Posts Tagged ‘Blairites’

Intense relaxation: John McTernan and the freedom to not pay tax

by David Osland.

Peter Mandelson famously declared himself “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich, as long as they pay their taxes”. His successors now appear intensely relaxed about the wealthy not paying their taxes at all. Senior Blairite John McTernan has responded to last weekend’s Panama Papers revelations by reassuring Telegraph readers that “tax avoidance is an expression of […]

What’s love got to do with it? A brief rejoinder to Peter Hyman

by David Osland.

The Labour right and the Labour left never was one of the great romances. Ever since the couple plighted their troths on 15 February 1906, theirs has always been the very exemplar of loveless marriage. Little wonder that both partners have been guilty of flirtation – and sometimes adulterous couplings – at repeated intervals, for […]

Chuka Umunna’s partial olive branch

by Michael Meacher.

In his speech yesterday Chuka Umunna appeared to be offering from the Blairite faction of the PLP an olive branch of reconciliation. If this is the correct interpretation, it is a useful and welcome one, although he made it conditional on Jeremy Corbyn showing flexibility on EU, NATO, Trident renewal, and tax (unspecified). I don’t […]

Blairites still don’t understand public ownership

by Michael Meacher.

So the latest Blairite plan to derail the Jeremy Corbyn steamroller is to try to label him as rewriting Clause IV when it is perfectly clear that what he is really trying to do, rightly, is to re-start the debate about public ownership which is now so badly needed. Thatcher’s dominant ideology was ‘let the […]

The Blairites would prefer to bust the party rather than accept democratic choice

by Michael Meacher.

The arrogance and intolerance of the Blairites is breathtaking. Faced with the prospect of a runaway victory for Jeremy Corbyn who has come from repudiated outsider to front-runner in scarcely more than a month, their sole response is to prepare a coup against Corbyn if he is elected leader under the section 47 procedure of […]

No going back: Labour needs a clean break

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 […]

What if David Miliband had won …

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

The polls were with Labour. The feedback on the doorstep was very encouraging. It looked like all the naysayers and the problems of the previous five years had been put to bed. Until that exit poll flashed up on the nation’s TV screens. It gave the Tories a clear lead, and one several seats away from […]

The Tories won a tactical victory – not an endorsement of austerity

by Mike Hedges.

The general election result was not an endorsement of austerity but was a stunning Tory tactical success. The Tories adopted a policy of defending key marginal seats against Labour and UKIP and attacking in Liberal Democrat seats. The strategy worked and lead to a Tory majority government for the first time since 1992. This was […]

On the centre ground and the politics of aspiration

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

Tony Blair’s enduring, if banal, insight is that parties win elections from the centre ground. Labour has to be where most of the voters are in order to win seats enough to govern. While in one sense true, in another the centre ground is a many legged beast. And each body segment has its own […]

Blairite propaganda that “Miliband paid price for lurch to left” is nonsense

by Michael Meacher.

It’s already being said by the Blairite rump that Labour lost because Ed Miliband took the party to the left. The fact is that the New Labour governments were well to the right of the vast majority of Labour supporters, and clearly needed correction, but let that pass. This last-ditch attempt to re-launch the manifestly […]

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