When I’ve finished writing this blog post, I’ll be heading over to my inbox to send my National Executive Committee votes off for Yasmine Dar, Rachel Garnham and Jon Lansman. For obvious reasons this internal contest has been portrayed as pro-Jez or anti-Jez; you’re either for him or against him. Yet it’s worth remembering this […]
Elections to Labour’s national executive: do you want a member-led party or don’t you?
Dec 4th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.
Jeremy Corbyn and the new mainstream
Oct 1st, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Tweeting earlier in response to Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech, Ed Miliband observed that the centre ground had moved and was being shaped by Labour. Correct. The boasts about Labour being the mainstream have a solid foundation because, to be more exact, our party is one of two mainstreams. There’s the one we’ve seen Labour pander to […]
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Eternal Corbynism
Sep 22nd, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Long to reign over us? The decision of Labour’s National Executive Committee this week to lower the Labour leadership ballot threshold to 10% and set up a review into party democracy headed by Katy Clark is a welcome advance for Corbynism. Not only does Corbynism now stand a better chance of continuing after Jeremy, the extra […]
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Charlottesville, fascism and economic anxiety
Aug 21st, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.What’s the liberal hot take on last weekend’s white supremacist march in Charlottesville, North Virginia? According to Twitter, and never missing an opportunity to be smug, it definitely, definitely was not about “economic anxiety”. Here are some typical examples. They think they’re being clever funny ironic, of burnishing woke creds while caricaturing and mocking those […]
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On Labour’s “sexist” industrial strategy
Aug 20th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.When Jess Phillips speaks it rarely ends well. On this occasion, seemingly determined to ruffle as many feathers as possible, she is reported as saying that “left-wing men are the absolute worst” when it comes to sexism, and that Labour’s industrial strategy is sexist. Challenged on this by Caroline Molloy, she said she really meant […]
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Why rallies work
Aug 15th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Rallies in politics matter, and you needn’t take my word for it any more as Alia Middleton at the LSE has crunched the numbers. She found that where Theresa May set down during the election campaign, her visits had little appreciable effect […]
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Five reasons why a new centre party is a stupid idea
Aug 14th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.It’s truly silly season if talk of a new centre party is abroad yet again. James Chapman, ex-Daily Mail and former office boss in David Davis’s Department for Exiting the European Union sparked off the latest chittery-chattery in a series of pointed posts on yours and mine’s favourite social media outlet. He said Boris Johnson […]
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Donald Trump and North Korea
Aug 13th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.It’s 9th August 2017, 72 years to the day since a nuclear weapon was last used in anger. How might the leadership of the nation who launched that attack commemorate the event. I suppose the United States could have taken a leaf out of Barack Obama’s book and at least utter a few pious words. […]
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Tories’ tribunal fees ruled unlawful
Jul 27th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Unalloyed goodness is a rarity in politics, especially when it comes to labour movement politics. But the decision handed down by the Supreme Court this morning ruling that employment tribunal fees are unlawful is some of the best industrial news seen in years. Implemented by the Tories with Liberal Democrat support in 2013, it was […]
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What Tony Blair gets wrong
Jul 18th, 2017 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Taking time out from hanging with Bono and advising Central Asian dictators on how best to spin repression and executions, His Blairness has condescended to return to British politics to tell us things. And there are two things on his mind: Brexit and the election result. To save you the trouble, I’ve read his essay […]
