There are several important implications in Hollande’s convincing victory over bling-bling Sarkozy. It’s not just the first Socialist presidential win for 31 years, even more significantly it clearly marks a turning point in European politics, though a lot still depends on how forcefully and skilfully this wedge against the dominant Right is used. But the […]
Posts Tagged ‘Alternative Economic Strategy’
Hollande’s message for Labour: focus on jobs, growth and an end to austerity
May 7th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Where Europe is going, Britain will follow
Apr 25th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The 1st round Socialist victory in the French presidential elections on Sunday, the collapse of the Right-wing Dutch government on Monday, the probable demise soon of the Right-wing Czech government , and the likely election on 6 May of an anti-Merkel government in Greece point conclusively in one direction. Across Europe the democratic backlash against […]
Repsol-YPF: the left and nationalisation today
Apr 18th, 2012 by David Osler.It has been a long time since people used to get up at Labour Party meetings and casually demand the nationalisation of the top 200 monopolies, even in speeches supposedly addressing the need for better traffic light provision in Leytonstone.
Tasks of the Left
Apr 8th, 2012 by Andy Newman.It is one of the more ridiculous claims of the Blairites that they represent a continuity with a long tradition within the Labour Party. Indeed Patrick Diamond wrote a silly book called New Labour’s Old Roots that sought to co-opt figures as diverse as Tawney, Durbin and Crosland as pre-cursors of Tony Blair. In fact, the Labour […]
Austerity Isn’t Working – time to invest in growth and jobs
Feb 28th, 2012 by Lee Brown.Austerity isn’t working. The disastrous Tory economic experiment has left the economy stagnating, household incomes falling at their fastest rate in decades and unemployment soaring towards three million. Even by the criteria the government has set itself, that of reducing the deficit, it is failing. The Tories are set to borrow £158 billion more than […]
David Miliband’s right about a debate, but it can’t ignore the big issues
Feb 4th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.There is much to welcome in David Miliband’s call for a ‘comradely and serious debate’ about the future for the Labour Party, as prompted by Roy Hattersley’s recent article in the Political Quarterly on social democracy. He is certainly right about the spirit in which the debate should take place, but this initial foray will […]
The real reason the polls are up
Jan 25th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Why are the Tories now standing at their highest polls since the election? This has of course given Ed Miliband’s Blairite enemies, both in the Shadow Cabinet and the PLP, the chance to dump on the leadership which is always the silver lining for them when there’s bad news. They like to claim that, given […]
A call to arms
Jan 19th, 2012 by Owen Jones.For those who stand outside the austerity consensus, reading Len McCluskey’s column on Tuesday was like coming up for air. It is a cause of deep frustration that, as the Tories’ economic policies are shown to fail (in terms of jobs, growth, consumer confidence, economic inactivity and borrowing levels), the Labour leadership has moved to legitimise […]
It’s too late to build a Two-Ed-ist coalition against the Two-Ed detractors
Jan 18th, 2012 by Andy Newman.It is a paradox that the coalition building skills necessary to be a successful party leader are often not the skills of persuasive and decisive determination necessary to be a successful prime minister. Sadly, it seems that Ed Miliband may not have the attributes to be succesful in either role. Miliband is certainly ill-served by […]
Time to man the bulwark
Jan 4th, 2012 by Mark Drakeford.In its first full year of government, elements in the approach to the Welsh economy adopted by the coalition administration in Westminster have become much clearer. For the main part, Wales features only as an object of collateral damage in the wider pursuit of neo-conservative economic policy. This aspect gathered particular pace in the final […]












