In our country austerity is imposed by an elected government. In Greece, however, a government was elected to try a different way out of the crisis. But the will of the people is being thwarted by a troika of largely unelected institutions: the IMF, The European Council and the European Bank.Austerity is endangering the social […]
Austerity has failed Greece and its people – just as it is failing people here
Jun 5th, 2015 by Jon Trickett.
No going back: Labour needs a clean break
May 20th, 2015 by Jon Trickett.History, Marx remarked, often repeats itself. The first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. If we don’t understand history we will certainly be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. And so it is that we can learn a lesson from the Conservatives. Mrs Thatcher showed the Tories how to win […]
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Why any Labour leader who can’t reach working class voters will lose again
May 14th, 2015 by Jon Trickett.This is a defining moment for the future, and arguably the survival, of the Labour Party. In the coming months there will be much debate about what went wrong and where next. In 2005, I produced evidence that Labour had lost 4 million voters since the election in 1997. A substantial part of these missing […]
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At the ballot box, we’re all equal for a moment – let’s vote to keep it that way
Apr 30th, 2015 by Jon Trickett.Tonight I came home to find my ballot paper waiting in the letter box. Tomorrow I will be able to cast my postal vote for my Labour candidate (me as it happens). In voting I will be joined by millions of others. Stop and reflect a minute. Because my vote only has the same weight as yours and […]
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No truth and justice as decision on Orgreave investigation stays secret
Apr 16th, 2015 by Jon Trickett.I have written to the chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) requesting an explanation of the continuing delays in determining how they will proceed in the investigation of the events at Orgreave during the miners’ strike, 30 years ago. The miners that were there, their families, campaigners and the local communities are not primarily […]
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Members of Parliament, second jobs and the culture of entitlement
Feb 27th, 2015 by Jon Trickett.If ever for one second a doubt appears in your mind that the Tories aren’t the party of wealth and privilege, all you need to do is read the Tory speeches in the second jobs debate on Wednesday 25 February. In the meantime here is my speech from the debate: Jon Trickett (Hemsworth) (Lab): This has been […]
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Tony Benn – a personal reminiscence
Mar 15th, 2014 by Jon Trickett.Tony Benn lived a long life and was a man bon into a highly political background. He met Gandhi and Lloyd George as a young man. He inherited a peerage when his father died, but rather than taking a privileged seat in the House of Lords, he fought a successful campaign to renounce his title so […]
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Putting public interest first means rejecting Tory dogma that private is best
Feb 23rd, 2014 by Jon Trickett.Recently, Ed Miliband said that the times we live in demand “a new culture in our public services. Not old-style, top-down central control, with users as passive recipients of services. Nor a market-based individualism which says we can simply transplant the principles of the private sector lock, stock and barrel into the public sector.” In […]
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The Thatcher-introduced settlement is now under pressure as never before
Apr 15th, 2013 by Jon Trickett.I was elected to Leeds City Council during the miners’ strike, perhaps the defining domestic event in her period of office, became leader in 1989 and tackled head-on her assault on local government and communities, most notably the poll tax. All who were politically aware at the end of the 1970s understood the relevance of W B […]
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The Conservatives are facing an existential crisis
Jun 28th, 2012 by Jon Trickett.Deprived of their social and ideological anchor, the Tories may never win again. The great British middle class has changed. Its characteristics, outlook, values and relationships with the rest of society are very different to how they were. Take just one measure: the educational background of people in middle class occupations. In 1945, only 17,000 […]
