For over 45 years, and based on my early involvement with the issue in the Foreign Office, I have contested the issue of Britain’s membership of what was the Common Market and then grew into the EU, and I have always been on the losing side. It could be argued that my own political career, […]
It’s the country’s deficit not the government’s that matters – devalue to re-industrialise
Apr 10th, 2016 by Bryan Gould.The imminent crisis in what is still laughingly called the British steel industry is being greeted just as other similar developments have been for decades – with consternation and anger, with concern for the implications for social cohesion in general and for workers’ families in particular, but with no recognition that this is just the […]
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Trumpery is the last thing we need
Mar 7th, 2016 by Bryan Gould.The US matters to us. If we must have a global super-power, we’d rather it was the US than anyone else. That is why, observing from the sidelines, we have a growing sense of incredulity and consternation as the battle for what is often touted as the leadership of the free world unfolds. We are […]
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Proud to be a Socialist?
Feb 7th, 2016 by Bryan Gould.An amazing thing is happening in the primary elections for the American presidency – and it’s not Donald Trump. Mr Trump, in any case, “doesn’t like losers” and, having lost in Iowa, should presumably now be “re-considering his position”. The amazing thing is happening on the other side of the political divide. The Iowa primary […]
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Is Labour a campaigning party, or one that follows public opinion?
Jan 27th, 2016 by Bryan Gould.I had the pleasure of working with Deborah Mattinson during the 1987 and 1992 election campaigns when she undertook qualitative polling for the Labour Party. She was expert in interpreting what could be gleaned from focus groups, and those running the campaign, myself included, always listened attentively to what she had to say. Politicians always […]
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Memo to Jeremy & John: it’s the country’s deficit that matters, not the government’s
Oct 12th, 2015 by Bryan Gould.A major factor in Jeremy Corbyn’s appeal to voters in the recent leadership election – and potentially to the wider electorate as well – was his brave assertion that austerity was the wrong response to recession and was doing absolutely avoidable damage to both economic performance and social cohesion. That assertion not only gave fresh […]
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Fantasy is not a good basis for sporting performance – or for judging the outcomes
Oct 5th, 2015 by Bryan Gould.The despair felt at England’s premature departure from the Rugby World Cup is understandable, but also informative. It tells us something significant about the problems facing English rugby, and perhaps English sport more generally. No one doubts that the “pool of death” was always going to pose a major challenge to the England team. That […]
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The way forward for Labour (in response to Lord Mandelson)
Sep 25th, 2015 by Bryan Gould.We have the benefit – courtesy of the Guardian – of the advice offered by one of the Labour Party’s grandees as to the response that should be made to the calamity that has apparently now befallen the Party. That calamity is of course the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader. Lord Mandelson, we are told, has […]
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The new mainstream versus right-wing orthodoxy
Sep 16th, 2015 by Bryan Gould.One of the main obstacles to making sense of today’s politics is the insistence of commentators that any shift in political position can only be described as either rightwards or leftwards. This over-simplified and one-dimensional view of the political landscape means that many of the possible directions of political travel – directions that cannot or […]
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Win or lose, Corbyn has ended the mantra that “there is no alternative” to austerity
Sep 6th, 2015 by Bryan Gould.No one, surely, could begrudge Jeremy Corbyn the odd chuckle or two when he contemplates, in his private moments, the consternation he has caused by his unlikely candidature for the Labour party leadership. It is not just the discomfort of his opponents, though that is sufficient cause no doubt for a little schadenfreude, but the […]
