As a lefty and an ethnic minority who has always campaigned for the rights of immigrants and against the division of racial hatred, I think it’s fair to say that I have a little bit of a vested interest in Nick Griffin failing to oust Margaret Hodge in Barking to become the BNP’s first MP. [...]
Walking through security at Portcullis House, the fabulously expensive building standing adjacent to the Houses of Parliament, is a bit like going through any airport anywhere in the world. But making your way through the spacious courtyard, past green trees and sun-dappled water features under the enormous sparkling glass dome towering overhead, you could be [...]
Since the successful campaign to secure Dana’s release from Oakington detention centre last month, he has been tagged and living under curfew, unable even to go into his backyard for a cigarette after 8pm. However, it seems the Home Office has finally taken note of his case. Yesterday Dana was told to go down to [...]
I’m a Guardian reader. Middle-class, well educated, long-haired and liberal, I don’t exactly dispel the stereotypes associated with the paper whose readers think they ought to run the country. Nor, as one of those lefty, anti-war, environmentalist types who grew up worrying about the state of the world, should it come as any surprise that [...]
It’s that time of year again. The silly season has ended, Parliament is getting ready to return from recess and, with swine flu beginning to look like a fuss about not very much and the worst of the recession said to be over, the British media is beginning to turn its attention to the party [...]
Last weekend saw the 20th annual Waveney Greenpeace Fair. It was a fun day for families filled with hippy arts and crafts, good food, fine ale, decent music and a whole heap of progressive politics. I spent the afternoon serving drinks behind the bar and the evening propping up the bar from the other side. [...]
Guest post by Steve Goodrich Before we get saturated by over-zealous coverage of the conference season it is perhaps time to step back and look at the state of Britain’s political parties. Despite the new logos, leaders and spin, they have undoubtedly been under strain in recent years. Over the past two decades alone, party [...]
Heroes The Tories: Flying high in the polls on the back of Labour’s most crushing defeat in almost a century at the European Elections, it is unsurprising that the Tories came out on top in the Norwich North by-election, overturning a majority of over 5,000 to take the seat from Labour. Gaining close to 40% [...]
There’s a bit in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan where the eponymous character starts paraphrasing Moby Dick. “I’ll chase him round the moons of Nibia and round the Antares Maelstrom and round Perdition’s flames before I give him up!” he cries. Tracking down comedian Mark Steel can be a bit like that. Between [...]
This isn’t going to be a particularly deep or rigorous analysis, just some observations and semi-idle speculation: It’s pretty clear the left is fucked, more or less all the way across Europe. The EPP, the mainstream centre-right group, has 264 seats, as many as all the lefty groups (the Party of European Socialists, the Left [...]
