Sunday’s Right to Work demonstration was an extremely important first step in building up momentum behind a campaign to stop the cuts. Full reports are available here, and if I manage it I’ll post up some pictures. A significant feature of the demo was the (still far too small) presence of Labour Party activists and [...]
Much has already been made about Ed Miliband’s victory depending on the unions, and no doubt there’ll be more of the same to come over the next few weeks. Even before the votes were in the Guardian was calling the voting system an undemocratic ‘relic’ crying out for reform and comparing poorly with those used [...]
As the campaign manager for the Ralph for Leader bid, I feel it falls to me to describe what happened today. What we have seen is that Ralph’s son Bert has beaten his other son, Ernie, to become leader of the Labour Party. This isn’t to say the Ralph didn’t put up one hell of [...]
“Of course, people who are disabled, people who are vulnerable, people who need protection will get our protection” George Osbourne said today, as he announced £4b worth of benefit cuts, “but people who think it’s a lifestyle choice to just sit on out-of-work benefits – that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end.” [...]
It hardly needs saying that I don’t have a lot of time for Gordon Brown. To put it simply, I am a socialist and he is most certainly not. Yet Blair’s latest revelations suggest that we do owe a debt of very partial gratitude to our former prime minister. In the memoirs that Blair has [...]
They say you should never meet your heroes because they will always disappoint you. They also say you should avoid cliches like the plague. I met Patrick Stewart when he came to speak at the Cambridge Union about his strong support for the Labour Party. I must admit, I didn’t really go to hear him [...]
Richard over at Lenin’s Tomb pretty much summed up how I feel about the Blair roadshow rolling into town, but it’s worth reflecting on the following lines from the memoirs: Ed Balls was of the opinion that the public wanted even more spending and were prepared for the extra tax, by reference to polls that [...]
As the Labour leadership contest enters its final leg, party members will be receiving their ballots in the post today. But while the national media is zooming in on a two-horse race between the two Milibands – one the candidate of continuity, the other of modest change – The Third Estate talks to Diane Abbott, [...]
You would not believe, to hear them, that they were at heart of new Labour project for at least a decade,” she said. They were members of the Cabinet for the last five years. And yet, at hustings after hustings, they tell you ‘they disagreed with this, they disagreed with that, they don’t know why [...]
It would be a bit like Gary Glitter worrying that his very good name had been damaged by a story that his hair was really a wig. The remnants of the New Labour elite – now campaigning to take over the leadership – are in a tizz. They are deeply concerned that Peter Mandelson has [...]
