George Eaton in the New Statesman has done us a service by revisiting the informative audit of the 2010 election by the Tory pollster Lord Ashcroft, entitled Minority Verdict, which throws new relevant light on the likely outcome of the present election campaign. In 2010, despite Labour polling the second lowest total of electors since […]
Posts under ‘Public Spending’
Five questions from Costas Lapavitsas to Syriza’s leadership on their Euroland deal
Feb 25th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.This is a translation of a blog by Costas Lapavitsas who was Professor of Economics at London’s SOAS until he was elected as a Syriza MP this year. He is known as a Eurosceptic critic of the more Europhile stance of the Syriza leadership, though his criticisms are more reserved than those of Syriza’s 92-old […]
Share:
How the austerity con works
Feb 24th, 2015 by Michael Burke.‘The Austerity Con’ is the title of a recent article in the London Review of Books. It is written by a leading Keynesian economist Professor Simon-Wren Lewis, who is also a fellow of Merton College, Oxford. It deserves to be widely read because it contains two important arguments against austerity. The first argument nails the […]
Share:
Using public procurement for a fairer Scotland
Feb 18th, 2015 by Dave Watson.More than £10bn of Scottish taxpayers cash goes on buying goods and services in the private sector. This procurement activity could do much more to deliver the Scottish Government and other public bodies policy aims. Last year the Scottish Parliament passed the Procurement Reform Act and the EU passed a new Procurement Directive. These provide […]
Share:
Labour must outline a new settlement for public services
Feb 7th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.The future of public services is at a watershed in this election. The independent Resolution Foundation has calculated that Tory plans to balance the deficit by 2018 mean £37bn more cuts still to come. The stark truth of that means a cut in local government spending of no less than 42% between 2010-18, nearly halving […]
Share:
Tsipras versus Cameron: people versus bankers
Feb 3rd, 2015 by Michael Burke.David Cameron became the first elected politician in Europe to criticise the election of the Syriza government in Greece and was quickly followed by George Osborne. This might seem odd as Britain is outside the Eurozone and has limited direct influence over its policies. But the urgent and unrestrained nature of the criticism is very revealing about what is at […]
Share:
Labour would do better being anti-austerity, anti-war and anti-corporate says poll
Jan 30th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.According to new polling evidence from YouGov, not just Labour voters but also the party’s swing voters prefer “a leftist Labour Party than a Blairite one” as Stephan Shakespeare, YouGov’s CEO puts it, adding: “People are not as attracted to the mushy centre as they were five years ago“. The poll shows big majorities for an agenda […]
Share:
Syriza’s shows Labour how to prevent vote haemorrhage to Greens, SNP & UKIP
Jan 28th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.It would be idle to pretend that Britain’s economic problems resemble those of Greece when the latter has suffered a 25% reduction in its national income and where three out of every five young adults are now out of work. But there is one parallel between them which is shared by both countries, as well […]
Share:
As Syriza win on an anti-austerity platform in Greece, Labour MPs seek a change in direction here
Jan 26th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.As Syriza wins a remarkable victory in Greece on a platform of ending austerity and greater state intervention in the economy, fifteen Labour MPs have today expressed concerns about elements of Labour’s policy agenda, and proposed a change of course in three key areas. They have issued a statement calling for an alternative to austerity, for public […]
Share:
Is Hinkley C the turning point against nuclear power in Britain?
Jan 24th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.Despite the government’s constant assertion that funding is impossibly tight and that any departure for a rigid status quo by the Labour party is unaffordable, there seems to be no limit to government subsidies gushing into the doomed nuclear project at Hinkley in Somerset. Last year the government offered the French energy company EDF the […]
