In less than two years time we will have a new US President. We don’t even know who the candidates are yet. We can speculate but we don’t know. We also don’t know who will run for French President in 2017 or German Chancellor the same year. In Britain, Labour has just had a shock […]
Rembering John Smith and how different things might have been
May 12th, 2014 by Daniel Blaney.John Smith died twenty years ago today. How things would have been different had he lived to be Prime Minister is uncertain, and speculation always flawed. The flaws, disappointments and criticisms of John Smith’s premiership will never be considered. I would be confident about three and a half things: Education Education policy would be very different. […]
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Means testing is the wrong answer to social failure
Jun 5th, 2013 by Daniel Blaney.The Don Paskini column on Liberal Conspiracy contains a partial defence of means testing the winter fuel allowance. Despite conceding the valid points he notes have been made by Peter Hain, Owen Jones and others, it contends that the welfare state has never been “universally universal” so this is nothing to worry about. Social Security […]
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A Shadow Cabinet reshuffle worth having
Feb 28th, 2013 by Daniel Blaney.Earlier this week Mark Ferguson of LabourList speculated that there might be a reshuffle of the shadow cabinet shortly. This may well be a good thing, but would depend on which changes were made. At present, of the full members of the Shadow Cabinet 16 are men and 10 are women. It is time at […]
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For the Labour right, multilateral disarmament means no disarmament
Nov 9th, 2012 by Daniel Blaney.The last few days have seen a torrent of rearguard action from the Blairite faction Progress in defence of Trident replacement. A noticeable feature of these articles have been their lack of vision. Luke Akehurst reports that Labour has had a “settled view in favour of multilateral disarmament”. However he is also quick to proclaim […]
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Trident is draining money away from other areas of government expenditure
Jul 13th, 2012 by Daniel Blaney.In an article on LabourList, the Shadow Defence Minister Kevan Jones has adopted the mantra of ‘too far and too fast’ in relation to recently announced cuts to the Army. He concluded his attack on government spending decisions by stating “recent decisions made by the Government will shape our ability to meet future strategic threats for […]
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Liberal interventionism: an excuse for yet another war
Nov 2nd, 2011 by Daniel Blaney.For 10 years the peace movement has been on continuous high alert. We have had ‘liberal intervention’ in Afghanistan, Iraq and most recently in Libya. Even before September 11th 2001, we had NATO intervention in Yugoslavia and regular US/UK bombing raids over the misnamed ‘no fly zone’ of Iraq. During this time, public opinion in the UK has […]
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Sign up to not replacing Trident
Aug 9th, 2011 by Daniel Blaney.During the leadership election, Ed Miliband was questioned by Labour CND about Trident and its replacement. Unlike David Miliband, he responded. Ed Miliband said: “We need to have a thorough examination of that decision [Trident Replacement] as part of the government’s strategic defence review. The review should look at the totality of our conventional and nuclear capabilities, considering both our defence […]
