The Tories are in full retreat. The Conservative put before the last election of a kinder, gentler, greener party has been eviscerated by events. The decade-long economic austerity, privatised carve-up of the NHS, the lethal benefits cutback, and the gratification of the very rich at the expense of the very poor has highlighted the Tories […]
Posts under ‘Ideology’
“Hard-working families” and why we should be worried by Newspeak
Nov 13th, 2012 by Conrad Landin.Sometimes it is a disservice to describe George Orwell’s seminal novel Nineteen Eighty-Four as dystopian. Some of the novel’s best commentary is on spectres that existed in 1940s society, and continue to exist now. First among these is Newspeak, which was really born in Orwell’s polemical exploration of how the English language is subtly used […]
Share:
Greek lessons for Britain
Nov 10th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It is ironic that Osborne keeps proclaiming that his policies have prevented the UK being sucked down the path being taken by Greece. This may seem a curious point to make when it has just been announced that Greek debt is now expected to reach 189% of GDP next year, a level more than twice […]
Share:
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 […]
Share:
The class politics of CLASS
Nov 8th, 2012 by David Osler.After decades in which the very word ‘class’ has been virtually unmentionable in polite Labour Party circles, the symbolism behind the acronym that arises from launching a body under the name of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies is entirely obvious. Even some of those sympathetic to its birth argue privately that the title […]
Share:
Just how left wing is Sinn Féin?
Nov 5th, 2012 by David Osler.There is a political party in the United Kingdom – and I use the geographical expression advisedly – content to serve as junior partner in a rightwing-dominated coalition committed to austerity, reductions in public spending, privatisation, the PFI and tax cuts for business. And no, I am not talking about the Liberal Democrats. Unfortunately, such […]
Share:
Hitchens, the “kitsch-left”, and the cult of the individual
Nov 1st, 2012 by Conrad Landin.I was somewhat taken aback when I saw that James Bloodworth had joined the brigades calling for a ‘statue’ to the late journalist Christopher Hitchens to be erected in London’s Red Lion Square. Taking to the pages of the Independent, he proclaimed: “Hitchens represents a break only with those parts of the left that after […]
Share:
A drubbing for Spain’s socialists, but Rajoy should not be smug
Oct 23rd, 2012 by Tom Gill.It would be foolish to read this weekend’s local elections in Galicia and the Basque country, in Spain, as an endorsement of Mariano Rajoy’s self-perpetuating austerity policies. But instead, the strongest message was the confirmation of the Spaniards’ enduring distrust of the socialists. The party that ruled Spain for almost eight years during the build-up […]
Share:
Scotland: at least Labour could oppose independence independently
Oct 19th, 2012 by David Osler.In a part of Britain in which the population still gets overly excited about the ideological alignments of its football clubs, the British flag is not just a neutral patriotic symbol. Thirteen-year-old Lee Heron was earlier this year sent home from his high school in Newton Stewart, Wigtownshire, for wearing a Union Jack T-shirt his mum […]
Share:
Labour should look to the TUC agenda
Oct 18th, 2012 by Ben Hayes.As the labour movement prepares to take to the streets again this weekend, the message it is sending is more explicit than ever: austerity must go. This year’s TUC Congress took place in a backdrop where governments across Europe have pursued policies attacking the living standards of the many for the sake of a small, […]
