […]
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After Philpott: Labour should make a positive case for welfare
Apr 8th, 2013 by David Osler.The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, as the Kevin Spacey character argues in The Usual Suspects, is convincing the world that he doesn’t exist. Given our government’s success in persuading the electorate, millions of claimants included, that it doesn’t need the welfare state, I’m starting to suspect that Old Nick numbers among Lynton Crosby’s sources […]
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Labour must retaliate against Osborne’s vile jibe
Apr 7th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Labour needs to meet Osborne’s jibe linking Philpott’s sickening crime to welfare dependency head-on. It’s a vile innuendo which only someone as low as Osborne would stoop to, but in the current climate where austerity is bringing out some of the nastiest stereotyping instincts, it could deepen the divide -as it was certainly intended to […]
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The Daily Mail – a vile product
Apr 3rd, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Could this be the most disgusting headline to have hit news stands since The Sun‘s coverage of Hillsborough? The dehumanising of the children (“bred 17 babies”), the welfare-baiting headline, the sideswipe at social workers; seldom has a tragedy been exploited so brazenly and cynically to score political points. And for the judgement to land at […]
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What’s the welfare state without universalism?
Feb 28th, 2013 by Tom King.A few weeks ago, Jon Cruddas appeared on Newsnight to float a number of policy ideas mostly related to the future of the Welfare State. On the whole there was little to give comfort to the millions of people suffering from brutal Tory austerity – the take home line was “foodbanks are here to stay”. […]
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On this day: Labour’s great rebellion against Churchill and its own leaders
Feb 18th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Seventy years ago today, Labour MPs mounted the biggest rebellion of the second world war against the wartime coalition government’s reluctance to implement the Beveridge report. The overwhelming majority of the parliamentary Labour Party voted against its own leadership – coalition cabinet members Clement Attlee, Herbert Morrison and Ernie Bevin who had pleaded with them […]
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Doctors without qualifications: how Milton Friedman inspired coalition NHS reforms
Jan 18th, 2013 by David Osler.When you trust someone to wield a scalpel on the most sensitive parts of your anatomy – and such, dear reader, was my painful lot some 18 months ago – you cross your fingers and hope they are a properly trained surgeon. But according to the free market right, regressive attitudes like that hold back […]
