The hoo-ha over axing child benefit for higher-rate taxpayers goes on – rightly, but for the wrong reasons. But it is extraordinary that what is a relatively minor detriment for the upper middle classes continues to attract blanket news whilst what is little short of catastrophe for working class jobless households – the cap on […]
Posts Tagged ‘Coalition’
Newsnight, Labour Unity and the real choice we face
Sep 17th, 2010 by Jon Lansman.The final hustings was the best I’ve seen for more clearly differentiating the candidates than in any other. Most important of all was the disagreement over the deficit and the cuts. Andy Burnham, honest, straightforward, traditional Labour right-winger that he seems to be, said that we needed to admit that Labour, if it was in […]
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TUC: Harnessing Public Anger on the Cuts
Sep 14th, 2010 by Jon Lansman.For anyone who has followed the labour movement over the years, today’s demonstration of unity at the TUC in Manchester has been remarkable. Almost without exception, from left to right, public sector and private sector, manual workers’ unions to professional associations, the quietly spoken to the high octane tub thumpers, the message has been the […]
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Charles Kennedy Considers Defecting To Labour
Aug 20th, 2010 by Mark Seddon.Westminster sources are claiming that the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, has been discussing defecting to the Labour Party, along with four or five Liberal Democrat colleagues. The reports have been confirmed by three separate sources, including one close to Ed Miliband’s Labour leadership campaign.
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The Shame in being Liberal
Jul 24th, 2010 by Jon Lansman.A sincere thank you to Luke Akehurst for publishing what he rightly says could be the”most extraordinary Focus leaflet ever”, revealing the desperate shame of Liberal activists at the involvement of their national representatives in a Tory-led coalition, and which will amuse Lefties throughout Britain. The leafets asks the public to advise on whether they […]
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A referendum on AV? Not without more options
Jul 7th, 2010 by Jon Lansman.I am unconvinced of the case for reforming the voting system, and not just because of the gerrymandering which Nick Clegg is trying to squeeze into what John Prescott calls the poisonous package. But if there is a national debate about it, it should be about all the options not just one.
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Where Britain’s going, no-one will follow
Jun 25th, 2010 by Mark Seddon.Having staggered through one recession – and without emerging the other side of it – Britain now seems destined for another. This time it will really hurt. A Martian arriving in London, or rather at the Mother of Parliaments in Westminster, could be mistaken for thinking that all of Britain’s economic woes could be laid […]
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A Budget based on Six Right-wing Myths
Jun 23rd, 2010 by Michael Meacher.This is one of those watershed budgets where the governing party tries, not simply to make budgetary adjustments to the nation’s finances, but to change profoundly the ideological underpinnings of the State itself. But the whole project is built on a string of fundamental myths which give an almost surrealistic atmosphere to today’s proceedings. […]
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A rejection of tribalism or just class treachery?
Jun 21st, 2010 by Jon Lansman.Left Futures doesn’t do “Class Traitor of the Month” – sectarianism on the Left is bad enough without seeking out traitors on a regular basis – but John Hutton’s decision to chair a Con-Dem coalition inquiry into containing the cost of public sector pensions does require pause for thought, as did Frank Field’s decision to […]
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An Alternative to Cuts
Jun 10th, 2010 by Mark Drakeford.The establishment of a coalition between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in Westminster requires a fundamental re-analysis of the political landscape in the United Kingdom. A good starting point would be to set aside all those delusional and self-serving suggestions that the Cameron/Clegg axis is bound to be only a temporary aberration, destined to fall apart […]
